Valley of 1000 Hills

One of the places we visited was a community of over 300,000 people called The Valley of 1000 Hills. It is located in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, just north of Durban.

The death toll is staggering. Unemployment is astounding. Crime, such as rape, child abuse, incest and murder, is rampant. HIV/AIDS infection is rising at frightening levels.

The overall infection statistics are 42%. The mother to child infection rate is 41%.

Children are orphaned. They are hungry. Some don't have homes. They aren't safe.



But there is hope.

The Valley of 1000 Hills Community Helpers exists to alleviate the suffering of children in distress. As society has evolved and new horrors confront children, we have adapted our services to the needs of the community and focus particularly on children and communities impacted by AIDS.

We visited this organization. We were first greeted by Dawn Leppan, a woman who has dedicated her life in assisting orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC). She is soft-spoken woman who has more passion for people in her little finger than I have ever had.

Dawn gave us the tour of the facilities. They have trade center where they teach adults certain trades so that they can join the workforce. Some of these trades include crafts (bead work, textiles, sewing), masonry work, and even a school to train nurses.

We also learned of what it takes to feed a community of this magnitude.

Anyone who has ever stayed up late watching infomercials knows that $1 can help. But let me break it down for you.

You will never fully understand how much one US dollar helps until you walk up to a currency exchange center and see how your money converts to local currency.

One US dollar equals 7 Rand.
The cost of one meal for one person is 6 Rand...less than one dollar.
The cost for one month of meals for the community is 700 Rand.
That's $100. For one month.

I went to the grocery store today and spent $40 on food for three or four meals. Let me break these numbers down further.

$40 equals 280 Rand.
280 Rand equals almost 47 meals.

Do you see how it breaks down? Once you do the math, you begin to understand how every little bit helps.

I'm going to brag on our crew. Not because I want to praise us for our "wonderful works". Not because we want glory. But to show you how much little things (to us) can help a community.

In about 20 minutes, we gave 2800 Rand out of pocket. That's $400 US. That equals to 4 whole months of meals for the community.

I couldn't wait for the minute that we got to present it to Dawn and her team. When we gave it, she was so excited. She ran and yelled for more of her team to come out to see what had been given to them. We told her to use it for whatever she needed it to go to, whether she used it for materials for the center, more meals, or to just pad the funds that they receive normally.

So, let me tie this into you...our supporters.

You need to know how much your donations to us have helped this community. Had you not given, this wouldn't have been possible.

We sang to these children. But more importantly, they sang to us. They sang to us about Jesus, and it broke my heart. Even as I sit here crying and I remember their faces, I can't shake the fact that I have been so cavalier with my life, my finances, my blessings.

They sang to me about Jesus. The Jesus that loves regardless of age, race, gender...length of life. Most of these children will not live long. Yet they have hope. They gave me hope. I cried more on this trip than I have ever cried.

I realized that Jesus is Jesus. No matter what I view Him to be in my mind. He is real. He loves me. He loves these children. I am no better than they are. Only I think they understand Him more. I think they know how it feels when they hear the story of Jesus touching the man who had leprosy. They know that they are not outcasts to Jesus. They know that they won't be refused in His love.

I have much to learn from these children.



Their eyes speak of unfailing love. Their voices speak of joy. Their hearts have touched my own.

I know I may never see them again. But just the single glimpse of their lives has affected my heart.

So, here's where the Sally Struthers moment comes into play. You know, I don't care what it sounds like. I have been jaded for far too long. I have been too prideful. For that I am sorry.

YOU CAN HELP!!!

Please visit www.1000hch.com This is the website for The Valley of 1000 Hills Community Helpers.



We cannot cure these children. But we can feed them, cloth them, and love them. Most will not survive. But most will smile.

They need love. They need help. Your help. My help. Our help.

-michael

We're finally coming home!!

We’re finally coming home! I’m sitting at a coffee shop in the Johannesburg airport with my cafe latte in hand. We’re all waiting for our 11-hour flight to London. At least it’s overnight- so we can sleep.
It’s been a whirlwind of a week! We got to go on a safari on Friday. We all loaded up on big jeep things and drove around this big game reserve called Thula Thula. We saw elephants, giraffes, wildebeasts, zebras, and impalas. It was a blast. We also did our second retreat at a retreat center on the beach in Durban. If you looked out our windows of our “dorm room”, you’d see the Indian Ocean- as big and wide and blue as the sky.

The people we met here are just as beautiful. For those in the States reading this, know that you have brothers and sisters who love you here in South Africa. There are faithful followers of Jesus halfway across the world who are passionate about worship and helping the poor. And I can now call many of them friends. That’s really important to me to be able to say that. Friends like Brian Lister, Noel, Durc, Ryan and Anthea, not to mention all the teens we’ve come to know. We learned a little Afrikaans to boot! It’s good to know that we are more than “fellow Christians”. Though true, we have become friends and family.
At the retreat, we sang this weekend until our lungs were sore and throats were hoarse. Both “Jabulani” and “Arise” became theme songs for us on this trip. (side note: We met a guy actually named Jabulani at our concert in Empangini. Absolutely awesome! We called him up on stage to sing it with us. Evidently, Jabulani is a common Zulu name today.) There were many requests for Todd to sing “Amazing Grace”. We smiled as we watched people go crazy as he dropped those low notes. Yeah- that was pretty cool.

I’m having mixed emotions right now. I long to see my little girl, but I want to stay here for a while. You know, learn a little more Afrikaans and be able to blend in with the locals. I want to help encourage our churches here and help them take the next steps in worship. But I also long for my friends back home, a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and sleeping in my own bed.
This trip has changed me. I have TONS more pictures and videos to share. I’ll get them up soon. Again, I want to say thank you to all who sacrificed financially to allow us to share the gospel with our friends here. I want to say thank you to Free Indeed, VHF, One Spirit, and all who made this trip what it is. We have made friends for life. I love singing with all of you. I truly feel blessed to have shared this experienced with you.
-peace
Chris Lindsey

Empangini Orphanage

Kids at the orphanage singing "There's No One Like Jesus" for us. In the midst of such dire circumstances- they still have joy.

South Africa - A Roller Coaster Ride

I don’t have a clue how to write this next blog. We have been on such an emotional rollercoaster the last two days and I’m hoping that recalling those events will not lead me to another puddle of uncontrollable tears.

Let me first inform you that it has been such an incredible experience this far, but it’s nothing like I expected. Some of you may believe we have come down to a country where there are elephants and zebra roaming wild grasses and we’re walking around hot and dusty villages singing to a people who have no clue as to what we’re saying. Now, some of us thought those exact things when we first signed up for this trip. In fact, I myself was a little disappointed when I found out that South Africa is much different than the Africa that comes to mind when we speak of it. The cities we have represented in the earlier pictures have almost all of the luxuries that we have in America. This was disappointing to me for the sheer fact that I believed it would be so much more meaningful and life changing if I encountered desolation for my entire 11 days here. “Oh, ye of little faith”…how much I have to learn.


Although there are many similar luxuries in the cities here, the population of people who have no running water, no proper home, and no job is a lot higher. In the particular region we were in today, Zulu Kingdom, one in three people have the HIV virus. Today and yesterday we visited two different orphanages that play host to a variety of children who have parents that have died from AIDS and who many of them have HIV themselves. The particular orphan villages that we visited also had AIDS hospices and schools on the premises. In fact, they teach the adult women and men in their respective areas many different skills to help them get jobs and earn a living.


I’m ashamed to say that I was somewhat excited to go to these places because of what I thought I would be able to take away from it. It’s not a bad thing that I wanted these experiences to change me, but I really had no idea how that would be accomplished. Along with a tug at my heart strings, I wanted to make sure I got that “perfect” picture of me with a child suffering from this horrible disease to change to black and white and hang on my wall. I wanted to go in and touch and hug these people who would be changed by those simple acts and feel good about myself. I mentioned earlier that this is how I hoped the entire trip would be. That first afternoon I learned quickly that I would not have been able to deal with several days of what I saw in that first hour. In fact, I believe those moments – however brief – will stay with all of us for the rest of our lives.



I don’t feel I need to elaborate on everything because I’m not sure the picture would be accurate if I tried to paint it for you. Just know that whenever you are able to experience something like this for yourselves, be prepared for a variety of feelings you would have never expected to feel. Of course there will be gratitude to God when you recognize how amazing your life is… sadness when you see the ways these people are living… struggling when you are trying to balance your feelings of “trying to let go of the overwhelming sadness and pity” and “trying to hold on to the experience so that you will never forget to go away changed”. But then there are feelings you will not expect… those glimpses of joy and love and happiness when you realize these people, these children know nothing different. They are living the life they know and they a grateful for it. You see the children laughing and singing, people dying of AIDS raising their hands and clapping along when you come in and sing or them. You feel an overwhelming love for people, real human beings, not just statistics or numbers or documentaries or donations.


I can’t go on much more without these thoughts taking over this entire blog. We want you to know about other amazing things that have been happening in the last two days. The last two evenings have been absolutely incredible at the two public concerts that we have held. Both concerts, one in Durban for 1000– one in Empangani for 1500, have packed the house…we even added extra chairs at one. We sang our hearts out and so did the people we were singing for. All of us lifting those praises to the God who brought us together. We are so excited to find out what good has come out from these concerts. We know that lives were touched and seeds were planted, the rest will be taken care of by God and we can’t wait to see what He does!!!


Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We can’t wait to tell you more! Please watch for upcoming videos when we have more time online…

-Vicki Lindsey

A great day of sightseeing!

Today, we got to sightsee around Capetown! This is truly an amazing country. We spent most of our time in Table Mountain National Park. Here are some of what we’ve seen:

We rode a cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. It overlooks the entire city on all sides!

We drove around the coast viewing both the Atlantic Ocean side as well as the Indian Ocean side.

We all paid the fare for a boat which took us to out to a seal colony on a small island. We saw families of jellyfish off the side of the boat on our way out. The captain also mentioned that this area is the only place in the world where Great White sharks actually jump out of the water while feeding. So, the guys got excited about seeing some carnage! Fortunately, the seals were only playing and sunning themselves. No danger or carnage . . . too bad.

We ate at the Mariner’s Wharf right on the ocean. We had the best calamari we’ve ever eaten. In fact, we loved them so much, we ordered a second appetizer of them for dessert.

We ended the day with a visit to a penguin colony near the southern tip of the country. We saw literally thousands of penguins nesting and standing out on the rocks. Penguins in Africa? Sounds crazy . . but they are there!

In the midst of all this, I got this picture in my head. Being a new father, I revel in seeing my daughter play with a new toy we brought home for her. As we were gawking at the penguins or snapping pictures of seals or standing in awe at the mountains, I thought about what God must feel as He sees His children delighting in the things he made for us. I can only imagine that He smiles with a twinkle in his eye as He watches His children opening these gifts given to us.

Though hard with pictures, I hope we can share these gifts with you.

Keep praying for us. We fly to Durban tomorrow to do a concert or two as well as sing at an orphanage and a school.

Love you guys,

-chris

NEWS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

This being our first blog and also our first shot on the internet since we arrived, we’ve got a lot of information to squeeze in. Short and sweet… our trip over was mostly problem-free with the exception of some lost luggage, and our layover in London was fantastic! (More on this later…now on to the mission work!)

Our first few days here have been busy! We started off the trip with a weekend retreat consisting of many of the local churches. We took a charter bus an hour and a half out into the mountains at a camp just outside of Capetown. The ride was absolutely breathtaking- this is such a beautiful country.

Since it is winter in South Africa, they warned us to bring jackets for the evenings. Of course, we’re thinking, “We’re in Africa, how cold can it really get?” We found out the hard way. Every night, it got down near 0 degrees Celcius (around 30 degrees). We froze every night since there was no heating in any of the cabins, but we persevered.

The singing was awesome. Each of the groups (Watershed, Free Indeed, One Spirit, VHF) took turns leading worship for each session. For the main night sessions, all of the groups would come out together and close out each evening with high-energy worship. With so many people who can truly sing, the music was moving and powerful! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting the local churches and South Africans to know many of the songs we do. (You know, we’d have to sing the older “throwback” devotional songs) But my expectations were blown right out of the water as they sang “Lord, Reign In Me” at the top of their lungs and “How Great Is Our God” with hands raised! It was so cool do see how many songs they DID know and how passionate they sing.

Last night, all the groups got together and we sang a medley I had done with at Friday Night Lights a month or so back at Rochester. I had never done it a cappella before, but everyone filled in the parts easily. So, to close out the evening, we sang “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Open the Eyes Of My Heart”. To sing a cover of a U2 song has been somewhat of a dream of mine, but to do it in South Africa . . . . WOW.

One of the verses in the song says, “I believe in the Kingdom come, then all the colors will bleed into one. You know I believe it . . “ Powerful stuff. Especially to sing those words in a country who has had such a history with apartheid and racism. In South Africa, the churches are small and diverse. It is difficult for them to come together. It is our hope that we are able to bring a message of hope and unity to these churches. That Jesus is reason enough to be unified.

Another song the South Africans love is “Jabulani”. I was a little apprehensive about singing a South African song in SOUTH AFRICA, but they absolutely loved it. We’ve had to sing it everyday so far- a trend I expect to continue throughout our stay here.

We’ve got the next day to enjoy some of the sights in South Africa…we’ll definitely update you on that soon, but we are ecstatic about the upcoming week. We’ve been informed that the two concerts they had set up and opened to the public have way exceeded their expectations. In Durban, they have sold over 1000 tickets and in Empangani over 600! In both places, they are expecting around 75% of the audiences to be non-Christian . . . so a great opportunity for outreach!

A BIG thank you to all who’ve been praying for us! Keep them going this week as we share the gospel through music! More to come soon . . . .

Excitement Mounts As God Brings Needed Funds In

We want to take a chance to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who have helped make this trip possible. As the fundraising has progressed, there were times that we were worried about how we were going to pay off all the travel expenses.

However, I am pleased to say that this last week has been incredibly uplifting as many of you have poured your grace over us and donated beyond anything we could have asked or imagined. We have every confidence now that God has and is using you to help us to do His work in South Africa. We will never be able to thank you enough. I hope we'll be able to show you through this blog what your generous hearts have helped us accomplish on this coming trip. Be watching for schedule details and video blogs!

Thanks again!

-Vicki Lindsey and the Watershed Team