South African Dispatch, Pt. 4

After 34 hours and 16 minutes in transit, I made it all the way from Khayelitsha to LA. Adam and Jenn Harris (that’s still a little weird to me) are happily married, and I’m back in Nashville for a few weeks, designing websites, recovering from being a bit sick, and reflecting on my time in South Africa. But before I share with you my impressions from the experience as a whole, I want to tell you about my last week there – it was probably the best yet.

We were joined by a team of seven from Toronto, and while I was only with them for six days, I was greatly blessed and encouraged by them as we prayed, worked, and ministered together. As usual, the team experienced a whole array of activities – playing on the kids at the preschool; praying and dreaming about the future of the retreat center; picnicking at the beautiful vineyard just 5 minutes drive from Khayelitsha’s shacks; digging through rock and debris to level the field for a netball court in the Harare district. The last was especially fun, because a bunch of kids from the community came out to join us, and soon none of us were left holding shovels as they joyfully attacked the job.

What the Toronto team got to do that was unique was to go into the high schools. For the first four weeks that I was in Khayelitsha, the schools were closed for winter holidays, but now they were beginning again. Angie, one of the girls from Toronto, had lived in South Africa for 9 months and had done some work in the high schools, and the team wanted to focus their efforts here. The first day, we were turned away from one school but allowed into the second to visit the Christian club. There we got to worship with them and encourage them from the Word and personal testimony.

The second day was even better. We arrived at another school, not really knowing what to expect but hoping to visit a couple classrooms. The principal welcomed us in and told us about the school. Then he invited us to speak in 7 classrooms at once (yes, 7). By God’s providence we had fourteen people, just enough to send two to each classroom. Angie and I were whisked off to a classroom full of tenth graders where we spoke about identity. To start, we asked them to finish the sentence “I am . . .” with something besides their name. The ice was quickly broken as one boy exclaimed “I am beautiful!” As Angie and I shared from our own stories and from the Bible, some kids nodded along while others cracked jokes. Afterward, one of the boys had some really good questions about the nature of prayer and transformation. Each pair had a different experience – one girl, after speaking to a rowdy bunch of eighth graders, was suddenly met with a piercing question: “Is God punishing South Africa with AIDS?” One of the guys, speaking to another wild eighth grade class, had a boy who decided to accept Christ. This is an incredible open door in Khayelitsha – what we did would never have been allowed in the States.

That weekend, we took 45 Christian student leaders from 10 of Khayelitsha’s 19 high schools on a retreat to teach on leadership. On Friday night there was a talk on God’s purposes, and on Saturday there were talks on leadership qualities and spiritual gifts. But even more than teaching, it was so good to bring all the kids together for fellowship and worship. Every service, the meeting room would be shaken by the chords of African song. Different students took turns leading different songs – they even let us teach them some songs in English. At night in the bunk room, the guys began to share their testimonies with each other, and afterward we all prayed together, praising and thanking God for bringing us all together.

I feel like I’m continually trying to learn how to let God be strong in my weakness, advancing just inches at a time only to thrown back a foot as I turn to my own devices. At the retreat, God gave me another lesson. By Saturday afternoon I was totally beat, exhausted from little sleep and trying to lead discussion across a language barrier, and as I entered lunch I was praying for God to somehow work through me. Then right as lunch ended, another counselor asked me to take lunch to a boy who hadn’t come because he’d been hurt by comments made by some other boys. Back at the cabin, I found two hurting boys instead of one – one struggling with his identity as a Christian despite continued tendency to sin, the other carrying deep wounds from growing up without a father – or rather from having a father who avoided him and wanted nothing to do with him. I had just shared in my testimony the night before about learning what it means to be God’s son, and God let me use this to encourage them with his promises – that they are God’s sons, and God is the perfect Father who will never fail them. I was so amazed how God had answered my prayer!

This was the story of the weekend – God working in weakness. Through failed (and successful) games, changed plans, language barriers, injuries, exhaustion – God worked. I watched him break the hearts of my team as they poured prayers for the kids. I listened to the kids share testimony of how God had worked in them in just the two brief days of the retreat. The kids have such a fire for a God, but also such a need for mentoring and encouragement – the work is still just beginning.

After the retreat, my time in Khayelitsha quickly came to a close. I had a couple days to get my things in order and say my goodbyes, and then the five weeks in South Africa were gone in the blink of an eye.

In the interest of space (and having a few more days to reflect), I’ll send out my final reflections in another e-mail a bit later. But I want to urge you to pray for the high schools in South Africa – pray that students would really know God, pray that God will provide mentors and leaders for them, and pray that God will heal the old wounds and give them hope for the future.

For the Kingdom!
David