Episcopal News Service March 11, 2007
In South Africa, Pilgrimage for Peace helps young people see their global context
World gets smaller as pilgrims, South Africa children and youth tell their stories
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[ENS] The global village grew a bit smaller March 10 when a group of 40 young people from Alabama, California, Rhode Island, South Africa and Mozambique spent the day with their counterparts in Winterveld, South Africa.
The Pilgrimage for Peace visited the Tumelong Havens day care center, Bokamoso Youth Center and an AIDS hospice, all run by the Anglican Diocese of Pretoria. Winterveld is about 50 kilometers north of Pretoria, South Africa's capital, and about 115 kilometers north of Johannesburg.
"For me it is a wonderful thing to see people from America coming to my community," said Shimane Samuel Moeketsi, a member of Bokamoso Youth Center who will turn 23 next week. The visit, he said, "gives me that courage and hope for my life."
"I am learning to see myself in a global world," Liz Wagner, 17, of Providence, Rhode Island, said as she sat on a porch ledge at Tumelong Havens. "I know I'm so blessed living as a woman in the U.S."
Little children surrounded her, wanting to take her picture and have her take theirs.
Wagner said she had never traveled abroad before, other than on vacations such as cruises, which she called a "kind of a material thing." The poverty that was evident on the drive from Pretoria to Winterveld struck her.
"I was just quickly trying to take it all in. It was a lot to look at," said Wagner, who hopes to become a doctor.
Brian Bray, 32, who grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, and now lives in Atlanta, said his experience thus far on the pilgrimage has been "a lot to think about; it's humbling and inspiring."
"In American we are so very isolated," he said, adding that the trip to southern Africa is showing him "how blessed and privileged we are no matter your situation in America."
Mercio Langa, a soon-to-be university student from Maputo, Mozambique, who is part of the pilgrimage, said he never expected to have the chance to share faith stories with young people from the U.S., in part because many people think Americans are faithless.
"It's like a holy moment," said fellow Mozambiquan Arthur Matsinthe.
During the visit to Tumelong Havens, some of the pilgrims sat in a circle on the floor of a classroom telling each other their stories.
A 14-year-old girl said she dreams of being a doctor so that she can help people with HIV and AIDS.
Ashley Jacobs, 20, a third-year medical student at the University of Pretoria, told the girl to trust in God.
"God gets you to where you need to go," he said.
Full story and photos: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_83377_ENG_HTM.htm
Continuing ENS coverage of TEAM is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_23466_ENG_HTM.htm
-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.