"The lovely, historical monument and four-star Sunnyvale Park Hotel was the sight of the Welfare Specialists Senior Couples Conference. The setting could not have been more beautiful with views of lush grounds with waterfalls and walkways winding through trees and exotic plants. The Hotel was built in 1895 and was the former residence of a mining engineer and other prominent citizens. The British influence of “tea-time” was modified for us to be between-meal juice and hot chocolate time with crumpet-type treats for dipping and munching. The beauty and taste of the bountiful, sumptuous buffets were dampened only by the thoughts of those who nightly retire with empty tummies onto cardboard beds.
The final meal on the last day was punctuated with ethnic delights at Moyo where native drummers played and costumed servers washed our hands with rose water and painted our faces. Some of the native dishes looked a bit frightening but worth the cultural experimentation. 
Couples from Port Elizabeth and Durban participated in the conference. It was fun to hear about their situations and activities in their areas that were totally foreign to us. The purpose of the conference was to enhance our understanding of our roles in supporting church leadership in their daunting responsibilities of caring for the poor and needy. Our particular emphasis was as it relates to unemployment and underemployment in countries where those categories constitute the majority of their populations. We train the local Welfare Specialists to teach the Career and Self-Employment Workshops with the hope that their improved marketability will lead to self-reliance. We also strive to support the efforts of the Priesthood Leaders and Ward and Stake Councils who in turn strive to care for the many needs of those they have stewardships for. Each couple shared their ideas and techniques of accomplishing those responsibilities." - Sister Basso
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ReplyDeleteThe Church is doing a great job using training to get couples up to speed with their many responsibilities. Glad you could have this experience. Professional development like this in the church has added many skills in insights that have been sorely needed. We love you guys and keep you in our prayers!
ReplyDeleteNice pic mom and beautiful setting there. Must be hard to have people wait on you that are so needy themselves.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Randy. We appreciate your prayers and are so humbled to serve among these amazing senior couples that include five General Authorities, three medical doctors, four lawyers, business owners and many other capable professionals including well-known author of "The Color Code," Taylor Hartman, PhD, and his wife. Faithful missionaries from all walks of life are here serving full-time in the Lord's vinyard. What a blessing it is to serve among this group of volunteers who love God and desire to serve His children 10,000 miles away from their families and comfort zones!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Heather. We are grateful to have these "needy" people serve us because we know that it means they have a job. We always tip as generously as we can because they are striving to be self-reliant and feed their families. We happened to take an early AM walk (wearing exercise attire) past Moyos this morning with another couple and the happy black people setting up for the morning meal called out to us, "Where are your white shirts?" We are always being watched! It's interesting that the black people in Africa are called black people but the black people in America who have never seen Africa want to be called African-Americans. We haven't met anyone that seems resentful about color description black or white. The main difference I see in appearance is that smiles usually seem brighter on black people. : )
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