Jeffrey's Bay: Part 1

I suppose I'll try to catch up since my last post. So much has happened since we left Muizenberg and went to Jeffrey's Bay for the second half of our outreach.

We first took a 12 hour bus journey from Cape Town to Jeffrey's Bay on February 16th. It was a beautiful way to see the Garden Route and spend some quality time together as a team. Especially since we were stuck hanging out with each other :) We rode on Intercape Coach Services and they even served complimentary tea and coffee throughout the journey. I think it might have been nicer than our flight from England.
This is Ernest, thoroughly enjoying his coffee while looking out the front of the coach, on the second level.
One of the stops during our journey was Mossel Bay, where the other half of our team was doing outreach. As we pulled up to the station, we commented that we ought to call the team, and in disbelief, we watched the team run out from the side and surprise us with a much needed visit. We got to catch up with them for about 20 minutes. It was an amazing surprise, especially since during the trip, I had asked God to surprise me that day. I thought it might be to see some cool animals, but of course, He completely exceeded my expectations.

We rented a house in J-Bay, away from the YWAM base so we could have some space and private time with the team, especially during debrief week.
Here's the base, which sits right on the edge of the township, so there are always kids hanging out with the students and staff.

We spent the first week doing things at the base. We attended base worship, where we were welcomed with African dancing and singing. It was quite the experience! And a 'baie warm' welcome. We worked at cleaning up on the base, leading youth groups in the evenings, base intercession, and getting orientated to the township and Jeffrey's Bay.

Our last full week of ministry in Muizenberg

This is the song that we danced to both at church and at the Pollsmoor Prison yesterday. It's by Jennifer Knapp, called Refine Me.

I come into this place burning to receive your peace
I come with my own chains
From wars I've fought for my own selfish gain
You're my God and my father
I've accepted your son
But my soul feels so empty now
What have I become?
Lord come with your fires,burn my desires refine me
Lord, my will has deceived me
Please come and free me
Refine me, refine me
My heart can't see
When I only look at me
My soul can't hear
When I only think of my own fears
They are gone in a moment
You're forever the same
Why did I look away from You
How can I speak Your name?
Lord, come with Your fire, burn my desires, refine me
Lord, My will has deceived me
Please come and free me
Come rescue this child
For I long to be reconciled to you
Refine me... All I can do
Is lift my heart and soul to You
And pray, oh I will pray...






































Giving my testimony during our first Sunday service. It was the first time that I'd really used an interpreter to give a message and it was such the experience stopping after each sentence and letting it be translated into Xhosa.












The church building with quite a few children where we hold Sunday services and youth group each week. It's currently just a building that's rented out in the community to different organizations and groups. In the future, the church will be building in the Delft township, so they'll have their own building and center for people in the community. It'll include a preschool as well as a recreation area for the children in the community.

This week has been a crazy one in terms of ministry. We started out the week at the Beautiful Gate Orphanage doing practical work on the grounds, such as weeding, picking up rubbish, and some general cleaning. Pastor Gabriel was due to pick us up around 1:30, and we'd go to the township of Burundi for door to door ministry, but in true African fashion, didn't because he showed up 2 hours late and by that point it was just easier to go back to the base.

So on Tuesday, the plan was to go to Beautiful Gate again, but this time we'd take the train there because Gabriel had a prior commitment. The trip should have taken 30 min by car, but when going by train and taxi, it took 2 hours. We left the base at 9 am and arrived in time for coffee with the DTS students at 11 am. Needless to say, it was a great time getting to know the students and some of the staff. Then we continued on with working in the garden and weeding. Once again, Gabriel was to pick us up and we were to go the juvenile prison, Horizon Youth Centre, but instead we got cancelled on because plans weren't confirmed for the prison. We decided to take the train and taxi back to Muizenberg (another 2 hours of travel), with some evangelism at the train station in Wynberg.

On Wednesday, we had intercession at 7:30 am, got all the sound equipment loaded, and headed off to the adult prison, Pollsmoor for a program for the prisoners. We thought that we'd be in section Medium A, like last week, but instead we visited B-5, which is for juvenile prisoners, age 14-18. It was a pretty rough area, but we did our dance and just shared our hearts with them. We were able to pray for the boys, which was great. In the afternoon, we did the Capricorn Children's Club, playing games with the kids, sharing songs and a story, and then handing out a meal.

Today we went back to Pollsmoor to work with the young men that we had seen last week. It was great seeing them again, but because there were fewer guards, we had to have the program inside the corridor between the cells. It made it harder to move and around and minister to the guys and it meant that they had less freedom. We did a drama on the potter and clay and I spoke about the heart that God has for them as their Father. I just got so struck last night with God's heart for them. That He wants to give them each new names. That even though the world might call them thieves, criminals, murderers, good for nothings, or hopeless, God calls them sons, warriors, mighty men, Beloved. It was so important to communicate to them that He is for them and that even though they haven't had very good examples of fathers, God is the ultimate Father. The one who they can trust, who loves them above all, who wants the best, who will discipline them, but always in love and in truth. It was such a neat time and we were able to pray for a number of the young men. Then this afternoon, we went to the Horizon Youth Centre to put on a program and hang out. There's so much less hope for the future there and you can tell that there's not a ministry on the campus to share the love of God with them. I'm in hope that someday there will be regular staff there to disciple the boys and encourage them in Christianity, but for now we're just praying for a revival in that place like the one in Pollsmoor.

Tomorrow we're looking forward to the Beautiful Gate, door to door, and our last youth group. It's so exciting to see what God is doing. He is great and mighty indeed!

We also visited a gorgeous vineyeard, called Groot Constantia. It was our last meal together with our pastor, Gabriel, his wife Deborah, Mwamba, and Alido. We had so much fun and a really fantastic meal as well!