Our host had said to me earlier that “what your parents tell you about the starving kids in Africa is true.” I was honesty taken back by what she had meant because we were serving mountain biking racers during this time.
I understood what the saying meant but it didn’t seem fitting for me at the moment.
A few weeks in and we got our ministry schedule for the rest of the month in Jeffery’s Bay. Our team’s assignment was titled “Soup Kitchen.”
Thinking about a soup kitchen, I immediately thought of Union Gospel Mission in Duluth. With this soup kitchen engraved in my mind, I set an expectation of ours scheduled soup kitchen to look alike.
I told myself going into the world race, that I would not have any expectations because when expectations aren’t met, I find that disappointment or shock follows shortly after.
It wasn’t disappointment that followed, but it was shock. What I had expected was not what we experienced.
The soup kitchen was solely ran by us out of a space similar to a storage unit in the middle of the squatter camps. We brought vegetable soup and buttered bread.
The first time we got there I asked myself, “Where are the kids?” and “Who’s going eat this?” Well, the Lord guided our steps and hearts as we walked around the camp trying to converse with adults and kids, communicating through words and gestures. Most of it was barely understood until we patted our tummies and pretended to feed our mouths.
It was frustrating to not be able to shout out to the whole camp that every child could come get soup and bread and their bodies could be nourished. It wasn’t that simple. Barriers were found but they did not hinder.
I was hesitant at first, but kids gathered and we had an incredible time. The soup fed their hunger and I had realized this was the moment when that quote of the starving children fit the mold.
It broke my heart.
On the third day, the kids were waiting for us at the storage unit. This ministry is difficult to process but God is visible through it all. Even after a few days, the parents and the kids that we have interacted with have been some of the most joyful and smiley people in Jeffery’s Bay.
This is loving on people. This is loving on kids. This is loving and serving God. This is eating soup with the starving. This is walking together in accompaniment. This is dancing and laughing. This is breaking barriers.
This is the ministry I will be involved with for the rest of my time in South Africa, and I feel so lucky and called to be here.
