The Gift of Courage Part 2

Praying for new courage in my heart, I accepted the speaking invitation for the prayer breakfast and went to Soweto, South Africa.

I would have much in common with the women I would meet.

Yet having similarities should not be confused with being identical; I would find out the hard way in my American-born arrogance.

While I had experienced some forms of discrimination with its painful aftermath, I really knew nothing of the extent of what my South African husband or these women had gone through or felt. I would need to be sensitive, careful with my words, and not patronizing in any way. It’s easy to shrug off someone else’s experience if you have not lived it. I would not try to compare or even compete with their struggle for freedom. Yet wherever one faces adversity and setbacks, it takes courage to pick up the broken pieces and rebuild bridges torn apart by someone else’s decisions.

I would share my experiences of living in restoration since coming to this country of theirs, and I would listen, learn, and gain lessons from them as they shared their hopes for a new, better tomorrow. It takes courage to stand, shoulders back and head high, while looking in the face of any foe and going after what belongs to you —no matter what! I walked away from that September 2000 Sunday morning breakfast in Soweto more renewed and enriched than when I first walked in.

I was never the same, for courage walked into the room and sat down right next to me! Courage met me through Sisi —a woman who was forced to exchange South Africa for exile at the age of fifteen. Despite the remaining scars from that season in her life, Sisi has managed to regroup and not allowed the bitterness of the past to stifle the life she has chosen to live today. I also met Cheryl, a white South African woman, whose family suffered greatly. Cheryl’s main reason for gently sharing, as did Sisi, was not to incite debate or argue but rather to supply me with the facts of how ugly the previous system had been and remind us all of our duty to pray through our actions as we stand for the right with courage. The courage-seeking lion in The Wizard of Oz and these Soweto mothers reminded me that every hard situation in my life calls forth what Heaven had placed in me before the foundations of the earth —the gift of courage. In this courage, we can all be stronger than lions!

Gail Masondo