Report 1
October 19, 2000
Today's world makes it possible for five of us to cross oceans, timelines, and cultures in less than a day’s time. In our case a South African 747 flew us from Atlanta to Johannesburg and on to Cape Town in about 22 hours. That endurance test was rewarded by the sites of one of Africa's most beautiful cities, Cape Town, and a cable ride to the top of Table Mountain. If one really wanted to teach a scripture class on God creating the world, Table Mountain on the edge of a continent, facing two oceans say it all... "And in the beginning God created heaven and earth."
Early Wednesday morning our two cars drove us South East of the city and into a world man created, not God created. The township homes, if you can say that, house some 4 million blacks and mixed race citizens. Our destination was Brown's Farm Clinic. It doesn't take long to get to, but it's time enough to see two funeral gatherings and to hear the sad sounds of the people's hymns.
The clinic is really two aluminum buildings that sees up to 250-300 patients a day. When we arrived at 9:30am the nurse had just seen the 49th patient. Jim Cassidy, Pat Murphy, and Leona Flaa were a wonderful distraction with stickers and hard candy for the children.
The group left the clinic and drove to a place called Beautiful Gates, it is a hospice for children dying with AIDS. We were met by the director who apologized but said it had been a rough week; eleven children were running fevers and three were very sick so they didn't want to expose the children to anyone. She invited us to tea and coffee and talked to us for some time. Each of us had our own thoughts about her talk but in a word she said she and her husband and three children had become
Christians and decided to try and live as they understood the gospel. In the word, they came to South Africa to work with Cape Towns street children but in time took on the sick children and then the sick babies. She showed us a beautiful seven minute video about beautiful gate and it opens with a child’s birthday party,
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