Six decades of passion for Christ

Movements are like this: They are grassroots, they start with passionate people who are willing to believe in the impossible, and they never start in corporate offices with executives drawing up a master plan. And World Vision is a prime example.

Our roots go back to 1950, when Dr Bob Pierce – on his missionary trip in Korea after World War 11 – was overwhelmed by the plight of orphans and founded World Vision so that God’s children could have a chance at experiencing life in all its fullness.

During a recent field trip of mine to the Limpopo Province I was reminded that the same passion that moved Bob Pierce six decades ago to become the founding member of our organisation, is still living in the hearts and minds of our members of staff today.

As I was listening, experiencing and absorbing all about the recent uplifting grassroots projects and developments within our Kodumela Area Development Programme, it dawned on me again that God has handpicked every staff member – each one to serve in different capacities – to be part of something much bigger than themselves.

At Ga-Sekororo’s Ramatua Secondary School, youths shared how training programmes conducted by World Vision empowered them to embrace their responsibility towards themselves and become the best they can be – for instance to ensure that they enjoy a full and fruitful life without the risk of contracting HIV.

We often find that World Vision’s Christian identity leads to wrong perceptions; for instance that we represent ‘an exclusive religious club’, or something similar. ‘To the absolute contrary,’ I always say. We serve all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. During my Kodumela visit, for instance, we’ve heard from traditional healers in the district of Ga-Sekororo how World Vision has initiated programmes and been working alongside them for the achievement of our Health and HIV/AIDS objectives.

And currently, we’re involved with a popular mainstream radio station (Kaya FM) and the Muslim-based ‘Gift of the Givers’ who are supporting our programme work in Orlando, Soweto by distributing food parcels to 144 granny-headed and child-headed households in the area. We certainly embrace merited representation within the various communities that we work in, and share the love of God without regard to people’s belief systems.

It’s not always easy to do God’s work in the secular society that we’re living in. But being passionate and near-absurdly happy in serving Him through the World Vision ministry is, for sure!

Yours, Chabeli