Leadership

Seems like everyone is talking about leadership these days. "Leadership" even seems to have become a whole genre on its own. Books by John Maxwell and hundreds of others top the best seller lists, huge conferences at mega-churches are attended by thousands, and I'm sure there's even "an app for that."

What's missing in all of that is a recognition of where the root of natural leadership development so often lies: in the very young.

You probably wouldn't normally think of a room full of four, five, and six year olds as global leadership development, but that's exactly what it has the potential to be. If we do our job as parents, pastors, teachers, and role models, those children won't have to read a book or attend a seminar to know how to rise up and serve a generation with powerful godly leadership.

If The Shoe Fits...

Every now and again we get a package from the USA for the children here. Sometimes school supplies, sometimes food, sometimes toothbrushes. We never know what might come next, but it is always such a blessing to the kids. Last week we got a box of Crocs. For kids who have walked around barefoot for most of their lives, stepping over (and sometimes on) broken glass, live illegal power lines, raw sewage, and who knows what else, shoes are a BIG deal.

It's a lot of fun handing them out. After identifying children in need of shoes, we sit them down and have them stick out their feet, so we can see which foot might fit which shoe. The kids stick out their feet as far as they can; some wiggle their toes, as if to make their foot more appealing than the next. When we find the Cinderella who gets to take home the shoes, sometimes they can't even bare to put them on. They will carefully carry them home, wash their feet, and then finally slip their feet inside.

Next time you thoughtlessly put on a pair of shoes (like I do every day), try to appreciate it a little more. I do.

Many AIDS Assumptions Are Wrong

Here is an informative excerpt from the article linked above:

"One of the most destructive of the misconceptions that had thus far shaped policy on HIV/AIDS prevention and control was that only orphaned children were affected by the pandemic.

This had fed the "powerful myth" that the majority of children who had lost a parent to AIDS lacked family and social networks and needed to be cared for in an orphanage.

JLICA's research showed 88% of children designated as orphans actually had a surviving parent.

The NGO called on the United Nations to change its definition of an orphan as "a child who has lost one or both parents" because the definition had distorted programme goals by obscuring the fact that most of the children defined as AIDS orphans continued to receive support from their families or extended kin.

"The overwhelming majority of children who have lost a parent to AIDS can and should remain in the care of their families, provided that those families receive appropriate support," JLICA said in its report.

The NGO stated clearly that "poverty does not cause AIDS", although it added that extreme poverty was the backdrop to much of the AIDS pandemic and AIDS did cause and compound poverty.

"Over 60% of children in southern Africa live in poverty. Families who are already poor when HIV strikes may be unable to compensate for further loss of income that occurs as a result of AIDS-related illness or death. Poverty is the single biggest barrier to the scale-up of HIV treatment and prevention.

"Poor people's capacity to access and benefit from services is limited when they lack the resources to purchase food and medicines, pay for transport to service facilities and compensate for income that is sacrificed to healthcare," JLICA said."

South Africa's Parentless Families: A Beggar's Life

Click on the title for an interesting article about orphans of AIDS here in South Africa. It's full of stuff we see every day. Thanks to Ben and Stacie Post for the link (and the encouragement!).

Monkey-licious

I know many of you who follow our blog have heard about us having monkeys in our house on various occasions. Monkeys are a pretty common sight in and around Durban. This boy "treed" one with his dogs, then killed it with a slingshot. He was on his way to cook and eat it. Monkey brains, anyone?