Sometimes in my spare time I like to check-out the CIA World Factbook : ) The Factbook is a compilation of all kinds of information on every country in the world, ranging from population demographics to world maps to country flags to the latest stats in economic development. I was looking at some stunning photos of South Africa when something else caught my attention. And I don’t mean in a good way.

The life expectancy of the average South African is a shocking 48.98 years. This puts South Africa in 212th place out of 224 countries ranked. Alarming indeed. That number leaves South Africa several notches behind Sudan…and secures its place right between Somalia and Guinea-Bissau. The United States, far from the top of the list, has a life expectancy of 78.11 years–nearly 30 years longer!

Worse yet, Southern Africa includes 7 of the lowest 13 nations… South Africa (212), Swaziland (214), Zimbabwe (217), Mozambique (221), Lesotho (222), Zambia (223) and Angola (224). Just to give you a frame of reference…Afghanistan ranks 219.

Sometimes, in South Africa’s beauty and first-world amenities, I forget that there is a whole other part of the country suffering from rampant HIV/AIDS and high crime rates. [Note: South Africa has the fourth highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the world. More than 18% of the total population is HIV positive.] It’s easy to lose yourself in all of the wonderful things about South Africa, and forget all of the terrible injustices that occur around us every day.

My prayer is that we’ll be able to rally together as a country, and start to provide practical solutions to these very real problems.

Full disclosure: There are not actually 224 “countries” ranked on the CIA’s list. Macau is listed as number one, despite being a “special administrative region” of China. And the European Union comes in at 41; however, last time I checked the EU wasn’t a country (not to mention they rank all European countries independently…). Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, ranks 42nd–and the list goes on with these types of “non-country” examples. Nevertheless, it still doesn’t change the fact that South Africa ranks 13th from the bottom.

Last Tuesday we began our second Loan Cycle and corresponding business training and discipleship courses. This is the first group of entrepreneurs who have applied for a second round of loans with our program–so it’s particularly exciting! We’ve known some of these entrepreneurs for nearly a full year, and they’ve really welcomed us into their lives.

During the Pursuit of Purpose Course (the discipleship portion of the evening) the entrepreneurs were asked to share with one another one of the greatest moments of their life. We suggested examples such as your wedding day, when your first child was born and the day you begun your business. Through asking this question, we wanted to help our entrepreneurs understand that oftentimes who we share these special moments with is equally as important as the moment itself. Life wasn’t meant to be experienced alone–and neither is God. We can experience God through relationships, through family and through our communities. 

One of our entrepreneurs was asked to share with the group what one of her greatest moments was and at first she was reluctant. She can sometimes be a little shy, so it’s not at all uncommon for her to avoid speaking in front of the group. But without further provocation, she proudly proclaimed:

“Graduating from Paradigm Shift and getting my business training and discipleship certificates was one of the greatest moments of my life. I finished my coursework for my matric (high school graduation) but never got my diploma and didn’t have a celebration. Graduating from Paradigm Shift has taught me that the sky is the limit. You are never too old to do what you want to do and to accomplish your dreams.”

As I sat in the back of the room, my jaw dropped to the floor. I could hardly believe my ears. In some way, in some small way, my being here in South Africa and working with Paradigm Shift has contributed to one of the greatest moments of someone else’s life. One of the greatest moments in someone else’s life! Not something they enjoyed. Not something they thought was useful or beneficial. One of the greatest moments in someone else’s life! Wow.

By earning her certificates, this entrepreneur proved to herself that she IS smart and that she CAN do anything she puts her mind to it. At the core, our program is about empowering individuals to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. I have never felt this concept so deeply as I did last Tuesday night.

One of the most frequent questions I encounter when I tell someone about the work that we do, is, “What types of businesses do your entrepreneurs run?” Consequently, I compiled a fairly comprehensive list of the types of businesses we have worked with over the past year : ) There is certainly no shortage of creativity amongst our entrepreneurs…!

Selling/renting out children’s costumes

Selling custom promotional clothing

Exporting clothes to Zimbabwe

Running an internet café

Sewing handbags and tablecloths

Tailoring clothes

Designing clothes

Making curtains

Selling handbags/knick-knacks on the side of the road

Designing and creating greeting cards (and other products) from recycled paper

Selling perfume and make-up

Selling airtime for a public phone

Baking scones

Catering

Making jewelry

Selling second-hand clothes

Selling pap (traditional African food)

Selling chickens

Exporting clothes to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Designing computer graphics

Crafting bead-work souvenirs

Styling hair

Doing construction projects

Owning a tuck shop/spaza shop*

Owning a crèche (providing childcare services)

Providing administrative services (typing, printing etc.)

Providing skills training services

Exporting batteries to Zimbabwe

Welding metal services

Landscaping

*A tuck shop or spaza shop is somewhat similar to a community convenience store. A shop owner will sell items like food (bread, soup etc.) in addition to personal items (such as hair products, deodorant etc.). The physical appearance of the shop depends on the community they’re serving. A shop can be as simple as a table outside one’s house, selling random candy and parafin wax, such as our entrepreneur Joseph in Zandspruit. Or it can be as sophisticated an entire room in one’s house fully stocked with everyday essentials and a window that acts as a sort of “drive through” (or rather “walk through”), such as Rose in Cosmo City. This is a very common type of business in townships and informal settlements, where the nearest traditional store may be several kilometers away.

As the Johannesburg Training Manager for Paradigm Shift, a large part of my job is helping to train local volunteers to serve as Business Trainers within our program. Business Trainers facilitate all of our business training materials for our entrepreneurs, including: the Business Experience Course, the Business Growth Course, and the Business Advancement Course. Our Business Trainers are all business professionals with a wide range of business experience and an incredible heart to serve the poor entrepreneurs of Johannesburg. It has been such a blessing to work with them and to play a part in this ministry.

Starting this month, I am sending out a monthly publication called, Business Trainer Times. The purpose of this newsletter is to help the trainers feel connected to one another, to suggest facilitation tips and to serve as a reminder of why we do what we do.

Below you will find the first issue of the Business Trainer Times : ) Click on the image to read the newletter!

This week I wanted to share with you the lyrics to one of my favorite songs! Solution (written and sung by Hillsong) is an incredibly powerful song that outlines our call to help those in need, through Jesus Christ. Click here to play the song: 10 Solution 1

It is not a human right to stare not fight
While broken nations dream
Open up our eyes, so blind
That we might find the Mercy for the need

(Pre-Chorus)

Singing, hey now. Fill our hearts with your compassion.
Hey now, as we hold to our confession. Yeah

It is not too far a cry, too much to try
To help the least of these
Politics will not decide if we should rise
And be your hands and feet

(Pre-Chorus)

(Chorus)
Woah-oh-oh, God be the solution
Woah-oh-oh, We will be Your hands and be Your feet.
Yeah, yeah

Higher than a circumstance, your promise stands,
Your love for all to see
Higher than protest line and dollar signs, Your love is all we need

(Pre-Chorus)

(Chorus)

Only You can mend the broken heart, and cause the blind to see
Erase complete the sinners past, and set the captives free
Only You can take the widows cry, and cause her heart to sing
Be a Father to the fatherless; Our Savior and our King

(Bridge)

We will be Your hands, we will be Your feet
We will run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place, we will be Your light
We will be Your light

(x2)

(Chorus x2)

(Bridge)

If the music link doesn’t work, here’s a YouTube video of Hillsong performing Solution.

Tammy and me posing with the "Botswana Society" sign

One of the best parts about living and working in South Africa is having the opportunity to visit other southern African nations. I absolutely LOVE to travel and experience new cultures, so it has been such a blessing to be able to spend time exploring this new and different continent : )

This past weekend my roommate and I, along with our friends Dave and Greg, made the 5 hour trek to the capital of Botswana, Gaborone (pronounced Haa-Bore-Own-Eh by the locals). Botswana is an interesting study of a post-colonial sub-Saharan African country. Earning its independence from the British in 1966, Botswana has been one of the most stable (and least corrupt) countries in all of Africa. According to the U.S. State Department, since gaining its independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest growth rates in per capita income in the world. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression…Gaborone is a fairly small town, and there were probably only half a dozen buildings with more than four floors… However, there did seem to be an encouraging level of equality amongst the residents of Botswana–as opposed to the vast disparities we experience here in South Africa.

Overall, we found the people to be WONDERFULLY hospitable and we thoroughly enjoyed our leisurely weekend in Gaborone! …now I just can’t wait for my next adventure!!

Greg and me preparing to eat a southern African delicacy...mopani worms!

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

This brief passage was recently discussed at the cell group I attend. The part of the verse that struck me the most was where we’re commanded to act justly. Naturally, this begs the question, “What does it mean to act justly?”

My understanding of justice is rather simple. But in order to fully comprehend…we have to go back to the beginning. Genesis 1 tells us that God created the heavens and earth; He spoke light into existence; He produced living creatures; He created man. Verse 31 tells us, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

Unfortunately, things didn’t stay the way God created them. Genesis 3 tells us about the fall of man and the curses brought upon humankind as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin. Those of us who are alive today don’t know the world as God intended it to be; we only know a world that has been corrupted by sin.

So there’s a way that things were supposed to be. And then there’s the way that things actually are. Justice, then, is restoring things that have been twisted and defiled by sin back to their original, God-intended state.

God did not intend the world to include poverty, hunger, suffering, inequality, abuse, pollution, or people taking advantage of one another…all of those are a result of sin. Therefore, erradicating poverty, feeding the hungry, banishing inequality, preventing abuses, stewarding our environment, and loving one another are all forms of justice. They are all actions that bring us closer to the way things were meant to be. Closer to bringing heaven to earth.

When I was little I had a pink Precious Moments Bible. I loved this Bible dearly and considered it a prized possession–not so much because I liked to read it…but more because of the pictures! On Sundays (generally during the pastor’s sermon) I would flip through my little pink Bible and find my favorite pictures.

Naturally, these pictures corresponded to verses (brilliant work, Precious Moments), so I decided my favorite verse was 2 Corinthians 9:7, which reads:

“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

I’m not gonna lie…I think it was my favorite simply because the picture had puppies (see above), but nonetheless this verse has really stuck with me throughout the years.

The other night I was thinking of this verse and had a slight epiphany. If I may be so bold, I would like to assert that the verse should continue to read, “God also loves a cheerful receiver.”

This may seem a little counter-intuitive, or perhaps a little like, “Why would God need to love a cheerful receiver? Doesn’t everyone like to receive?” But to that I would answer that there can be a real sense of humility when you’re on the receiving end of a blessing. Giving feels good. Giving helps you feel like you’re part of the solution. And don’t we always maintain that “it’s better to give than to receive?”

Receiving can be a whole different beast. Receiving can take the humility to say, “God I need you. I can’t do this without you. Please help me and provide for me.” Personally, I think it can be hard to receive with a joyful heart–to receive and not feel in some way inadequate. With that being said, if we become “cheerful receivers” I think God will delight in our humble hearts and relish our faithfulness.

Check out this 3 minute slideshow to get a glimpse of my life (and work) in South Africa!

The funniest thing about accents is that it’s nearly impossible to hear your own…

After spending several weeks back in the U.S., I arrived safely in South Africa last Saturday. This past week has consisted mostly of settling back in to things, catching up on work, and touching base with a few friends.

Upon having coffee with a South African friend of mine, she turned to me and said, “Oh my hat! How did your accent get so strong?” Apparently all of the South African inflections and vernacular I worked so hard to acquire over the past few months have (not so subtly) left me. I guess I’ll be spending the next month or so trying to change my phraseology and intonation to once again suit a South African audience. No big deal I suppose, just one of the dangers of straddling two continents…