South Africa Reflections (#1)

After 35 hours of traveling with very little, incremental sleep, we finally arrived in Johannesburg. Driving out of Johannesburg into Pretoria, the highways and cities didn’t look too much different from the U.S. We learned that the highways were in such good condition because of the World Cup last year. Much of the city of Pretoria is well-developed with really nice malls, coffee shops and restaurants. It was not exactly what I was expecting to see, even though I was aware of the economic disparity in South Africa (lots of wealth, but very unevenly distributed). One of the craziest things was going to the church that Pure Hope is connected with, called Moreletapark. It is about the size of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, can hold thousands of people and is basically really beautiful. Right next to the church is about 800 families living in plastic shacks with no electricity, running water, etc. Some of them are international refugees from Zimbabwe and Lesotho, but most are South Africans. The government controls who comes out of this group of shacks and has been saying for years that they will do something to help these people, but they are still there. Pure Hope has built some better shacks for some of these people when there shacks burnt down, but the government support for helping these people is minimal. At the church, we listened to a service through headphones that translated from Afrikaans into English, although the music was in English. They did songs such as ‘God of the City’ and Hillsong songs. They also had a children’s choir of orphaned kids from Uganda called the Watoto choir. A church in Uganda started this choir as a way to care for all the children orphaned by AIDs, and now care for around 4000 orphans. Those kids can dance too. The sermon itself was incredible. It was a simple message, but very true and relevant to the congregation. He brought up how many orphans are in South Africa, along with the poor who live in shanty towns outside of the wealthy cities and how it is our duty and responsibility as the church to be the hands and feet of God that reach out to the distressed and give them hope. We all have the capability to do something, and it is God’s commission to us to use whatever we are given to help others and share the gospel through words and action.

Joe is now quoting Shakespeare quite seriously to us, so I’m going to go. We are leaving soon to spend the day in Mabopane with a ton of kids. Should be great!
 - Julie