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Bernhard Schiele – Reflection

It was my second time going to 10 Days of Hope and in short it was an amazing experience, but more importantly it was deeply though provoking and thoroughly humbling. I don’t think it is possible to describe it using words. Something you learn rather quickly in theological studies is that language is much more limited that we would like. However, given my even more limited artistic skills, language is all I have to really bring this experience to those who could not take part in it themselves.

First off, what is 10 Days of Hope? It is an outreach by the MES organization in the centre of possibly the most dangerous ghettos of South Africa: Hillbrow. During these 10 Days the goal is to tend to the spark of hope that lives there. Initially I thought it was to bring hope, but during my time there I could see hope shining in every corner. Along with hope there is an incredible beauty in Hillbrow.

It is stunning how this beauty and hope can be found in a place that is rife with crime, poverty, drugs and suffering. After the outreach, we had lunch in Sandton (visiting a friend) and when we walked into the line of restaurants one of the reactions that sort of popped out of me was “Woah!”. Ruutendo humorously (yet still quite aptly) described us, coming from Hillbrow, as “conditioned for poverty”. During the outreach, Jeandre called the streets of Hillbrow “raw”. There is no hiding anything. If there is trash littering the field, then there is trash littering the field. If you are doing drugs, then you do it in broad daylight in the middle of the city.

On one of the soup outreaches, we went to a place called Newtown. Imagine you sit in a bus full of people. This bus turns the corner and drives into a yard, which looks about as much as a dump as it gets. It is under a bridge and the only thing illuminating the darkness is a sliver of light from the orange street lamps and a flood light in the distance. You arrive expecting to see homeless adults coming for the hot soup you are handing out.

Yet the first to arrive is a group of children on scooters. You wonder, but don’t think too much of it until a few minutes later you realize that the children live in this dump yard. Families live there. The next moment you realize there are streams of children coming from beyond view out of the darkness.

This experience was shocking to me. It is all too easy to forget that children suffer there as well. Still, when everyone was playing games with the kids, there was a joy there. A spark of hope. A community who still looks out for each other.

In Newtown, a child put down his soup and bread on the ground. None of the adults around took it away from him. Later that night at a different stop, two of the most miserable looking men I have ever seen came a bit late. All but a single piece of bread had been given away already. They each had a cup of soup and broke the bread to share it with each other. It is these kinds of things which reveal the sparks of hope all over Hillbrow.

I believe that the only power that is capable of still weaving beauty and hope into such wretched circumstances is God.

I thank God for the good experiences (despite their unpleasantness). I thank God that no one was hurt and we stayed safe. I thank God for the hope I was able to witness and I thank God for the wonderful fellowship I was allowed to be part of.

Finally, I would like to thank the Congregation for the donations you sent along. They were most gratefully received and I wish blessings upon all who gave and all who received. A further thank you to the congregation and church, without whom it would not have been financially possible to go. And last, but not least, I would like to thank Jeandre and Ruutendo for joining me on this adventurous journey.

Rutendo Gora – Reflection

It is not every day that you walk late into a room after a trip from Stellenbosch to Johannesburg and be greeted with roaring applause. Just imagine for a second – a group of about 50 teenagers and young adults welcoming you with smiles and curious eyes. I instantly felt seen. The beauty of 10 Days Hope for me lay in the people. Each day, we sang loudly for the food like our life depended on it, which it did! Each day felt like three days, not because it was boring but because it was wholesome. Each day was filled with activities that guided one’s focus on one’s neighbor. The first weekend, Saturday, had three training session, where we learned about what servanthood was. This session had many important lessons. The heart of a servant is humble, honored by God, willing and sacrificing, compassionate, willing to work with others, and serves as God directs. ‘’It is about filling in the gaps and not waiting for the podium.’ We learned about the components of contagious Christianity being fueled by love – being able to simply commit to loving someone and not attempting to change them, a Christianity that flows from authenticity committing to being genuine and one’s self and built on relationships to look at the next person and see God’s love and light. The next session was held on how to share the gospel, and if we had 8 seconds in an elevator to explain what the gospel is, it would be that ‘God loved us, we messed up, Christ paid the price, and we just need to receive.’ This was extremely helpful next to the little booklet we were equipped with when it came to embarking on open-air evangelism, which I will elaborate on later. The following session was about worship and how worship is about being in spirit and truth, where even when we don’t feel it it is about God and where worship helps us direct our emotions towards God. We rotated with three main activities throughout the week. The activities were Open Air, which was where a talented group of teenagers had a dance performance and an incredible musical skit depicting a parable, namely The Prodigal Son. Upon drawing a crowd, a message is spoken using a very creative art form where lines complete the incomplete drawing in a sequence and keep the crowd engaged. After the productions, people are asked if they would like to give their life to Christ and meet with one of us. It was incredible to meet with other Christians and Christians-to-be, and my favorite quote that made the experience humbling was, ‘Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.’ D.T Niles. This experience also made me connect to what the true gospel means for me, which made it easier to share, and it was wonderful listening to people’s stories. The second activity was the children’s ministry. The kid’s ministry was initially chaotic, trying to settle the energetic children into our rhythm, but they were quite respectful and adorable, and the aftercare program went relatively smoothly (considering their many bathroom breaks) . Learning tricks and songs to quieten or get them to sing was lovely. The other activity was soup outreach. Whatever I expected was quickly overcome by the dark reality of dark homes, no lights, and many, many children without warm clothes. It was scary seeing the many elderly who huddled on the dirty streets of Hillbrow grateful for a warm cup of soup and bread. It is hard to describe, but it was a horrific sight in Newtown and deeply heartbreaking that people could survive in such circumstances. My tears were uncontrollable, and the feeling of powerlessness was quite overwhelming. I couldn’t stop but recognize my privilege and fortune, and I also hated how so many are still born into such situations. All of them are my mothers, fathers, little sisters, and brothers in Christ, and that was really heartbreaking. Every fiber in my body shook, but seeing how no one took another’s soup or bread, their gratitude, and the joy in the children’s faces dancing and laughing together calmed me down and invited me to join in and play and be merry as more sadness would only leave poverty as the winner.

In the week’s guide, they wrote that, “What we will be busy with this week is not about you or about us. It is not about your personal or spiritual growth either.” This week redeemed me from looking at myself doing enough spirituality or ‘religion’, being enough but rather truly seeing the other who is with a needle in their arm, one who sleeps on cardboard every night sending money home, one who came from Congo, Zimbabwe, Malawi for greener pastures, one who has unforgiveness in their heart- as being seen and loved by God. The last night, called ”Surviving Hillbrow,” was one night that ended the week as a reminder of the reality of many citizens in Hillbrow. We slept outside on the soccer field, which was an unforgettable experience; we had to find cardboard during the day, we were told that there was none or to come in the morning, walking long distances, dodging cars, taxis, and buses for one day, but I can only imagine for those who do this every day and on top of that wonder where their next meal would come from. As I write from my ivory tower, I can only conclude that the work of MES (Mould Empower and Serve) is what I want to be a part of, breaking the generational curse, providing the fish, rod, staff, sea and seeing a renewed hope in Hillbrow, South Africa, and the world.

Jeandré Rhodes – Reflection

10 Days of Hope is an outreach that changed my life forever. The aim of this reflection is to thank, reflect, critically engage, comment and to encourage. The following reflection will focus on the following: daily routine; outreach activities; sightseeing and lastly thanksgiving.

The Daily routine

Every morning started between 06:00-06:30 when we wake up (I was woken up by Berny most of the time) and breakfast at 07:00. After breakfast we had a devotion at 08:00 with praise and worship lead by a very well organized worship team. After the devotion, we would be given our duties for the day. The first outreach can vary between a Prayer walk and a open air. The second part of the day was constant with kids ministry because I was on the kids ministry team (K2). The kids ministry works with between 300-400 children from Monday to Friday from 08:00-15:00. After kids ministry we would have some free time until17:30, when we had a reflection and supper afterward at 18:00. After supper there was a final activity for the day which was normally a soup outreach or a prayer walk

Outreach activities

In my view, the whole point of the outreach is to go out and meet people. New people; troubled people; random people; sick people; young people and old people. We needed to go out to them with the gospel of Jesus in our hearts and try to bring them closer to him. Or if we look at it differently, we brought Jesus to them. Furthermore, there was many activities which created an opportunity for us to go out and do that. Activities like the open air; prayer walks; the soup outreach and the children´s ministry. All these different outreaches required of us to go out to the different places where the people are. When we handed out soup to the homeless, we went onto the streets and handed them soup in their beds where they were. When we did an open air we would go out into one of the surrounding parks; setup and do our thing.

When we went on a prayer walk we would walk through the streets in a bigger group and as we walked we through the danger; poverty and substance abuse feeling very vulnerable and exposed, we went with a mission to spread Hope in the area of Hillbrow and to pray for the city of Johannesburg asking God to intervene and therefore we did not fear any danger because we knew God was with us.

Highlights

There were many highlights during the 10 Days experience, some highlights happened on the prayer walks because there we went to different places and we walked on foot which is also a different experience to driving through the area by car. For example, the day we visited constitutional Hill where we went into the Constitutional Court of South Africa. That was wonderful experience because it was a spontaneous decision to go inside the court where we learned about the symbolism and what the different elements mean and we learned about the work which the court does. Other highlights came through conversations and human interactions with others. For example, we met Felix at one of the open air and after we had prayed for him he told us that it was his birthday and that through us he received a birthday gift, which was a beautiful experience. All I can say is God works in mysterious ways.

Gratitude and Thanksgiving

I need to end by thanking the Lutheran Church in Stellenbosch for helping to fund the travelling to Johannesburg and a special Thank You to two members in the congregation who sponsored my participation fee. Without your help the whole experience would not have been possible. Also, Thank you to everyone who donated clothing and Padkos to prevent us from staving on the way to Johannesburg and back.

In addition, I would also like to thank the von Delft Family and the Mostert family for giving us shelter when we were in Bloemfontein. In conclusion, I have seen how the Christian community of believers goes beyond the four walls of the church. It is a community of people we can call on when we are need of a place to sleep for one night, when we need help with getting to a place and back but most importantly, it is a universal family of believers united in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit by whom we show love, care and compassion towards each other. May God continue to bless His Church and His Creation.In the week’s guide, they wrote that, “What we will be busy with this week is not about you or about us. It is not about your personal or spiritual growth either.” This week redeemed me from looking at myself doing enough spirituality or ‘religion’, being enough but rather truly seeing the other who is with a needle in their arm, one who sleeps on cardboard every night sending money home, one who came from Congo, Zimbabwe, Malawi for greener pastures, one who has unforgiveness in their heart- as being seen and loved by God. The last night, called ”Surviving Hillbrow,” was one night that ended the week as a reminder of the reality of many citizens in Hillbrow. We slept outside on the soccer field, which was an unforgettable experience; we had to find cardboard during the day, we were told that there was none or to come in the morning, walking long distances, dodging cars, taxis, and buses for one day, but I can only imagine for those who do this every day and on top of that wonder where their next meal would come from. As I write from my ivory tower, I can only conclude that the work of MES (Mould Empower and Serve) is what I want to be a part of, breaking the generational curse, providing the fish, rod, staff, sea and seeing a renewed hope in Hillbrow, South Africa, and the world.