So it’s time for another update of what’s been going on for the past couple of weeks. We are currently living in Cape Town, South Africa and it is honestly one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to so far. I’m with my team working at a restoration center called Camp Joy.
What we do here is work with ex drug addicts and gangsters from around the area. They stay at camp joy for 6 weeks at a time to get away from their gang life and heavy drug use knowing that they will find better opportunities and learn more about Christ. We give them education programs and resources to get job training and also discover a relationship with Jesus. The philosophy of Camp Joy is that you can get rehabilitation here but spiritual development is what’s most important. If they think they should stay longer here, they can stay for as long as a year or two.
Every day we have a morning praise and worship/devotional led by one of us, after we work with the guys with a certain project that day. Sometimes it’s helping in the garden, other times it’s painting, or it can be working in the kitchen. On certain days there are speakers that give lessons and will have counseling sessions to help them with what’s happened in their lives.
We have a time of rest where we get to hang out with the guys and girls in the open area often playing cards or pool which helps us learn more about them and their pasts. Later in the day we have another devotion/praise and worship session.
Some days we will get to do feedings for the community. Just the other week we were in a rough area to pick a guy up to bring him to the camp, and while waiting i showed a kid a magic trick. 4 more kids came and asked me to show them, then 8 more kids showed up, then before you know it, there was a crowd of 20+ people watching me do magic tricks which then turned into a big game with all the kids where we all sang songs and danced.
Pastor has even taken us to a gang’s main head quarters to meet the gang leaders and members who are still currently selling drugs and killing people. The gang headquarters was just a house in a rough part of town, on the outside it looked run down but the inside had great interior i do say. We got to talk to them and ask them about their lives. I talked to one guy who had been stabbed over 7 times and shot. After talking to the guys at the head quarters, Pastor took us to meet some people from the most notorious gang in the western cape. They’re called the Mongrels (look them up) We talked to these guys and they were casually talking about how they have killed people and I had asked them about if their dad is in a rival gang, what do they do and one replied that he had already killed his father because of that. Two other guys said their dad’s are their enemies and they would shoot them if they saw them. This was mind blowing. Pastor could take us to the gangs because he works for a program called cease fire that if very involved with meeting with gang leaders and members to stop future conflict and to make gun violence go down.
Our ministry can vary on the day but one of my favorite parts of my day is listening to these guys stories.
When it comes to circumstances, the people here have had it tough. It’s amazing hearing their stories and how they came to this point in their lives.
Some grew up in gang life and joined them as early as 13 years old, killing people and selling drugs. There is a guy here who has killed people for money, there is a guy here who has injected heroin for 14 years. There’s a guy who had a successful modeling career but it fell apart because of drugs. There are people here who have been on meth for so long that their family fell into pieces and lost all trust with whom they loved. Some were in and out of rehabilitation centers for so long that they thought they’d never be clean. Others became thief’s because the addiction got so bad.
All these guys have been in a cycle of brokenness, all turning to things that are harmful in hopes to find something good. These guys were gangsters, drug addicts and thieves but when you talk to them, you don’t see that at all. When I’m talking to them I see that they want change and are becoming changed through Christ. They are not who they were in the past and won’t let this hold them back. They have been forgiven.
You can see so much humility in them that it’s astonishing to think they used to live these lives of addiction and hurt.
My friend that works here at the camp, used to be one of the top gang leaders in all of cape town. He was the one who made the call on if a person lived or not, he was notorious in jail, and sold countless amounts of drugs. He soon realized that this life he was living was empty. He was sick of the violence and wanted more so he came to camp joy and found the lord here. He now works here as one of the monitors and is also the camp gardener. He’s currently writing a book about his life right now and I can’t wait till it comes out.
Its crazy to think that God took a man who was responsible for many peoples death and put him in a position to where he makes things grow and have life. Oh the irony.
It’s amazing what Camp Joy is doing and the affect it has on the community. In an area with gang violence and drug abuse, Camp Joy helps bring change that has an eternal affect.
