Projects South Africa Nakekela Clinic: The Commitment of Faith
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Nakekela Clinic: The Commitment of Faith Print E-mail
Saturday, 16 January 2010 12:59
By: Rev. Christo Heiberg

On my trip to Malawi in June of this year I stopped over at Pretoria for a few days. I had the opportunity to make a quick visit to the Nakekela Aids Clinic in KwaNdebele, some 70 km north-east of Pretoria (or Tshwane, as it is now called). I met Arthur and Sonia Miskin at their home at 9:00 a.m. on that beautiful sunny winter’s morning, happy to see them again after a few years. As we drove on the well-kept road to KwaNdebele, we spoke about the relative danger of living in the new South Africa and working in this abjectly poor place. Arthur assured me that by far the greatest risk for them is driving to and from the clinic and college every day, due to the reckless habits of many drivers, often with un-roadworthy vehicles, on that 60 km stretch of road. Fatal accidents occur on a regular basis and one has to keep one’s eyes wide open. (This risk is certainly something to remember as we pray for the Miskins and others venturing out to their daily work elsewhere in the developing world, where driving habits can be quite scary and human lives rather cheap.)


Having arrived at Nakekela for only a three-hour visit, I was immediately struck by the progress evident at the clinic since I visited in April of 2006. What a wonderful witness this clinic is of God’s love and grace in Jesus Christ to a world lost in its sin and misery! As someone has rightly said, there’s only one thing more powerful than dogma, and that is stigma! These AIDS patients would surely attest to that. They are deliberately rejected and forgotten by their society, as if the consequences of a sexually permissive lifestyle is their fault alone. Their plight reminds me of the lepers and other social outcasts in Jesus’ day. What a witness then to see how Christ’s modern-day disciples, male and female, black and white, reach out to these poor folks who have contracted HIV-AIDS.


The clinic itself has been expanded since my last visit in 2006, with extra beds added and more rooms available for administration, pastoral care and socializing. I was impressed with its cleanliness. It was good to hear how all the workers still see their work as the Lord’s calling, although to the human eye it might seem as if their rescue mission amounts to scooping water from the ocean with a bucket. But such is the commitment of faith, of which we read so often in the Bible and two millennia of church history.


The mood among the workers was very positive, although the challenges remain daunting. It was heartwarming to observe the calm, humble, but believing commitment and compassionate attitude of the staff. Let us continue to thank the Lord for the invaluable work that Arthur and Sonia and their team are doing in that poor and forgotten corner of South Africa. Pray that He might keep them safe in His almighty, powerful hand every day.


Rev. Christo Heiberg grew up in South Africa and is the pastor of the Zion United Reformed Church of Sheffield, Ontario.
 
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