Segregation?

This is interesting to write about as a middle-class white American. And I know that those of you reading this that have been segregated against may have a hard time feeling a lot of compassion, but, this has been very real for my family and has been a very valuable lesson…

Of course moving here to Africa, we knew that it would be dangerous. Snakes, Lions, and other animals we are not that familiar with; the mosquitoes are the worst and kill way more people here then these others with malaria! Their of course is the Tribal warfare and those Africans that do not want us here simply because they do not understand why we are here in the first place.

The greatest resistant has been the Church, the White South Afrikaners and for the kids, the other children and teachers in their school.

The Church I understand just because we as the Church are so territorial and think we do it better then the guy next door and even over in another nation. It is the same here as everywhere else. I was surprised by the White South Africans. They are jealous, full of hate and do not want anything to do with Americans in general.

They have a deep anger towards President Bush and see us through rose-colored glasses; what they have learned from CNN, BBC and MTV! We are the enemy in most respects and are treated so… Of course, we have met many, humble amazing white South Africans that have treated us with respect and honor, but the general population expects to be served, expects you to move out of their way and in general do not want us here.

The hardest, though, has been with the kids; this may seem petty, but we have held our kids a few times, shaking, crying uncontrollably, because of how they were treated that day at school. Caleb has had the hardest time.

The kids will not pass him the ball in soccer games; the coaches do not hide it and put a much worse player in instead of him, just because he is white, and the teachers are very clear about how we Americans are spoiled and think we are better then them. The anger towards are kids would surprise you!

We received a progress report on our four-year-old Noah – lazy, won’t interact with other children, gets sent to the corner often; he had the lowest score you could get in each category. Noah is very spoiled, but those of you who know him, know he is VERY interactive and full of life! I didn’t fully believe it until I stood at the back of their class and watched their soccer games; it was simply unbelievable!

Now, of course, as a parent you want to run and fix everything. And believe me, I had to get my anger and “zealousness” under control before confronting this. But the Lord spoke very clearly that He was in this… that He wanted our family to go low, pray for these people and serve them wholeheartedly. So, we prayed for them, spoke life to them and watched Caleb’s heart getting healed by just facing it and asking the Lord to help him understand.

We are so spoiled as Americans and do not understand the first thing that these people feel everyday.

Poverty, death, feeling forgotten.

It is not easy and we fail at it regularly, but the Black family is learning some lessons we could not learn any other way.

By the way, the kids are doing much better and have some amazing new friends and teachers.

Our best friends here are White South Africans… going low and praying for those that persecute you might just work!