The Decatur Bait and Tackle group studied in South Africa to discover how the church can be an agent for positive social change. Read Carol Cavin Dillon’s report of seeing the world in a new way:
Honestly, I cannot begin to delineate all of the insights and epiphanies I had in South Africa. Our time there was so full and rich and there is a lot to sort through, spiritually and emotionally, but here are a few random thoughts: Many of the people who were so courageous did not set out to do great things or to be heroic. They simply responded in some small way to God’s calling in one particular situation. It was God, then, who took them places they never thought they’d go. For example, Carol Djonji was working in a village with adults who were sick. She helped one woman who was dying of AIDS. After the woman’s death, the woman’s children called Carol and asked for help with the funeral and other things. She hesitated but then said “yes.” That led to helping other kids in broader ways until she found she was “Mother” to nearly 1,000 kids.
Peter Storey volunteered to serve as chaplain on Robben Island because he would get to ride a ferry and he had once been in the navy. Once there, though, God had greater work for him to do. That lesson is very comforting to me, because I don’t think I have what it takes to be a hero. I’m not sure I could do what Peter, Carol, and others did. But maybe God doesn’t call us to great things all at once. Maybe we just need to be ready to respond faithfully to whatever is before us and leave the rest up to God.
