(March 28, 2014 - by Ruth Pike)  Witnessing the joyful singing and dancing of 50 men and women receiving certificates for completing a community health worker training course in Lesotho, it was hard to believe these were the same people who had walked into the room just two days earlier.

“Nervously shuffling into the conference room, seeing the unfamiliar surroundings and smiling white faces seemed to make them retreat into themselves a little more,” said Sheila Leech, vice president of global healthcare at Reach Beyond (formerly HCJB Global). “Their faces displayed their discomfort, their anxiety, their reticence.”

“All that changed the moment they started to sing,” related Leech, who co-led the training course with missionary Karen Cole from Colorado Springs, Colo. “Faces were transformed, uplifted to God with beautiful harmonies and sweet words sung in the Sesotho language, bodies swaying in perfect rhythm to the melodies they sang. Suddenly they were changed from 50 individuals to one body of sound and movement. It was a beautiful thing to see and hear.”

For three days earlier this month in Thaba-Bosiu in the landlocked South African nation, Leech and Cole shared precious moments with the group of local volunteer health workers. Tears of joy and sorrow were shed as the participants worshiped God together and learned about good hygiene practices (such as hand washing), transmission of disease, the importance of clean water and sanitation, basic first aid and care for dying patients.

The training course was held in partnership with a local Christian radio station, Harvest FM. The ministry’s director, Mary Lekhoaba, feeling challenged to expand the hands-on aspect of the ministry, had asked Reach Beyond for assistance with medical supplies and training of community healthcare volunteers.

“[The course] gives a lot of credibility to Harvest FM as it’s involved in this kind of outreach into the community and really underpins their work,” said Leech.

Some of the teaching recapped existing knowledge for participants, but others found it challenged their fundamental beliefs. In a session on clean water sources, one lady was listening particularly intently.

“She leaned forward, straining to hear every word,” described Cole. “As we reviewed, shared and asked questions, she hesitantly lifted her hand to speak. She said, ‘All my life our village believed that if the water was moving it was clean. I never thought of people washing clothes in it, animals drinking from it and children swimming and urinating in it. I will share this with my chief as soon as we get home. Now we won’t have stomach aches anymore or be so sick.’”

“Quietly she put her head down as if in shame. The next day as she danced her way to receiving her certificate for completing the course, she had tears of joy streaming down her face.”

Another man was amazed to discover that dirt should not be put into a cut to help it heal. “As the explanation followed—why soap and clean water help heal and keep infection away—a bright smile of understanding passed over his face,” wrote Cole. “Now he would share his knowledge with the elders of the village.”

During the training course, the two leaders gained harrowing insights into the daily hardships faced by those attending, many who suffered from or were caring for others with HIV/AIDS.

One participant was a mother of 10 who had lost her husband and five of her children, two of them to HIV/AIDS. Another participant didn’t turn up one day because his daughter was murdered the night before, while another’s sick daughter died on the final day of the course. One lady kept smiling even while she was suffering from a painfully swollen leg.

“It was very sobering,” said Leech. “Death and loss and illness is such a reality for the people there. In spite of that they’re very positive.”

Consequently, for Leech, the training course was as much about encouraging the people as about sharing knowledge, “giving a little bit of information they didn’t know before but also affirming and encouraging them to make changes in the community that lead to helping others.”

Cole, who grew up in the West African country of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) where her parents were missionaries, was able to encourage the group by sharing her own testimony of her family's commitment to trust a loving God through high fevers that she suffered as a child and through the kidnapping of her father during a time spent in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1961 rebellion.

She thanked God for sparing her life so she could help lead the event in Lesotho, and she challenged those in the group to serve their patients with compassion and love, seeing them through the eyes of Jesus.

“The swell of harmonies of African voices takes on a new richness and depth and sweetness when we understand that they are flowing out of broken hearts,” concluded Leech. “African hearts that are full of unshakeable faith—no matter what.”

Source: Reach Beyond