Sat. night we had a farewell dinner with the students of Orlando West, school officials and our travel agents Tracy, Gail and their families. Tracy and Gail work for Michelle Travel in Jo'burg and have become family to EXCEL, they always go above and beyond the call and saying goodbye to them and our Orlando West family is always bittersweet. At the close of our dinner we presented supplies and equipment to Orlando West from a "wish list" they supply us with each year. I want to thank our students and parents again for making this possible!!! The final touch came with Aaron Jones again singing the U.S. National Anthem followed by all the students from Orlando singing the S. African anthem. My wife Brenda closed the evening with a hymn. We embraced our friends (family) and readied ourselves for the next day.
Sunday morning we got an early start and drove to Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Sharpeville. The church is pastored by Bishop Phillip Molefe Sr. father of Phil Molefe our friend from SABC. They honored us throughout the service and saluted the contributions the program had made to the country over the last 12 years. In a emotional personal moment for me, Bishop Molefe proclaimed me as "my own son" and said when he came to the U.S. I would receive "my father". This was particularly poignant because earlier Bishop Molefe had earlier shared with us that he had a son who was assassinated while attending college in Buffalo, New York and working as an anti-apartheid activist. He said the U.S. will always be a special place because his son's blood spilled on our soil as he courageously fought for freedom against the evil system of apartheid. We left the service uplifted and ready encouraged.
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