This month, our team has worked with
ministries and contacts that are just plain awesome. We have worked
in places that have so much hope and potential, and I have loved
every second of it.
Ubuntu Sports is a ministry that uses
sports to connect mentors with young athletes. The program centers in
townships in the Cape Town area, and targets soccer players. Their
vision and hope is that the kids will either be able to get
scholarships for soccer or play at a professional level, and that
they will come to know God through their coaches. We were able to
help them by organizing their equipment shed and helping to run open
and elite soccer clinics.
Casey, one of the main coaches for
Ubuntu, lives in Ocean View with his wife, Sarah, and their
two-year-old daughter, Kieren. They are a missionary family from
Raleigh, North Carolina. Sarah is an associate pastor at Ocean View
Methodist Church, where she works primarily with the youth and women.
Sarah says that her hope is to one day work herself right out of a
job, as she plans to disciple and raise up leaders from the Ocean
View community to lead in her place.
Ocean View is a township in the suburbs
of Cape Town. It is a Colored community. Colored people differ from
black people, they are of Malaysian descent. According to our
contacts here, Ocean View is comparable with inner cities on the west
coast. At Ocean View Methodist, we were able to help with a women’s
Bible study, and a few of us got to be a part of the worship team.
Khayelitsha is a Black township just
outside Cape Town. It is one of the biggest in the area, with over a
million people living there. We were
able to do a Bible study with the teenagers there through Africa Jam.
They are hungry for more knowledge about God. Africa Jam has a
program in Khyalelitsha that teaches teens to minister to others
through performing arts. They have talents that are extremely
impressive, and I am quite sure that God will use those to further
the kingdom here in Cape Town. We also got to sit in on an IGP
meeting. IGP is a branch of Africa Jam that is helping to develop the
economics of Khayelitsha by giving micro loans to community members
with proper business plans. Successful businesses here are leading to
opportunities for families, such as the ability to send kids to
college.
Partnering
with the programs and people I have just described has been a huge
blessing. I have had glimpses of how so many different ministries are
run, and how a missionary family has to adjust to life in another
culture. I have loved being a part of all these things, and learning
what it takes to be successful in reaching a community.
