After teams completed their lecture training, they were sent out into surrounding communities that had agreed to host a J-Life team for a few days. Our team of 10 people was sent to Berea, an area just outside of Jo’Burg rated in the top 5 cities for crime in the world. Out of the 9 locations J-Life partnered with this year, it was the only one with an inner-city focus. Most other teams were sent to townships similar to Extension 23, where I spent a week in June.
We partnered with Johannesburg Bethany Baptist Church where we ate our meals and based our daily ministry. The pastor of the church and his family graciously opened their home for us to spend the nights while we were there. The youth at the church jumped in with us whole-heartedly and we got to know Sunay, Muzi, and Caleb throughout our time there. This was very exciting as they are the ones who can carry on the ministry once we leave. The three and a half days we were there saw a variety of park evangelism, dance ministry, soccer games, and youth gatherings. It was stretching for many people, including myself, who were not accustomed to open air services and street evangelism requiring starting up conversations with strangers, intending to share the Gospel.
Monday and Tuesday evenings were both dedicated to running a short youth program where we invited people we met in the parks and on the streets. In keeping with the area’s reputation, we learned that a girl had been found murdered in the park right across the street from the church on Monday afternoon. It was in that very park that we went and extended an invitation to the groups of guys smoking weed in the shadows. Initial fear of talking to a shady “group” was replaced by recognition of human beings as many of them actually showed up to the church and participated in the discussions. We centered the nights around the theme of money, drugs, sex, and alcohol as these are predominant themes in the lives of kids from the time they are as young as 7 years old. We created a drama that portrayed life as a bus with each person the driver of his own: we showed the choice to invite money, drugs, sex, and alcohol onto our bus – pushing Jesus to the back – on the first night. The second night showed Jesus offering love, joy, peace, and self-control as replacements for those habits we may think we need. We showed the problem even when we try to push negative things out on our own strength and the problem refuses to leave and make room for positive things. We need to ask Jesus to be the one to take control and “drive our bus” and throw out the bad habits in order to invite the good ones in. Even after we have given Jesus control, it is still a daily choice as the temptations will never leave. It was a simple, but powerful skit that caused a lot guys to look at what they allowed in their own lives. Many of them opened up during a short discussion and shared how hard it is to get away from that stuff, or even that they didn’t know it was wrong to do things like having sex before marriage.
In just a few short days many people in our group connected with individuals in the community and some will even be able to continue cultivating those relationships. One of the hardest things I’ve faced this summer is never spending more than a few days with most of the people I meet. Unfortunately, there are times when I allow that to cause me to miss out on what could be a powerful relationship even for a short time. It was encouraging to watch others on my team leap those hurdles and build into the people they met, even knowing they may never see them again. It inspires me to take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people and to allow them to speak into my life.
Showing posts with label j-life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label j-life. Show all posts
Friday, July 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Feeding the Hungry
While in Extension 23 we met a dynamic young man named Bayanda. At 23 years old he is full of fire and energy for the Lord and puts that to use in many different ways. One of these is a program at a local school that provides a free lunch for many kids who cannot otherwise afford it. Oftentimes before the children are fed Bayanda will lead them in songs and give a short message. We had the opportunity to join them on Wednesday and Friday, where Adam was given the opportunity to share some of his testimony.
The days started early in the home of Mama Ashila, where we cut up vegetables and prepared enough food for about 200 kids. It was a scary moment on the first day when I realized I would be left at the house to help prepare the food while the guys left to attend to other business before returning to help bring the food to the school down the road. Of the four other women in the house with me, only one spoke English and I had just met her that morning as well. For the first time since arriving in Africa, I felt myself telling God I was anxious about where He had me. I realize it’s a strange thing to suddenly feel anxious about when there were many other things that could have made me nervous over the last two weeks, but I suddenly felt the stress of feeling alone and not knowing how to communicate. At the same time I was feeling incredible anxiety, I realized that a positive experience would only result from a positive attitude—so I resolved to expect the best. Unfortunately that didn’t solve my problems right away…
Imagine a movie scene with the white girl in an African kitchen, and no one speaking English. She tries to look around and see how the others are cutting these incredible hard vegetables, but her efforts result only in chunks of potato dropping onto the floor or flying out of control into the big pot of water on the other side of the table, splashing everyone in reach. That was me—I’d never felt clumsier in my life. However, the morning turned out to be one of my favorite times so far! I could do nothing except laugh at myself every time a potato flew across the room or I took 5 times longer to chop something up than anyone else. Eventually one of the women took my knife from me, and waving it in my face told me “I show you to cook African way!” She showed me the easiest way to cut up a rock hard sweet potato and how to cut the squash so that all the peel would come off. Instead of becoming frustrated with my ignorance these women took me under their wings and taught me something because they saw I was willing to learn. They gave me every opportunity to participate and encouraged me even when I knew I was holding things up. These are the kinds of people who empower you to excel – the ones who will lift you up and push you forward because they believe in you, even when you struggle. Because of them I overcame silly fears of not being able to communicate, cutting vegetables with a sharp knife in the palm of my hand, and even stirring a pot that spit boiling water at me. By the end of the morning they informed me that I was now ready to marry because I could cook in an African woman’s kitchen ☺.
Unfortunately, you can't teach everything
The awkward stages
The days started early in the home of Mama Ashila, where we cut up vegetables and prepared enough food for about 200 kids. It was a scary moment on the first day when I realized I would be left at the house to help prepare the food while the guys left to attend to other business before returning to help bring the food to the school down the road. Of the four other women in the house with me, only one spoke English and I had just met her that morning as well. For the first time since arriving in Africa, I felt myself telling God I was anxious about where He had me. I realize it’s a strange thing to suddenly feel anxious about when there were many other things that could have made me nervous over the last two weeks, but I suddenly felt the stress of feeling alone and not knowing how to communicate. At the same time I was feeling incredible anxiety, I realized that a positive experience would only result from a positive attitude—so I resolved to expect the best. Unfortunately that didn’t solve my problems right away…
Imagine a movie scene with the white girl in an African kitchen, and no one speaking English. She tries to look around and see how the others are cutting these incredible hard vegetables, but her efforts result only in chunks of potato dropping onto the floor or flying out of control into the big pot of water on the other side of the table, splashing everyone in reach. That was me—I’d never felt clumsier in my life. However, the morning turned out to be one of my favorite times so far! I could do nothing except laugh at myself every time a potato flew across the room or I took 5 times longer to chop something up than anyone else. Eventually one of the women took my knife from me, and waving it in my face told me “I show you to cook African way!” She showed me the easiest way to cut up a rock hard sweet potato and how to cut the squash so that all the peel would come off. Instead of becoming frustrated with my ignorance these women took me under their wings and taught me something because they saw I was willing to learn. They gave me every opportunity to participate and encouraged me even when I knew I was holding things up. These are the kinds of people who empower you to excel – the ones who will lift you up and push you forward because they believe in you, even when you struggle. Because of them I overcame silly fears of not being able to communicate, cutting vegetables with a sharp knife in the palm of my hand, and even stirring a pot that spit boiling water at me. By the end of the morning they informed me that I was now ready to marry because I could cook in an African woman’s kitchen ☺.
Unfortunately, you can't teach everything
The awkward stages
Gogo Emily
We spent 5 days last week working a township called Extension 23. These are villages of government houses 12 x 15 feet big. A 61-year-old lady named Emily lives in one of these houses – along with 15 children who would otherwise be homeless. What is advertised as a Daycare has turned into an orphanage with more children than she can fit (4 more children live down the street with another elderly woman). J-Life has a team of workers at a newly planted church in Extension 23 and has committed to partnering with Gogo Emily to construct another building on her property to help house the children she has taken in. The kids in her home range from 2 years of age to 13, and the older ones still attend school during the day, then return to help care for the younger ones.
On Sunday we saw an awesome example of a church BEING the church, as well as meeting for a service. ACTS Church in Vereeniging planted the church in Extension 23 and Sunday morning saw the two congregations come together in the township to clean up trash, finish some water piping at the base, and create a sidewalk of old pavers in front of Gogo Emily’s house. I was able to hang out with some of the kids afterwards and try to get to know them through my EXTREMELY limited Zulu and the English they are learning at school.
Over the rest of the summer, we plan to keep in contact with the team in Extension 23 and with Gogo Emily to keep up with the progress on the orphanage.
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