The last meal of the feeding scheme was a memorable one. Everyone squashed into the church because it was so cold outside. The children were thrilled to be having chicken again, for the second time in a week, and there was plenty for everyone tonight. Dave had returned from craft shopping in a crazy mood, and had put on his new Basotho hat and blanket to serve the meal. The children thought it was very funny, and kept running up to him, patting him and laughing. He got into the mood and started singing old rock songs as he dished up the pap, complete with dance moves which looked hilarious in the thick heavy blanket. Alex and Jill had an excuse to look as happy as they felt, and as they watched the children troop away into the freezing evening, their tummies full, they felt so privileged to have spent the last week in this place. They knew they had helped in only a very small way to take care of these children, and of the people in the village, but they both felt they had received much more than they had given.
Solomon came over to say good bye while they were cleaning up.
“Good bye, Doctor Alex,” he said. “Thank you for what you did for us this week.”
“I’m not a doctor yet,” said Alex, clasping his hand. “And thank you. I have learned a lot from you.”
“From me?” said Solomon, surprised. “You have learned some Sesotho?”
“I have learned humility,” said Alex. “Or at least – I have learned what it looks like. That is what I’m thanking you for.”
“Ah,” said Solomon. “If you want to learn more about that, you must learn from Jesus. He was God, but he made himself a baby, and a servant.”
Alex nodded slowly. “I haven’t thought of it like that before. See, you are teaching me now!”
The two laughed. Solomon said good bye to the others and left, his blanket pulled close against the cold, his stick as always in his hand.
Finally, they were done, and it was time to head to bed. James gathered everyone at the kitchen table for one last time.
“Team,” he said. “You guys were amazing. We have had an incredible week. Thank you.”
“Thank you, James!” said Dave. “Thanks for making it happen.” Everyone cheered and clapped.
“Let’s pray together one last time,” he said. “Let’s thank God for all we could do, and for everything we learned and experienced. And like Berenice said – next time we come in summer!”
“Before we pray,” said JP. “I want to ask Alex how he’s doing. We’ve been praying for you. We’re all thinking of you going back to your family tomorrow.”
“I’m doing okay,” said Alex. “I don’t really know how to explain it, but I think God has been working in me. In fact, I know he has. I still don’t really know what that means, but I am ready to go home and face things now. Pretty terrified but ready. Thank you, all of you.”
“You find a church when you get home,” said Dave. “Get some support.”
“I have friends I’ll get in touch with,” said James. “We’ll find you a church.”
“Thanks,” said Alex. “You guys have been my first church, though.”
“All the best, Alex,” said Mark, to Alex’s surprise. “I’m glad you came.”
Alex nodded, feeling overwhelmed again at the love he was getting from these people, even Mark, whose hopes he had dashed with his presence. They all bowed their heads to pray. Under the table, he found Jill’s hand and held it tightly. Tomorrow he was going home to problems he could not solve, to a broken, hurting family and a battle with a cruel disease. He had a new perspective now, and a new reason to live. And he had Jill – the incredible knowledge that she believed in him and was on his side, no matter what. What had seemed an impossibly difficult task: to carry on living, studying, and working with an awful shadow hanging over him and his family, no longer seemed impossible. The thought of the future no longer paralysed him with fear. Huntington’s disease or not, there was life ahead of him. And after these weeks away, after an impulsive visit to an old friend had turned into a cross-border trip with a bunch of people he didn’t know, he knew he was ready to face it.
This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.”
Jeremiah 9: 23-24