First off, the title is a bit misleading. It makes it sound like I have had only one near-death experience while i have been here but in reality, with the way people drive here, any walk down the street is a near death experience. Also, forgive me if I have alread written about this but i don't really remember but i am too lazy to read my own blog (i hope it is good). Without further adiue ( i probably spelt that incorrectly) the other day while we were still in Cape Town i was taking a study break and just walking around the city. The wind wicked. It was so incredibly hard that people could not walk forward and would hide behind walls until it lessened up so they could move again! I was walking back through a place known as the Company Gardens when I heard this earsplitting CRACK! I turned around and saw this massive tree begin to fall and i saw this elderly lady sitting on a bench right under it with her two grandchildren so i dove and pushed them out of the way but the tree landed on me and broke my back but they took me to the hospital and I am better now. Ok ok, but really, a massive tree did fall right behind me and this Xhosa guy and i just looked at each other and then sprinted out of the park to avoid any other trees that had it in for us.
Working with Habitat has been wonderful yet a little bit frustrating. We have until Weds. to finish building our house but we have not yet been able to put in a full days work due to the rain. We would work through it but the problem is it keeps washing away all of the danga ( mortar) from in between the cinder blocks. Even so my group is the farthest along and we a re smoking Kali, Kaitlin, and Grant's groups--Haha all in fun. Lord willing we will be able to finish on time. Yesterday was Saturday and all of the kids were out of school and running all over around the worksight. i have never given so many piggyback rides in my life. There were always a minimun of three kids on our backs and a line of tons more kids waiting their turn. After building we played a futbol/soccer game with the Irish and South African s. Man they are good. I looked like I had three left feet out there compared to these guys (yes three). It was a blast!
What would Jesus do? My friend faced a moral dilemma that we have been discussing a lot lately. As we were leavin gthe township a guy probably in his 20's to 40's 9it was a little hard to tell) came up to my friend and started asking him for money. My friend could not give him any however b/c we don't usually bring our wallets to the build sites. The guy then just started pestering him for anything saying "i know you are rich just give me something, i know you are rich." My friend gave him his granola bar but the guy wouldn't leave and suddenly grabbed onto his jacket that my friend was holding on to and would not let go. I was looking on and my friend and i did not know what to do. This guy was wearing a coat...not a nice one but a warm one. this was my friend's only jacket and he kind of needed it for the build b/c of the rain. On the other hand he could proabably buy another one while there was probably no way this guy could afford one. Doesn't Jesus say something along the lines of if someone asks for your staff give him your coat as well? Does that apply to a $100. + North face jacket? And if he gives it too him won't that teach the guy that he can just take from people whatever he needs? What would Jesus do? What would you do? What would I do?
Love you all
josh
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I'm a little troubled by this but I think I have an answer that will have to suffice.
I think in this circumstance, where your friend is helping people, will continue to help people this week as you finish your houses and give piggy back rides in your cold South Africa climate, it is best for him to keep his coat. The ethical reasoning is this: if your friend gives away his coat, it will greatly reduce his ability to help others. He will not be able to help build the house, or to give piggy back rides, or do any of the other missions work you all hope to be doing. It's the problem of give up the coat for one or keep to coat to help many. I'm not very pleased by this argument, but I'm even less pleased by the difficult situation. I'm not sure that Christ would ask that we give up the things that are necessary to do further good for the sake of one good. I don't have any scripture to back that up, but that just doesn't seem very probably to me. That's my two cents. I'm sorry the man put you in a tight spot.
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