Take Away

I've been home from South Africa for a week.  Wow!  Time flies and it really flew during the week I spent in Soweto, South Africa.  It hasn't slowed down at all this past week as I tried to process my trip, study and take a midterm, go to class, and work. 

I have started 3 other blog posts this week.  I've TRIED to process my trip to South Africa and put into words my experiences but it has proved very difficult.  Today while worshiping at Grace Baptist my thoughts started to gather.  I realized what I wanted to take away from my trip, what I wanted to share with everyone I meet is the people of Soweto.

Who are the people of Soweto?  Well I can only speak of the few people I met but they are incredible!  Before I share a little of who they are let me share a little about the place of Soweto.  Soweto was the black township that was set apart from Johannesburg during the Apartheid government.  Soweto's majority today are still blacks.  There are many townships within Soweto.  I visited Snake Park, Lehae, Dobsonville, Kliptown, and Lends (Lenasia) in Soweto.  Each are similar and yet different from one another.  Kliptown as more diverse and seemed very busy.  In Lends I saw the market area and it was busy and yet not as many stores were closed because the owners were either at the mosque praying or closed for lunch.  It was a interesting place.  We saw a pharmacy with many herbs and such that people use to get better.  It was very much like a traditional Chinese pharmacy to me.  Lehae had only government houses which are typically concrete rectangle boxes that have a few windows and 2 rooms.  However, the wall between the two rooms is not necessarily a full wall with a door, inside Diane's home (more on her later) the wall covered 2/3 or so of the house and then stopped to give a walkway between the two rooms.   Because it was only government homes it looked nicer than say Snake Park which was mostly shacks made of what material was found and a some homes.  Dobsonville was more like Lehae but I did some shacks throughout.

Most of what I saw in Snake Park

Lehae

Soweto is poverty but its not just physical poverty.  We saw houses with evidence of ancestor worship, we saw sangomas (witch doctors), and we know of many other religions that are practiced there including Islam.  There is a lot of spiritual poverty and spiritual warfare in Soweto.  My heart cries out for God to break down the walls keeping people from here.  I pray that the people there will hear and respond in repentance and faith to the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Who are the people I met in Soweto?  Diane, Robert, Lundi, Lillian, Felicia (all one family), Philani, Portia, Kenneth, Lebo, Timbani, Patricia, Mehluli and a few others.  They are beautiful and most are believers.  They work hard, pray hard, seek God, and share God.  They desire jobs, stress over finding food for their family, and love.  They are humans.  They share in life like I share in life.  Granted their lives are different than mine but in many ways they are the same. 

This morning I was overwhelmed with the spiritual warfare, the depressed view you could get of Soweto as you see shack after shack and hear person after person looking for a job to have money to feed their family.  Life is not easy in Soweto.  But as I considered the sangomas, the spiritual warfare, the physical needs of the people in Soweto, I saw a beautiful picture.  I saw hope.  God has raised up believers in Soweto.  There are people who live there that are singing praise to God, who have repented and put their faith in Jesus, and who are sharing God's love to their neighbors, friends, and acquaintances in Soweto.  There is hope in Soweto.  God is at work.  There is work to do, a LOT to pray for, but there is hope there as well.  Diane shared with me a desire she has for others to know Jesus but her concern that they will not hear because they are more concerned with finding food for their family.  Philani has taken over the soccer club ministry started by the journeyman missionary Zach. There is hope in Soweto as the nationals are reaching out to the people they live with. The missionaries are amazing and are sharing Jesus day in and day out.  So even though what pictures might show and what is the case for many of a hopeless life in poverty, the reality is that there is hope in Jesus Christ and he is raising up believers in Soweto that his name might be known.  Pray with me for these nationals and for Alan and Beth, Rachel, Lori, Stephanie, and Zach as they share the news of Jesus Christ.  Pray for hearts to be receptive.  Pray for people to let go of the hold they have on ancestor worship or on other false beliefs and for them to cling to Jesus Christ and the hope he gives.

Please pray for Soweto, South Africa.