God is working in South Africa.
I mean, working.
My team Sweet Aroma is partnering with team Day 3 here in Ocean View, Cape Town South Africa. We’re staying in one of our best locations; a small, brick, two bedroom house in the ghetto area of Ocean View. It’s kinda like living in the ghettos back home. It’s pretty awesome. We walk around homes where drug deals happen, kids running around in the streets, projects where drug lords live, playgrounds that are covered in spray paint, and teens smoking weed on the steps of the park. You can call it the Harvest Field, because God is moving.
For the first week we have been visiting a pre-school in the morning. We’re pros at this point with small children. Thank God for an awesome ministry in Swaziland for teaching us the tricks of the trade when it comes to these crazy kids! But unlike before in other countries, these kids have playgrounds, crayons, toys, and actual teachers. It’s kinda weird to actually have a playground for children. It hasn’t been like that in most other countries. It’s weird to see kids who have that privilege of using slides, jungle gym, and swing sets. But hey, I forgot not everyone lives in the third world.
After we play with the kids at the pre-school we are partnering with another missions organization with after-school program for kids, sharing the Gospel, playing games, and keeping them out of the ghettos in hopes of not being influenced by the drug lords and druggies. It’s really humbling to be able to hang out with these children and be a blessing to them. But this particular blog and these particular events didn’t happen from our normal schedule. The events and experiences of this blog came simply by listening to the Lord.
The after-school program runs around 2:00pm. As we began to go about the activities, myself, Noah, Tess, Christin, and Bryan of team Day 3 decided to go around the ghetto and see if we can pray with people, talk to people about Jesus, and see Him move. The World Race calls it Ask The Lord (or ATL’s.) In essence, it’s basically the call God has for us; go and make disciples. So off we went.
The ghettos are just as you imagine: old, broken, packed, semi-dangerous, and full of lost people. Just the perfect place for us to go. As we began our adventure an elderly gentleman came up to us. His wrinkles told stories themselves. He had his flannel on, old and dusty like carpet on the floor. His smile is big. He comes up and begins the conversation. He lives with his son who is 32 years old in the ghetto. He’s a believer, but had a pain in his chest which led to a shortness of breath and a discouraged view on his health.
Let the kingdom come.
We laid our hands on him and I began praying for him. It’s been 11 months of going around the world, praying for people, loving on people, believing the impossible for people. And here we were again, asking God to show up like He has over and over again. Every time we get to experience God’s kingdom on the earth, it’s none like any other moment. Praying, I trusted that God would do a miracle. I believed, had faith, that the Spirit would expand his lungs at that moment. In that moment, I believed that he would begin to breathe like never before. For 11 months I’ve been traveling to countries, meeting countless people, seeing countless wonders, and it’s all led to this moment in time where he and I would meet each other. Coincidence? Of course not. And what do you know: God showed up. He began breathing heavily, deeply, in ways he hasn’t in years. He was teary-eyed. His lungs were expanded. He could breath. There was no shortness of breath, but deep breaths of life. He was healed.
We got to encouraged him, speak life over him, and said our goodbye.
Neville was his name. And he was healed by Christ.
What a sweet way to start the day.
On to the next individual.
Bryan and I ran into a drug deal. Yep. Weed being sold. Perfect place to give the Gospel.
We walked up to the three men standing there. One had a bag of weed. The other two looked at us with a bit of curiosity protruding from their eyes. We asked them what they were doing. It was bluntly obvious. We asked them how they got into this way of living. One, with his Los Angeles cap, said his mom left him when he was little. His father was a drunk who would come and go, leaving him and his siblings to defend for themselves. 26 years old, wanting desperately for his environment to be his product, but becoming a product of his own environment. We began to talk to him about his lifestyle; saturated by broken promises, filled with ideas of cars, clothes, and cash, which ultimately lay waste not only his, but countless of others, from South Africa to the US to the Philippines. Worldliness: no matter how far you go, how impoverish you can get, worldliness creeps into all circumstances and situations like second hand smoke into the lungs of one who’s never smoked. After a good conversation about life and Christ, the drug deal was complete and they had to leave.
The day was far from over. Bryan and I met up with Noah and we continued our walk around the block. We went into a playground. Kids climbing monkey-bars, going down slides, swinging on swings, and teens surrounded the area, smoking weed. We found three older teens sitting on a park bench together. Blunts in hand, they were hanging out. We walked up to them. Overseas kids are always stoked when a tall, white guy, a skateboarder with long hair, and a big dude with an even bigger beard walks up to them and wants to hangout. They were stoked. We blasted some Christian hip-hop and they loved it. For a good hour, we just hung out on the park bench and listened to hip-hop artists rapping about how great our God is. They loved it. To them, the Church and the Christian were nothing like them; a far away inconsistency like an abstract thought or idea to an ant. But for once in their lives, this concept of God, Jesus, the Church, connected with them through the sounds of hip-hop.
We shared the Gospel, told them what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and what it meant to “rep” God. They loved it. This spark, this flame, it was contagious. They were consumed. I run into them all the time around the projects and surrounding neighborhoods. It’s really sweet. Discipleship, watching an individual fall in love with Christ, there’s something about it. It’s like seeing a little kid stand up for the first time, balancing him, taking their first steps… I love helping others pursue God in their entirety. The beauty of watching the Spirit regenerate a heart, bring the mouth to confess Christ, and begin the sanctification process that will last a lifetime of fellowship with Christ until glorification, is just so magnificent.
Its eternity not only penetrating, but completely changing the atmosphere of the temporary to bring the kingdom.
It was 5:00pm. They needed to go to the community center to start their soccer practice. We said goodbye. Did our hand-shake. And they were off. We walked back the community hall where the after-school programs takes place. We had only walked a block. So much had happened in just one block. There’s so many opportunities to share the love of God. All it really takes is for you to walk down the road. What’re you waiting for?
Let the kingdom come.
