Hospital strike - doing some REAL ministry

Today a group of us from SMMS have been called upon to assist some of the local hospitals that have been gripped by the strike by health workers, and as our president Ross Olivier announced that the seminary would become involved, I felt an excitement stirring within my spirit.

About two years ago when faced with the xenophobia crisis, I responded to a call by then-Bishop Paul Verryn to "get all hands on deck" in providing whatever assistance one could.  As a result, I ended up spending nearly a week ferrying food and clothing back and forth between collection points and police stations where many of the xenophobia victims had taken shelter.  Mundane work, I know, but somehow I felt that in some small way I was making a real difference.

Today will probably be similar - our expectations are to spend the day scrubbing floors, shunting food trolleys around, changing bedding - yet in my mind I can picture Jesus washing His disciples' feet.  And as I have often said, if the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords can get down in the dirt and perform this most humble and mundane task, then the rest of us have no excuse whatsoever.

I've spent the last week moaning about the strike - now God has presented me with an opportunity to actually DO something about it!

(Cartoon source: Mail & Guardian website)