Unsung Hero: A grassroots person or organization who is doing God’s work but have yet to be discovered by us.
Kon Srey: A group of 6 women seeking out Unsung Heroes in Port Elizabeth and Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa in hopes of forming partnerships for future teams to serve with.
You have to be flexible. Just let your pans disintegrate. Day one, after a 14 hour bus ride from Durban to Port Elizabeth, we made it to our home at the YWAM base at 9am where we were greeted by Bernard. He helped carry our bags inside and we got settled. A few hours later we went to the grocery store because we are cooking for ourselves this month. We had planned today to be a rest day.
As Marge and I walk down the cereal aisle we hear a man promoting this Nutri Cereal stuff. I am about to pass him when he tries to talk to us and Marge stops. He tells us about it and we try the samples as we go deeper into conversation. We learn that his name is Richard (Ry-card), something we can’t quite pronounce, and that he is a Christian. We tell him what we are doing and he invites us to his church’s first coffee shop worship night that night. Rest is not in the cards today.
We finish our shopping and head back to YWAM. That night I was still suffering from sinus problems but decided to go anyway. Marge, Catherine, and Bernard came too.
It was a night to remember.
The church is called Word of Faith. Musicians played original music. I bought a lion painting from an artist whom I had the privilage to talk with. His name was Gershwin and I could just see the Holy Spirit in him. We met a woman named Lauren who had set the whole event up. She was so nice and genuine. There were many others too.
Through these people we learned about other ministries a
nd got connected with them. One was through a woman named Karen. Her uncle and aunt work with different ministries and took us to see the townships.
Township: A slum where non-white people were evicted to when Apartheid happened. Non-whites are put into 3 categories; blacks, coloureds and Indians.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Township_(South_Africa)
We wet to Motherwell Township to meet a pastor who has been out of work for 15 years. The unemployment rate in the township is 85%. It is expensive to travel to the city for work nd there aren’t many jobs around the townships.
Another contact we made was Love Story. They are only 2 years old but run like they have been around for 20. They feed the homeless, employ the jobless, give food to in crisis families and much more. But what I see them do the most is love. All of this would be worth nothing if they didn’t love. They are spirit-lead and never say no. They are thriving.
http://www.lovestory.org.za/about-love-story.php
We met with a lot of other organizations in Port Elizabeth but we had to move on to Jeffrey’s Bay.
Peter, the one who took us to the townships, drove us the hour to J-Bay. We stayed at the Leadership Experience house that a few of our Swazi friends trained at. We have been meeting with awesome ministries here including Joshua Project and churches. There will be some adventures over the next few days as Christmas is here. Surfing, maybe some adventure zip-lining. J-Bay is a surfing capitol of the world after all.
Much love,
Saraya
