Hey I’m in South Africa!!
Soshanguve to be exact, apparently it’s the most dangerous place in South Africa but I have yet to see that side of this city. And either way I believe Jesus would go into the dangerous places, near the unwanted people, in the places of uneasy-ness to spread His goodness.
Anyway our ministry site is called Pop-Up. Okay hear this and tell me this doesn’t sound A M A Z I N G. So here at Pop-Up they use to be a soup kitchen and a homeless shelter but they realized the people they served didn’t want to get on their feet because they were being so well taken care of. That’s when they closed it down so they can start the remodeling process, turning it into a skills school. Here they learn skills and get educated so that they can become empowered and able people to get on their feet. Yet after all this progress Pop-Up still keeps to their roots and has a soup kitchen still that feed the homeless community around them every week. This is just a little sinopsis of who Pop-Up are and I’m so extremely blessed to be serving them and also along side them.
Our days with our “cousin team” Semper Fortis, an all girls team ,as we’ve been told so far, are looking like gardening in the morning and evangelicalism in the neighborhood in the afternoon. The garden is behind our “flat” as they call it. We are still in the process of de-weeding the garden and so far we’ve been told that it will be used to plant spinach and other veggies.
Evangelicalism. Ohhh evangelicalism. We started for the first time today. This was the first ever time we were told to just go out in groups and go by ourselves in the community. No translators no nothing. Also if you didn’t know South Africa’s one of 11 national languages is English, bless up. Anyways we start evangelicalism at 1ish and and at minimum 2hours from then. My team included Hailey and Shane. We had started our walk saying hi to everyone we see and realized this is not like Haiti or Botswana. These people don’t immediately let you in their yard and give you chairs to sit on.
Also if you didn’t know, South Africa is a 1st world country. Wild.
So after a while we thought maybe this time is just going to be a prayer walk. Until we prayed.
Then we saw with the Lords eyes all the opportunities He has put in front of us.
*Also funny side note: Hailey said she had prayed for God to break down walls just before we saw men literally tearing down a wall across the street from us*
We had talked to a group of cute little old ladies with umbrellas trying to block the extreme sun rays while walking home. We did not mention Jesus but while talking we showed His love while asking how their day is and how much we enjoy South Africa so far.
After they went on their way we made our way to a neighborhood car wash ran by some men. Lol long story short we explained why we’re here and got to know a little bit about them and in the pauses between conversation I was fighting in prayer for these men sitting next to me who were smoking weed and drinking questionable “water with lemon”.
Heading on our way after that we made it to the main road were we met the other group of us talking to four women at a snack stand. While asking them how it’s been going an old man came up to Shane and we told him we are spreading the word of God and he immediately pointed down the street saying the people down there drink and party like crazy and he started dancing and singing, he probably did that twice and we said thank you and he walked away, I so clearly smelt the alcohol in his breathe. About 4 minutes later my team decided to keep on walking around and sure enough the man who had talked to us before came up to us again. His name is Ramon, Ramon kept telling us he can take us to where all the people drink and party but I said the Lord told us to go this way so that’s were we’re going. He said ok and was saying goodbye but before he left I asked if we could pray for him and he said YES and got down on the ground on the side of the road.
I asked him what he wanted prayer for and he said luck, I asked if there’s anything else and Ramon response was that he wants a wife and children and after me pushing one more time for any other prayer requests he asked for peace.
Ramon invited us into hearing more about his story. Ramón let us know hay he has been unemployed for a while and all he does is drink all day ” like every other man his age”. I told him I know many men his age that don’t spend all day getting drunk and he didn’t believe me.
All three of us prayed individually, first Hailey then Shane then me. Right from the beginning Hailey was praying extremely bold and beautiful things over this man that made him cry. And after all of us prayed to our Father for freedom in this mans life he joined in prayer thanking the Lord for ” these American brothers and sister you’ve given me…”
I asked Ramon how he was feeling and his response was just a smile saying he feels free, he feels peace. He even far enough to go on and say he is born again.
The God of the universes’ unexplainable peace and presence was in that man. Gosh he was so happy. All three of us told Ramon our names and wished him to have the best day ever and went on our way.
Wow
I’m still kinda shook that we didn’t even go up to this man, Ramon came to US. God answered that prayer on His timing and I’m really grateful.
That was today in a nutshell. THANKYOU for reading 🙂
Here’s a few pics from today!!
-grace
