Leaving the states was hard, but not as hard as I imagined it would be. Traveling, on the other hand, was quite interesting. We flew from Atlanta to Chicago with an 8 hour layover. Had a 13 hour flight from Chicago to Dubai with a four hour layover, flew 8 hours to Jo-burg where then my team and I boarded an 18 hour bus ride to Cape Town. Or so we thought. Our ministry contact, Pastor Gaylynn, picked us up from a neighboring city around 9 am on our FOURTH day of travel. We finally got to see the area in which we would be ministering in; considering all I did on the bus was sleep. As we drove through the streets, on the opposite side of the road, I began to see that we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Every building, home, door and window was protected by thick menacing bars keeping those not welcomed out. The properties were lined with seven foot tall brick or wire fencing with barbed wire lining the top.
This was not what I was expecting.
We finally arrived at our contact location. The Father’s House Assembly of God. It is a pretty big facility considering the neighborhood we’re in. But like everywhere else, the doors and windows were decorated with bars and the yard is outlined with barbed wire fencing and padlocked gates.
We had a couple of hours to rest and get refreshed because we were going to be jumping right into ministry. Thankfully we had another team with us for the weekend from Kimberly, South Africa. We went around the corner to “the flats,” which is the equivalent to the projects back in the states, to do door to door ministry. God definitely had his hands on us.
Because of the neighborhood, Pastor Gaylynn advised that we not leave the gates unless attended by a trusted local man from the church. Since we are limited with what we can do, we are taking this time to bless the staff here at the church and to also minister and pour into each other.
Next week, the team and I will be putting on a holiday club (VBS in the States) for kids ages 5-13. This past week, we’ve been collaborating and throwing ideas around about what to do and I am enthralled! Monday cannot get here fast enough!
This month may not seem to be that significant but we are blessed with an opportunity to set a solid foundation as a band of sisters ready to take action for His kingdom right off the bat. God is surely preparing us for some pretty spectacular things and I am so glad I get to spend it with these girls!
