The trigger mechanism that initiates attitudes and acts of goodness usually consists of incidents where the individual is made aware of a special need along with the insight that they can be a part of the solution to the problem. That certainly was true in my case, where I thought I was just minding my own business, doing international economic consulting in Brazil. But God had an entirely different reason for my being there. He wanted to show me all the hurt and tragedy of a broken-down healthcare system in a developing country. He wanted me to visit Dr. Neve’s sparse clinic and slam me with a wave of compassion for the hurting people in front of me and for the mothers and crying babies who had no hope of help. God knew I needed to start Project C.U.R.E. with His help. On the spot, I wholeheartedly responded to that insight and awareness.
Tens of thousands of volunteers and medical-team members have come alongside Project C.U.R.E. in the past thirty-four years, who have, likewise, been sparked by the insight and awareness of the exciting possibilities, and have gladly responded in attitudes and actions of goodness and compassion.
I vividly recall one international situation where a beautiful African couple dramatically responded to that very spark of insight and awareness:
Saturday, August 28, 2004, Anna Marie and I boarded South African Airways’ flight #332 from Cape Town to the sprawling metropolis of Johannesburg. At the airport, we were met by Mr. Phillip DeLange, and his wife, Vivian. Phillip had been an elected official to Parliament representing the Johannesburg/Alberton area. As we drove through an area called Eden Park, the DeLanges began to pour out their story of involvement in the horrific HIV-AIDS catastrophe that was taking place in South Africa. With broken hearts, they had watched the unbelievable nightmare of pain, suffering, torment and inhumane affliction sweep through their country.
Phillip, being a part of the government, realized full well that the African government was totally incapable of helping the disastrous situation at all. He resigned his position in Parliament, and Phillip and Vivian pledged themselves to do something to stem the tide of horror.
It was the United States Embassy in Johannesburg that had guided Phillip to Project C.U.R.E, telling him that if anyone in the world could help him, Project C.U.R.E. located in Colorado, USA, would be the organization. So, Phillip DeLange got in touch with us and filled out all the appropriate paperwork. They were totally overwhelmed with the complex situation in Africa, but they studied diligently to see where their efforts could be most effective.
As we rode in their car with them, Phillip and Vivian tried to explain the complicated nightmare that was happening in Alberton and Johannesburg. Millions were dying from complications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic – but there was more.
As the HIV/AIDS epidemic grew and economic situations worsened in townships and even countries surrounding South Africa, large groups of refugees and unemployed Africans, Indians, and other ethnic groups, came pouring into the Johannesburg/Alberton area looking for shelter, work and food. Insurgents even started dismantling existing buildings to get doors, windows, and roof materials for their own shanties. Nothing could be done about the uncontrolled takeover. Should a landowner object, the insurgents would simply kill the owner and take over even more of the property and stay as squatters. Three major shanty towns had grown up, each consisting of over a half million residents.
Many of the shanties were only one room dwellings with only dirt for a floor and provisions for a fire on the floor inside or just outside the structure. Beds and interior furniture were made of whatever the occupants could find in other areas and carry to their homes. In a few areas the frustrated government officials tried to erect some toilet facilities and pipe in some limited water supply in an effort to ward off outbreaks of cholera, and typhoid. Over 75% of the inhabitants were unemployed and most just hung out with nothing to do.
The displaced people had come from all different areas, sub-cultures and tribes. There was no immediate consensus of authority or leadership within the shack cities. Different individuals or groups would vie for power. That brought civil disaster and lots of unsolved murders. There were no local, cultural roots or communal mores. Everyone pretty much did what they wanted to do ethnically and morally with hardly any guidelines. Most of the people who had left their old communities or tribes to move to the cities were younger in age. Hardly would there be any older people who had made the move from their villages. Most of the new, young inhabitants were very sexually active.
You take young, sexually active people, in a new surrounding seeking acceptance and intimacy with nothing to do all day and all night but socialize, and you have a problem culturally. Those factors were coming together in the Alberton/Johannesburg area, where the HIV/AIDS virus was already running rampant, and you have an unspeakable disaster. The areas had become virtual tinder boxes for the explosive situation of HIV/AIDS.
No one could fathom the chore of testing persons in South Africa for the HIV/AIDS virus. But random sampling and sampling of just pregnant mothers who visited clinics for pre-natal checks verified that at least 67% of the people in the shanty towns already had full-blown HIV/AIDS. And daily and nightly they were sharing the virus with each other.
Any program of anti-retroviral AIDS medication would only keep those sexually active people alive longer to spread the disease more rapidly. Also, it was being discovered that in those who still persisted in unsafe sexual promiscuity while on the anti-retroviral medication were developing mutant strains of the virus that were then being passed on to the new recipients.
“Now, Dr. Jackson, you are getting an idea of the absolutely impossible situation that we are facing here in South Africa! Vivian and I have been crushed! Our hearts have been torn out! We are seeing millions and millions of our people dying miserable deaths without hope.”
Then, Phillip went on, “We have pledged to God that we will make ourselves available to help. We have studied the situation and have decided to deal with one little aspect of the problem at a time. We are concerned with those who are terminally ill and dying. HIV/AIDS carriers are pretty much left alone to die with whatever disease finally attacks them. They will die somewhere within two and five years from malaria, intestinal bacteria, meningitis or tuberculosis. We have watched scores of dying victims be shunned, neglected, and abandoned to die. We want to comfort and give dignity to those pitiful people in their last days of their lives. We have watched those people lay in their excrement and puss from their sores and no one would bother to help them. We believe that God still loves them and wants us to display God’s love to them, especially the last four weeks of their life.”
“We want to develop the “Eagle Excellence Hospice,” Dr. Jackson. But we need your help to do it. The government here will not even give us any medical bandages, salves, or anything to help us.”
Anna Marie and I were sitting in the back seat of the DeLange’s car. I reached over and quietly took her by the hand. I already knew what she was thinking . . . “Here we are on the continent of Africa . . . and we have seen God do it again! . . . He triggered that same mechanism that initiates the attitudes and acts of goodness in individuals that makes them aware of special needs along with the insight that they can be a part of the solution to the problem! And these wonderful people have wholeheartedly responded to that insight and awareness!”
While we were in Alberton with the DeLanges, we helped them work on securing a larger facility for the “Eagle Excellence Hospice,” decided on how Project C.U.R.E. could replace the rag-tag pieces of medical equipment, ratty beds and mattresses and terribly worn linens and blankets, and supply them with plenty of appropriate medical supplies.
We actually stayed in the DeLange’s present hospice (their home) for four nights. We would obtain a first-hand education about caring for helpless, hopeless HIV/AIDS victims in South Africa before God would allow us to leave the country.
We watched Phillip and Vivian lift the dying patients and place them in their own bathtub, wash their hair, cleanse their oozing, open sores, ease their perpetual pain, all the while, trying to protect themselves, as best they could, from contracting the HIV/AIDS virus from the toxic body fluids.
As they were working, the DeLanges would look at each other, smile, and say, “You see, we believe that Jesus would have loved like this . . . He would have touched those who are dying, like he did those with leprosy and other illnesses.”
Thank God for that divine spark of insight and awareness – Thank God for people throughout history, like the DeLanges, who wholeheartedly respond with redemptive “goodness” in this needy world!
Next Week: Goodness Doesn’t Cost Anything – Just Everything