the story of Sbo (to the tune of one direction)

Greetings people of the world, Catherine here (again!)

Thought I would take some time to tell you about Sbo- someone who has been an inspiration to us lately. Sbo works for LI and is based in amaoti 1, at first glance it may seem that she doesn't have a huge role but in fact she is the only person who is prepared to work there. Amaoti 1 is a tough school,cooperation with teachers can be hard and there are so many harrowing stories of children's home situations. During our time in SA I have been struck by the fact that God doesn't call us to live comfortably, we are called to love the unloved even if that doesn't look how we may hope, not a glamorised hugging of cute babies who have been abandoned but sticking by the kids who are being abused no matter how many times they try to push you away. amaoti 1 may not be an easy place to work but that doesn't mean we should ignore it. Sbo is a vital link between the school and charity and knows all the back to school children, she distributes uniform and is a friendly face for children to talk to. With about 60 children in a class teachers can't invest time in individual children but if they are worried about a child then they will tell Sbo.

A couple of weeks ago a teacher alerted Sbo of a child who needed to go to the clinic due to a broken leg, so we dropped her off (that was Thursday), on Friday morning she arrived at devotions with the girl having helped her get ready due to family members not bothering. We took the 2 of them to the hospital and it turned out that her leg was infected due to her aunt (a witch doctor) trying to treat it. Sbo stayed with the child till Monday, sleeping on a short wooden bench, her selfless love for this girl led to other people in the ward thinking they were mother and daughter. This led me to wonder what I may do in this situation, would I be prepared to stay with a child for 3 days with only the things I left for work with in the morning, I like to think I would have reacted in the same way but the reality is I probably wouldn't.

On Wednesday we received a phone call saying the child had been discharged, without questioning it Sbo left aftercare, this is when me and Pippa got to see the child on the ward, within a couple of hours we were beginning to get frustrated at the slowness of everything, and I wondered how I would have survived being there all weekend. Sbo's actions reminded me of the parable of the lost sheep and the farmer who leaves the flock to find one sheep, her love was sacrificial. She could have asked someone to swap positions or bring a change of clothes but she didn't, she selflessly stayed with the girl showing her Gods love. She sacrificed a weekend with her family for a child she barely knew but who cried when Sbo left, she invested time in that girl when she needed it most.

Gods love doesn't need to be shown in a flamboyant way but going the extra mile behind closed doors.

We love Sbo!!

Xxx