Stories that Moved Us

Today was the most emotionally exhausting day of the trip.  If you've read my other posts, then you know that's saying quite a bit.  In the morning, we had a fascinating conversation with our driver, a man named Christopher who told us that God told him to feed the hungry children in Capricorn township.  So every school day, Christopher wakes up at 3 am and prepares food for several hundred children who would not otherwise get food before school.  He raises the money for all of this himself.

 

Then we went to SHADE, a ministry that helps men, women and children with various issues involving poverty, health and immigration.  The dedicated people who serve at SHADE admitted that they run on faith.  There is never a time when they do not need resources to further their work, but there has never been a time when God has not supplied what they needed.  It is humbling to be in the presence of faithful ones like those and not feel embarrassed for the little things we complain about all the time.

We had a quick lunch at the cafe in The Company's Gardens, and then we went to the District 6 Museum, dedicated to the memory of the thousands of blacks who were forcibly removed from their homes when the white apartheid government decided they wanted that land for white families.  The before and after pictures were heartbreaking.  What had once been a vibrant community was quickly reduced to rubble when the bulldozers moved in.  The interesting thing is that nothing was ever done with District 6.  It is still an empty field of grass and rubble, some 40 years later.  Our driver, Raymond, took us to meet a gentleman who was one of the few who decided to move back to a new house in District 6 after apartheid was abolished.  His name was Dan, and he told us how God sustained him through the difficulties he faced.  Nelson Mandela himself handed Dan the key to his new home.

We finished our day with a meal at Mama Africa - a place where you can find crocodile, ostrich, and kudo on the menu.  I, of course, had chicken.  My head is swimming with everything I saw and heard today.  I am trying to sort through what it all means.  But this I know, God is powerfully at work in Africa, through the lives of ordinary people who step out in extraordinary faith.