The ONE Thing

The longer I’m in South Africa, worshiping side-by-side with my SiSwati-speaking church family and visitors from around the world, the more I see that it takes every person from every place to get the job done.

I’m not talking about building a house for every homeless person, satisfying the hungry groans of every empty belly, or even finding a family for every orphaned child.

I’m talking about the job, the greatest commandment: Love God with all you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:29-31) That job of bringing heaven down to earth. All that other house-building, belly-filling, orphan-ending stuff happens on the way.

The specifications of the job are unlike any others, and they seem pretty upside-down:

The Boss comes in washing your feet, laying it all down so you can have an equal share in what He’s created… on your first day.

There are 66 canons of the Manual – more than half of which tell stories about dead kings, seas splitting and people pouting in deserts. 

And the Guy who shows up to walk you through your new daily life speaks in red letters and in parables instead of just getting to the point!

When people come here and decide to make themselves vulnerable enough to join in the work of something bigger than themselves…

willing to see God in the ways that hurt…

It starts to hurt when you can’t figure out what to do.

I came to save the world, one orphan at a time.

When I got here, I didn’t know how to do it.

“What’s the ONE thing we need in Africa to make a change?”

We want to be effective and excellent for the Kingdom.

As much of heaven down to earth as quickly as possible.

We’re willing to do it - we just need to know the ONE thing.

People have been asking it since the very beginning. Jesus just kept talking in parables until they were ready to hear it his way instead of theirs.

Because the ONE thing isn’t from ONE culture.

The ONE thing can’t be scribbled on a check, processed through PayPal or be written off on your taxes at the end of the year.

The ONE thing can’t be delivered through the finest doctors the nations have to offer.

The ONE thing can’t be grown in a garden or served on a plate.

The ONE thing can’t be built by human hands and doesn’t have a roof or walls.

The ONE thing is un-seeable and un-doable...

The ONE thing is hope.

Full bank accounts with no hope buy their way into deeper hopelessness when you can never buy enough to fill up that ONE part of you.

The finest medicines in the world can never heal the broken parts of our spirits.

Plentiful food and water could be literally raining from heaven and pouring out of rocks (it’s been done – Exodus 16:4) but can't fill the ravenous hunger for something more.

The most comfortable and secure house can’t build Home in your heart.

The more I see that it’s really all about the unseen, the more I realize how far I really am from “doing it”. But HE keeps inviting me in to get a different and undeserved view. And in those moments, I feel an overwhelming relief in the Truth that I’m not needed for ONE thing in heaven… but I’m wanted and I’m invited into all of it.

Last Thursday, I got front row tickets to the real thing. The real job being done. Hope and Homes coming to earth better than I could have ever planned it.

Ten Thousand Homes is building a house for a child-headed household in a community called Dwaleni. Busi, the head of the household is now 18 years old, had been unable to finish school yet, speaks no English and has spent the last few years since losing her parents, caring for her four younger siblings.

We all have the same design: the image of God.

We all have the same needs: to be known, to be loved, to belong.

But sometimes fulfilling those needs on earth look different to different cultures.

So some ladies in Texas knitted squares to make blankets and prayed over the recipients before shipping them to Ten Thousand Homes.

Then some high school guys in a neighboring community, Mbonisweni decided to spend their Friday night having a dancing/sewing party, and somehow made it cool to knit blankets.

Sewing Party with Mbonisweni Youth from Keri Dodge on Vimeo.
Then the Ten Thousand Homes crew got together with the only social services organization in Dwaleni, a group of ladies who give all of themselves with no pay.

On a hot Thursday afternoon, we all met up to deliver the knitted blankets to Busi and her siblings.

I had no language.

I had no blanket in my hand.

I had nothing to bring except for just being there.

Busi is shy. And her oldest brother, Anthony, wouldn’t even come out of the house. The guys from Mbonisweni gently got Anthony to come out and presented them with new blankets, covered in prayers from Texas and possibly a little salt from the popcorn at the sewing party.

Photos from Keri's blog

It could have been finished there.

But the guys, full of that ONE thing, decided to sing a worship song for Busi.

And then another.

And then the tired, hard-working volunteer ladies – who live in shacks themselves- jumped to their feet, clapping and shouting: “ANOTHER!”

An hour later…

We were still in that yard singing to our Lord.

Proclaiming and calling down that ONE thing.

The entire neighborhood came out and saw what it really looks like to build a Home.

Some of the kids even came over to dance.

Anthony came out again, hiding in the back so we wouldn’t notice him singing.

And then, all of a sudden, Busi stood up, dancing, clapping and leading the songs.

Something changed forever in those young leaders, those sacrificing women, the building crew, the neighbors, in me, the work of Ten Thousand Homes, and, most importantly, in Busi and her family that day.

It was the most incredible display of Hope and Home I’ve ever been a part of.

We brought her a blanket.

We’re building her a house.

But it was when everybody came together and called down that ONE thing, that Home and Hope happened.

Call it down.

Sing it out.

Dance all over it.

Everything else happens on the way.