We made it… after a 15 hr flight, spending a night in the Johannesburg airport, 18 hr bus ride to Cape Town, and an hour long taxi ride we have finally made it to our ministry location. We are happy to announce that we are spending this month living in a little town called Masiphumelele, or “Masi” for short.
If I’m honest, I wasn’t so excited about this location at first. You see, the last hour of our traveling was spent dropping off other teams at their ministry sites… at first, our whole squad was under the impression that we would be staying at the same location and be involved in the exact same ministry.
We were wrong.
My hopes were up as we dropped off teams Kaleo and Braveheart. Team Kaleo is serving at a compound that includes a secondary school and church. Team Braveheart and our team (Entrusted) were filled with excitement as we came over a mountain and could see the ocean. One squad mate had even mentioned that she was told we might be staying within walking distance of the beach. That excitement quickly disappeared for me after we dropped off the members of Braveheart in friendly neighborhoods.
We soon found ourselves driving down the streets of the slums. I had a little hope as the drivers jumped out to quickly retrieve items from their little shacks… “Maybe we are just making a pit stop.” The full force of horror hit me as we traveled deeper into the maze of streets of shacks. Our taxi stopped in front of a small green house on a crowded street. Bare foot children were running around, as well as chickens and stray dogs. Small houses and shacks lined the street. It looked like a scene from a movie… “We are staying here?”
Fear set in.
Bradley, our contact, briefed us about safety. Don’t leave electronics out, lock ALL doors and windows when you leave, take valuables to the church when you go somewhere, girls travel in groups of 3 if possible.
Panic
He continued to explain that the residents are very open to listening to strangers and love to invite people into their homes. He said they are open to hearing the Gospel and even though we had to take precautions, Masi is a relatively safe place to live. Peace began to fill me as I listened to him tell us to take advantage of the peoples’ openness and allow the Spirit to guide us.
Since then I have been blessed to realize that we have the opportunity to really see what life is like for people who live in South Africa. Nothing is sugar-coated about the living conditions here. Every day we walk past shacks that could burn down, and quite often do, at a moments notice. Half-naked children run around us yelling “teacha, teacha!”… and that is before we get to the preschool/orphanage!
We have already seen the work of God’s hands here. During street ministry yesterday, we had the opportunity of redirecting a man who has a blossoming love for the Lord. He, somehow, has found himself in a Jehovah Witness church. We were able to share the true gospel with him and he is coming to church with us on Sunday! Looking into the eyes of this man as he held my hands, I was so overwhelmed with the love the Father has for these people…
It is going to be a great month!!
