Month 6 has begun and we are now one week into ministry here in Heidelberg, South Africa. To kick off this month, we took a 5 hour bus ride to Johannesburg with the entire squad before parting ways. My team had a 2 hour wait in the city and then another 19 hour bus ride to where we are staying.
Although the trip was long, I slept on the floor for most of it and there were some amazing window views of the country. South Africa is amazingly beautiful. Seriously. There were mountains and flat fields, ocean views and everything in between. We got to experience the sunset and the sunrise and the most amount of stars I’ve ever seen while making a quick bathroom pitstop on the side of the road at 2am. I’m talking a concentrated night sky from horizon to horizon. We may have been squished and sore when we arrived at our little home, but it was well worth it.
Before I start talking about what we are doing this month, there have been a few changes to my team! This month is called “Man-istry” month, because they have taken all the men from the squad and placed them in the same location to do life and ministry without any of us ladies. And so for this month only, the girls from the two co-ed teams have been placed together to create a new hybrid team.
(back row left: Morgan, Me, Ashley, Savannah, Sharon, and Lauren. Front row left: Amanda and Eva)
For our “Manless-stry” month, we are partnering with a church called, Langeberg Christian Fellowship. Our hosts are Phil, the pastor of the church, and his wife Tanya. They are an amazing couple that have welcomed us into their home so well.
For ministry, we have a few different things going on. Firstly, there is are many preschools in the area that we partner with. Another couple from the church rotates going to those schools and doing a bible story with them. Each day, two of us will go with them and do the story for the day!
Next, there is a safehouse here that is being further developed. In South Africa, there is a huge separation of wealth. While some live very well off, there are also many large slum communities. And there is not much separation of the two either. The other day we drove through the wealthiest area of South Africa, and right outside the city was an extremely large slum community. Growing up in those areas, most girls are rapped walking to or from school. Birth control is very hard to receive in this country as well, and so teenage pregnancy is very common. However, it is still disgraceful to have a child at that age. So what most girls end up doing is hiding their pregnancy, having the baby, and then throwing the baby away in a nearby dumpster. Many parents even encourage this course of action if they find out. And so what this safehouse aims to do (along with others in the surrounding areas) is become a place of refuge for babies found in the dumpster. They have had many babies come in and can be adopted out until they reach 90 days old. Once past that age, they can no longer be adopted but must remain at the safehouse until they are 18 years old. The one we are working with only has two children at the moment, ages 9 and 2. We are helping them set up the home to be able to receive more babies.
The one woman running the house is also a part of a program that travels around to teach young women about other options they have. They have started to create these baby boxes that the women can place their child into which will set off an alarm to notify that a baby has been placed into it, but has no camera to keep the mother’s identity private. This is to increase the chances of the newborns survival. The work being done by this woman is amazing. She has the largest heart for these kids than anyone I have ever seen.
Heidelberg is also the location of Charis Bible College. On Thursdays, we paired off with the second year students to go minister to people within the community. This looked like going to either a hospital, a teens study, a small children event, an elderly home, and door to door ministry within a government house community. I went door to door with my teammate Savannah and two others from the college. We went into a few houses, praying over their families and then found ourselves talking to a woman in her 20s. She had heard of Jesus but was interested in learning more. We spent some time talking with her and she accepted Christ as her savior that day! Below is a picture we all took before leaving. From the left is Linda (a bible college student), my teammate Savannah, the woman, and myself.
Lastly, we have done a LOT of ATL this month. ATL stands for Ask the Lord. This is just asking God to guide our steps and to use our conversations for his glorification. Here in Heidelberg, it is really easy to do. It is a small town where everyone knows everyone. And so they all know our hosts and that there are Americans in town for the month. So we just walk around in two’s visiting businesses and talking to people we run into. We ask about their lives, tell them about the World Race, and just invite them into conversation about the Lord. Today after church, we have the South African version of a barbeque! And so we have been inviting everyone in the town to church and to the barbeque afterwards!
This town is really very special. The people, the community, the families, the church, the businesses. We have an older couple (Mike and Noreen) living across the street from us that have adopted us as their grandchildren for the month and will just pop in for conversation throughout the day!
The barbeque is actually called a bring and braai. Meaning, you bring your own food and “braai” it over burned down firelogs. That is Mike and Noreen in the above picture who sponsored our team by bringing food and cooking it for us!
Every single day as well, a different family from the church has been cooking dinner for us. So at 6pm they arrive with hot home cooked meals that have all been wonderful! This town has just been one huge blessing to myself and my team. Not only because of their servant hearts, but because of the love they pour out. God knew what He was doing placing us here halfway through the race! It has truly been a month of rejuvanation.
The word revival has been spoken over the country of South Africa as a whole and we have felt that so strongly during our time here. And not only from Pastor Phil but also people we met while in Cape Town, from a local artist, and many others across the country. We continue to pray over that spiritual revival, and that it will build up the country of South Africa!
