This weekend, the Justice Acts team was invited to the Healing Faith Community Church in Ocean View to present Traffick Proof. We presented the material to a classroom sized room and the response was amazing. They were stunned by the statistics of human traffick occurrences in South Africa and they greatly appreciated the information about how to recognise it, how to help prevent it by spreading the word, and how to report any suspicious activity.
It was a great opportunity to get to know the community a little better. There were a few people who came to speak with us afterwards to share some concerns, and also personal traumatic stories. We were touched by their honesty and vulnerability. They spoke openly about how their community has been destroyed by drugs and they do not want the same thing to happen with trafficking. It was such a honour to spend time with them.
We really hope that this will lead to other opportunities to present our material in Ocean View.
Traffick Proof was designed by Tonya Stanfield, founder of Justice Acts, as a tool to educate the most at-risk individuals in South Africa about the dangers of being trafficked. You can read more about our organisation's work at the following website: www.justiceacts.org
Monday, September 28, 2009
Noteworthy stories from Ocean View
Monday: was Ocean View's biggest drug dealer. The All Nations team had been visiting him for a few years, and though he always welcomed us in his home and engaged in bible discussions, there was never any change in his lifestyle. Then, out of the blue, he came to the All Nations base looking for the people who had built the closest relationships with him. He had made a decision to stop dealing drugs and to change his whole life. To show the seriousness of his actions, he shaved his head and sold his car. He made a decision to get baptised and both he and his wife did so at the All Nations base in June this year. He is trying to support his family (wife and two small children) by starting a business selling meat. He leads small groups at his home on Sundays and we are so encouraged by his family. They are seeking God in everything they do.
Arli: was one of Monday's customers. His entire family were drug users but he made the decision to give it up. He has boldly preached the gospel in Ocean View, and welcomes people to come and study the bible with him. He has been such an awesome spokesman for God. Earlier in the year, he suffered a stroke and lost his speech as well as the functions of his entire left side. We prayed that he would recover completely especially since he used his voice to tell people about what the Lord has done for him. He has made a marvellous recovery, through the grace of God, and his speech is improving. He is still receiving therapy for this. Individuals at All Nations have been helping him where they can – driving him to the hospital for his therapy appointments, and helping to rebuild his home which was destroyed in a fire last year.
Monday and Arli encourage and support one another weekly by meeting and praying, and studying the bible together. This is such a sweet redemption story about the goodness and graciousness of God, and how He can achieve so much more than human effort ever could.
Friday, September 18, 2009
news article on trafficking in South Africa
Here is an article which appeared in the Herald Online, an online newspaper from the Eastern Cape in South Africa, which highlights Port Elizabeth as a "top destination for cross-border trafficking of women into the South African sex industry". Read more here:
Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor
Yesterday afternoon, the Justice Acts team decided to hang out on the streets (locally), hoping to find some prostitutes that to hang out with, chat to, get to know their story etc. We met together to pray beforehand, and asked God for favour in meeting them, since many of us on the team had never done this kind of thing before.
We arrived on the streets and passed one of the petrol stations and began speaking to one of the attendants there. He asked what we were doing, and eventually the conversation turned to the topic of the ladies in the area. He said he didn't know much, but had noticed some women who appear on the streets at night, who speak to men who drive by. He couldn't say for sure what exactly was going on.
(We realised that hanging out in the late afternoon was the wrong time of day in this area. This area demands night time investigation. You live and learn!)
A few steps on, we met a gentleman and lady who knew one of the girls in our team. During conversation, we casually asked about the local night scene. They told us about the girls who worked at night, and who stood just below their apartment. The woman said she knew them well because she would often feed them. At her suggestion, she is prepared to invite them round for coffee, and invite us round so we can get to meet them.
How awesome is that?? We were flabbergasted at God's favour. We are really looking forward to the possibility of meeting them, talking to them, getting to know their stories and just offering them the love of Jesus. We prayed and thanked God for these connections, and bringing them so early on. We are encouraged by the possibilities.... so keep watching this space.
"Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor" Proverbs 22:9
We arrived on the streets and passed one of the petrol stations and began speaking to one of the attendants there. He asked what we were doing, and eventually the conversation turned to the topic of the ladies in the area. He said he didn't know much, but had noticed some women who appear on the streets at night, who speak to men who drive by. He couldn't say for sure what exactly was going on.
(We realised that hanging out in the late afternoon was the wrong time of day in this area. This area demands night time investigation. You live and learn!)
A few steps on, we met a gentleman and lady who knew one of the girls in our team. During conversation, we casually asked about the local night scene. They told us about the girls who worked at night, and who stood just below their apartment. The woman said she knew them well because she would often feed them. At her suggestion, she is prepared to invite them round for coffee, and invite us round so we can get to meet them.
How awesome is that?? We were flabbergasted at God's favour. We are really looking forward to the possibility of meeting them, talking to them, getting to know their stories and just offering them the love of Jesus. We prayed and thanked God for these connections, and bringing them so early on. We are encouraged by the possibilities.... so keep watching this space.
"Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor" Proverbs 22:9
Monday, September 07, 2009
Outreach in Buffelsrivier and Naries
Our team left Cape Town and arrived in Naries on the 4th May 2009 to embark on our rather unique outreach. I say unique (and I’m sure every single mission is) because ours had something of a dual purpose: we were entering the marketplace and spreading the gospel there, as well as spending time in a poor community and spreading the gospel there. Obviously these two domains demanded very different styles of mission work and here are our stories...
Our Marketplace Mission
My team members were me, Emmanuel, Lazarus (Daddy), Nicki, Matthews and Lelanie. A very small team, but with a very good dynamic; there were 4 guys and 2 girls, we were all single and our ages ranged between 27 and 32.
Our marketplace mission took us right into the hospitality industry. We worked (and lived) at a guesthouse called Naries, in the heart of the Namaqualand in the Northern Cape. Our living quarters were not in the actual guesthouse but in a sort of warehouse converted into bedrooms, with a make shift kitchen. There was a lot of space and so it was a very cold place to live during the wintry evenings and mornings, but we were grateful for hot running water and appliances to cook food with/on.
The idea was to work alongside the staff, build relationships with them on an individual basis and proclaim the gospel, “using words, if necessary”.
For the girls, this meant starting in the kitchen at 8:00 a.m. every weekday to wash dishes. We then proceeded to clean the guest rooms, change the bedding, dust, sweep and mop the living areas and anything else that was required of us. We did this every weekday until about noon. Sometimes we were asked to work in the evenings until 10:00 p.m., especially when the guesthouse had more guests than they were expecting, or a shortage of staff.
For the guys, this meant working outside on the property. This included everything from garden maintenance to fixing roads and roofs; from picking litter up to finding and fixing faults in the electric lines. (It was a BIG property so finding those lines could take hours).
We learned very early on that our hard work and good attitudes would carry the weight of our gospel message. The staff were half expecting us to either bible bash them or preach at them, or slack off in our work and be more of a burden than anything else. So they were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at work on time, every day, and dutifully performed our duties.
We so badly wanted to connect on a personal and one-to-one level with the staff members and we knew that building these relationships would take time and effort. So every opportunity with a mop in our hands, or a rake, would be used to engage in conversation and be as authentic as we could. In the beginning, the process was slow and (seemingly) without success but by the end they were opening up to us and allowing us to speak into their lives. It was amazing.
As a team, we would get together to pray and worship in the evenings and we always extended an invitation to the staff members to join us. Sometimes they even joined us at the end of their shifts at 10:00 p.m.! One of the staff members even accompanied us to a prison in Springbok, where he gave a testimony to the inmates of what God was doing in his life – this was his first public speaking experience, because he had grown up with a stutter. We were overjoyed.
There were also some ladies on the staff team who asked us to pray with them and confided in us about various personal struggles. It was so good to support them in prayer and encourage them with God’s word.
And so, at the end of two months of hard work, with no pay, and intentionally pursuing authentic relationships with the staff members, we were exhausted – in a good way. God was faithful.
The testimony that they gave afterwards was that they saw God at work in us, and that it was possible to be a God-loving, God-fearing individual who was still "normal". That was very encouraging.
Our Community Mission
Our community mission took us into the village of Buffelsrivier. It is about 20 km (12.5 miles) away from Naries and is inhabited by Coloured, Afrikaans-speaking locals. (The term “Coloured” is not an offensive/derogatory term: it is one of the official races in South Africa).
The village seemed like a sparsely populated area because the houses were are far apart from each other but apparently the population is about 3000. It’s very rural, many homes with outside toilets and even outside brick ovens. Some houses were made of corrugated iron and those made from brick were very simple. There were a few, big, brightly painted homes which were well taken care of.
The biggest giants facing this community are joblessness, lack of education, severe alcoholism, family violence and apathy. With this in mind, we faced an equally big challenge: how to present the gospel in an authentic and relevant way to a community over-evangelised and exhausted with churches, and struggling with poverty. The first lady we met, on our very first day in that community described the village as “sif-gepreek” (Afrikaans for ‘we’ve had enough preaching already’). Even with all the teaching/preaching from churches and evangelists and missionaries, the community was still problem ridden, poverty stricken and without hope that the Church could do anything to help them.
There are a minimum of about seven churches in this area, with attendance as low as 3 members in some of them. So, we asked ourselves how we were going to represent Jesus in a way that was refreshing and different and welcoming and full of power. And also how NOT to perpetuate religiosity and ‘condemnation preaching’ which kept so many of the locals out of church.
Two months wasn't nearly long enough to address all these issues. BUT we were determined to spend time with the locals, get to know them, and their individual struggles; to encourage them, teach them what we know about Jesus, love and support them, and even dare to dream with them about opportunities in the future.
We had such an amazing time in one particular house-hold, one afternoon. Ouma Booys, who has so little, invited the whole team round for soup and home made bread. Eventually, the whole neighbourhood gathered round to see us, and we took that opportunity to sing with them and tell them about God. There were so many people, some even sat outside on the dirt to listen. And the best part was that even the drunks gathered with us. My team mate, Emmanual, spoke and said how much God loves community and how much He loved what was going on at that moment: Buffelsrivier coming together, behaving like one extended family, caring for one another, feeding each other, singing praise to God....
That was the highlight of our time there. We left Ouma Booys with a shopping voucher so that she could buy some groceries as she needed them, from the local grocer. It was a sweet day.
How Naries and Buffelsrivier fit together
Most of the staff members at Naries are locals from the Namaqualand area. The owners of Naries, Danny and Garitha, were also on our CPx team and they completed the lecture phase with us in Cape Town. (However, they weren’t able to be with us during the outreach phase). Their passion is to see sustainable solutions for poor communities. And they are prepared to use their business to see this passion through. They have employed people from Buffelsrivier, people who have struggled with alcoholism, people who had no hope of further education or employment, and they have given opportunities for further training, opportunities to earn a salary, opportunities to provide for their families and give them hope about the future. They are passionate about marketplace mission: providing for the poor, not through hand outs but through sustainable employment and training; preaching the gospel, not through words alone, but through relationship, care, love and accountability.
We wait to see what the next chapter in Naries and Buffelsrivier will be...
Praise Reports and Prayer Requests
God’s guidance and leading has been truly amazing over the past few months. Right from my move from England back to Johannesburg, and the lovely church that I called ‘home’ for a few months, to the shores of the west coast, with Floyd McClung and All Nations. God’s hand in my life, the provision, and the doors He has opened for me to walk through, has been such a testimony of how He takes care of His children.
And now, as I enter a brand new phase of life, being a missionary full-time and serving the poor in Cape Town, I am holding my hands up to the Father again. Here is a list of all that God has already made possible, through the generous hearts and hands of others. And another list, detailing my current needs.
Praising God for
© My safety in April 2009 when I was mugged
© My CPx fees being covered in full (R34 500)
© A really lovely 3-bedroomed flat, and a flat owner who dropped the rent by R300 for us!
© Two godly roommates
© A gift of money which covered the flat’s deposit and first month's rent
Appealing to God for these Prayer Requests
§ A few sponsors/ supporters who will each commit to one of the following/ or part thereof:
§ R1500 (£125) per month for rent
§ R1500 (£125) per month for food, electricity, internet access
§ R1000 (£80) per month personal expenses (toiletries, contact lenses, etc)
§ A car (or the money to buy a car)
§ R1000 (£80) per month for insurance, fuel and other car expenses
§ House contents – we need everything from a plates and cups to a bed, fridge and washing machine OR the money to buy these items
If you feel you can help with any of the above, please add a comment at the bottom of the page with your email address and I will contact you (I will not make your details publicly available). And if you feel you can support me through prayer ministry, please also add a comment with your email address, so that I can add you to my prayer list.
Alternatively, if you already have my email address, you can contact me that way.
Many thanks and God bless!
Saturday, September 05, 2009
my journey towards human trafficking
"The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed." Isaiah 59: 15/16
In 2008, I watched a movie called “Taken” in which a man rescues his kidnapped daughter. I left the theatre with a heaviness that no other film had left me with before. People were being bought and sold (and many other atrocious things in between) against their will, in an industry controlled by those with immense power and no ounce of righteousness. The emotions that this film generated in me made me feel so uncomfortable, probably because I was aware that this issues was a reality. I was angry that people could be bought and sold as if mere commodities, for the pleasure of others. I was disgusted that people in high positions, with money, had the power to control ordinary people and administer such violence and cause such degradation. I was enraged that no one seemed able to or capable of stopping this and so I asked God what He was going to do to break down the ring of traffickers in the world.
The first part of the answer came to me a few weeks later in my church in Johannesburg. We watched a DVD clip of Gary Haugen, the president of International Justice Mission (an international agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery, and oppression worldwide). He showed a few clips from successful rescue missions that IJM had been part of in different countries. The clip on human trafficking really caught my attention. I loved what he had to say about injustice. He asked:
"What is God’s plan for justice in the world?
Us.
And there is no back-up plan."
And so, as I tried to wrap my mind around the ‘big solution’ to the ‘huge problem’, I became a little overwhelmed and started to question how individual people could make a difference and that I didn’t even know where to begin, let alone how or when. So I allowed the issue to move me, and I let it resonate in my heart. And then I left for Cape Town a few months later to do the six month church planting course with All Nations. After the completion of CPx, and while I was thinking through the possibility of joining All Nations full-time, I asked myself what I would be prepared to give my life up for. I revisited the whole issue of trafficking. I revisited the emotions that were stirred through the movie “Taken” and the solutions that Gary Haugen and IJM presented. Is this something that I would be prepared to give up my life for? To pour all my energy out into seeking justice and freedom for those who are stolen, held against their will, raped, beaten and much worse, for the sake of the callous and sadistic appetites of others?
The second part of the answer was presented in the weeks after CPx when various people were coming to talk to the students about their ministries in the area. An organisation called “Justice [ACTS]” caught my attention. They are a network of believers working in practical ways to combat human trafficking in South Africa, and they are actively involved in the more “at risk” communities in Cape Town, South Africa. They have made a fantastic start by developing a training kit for primary schools which educates the most at risk individuals and communities. Now they are working equally hard at the next phases in which they seek to investigate trafficking rings, rescue trafficked people, put them in a place of safety, rehabilitate them and restore them. It just made so much sense for me to be part of this because of everything that had touched my heart over the past months.
Justice [ACTs] now wants to meet the challenge that is presented with the coming World Cup in South Africa, in 2010. Apparently there is an increased demand for trafficked people at these events. There is a desperate need to mobilise people who can investigate what’s going on at ground level, record and document the information, be in communication with authorities and officials (who are not corrupt), rescue the trafficked individuals, place them in safety and do the follow-up work necessary to see them healthy and whole again. I am very interested in being part of this investigative team. There are times when I think the enormity of this problem is too much to overcome. And there are also times when I become overwhelmed about how God will provide for me while I devote myself to this task full-time.
I agree 100 % with Gary Haugen as he says that “hope is recovered when we realise that when God is passionate about getting it done, He is also responsible for getting it done.”
So when I think about my practical/physical needs as I prepare to do volunteer/ missionary work with All Nations and Justice [ACTs], I hold onto these verses:
"Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like flint, determined to do His will. And I know that I will not be put to shame. He who gives me justice is near." Isaiah 50: 7 – 8
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