Down the street and around the corner, behind the padlocked gates and barbed wire fence holding us in from the outside, are a sea of tin houses. Miles and miles of tin roofs, trash piles, and porta-poties. Crossing the street you risk crossing into a rival gang territory. Walking outside puts a target on your back.
Kids sit on the street corner, and gangsters use them to hold their drugs and weapons.
Kids carry sharp objects in their pockets to protect themselves from whoever may lurk behind the bushes.
Kids live in constant fear. A constant state of self defense. Walls always up high.
Over a hundred of these kids came pouring through the doors of our Holiday program every day this past week. Desperate for the love only Christ could give, the love they lacked at home. Pulling on your arms, playing with your hair. Our days were spent as crowd control, breaking up fights and confiscating homemade weapons. The noise level was always fifteen decibels higher than you wanted it, and energy radiated throughout the building.
These kids desperately want to change.
They don’t want to be forever trapped in the cycle of gangs and drugs. They want to be pilots, accountants, doctors, and teachers. They don’t want to live in fear. They dream about traveling to Rio, London, Paris, and Los Angeles.
In the eyes of the world these kids seem hopeless; unable to be helped, unable to change. They feel forever trapped in the rough life they were born into. Jesus loves these kids more than we can ever show them. Jesus is their way out. He is who will rescue them from all they’ve become enslaved to. He will break the chains of this community. He loves these kids in the same way he loves us, His children.
He is our Father, he is their Father, and we are all His kids.
Since I have already been in Cape Town, South Africa for a month I should probably let y’all know what’s going on. Team LL:PT has been living in a house with Team Popcollar and Team Selah. There are normally 18 of us living in a house that we have decided to name The Loveshack. This month is Girls Month, the boys are doing Manistry is Lesotho, so we are down to 9 in the house! The Loveshack is connected to our host family’s house, and they are the best. Ministry has consisted of preaching on the trains, going into the malls and praying for people, running kids programs in gang and drug infested areas, and putting on Christmas concerts. For the rest of January we will be working for an afterschool program, and creating more one-on-one relationships with the kids! Please keep us in your prayers for safety as we go about our days, and as we begin a new ministry we would love prayer that lasting friendships will be built. Please be praying for South Africa as well; the financial gap between the poor and the rich is at a record high resulting in increased violence and discontent.
Love,
Jill
