One of the last nights we were in South Africa, we returned from a grandiose shopping mall in the area.  We took a nine-year-old boy named Reggie from the 6th Avenue camp there to buy him some more clothes since he only has two pairs of shorts that are ratty and always dirty and his shoes and shirts aren’t much better.

Reggie’s mom died of TB which basically means that she had AIDS.  His dad was never in the picture.  At his mom’s funeral, his aunt and rest of his family told Sister Rebekah (who had lived by Reggie and was taking care of him after his mom’s death) that they would be by to pick him up in a week or so.  That was last September and they’ve never come for him.  They’ve promised a few times to come and get him and never show up.  His father came to see him for the first time since the funeral a couple of weeks ago.  He gave Reggie 2 rand (equivalent to $0.30) and then left him there to get drunk with other men in the camp.  Needless to say, he was horribly despondent.

Sister Rebekah has taken him in as one of her own and the Lord has placed a special love for him in Ben’s and Alicia’s hearts.  They don’t feel like his life should be upset further by them attempting to adopt him.  So they’re going to do what they believe the Lord would have them do by becoming partnering parents with Sister Rebekah.

A man donated some money for this trip to provide food and clothing for anyone we met who needed it, so we determined to spend a little one-on-one time with Reggie and took him out to get some more clothes.

For someone who lives in the poorest type of community in South Africa and only gets out long enough to go to a local school and church, he was fascinated by everything he saw on our way to a richer area.  We wondered if we should take him into a place of such wealth or if it would be overwhelming or make him self-conscious.

We decided that that was the only suitable place around.  He couldn’t sit still in the car, but was constantly moving, looking at all the sights and sounds around him.  His excitement was contagious.  When we were walking indoors, Ben threw him up on his shoulders and Reggie asked if we were still in South Africa…it looked so completely different from where he lived.

Riding the escalator was fun.  Reggie is a go-getter, but tentatively held onto Alicia’s hand as though he were a two-year-old, afraid to fall.  After he did it once though, he proceeded to do it a few more times and raced up the stairs and bounded down them, knocking into several affronted rich people:)  It was hard to scold him.  Why not let him have his fun?

We allowed him to pick out some shoes for himself.  He got the same kind he had on, though much newer and cleaner.  We got two outfits, ones that weren’t too flashy, but practical for where he lives.  We know they won’t last long and will be extremely torn and dirty soon.

He played and played in the mall.  It was fun to watch him with Ben who gave him his full attention the entire time we were there.  They did things that would be considered disruptive and inappropriate to do in a mall such as this, but he was having the time of his life.  Especially with the sole attention of four adults who adored him(especially one such as Ben with such a tender father’s heart toward him).  He marveled at a Bible in a Christian bookstore that was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand and raced to find me and Alicia to show us what he had discovered himself.

After getting him some clothes, we went for some frozen yoghurt (that’s how it’s spelled there).  While the three of us women went to run some errands, Ben took him into a part of the mall where the Disney Channel was set up doing some advertising and had big blow up games for kids.  They went and bounced in a bouncer and slid down a slide several times.

We finally took him home, but not before he went through the revolving entrance with Ben three times.  Being as it was rush hour, it took us a while to get there.  It was chilly in the backseat with Mary Jean, Reggie and me so Mary Jean and I had our jackets covering us.  Reggie scrunched in between us and covered himself with both of our jackets and laid his face against my shoulder while looking out the window.  I was determined to give him all the love and touch we could.  He insisted on counting the cars on all 6 trains that we saw.  Luckily none were over 13.  We all hung out in Ben and Alicia’s flat for a while and gave him some snacks and showed him pictures of the elephants at the elephant park.

Then it was time to return him to his home.

As I think of what that one trip did for him, I’m humbled that I was there.  We didn’t particularly want to bring him into the “rich” world, because there’s such death in consumerism and gorging oneself on “things”.  We didn’t want him to see how others live and desire that life.  We want him to desire something so much greater.  There are many rich people in all of Cape Town (primarily white) and too many poor people (black and colored - that’s how they specify themselves there) still living in shacks that flood with water everytime it rains.  There are still millions of kids like Reggie who run around barefoot sometimes in his “backyard” which is an empty lot along the edge of the camp that is positively filled with broken glass and debris.  His nose is always running and he’s always dirty.  The only food that the adults can afford to buy are things like little bags of cheetos and candy.  That’s what they eat and that’s what they feed the children.  They’re highly uneducated about nutrition, but even if they were, how do you tell people whose husbands lie in bed all day and only come out to get drunk or abuse them that they need to buy healthy food which is more expensive?

At the prayer meeting we had one morning, Sister Rebekah told us how they had had nothing to eat one day that week, but there was a boy in the camp who had come to see her and was sick and she desperately wanted to feed him.  So she knew God would provide something to eat…..for him.  And God did.  This is normal for them.

New clothes are good for Reggie.  He’ll enjoy them, but not because he’ll look good which is the reason the rest of us would enjoy new clothes.  He’ll enjoy them because he’ll remember that four adults took just him to the mall that day.  He’ll enjoy them remembering how special he was to four people he loves and he’ll remember how much the four of us love him.

Lord, plant more Reggie’s in my life.  Plant kids who need me to just love them.  To wrap my arms around them or to share my coat and shoulder as Jesus does for me.