I walked through the weeks of goodbyes confidently and somewhat gracefully, but, as I sat in my window seat watching Louisville shrink into the sunrise, the weight of the reality of distance sat like an anvil on my chest. I stared out that window until I saw Atlanta on the horizon, then I took one more breath and claimed the peace of Christ.
Even after a wonderful week of training at launch in ATL, the planes, busses, and cabs did not get any easier. There’s a certain discomfort to the journey— knowing that this is the first of 11 goodbyes—but there’s also a certain hope.
After 4 exhausting days, we made it to Heideveld. We were welcomed into the Father’s House by Pastor Gaylynn, our ministry host, and a team of 25 amazing youth from Kimberley in the Northern Cape. In my journal I wrote about training camp, “I love deeply and quickly here, and I’m excited to see where that will go.” I’m learning that this love is not so much an exception as a general rule within the family of Christ. As we walked into the Father’s House, weary from travel, we walked into a community of the same caliber. I love deeply and quickly here and, even after 2 weeks now, I am still excited to see where this is going!
We heard so many stories and saw so many pictures of the beautiful city of Cape Town. Our friends and family, previous teams, and our own imaginations built incredibly high expectations of our time here, so you can imagine the look of shock on our faces as God brought those expectations crashing down. This is absolutely NOTHING like we expected. Although our ministry this month is in the Western Cape, we are definitely NOT in Cape Town.
As I stood in the window and surveyed the neighborhood I thought to myself, “God knew this would happen. He did this on purpose.” We are in a town called Heideveld. There are several locals and visitors from other towns who have warned us that this city (specifically the flats next door) are known for gangs, drugs, and violence. Those are the same flats we went door-to-door in 5 hours after arriving in Heideveld, and the same people we are inviting to church services, prayer meetings, and Vacation Bible School. Meth and heroine are large industries in this neighborhood and they recruit gangsters at ages 11 and 12. It’s horribly, horribly sad.
As we handed out flyers for VBS, we spoke with a young boy, maybe 11 years old. He took the flyer hesitantly but I saw excitement in his eyes as we talked about playing together, singing, and dancing. As we walked away and he headed back towards his house, a group of older teenage boys grabbed the younger boy and ripped the flyer out of his hand. They pushed him back and forth between each other and started to tease and hit him. My heart broke. He never came to VBS.
During our first day of outreach (which was our first day here!), we stood in the middle of the street in front of the flats and sang worship songs together—about 40 of us in all. Then we broke into small groups and went door-to-door inviting people to a special service hosted by the Kimberley team and offering to pray with anyone who would allow us the opportunity. I was taken into a home where 5 men were living. There were 4 in the living room and 1 in a bedroom off to the side of the house. Even without a physical door, the door to the bedroom seemed closed—I had no fear, but the Lord was giving me a strong sense of bondage in this particular home. A few of the men were having conversations in the living room, and one elder walked boldly into the bedroom, beckoning me to follow him. The man in the bedroom recognized him and struck up a conversation in Afrikaans. I had absolutely no idea what they were discussing, but they were discussing it passionately and I was mesmerized. The elder turned to me, pulled me farther into the room and asked if I wanted to pray for this man. I was asking God to show me how to pray for him and the word “influence” was put on my heart—immediately I was filled up with a prayer so I grabbed the guy by his shoulder and prayed with him that “his influence would cause others to seek the truth of the Gospel of Christ.” When I finished, I looked straight into the man’s eyes and smiled at him. And he smiled back. I was filled up with excitement and I kept praying after we left the house.
After we finished in 2 more houses, the elder came to me and explained excitedly that the man in the bedroom is one of the most prominent drug lords in Cape Town and that the words of my prayer were words he had used in their conversations in Afrikaans! I thought my heart would fall down into my stomach! I instantly burst into laughter and thought, “Jesus, I just grabbed a drug lord by the shoulder and prayed against his sin!” Then I was overcome with the most beautiful joy from the Spirit of God!
He spoke clearly into my heart, “Amy, my child, don’t you see? I am already here in this place—I have been here all along—in the hearts of my people, your brothers and sisters. You get to walk alongside them this month and help them complete the work I have already started. In the same way, I want to begin and complete a work in you, my child. Trust me, this lesson will be taught gently in love: a love that needs no translation.”
That night, we finally crashed into our beds around 1 and, as I stared at the ceiling and listened to the giggles of my exhausted teammates, I thought to myself, “This morning we woke up on a bus…” God can accomplish so much in 18 short hours when hearts say, “Yes,” to him.
2 weeks later, I still stand at the window and survey the neighborhood. I look out towards the beautiful city of Cape Town. Because of the nature and danger of this ministry, that is all of Cape Town we have seen. We haven’t walked on the beaches, climbed Table Mountain, swam with the sharks, or played with the penguins. The church where we stay is surrounded by a fence of barbed wire and razor wire, and we are not able to leave without a male chaperone. This month is NOT what we expected—but the ministry here is thriving. We are overwhelmingly blessed by the love we share with the people here—Pastor Gaylynn and his beautiful wife, Chantal, Sarah, Gladys, and Debbie in the office, David who thinks it’s hilarious to scare us in the night, and our amazing and talented friends from Kimberley. This is our family and we love them so, so much! As a team, we are still learning to overcome unrealistic expectations in order to fully embrace the heart of our Father. But we’re learning.
When we stop looking out the window and start looking within these four walls, we live in that deep, fast love that the Spirit of God provides.
