Spring officially starts in South Africa on 1 September and there are signs of new life as grass and flowers that have been irrigated are green and blossoming. After five months without rain it rained today, which is a blessing and curse as it rained so hard that many shacks and roads in the villages were flooded and will take several days to dry out. The much needed water will soon turn all the brown, dormant vegegtation green and eliminate the dust that has blanketed everything for some time.

We often wonder what these signs of new life mean to the people in the villages as the much needed rains flood their residences and make their already difficult lives even more difficult to endure. And while vegetation springs to new life around them, the cycle of poverty and death they are firmly entrenched in continues.

At times the problem seems so large we wonder how it can ever be solved, which reminds us of the question ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ The answer, of course, is ‘One bite at a time.’ We have often asked ‘How do you save a million children?’ (5 million, 10 million, use whatever number you like). The answer, of course, is ‘One child at a time’. The task of saving 1, 5 or 10 million is so large and imposing that we cannot imagane a way accomplish it. But one at a time is doable, so we concentrate on the one in front of us and do the best we can to make a difference in their life and break the cycle of death.

We are presently working on developing a preschool and after-school curriculum for school-aged children as well as ten one-hour bereavemnt lessons dealing with grief and loss which will be presented during two-week ‘interventions’ for children from the villages, all of whom will have suffered a deah in their families. We will present the material to at least two groups of twenty children before returning to America to make presentations to groups and individuals interested in coming to South Africa next summer to serve on short-term mission teams or as medium- or long-term volunteers.

If you would like more information on short,- medium-, or long-term opportunities please email us at info@tentmakerministries.com.