...do you believe in me?

We took a walk through Zandspruit this wee, intentionally with my camera slung around my neck. I go into the community often, but rarely take my camera... just to be sensitive. But I really wanted to show you the beauty and rich culture inside the mini-city we spend most of our time invested in. So we made a date and took a stroll

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Along the way, Jane started talking to this guy... he was sitting along the wall outside the clinic... reading out of a paperback novel... out loud.

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Somewhere in his journey, he decided to look seriously at the question what can I do to make the world better? And came up with the answer... "I can read".

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So most days he sits outside the clinic walls and reads through the fence to the people waiting for their turn to see the doctor. To help take their mind off their waiting, to take their mind off their illness.

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Whether anyone is actually listening or not, he is reading. Sometimes out of a book, sometimes the bible, sometimes a newspaper. He just sits and reads through the fence. And I actually think that it's pretty sweet.

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It got me thinking about offering what we have. And about looking inside ourselves to realize that what we have is truly enough to offer.

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Last night, I got a phone call that http://www.citizenshirt.com/ has offered to print up a limited run of tshirts for the big yard sale/bake sale/ community party fundraiser that is happening tomorrow morning at Johnny and Jenny's house to help raise some money to keep us here doing what we do - with all that has happened in the last few months, we are dangerously low - although it's been cool to see God continually put it on people's hearts to support us and carry us through these couple of months. Anyway... CITIZENSHIRT offered to print up some tshirts to donate to the yard party/sale.... and let us design them!

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I took out this image of the guy at the clinic... swirling around in my brain as it had been... and started to think that no matter what the world around him thinks about this guy... he believes in himself. He believes that there is something good in him that is worth sharing... and by sharing that something good - the world somehow becomes better. He must, if he didn't , he wouldn't come sit in the dirt for a few hours each day to read out loud at the clinic.

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Spotting that goodness in others, and in ourselves.. is so vital. Giving a fair chance... believing in each other - in goodness, in potential, in decent opportunities for education, health care, access to the basic necessities of life. Do I believe he has it inside him to to succeed if only given the chance? Do I believe he is worth it? Do I believe in myself enough to see that I can offer my meager self and make the world a better place?

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This is a work in progress... and essay that is still tumbling around my brain... but for now, a limited number of Tshirts will be available at the big yard party/sale fundraiser tomorrow -

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... and I'd love your thoughts on what it means to believe in some one's humanity, their potential, their opportunities. To believe in them.