EXCITEMENT AT THE OFFICE

 Our office complex is located right next door to the Johannesburg Temple.  There is a special temple fund that makes it possible for people needing some help to travel to the temple.  There are also a few apartments (about 10?) where these individuals or families can stay while in the city.  They are very small and don't have their own bathrooms. 

On Tuesday, a cute couple from DR Congo went through the temple and were sealed along with their darling son (about 3 years old).  They stayed to do more temple sessions, and Thursday about 5 am the mother gave birth to a son in one of the restrooms here in the complex.  Her husband is a nurse and delivered the baby.

Someone came upstairs and asked Sister Lee if there was anything they could use to wrap the baby in.  She just so happened to know we had several humanitarian newborn kits near our office. so she was able to give them several blankets, outfits and diapers.  Pretty handy huh?

Sister Clayton, mom and baby Benedict

But that's just the first part of the story.  Because the baby was born in South Africa, he now becomes a So. African citizen, and cannot travel to the Congo without the proper paperwork, visa etc.  And because the baby wasn't born in the hospital, he didn't even have a birth certificate.  They were told the mother and baby would have to check into the hospital for 2 days for observation, verification and whatever before they could have a birth certificate.

The next problem was that there was no way they could afford a hospital stay.  Our immediate boss is Phillip Moatlhodi.  He is the Area Welfare Manager for the Africa South East Area (a paid Church position).  He was able to give authorization to use  Fast Offering funds to help with the hospital costs.  We saw the husband and son in our little cafeteria each day and I was able to speak with him a couple of times (he's a French speaker).

Today's Saturday and Susan and I worked from 9:30 till 5.  We were happy to be able to do it because it gave us just a little more time to get training from Sister Charlene Lee.  She's been just the best teacher.  Besides all the instruction she's given us, she's spent the last two weeks cleaning up old files (both physical files and computer files), making new files for us to use and making lists, instruction sheets, etc. for us to use.  We'll tell you more about her and her husband, Brent, another time.