“In 2012, 95 percent of this city was said to be HIV positive” said our ministry contact tonight as he sat with us in our home for this month. We have officially begun our world race journey here in South Africa. We experienced a couple changes along the way, including a delay in our arrival as well as the news that our entire squad would not be together as we had been previously told.
My squad and I are living together in a cement building about the size of my room back home in the center of the African slums. I will try to paint you the picture, but words can not express the poverty yet the beauty of this land. The roads are paved in sand and trash. The homes are made of cardboard, pieces of wood, metal, tin, and carpet scraps. The shacks are all connected to each other and there are tiny paths between and inside of them that resembles a corn maze. There is laundry strung up on wires and broken glass and sharp objects everywhere. These slums are in the valley of a beautiful treeless mountain. They call this place Masiphumelele. I call it beautiful.
The people here are dark with big white questioning eyes, watching our team of white people walk the streets laughing and waving hello. As soon as we arrived, a gathering of precious children gathered around our home yelling “teacha, teacha” and wanting us to pick them up and swing them around. Everyone we pass on the tiny streets of this place wave and say hello, while some come and ask us why we are here, as this is the only black community within Capetown currently, and certainly nice white people would not come here on purpose. We have met many African believers and have been blessed to attend an African Baptist Church where I heard the most angelic singing from the congregation that I have ever heard. We have a very wonderful ministry contact here named Fungi, (YES, Fungi) who we are blessed to use as a host, tour guide, food expert and occasionally a translator when necessary. We also have been blessed by a woman of peace, whom we call Cindy who has graciously brought us many things, including tables, plates, cloths, window blinds, and tonight dinner! God is certainly providing all of our needs and His faithfulness is being made evident in my life every second.
We officially began our ministry today and tonight I sit in our home filled with the most joy and appreciation of the things that I have experienced. We started our day off ministering to an orphanage/day care run by an African woman who has a heart as big as the country she lives in. She started this day care to help mothers and fathers of this village obtain jobs, but quickly decided she could not look past the children the orphan children who slept in the park without food or shelter. She took them into her personal home and cares for them as her own. We asked how many children she has living with her right now. She says ten. She expressed her concern for how the Lord would provide her enough food to continue feeding the children she has taken in and for the kids who parents do not pack their lunches. We loved on the babies and fed them lunch, taking in the joy they have from little, being constantly reminded of the stupidity of our complaints. We left after lunch, promising to return again tomorrow, and headed off with Fungi to our lunch location. We walked to a cart with a sign “Fish and Chips” on it. O MY GOSH. Best lunch ever award. Street ministry began after lunch and we walked shack to shack sharing the gospel with whoever would let us in.
I am so blown away and amazed to be in Masiphumelele this month, and I would not change it for the world. The weather is great, in the 80’s and very very strong winds that shake the houses. We have no internet, hot water, privacy, refrigerator, stove, or beds, but what we do have is beautiful, the joy of the Lord to love these people and be Christ to them here in this city.
Stay tuned for more news!! 🙂
ABBY in Masiphumelele, South Africa
