麻豆约拍

Good morning.聽 Today I'm thinking about George.聽 George is responsible for starting a lot of building work that鈥檚 half-finished.聽 Although he sounds very British, George is native to Southern Africa where he鈥檚 a significant church and community leader.

George looks after a huge area.聽 It embraces more than one country.聽 How he does it, I don't know.聽 He's paid very little.聽 Every day, he's dogged by difficulties of transport, IT and struggling economies.聽聽聽 And, as I saw for myself, alot of George鈥檚 buildings are only half-finished.聽聽聽

That's because George is a man of vision.聽 George can鈥檛 rest with things as they are.聽 Trained as a social worker, and driven by his Christian faith, he believes that men, women and children in the vast rural landscape and crowded towns of Southern Africa shouldn鈥檛 be destined to live in poverty.聽 So George encourages change, change for the better.

It's tough energy-sapping work.聽 Day in and day out, he meets with government, aid-agencies, and local leaders to encourage the possibility that life can be different.聽 鈥淐hildren can go to school,鈥� he says.聽 鈥淛ust build one!聽 Men can go to a health-care centre - just build one.聽 Women can be trained at a skills' college - just build one!鈥澛�

Once some money is found, building starts and, as I speak this morning, half-built schools, health centres, and colleges rise as signs of hope where there's despair.聽聽 Of course, there are always people around him who doubt it will come to anything.聽 He's sure the projects will be finished because plenty of others have been.聽 I鈥檝e seen them, too.

So, faithful God, we thank you for men and women like George who sustain vision among us.聽 Help us to believe that,聽 in this world created with such beauty, bringing good news to the oppressed聽 is always possible.聽 Amen.