For the past week, Team Favoured as well as two other teams have been living quite an amazing life. I’ve been living in a suburb of Cape Town, living right on the ocean. We have an ocean view and are a 7-minute walk to the beach. We are just minutes away from one of the most popular surfing beaches in the Cape Town area. We can see seal island from our beach which is where a bunch of Great White Sharks swim waiting for their dinner. On days like today, it’s absolutely stunningly beautiful. Sun shining, waves crashing, and God’s beauty all around. We are living at a camp/retreat center where we have warm showers, beds, and they cook delicious meals for us. This is quite the life.
Then you cross the fence. We are working with Camp Joy, which is right next to our camp. Camp Joy is a place where lives are changed. They are changed from murderer to forgiven one, from drug addict to lover of Jesus, and from alcoholic to drinker of the living water. The people that are at Camp Joy really do get joy. Camp Joy is a faith based restoration center for substance abuse and gang life. It’s very humbling hearing the stories of these people.
On our first day there, the girls had an opportunity to speak with the women who are at Camp Joy. One of them lost both her parents to prison when she was 3 weeks old. She grew up in foster care never hearing from her mother. To this day, no matter what efforts she makes, her mother still won’t speak to her. And her father is a drug dealer. She is 20 years old and has an 18 month old. She was at Camp Joy because she was a drug addict. At the age of 20 she has changed her life because she doesn’t want her baby to grow up the way she had to grow up. She had no choice in the decisions her parents made and how they affected her and now she has made a choice to give her baby a better life.
We’ve heard stories of murder, gang violence, drug addicts and more. I’ve had quite the life living in Muizenberg but you cross the fence and you realize that these people have lived a tough life. But they are being restored. They are choosing life over death. They are choosing Jesus.
A typical day at Camp Joy looks like this: We arrive at 9am when they have morning worship/devotions. 10am we attend drug/gang/alcohol rehab class with them. 11am-1pm- We hang out with them for free time then we seperate for lunch til 2pm. 2pm- We come back to Camp Joy to attend chapel with them and then from 3pm-4pm we hang out with them again for free time. Then we leave til 8pm where we come back for evening devotions.
The patients at Camp Joy are not only coming out of a difficult lifestyle but they are walking into the loving arms of Jesus and are accepting His love.
Our ministry this month is incredible and I realize that these people are ministering me to maybe even more than I’m ministering to them.
