A big part of the ministry that we did in South Africa was to walk the streets of Ocean View and have conversations with people as the Holy Spirit led us. Ocean View is a rough neighborhood where blacks and coloreds were move to during apartheid and Simons Town was declared all white. There are a lot of broken homes, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, poverty, fatherlessness, and other things that come with the territory of this kind of neighborhood. This made for some very interesting conversations as we walked the streets each morning.
Street ministry is not something I do or am very comfortable with. But as we moved through the month, I became more and more comfortable with it and I think it was all leading up to one moment. One evening towards the end of the month did some street witnessing at a time when the drug dealers and alcoholics were sure to be out.
As a team we spent time in prayer for the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prompted one of us that we should go talk with a group of Rastafarians that hang out a small run down park. We all agreed on this and began heading over.
They were several beers deep into the evening and most of them were well intoxicated as another forty was being cracked open. I was nervous as we walked up to the guys, not sure what was going to happen. If these guys were anything like what I know to be true back home of guys like these from rough areas, then you don’t mess with them. You cannot just walk up and start chatting with them. You run the risk of getting beat up and robbed if you are caught on their territory. So I hung back at first, just observed and prayed over our time with the Rastas.
I began to see that nothing bad was happening, the Rastas were smiling and carrying on conversations with my teammates. So I joined one of the conversations that one of my teammate was having and gave it a shot. I ended up having a long and wonderful conversation with a man named Ian as he held a bottle of beer in one hand and bottle of whiskey in the other. He was very open about his life and beliefs. We were able to connect with and challenge him in the faith that he claimed to hold. I went from feeling fear to feeling join.
A lot happened that evening, much more than just a few conversations with a group of Rastafarians. For one, these guys are the drug dealers Ocean View and the evening is a time of business for them, but during the hour and a half that we were there the drug dealing stopped. The guys turned away business in order to continue our conversations. We made a connection with them that turned into a scheduled soccer game with them the following weekend. During a simple game of soccer God worked more than we could have imaged. Once again the drug dealing stopped as we hung out with the Rastas. The leader of the Rastas even sent people out to get the others from where they were selling to come join the game. And at the end of the game the leader came up to our host and told him that if a group of Americas could come all the way across the world to spend time with kids of their community, then they could be doing more good for their own community as well. Praise God for such a change of heart!
God was at work in my heart during this time as well. Despite my fears around starting a conversation with the Rastas I saw the confidence that our host had in the God. I knew that he would not take us into a hostile environment and that he would follow the Holy Spirit. I had trust in him. As it turned out all my fears were very warranted. Those guys are just as tough as I thought they were. Everyone in Ocean View knows not to cross them; they run the town.
That moment taught me a very valuable lesson. I was afraid, but I trusted my host who trust the Holy Spirit as he walked into a dangerous place. That Holy Spirit that he trusted is the same Holy Spirit that lives in me. My faith needs to in the Holy Spirit. I have nothing to of this world to fear.
Here and at other points on this adventure around the world I have seen people who are truly been led by the Spirit. Through them I have been learning what it looks like to not walk in fear, but in the confidence of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:5-11.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
I need to be free of the flesh that holds me back. I need to stop thinking so much in terms of the flesh. “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” And not a boring life or a stressful life or a life full of fear, but a life full of the peace of God. I have for too long based what I do on things of this world, on fleshly concerns and not on what God is telling me. My mind has become so polluted over the years with fleshly, worldly concerns that I cannot hear or recognize the Spirit. It will take some time to clean out all the crap of the flesh, but I am ready and willing. I have the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the daed inside of me, why do I fear?
