- Posts tagged south africa
- Explore south africa on posterous
GOOOAAAALLLLL!
I happened to be filming the crowd sing the national anthem where we where watching the South Africa opening World Cup match right as South Africa got their goal and craziness broke out. It went on quite a bit longer than I filmed (this was just shot on a small point and shoot, hence the poor quality).
Khayelitsha
Tomorrow (Saturday) Juli and I head into Khayelitsha for the first time. We’ve driven by it but weren’t able to venture in at the time. For those that might not know, Khayelitsha is South Africa’s largest township and is home to more than 2.1 million people (which is an estimate — a large portion of the township is informal settlements).
It’s a place desperately in need of the transformative power of the Gospel. Approximately 60% of the population is estimated to be unemployed. There are estimated to be more than 14,000 orphans living here. Approximately 32% of the population is suspected to be HIV+ and 16 out of every 1000 infected with TB. It also has one of the highest crime rates in the South Africa and the world. It’s murder rate has been reported as the highest in the nation (in the past it’s been commonplace to hear of 10+ in a given weekend) and it’s estimated that one in every two or three women have been raped (and approximately half of those under the age of 13). If all of this doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what will.
Anyways — the urban sprawl (pictured) got to us on our first drive by and we’ve been praying about seeing it first hand and the opportunity has finally come. We will be going with a YWAM ministry called “Justice [ACTS].” It’s mission is to see an end to human trafficking, something that has unfortunately escalated here in South Africa as the World Cup approaches.
This time, we were just invited to tag along. We see it as a time to potentially begin taking steps into some of the God-bred dreams in our hearts. Pray that God opens our eyes and hearts to see the people of Khayelitsha as he sees them. And pray that a move of Jesus sweeps through that place and forever changes it (as we know it can be changed).
Sex Trafficking in South Africa: World Cup Slavery Fear - TIME
Despite more than a dozen international conventions banning slavery in the past 150 years, there are more slaves today than at any point in human history. Slaves are those forced to perform services for no pay beyond subsistence and for the profit of others who hold them through fraud and violence. While most are held in debt bondage in the poorest regions of South Asia, some are trafficked in the midst of thriving development. Such is the case here in Africa's wealthiest country, the host of this year's World Cup. While South Africa invests billions to prepare its infrastructure for the half-million visitors expected to attend, tens of thousands of children have become ensnared in sexual slavery, and those who profit from their abuse are also preparing for the tournament. During a three-week investigation into human-trafficking syndicates operating near two stadiums, I found a lucrative trade in child sex. The children, sold for as little as $45, can earn more than $600 per night for their captors. "I'm really looking forward to doing more business during the World Cup," said a trafficker. We were speaking at his base overlooking Port Elizabeth's new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Already, he had done brisk business among the stadium's construction workers.
Read the whole article. It's heart breaking but worth it. We are all fools who choose not to see the brokenness in the world. And we are utterly heartless should we decide to do nothing.
Two summers ago whilst in Cape Town, the team I was with helped staff a seminar focused on human trafficking. A local South African group was seeking to raise awareness because they were already beginning to anticipate and see the trafficking problems that the world cup would bring. This past summer while there, it was mentioned to me that at least one child a week goes missing.
I don't know what exactly we'll be able to do whilst there but I know both my wife and I hope and pray that we'll be able to do something. At the very least we know and accept the call Micah 6:8 lays before us: to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly before our God...
an All Nations friend
If you haven’t had the opportunity to talk with us in person about our trip, you might be missing out on some of the excitement we feel about where we are going and what we are doing. One of the (many) things we are excited about is the organization we will be working as a part of: All Nations. As you may know, their focus tends to rest on church planting through discipleship. There isn’t just one specific avenue though that this takes; as an organization, All Nations is clear that we’ve been given passions for a reason and that we are to use them for the Kingdom. To that end there are people that raise AIDs orphans as their own, people that teach music and art and other classes in schools, people that impart business skills to those that have none; the list of possibilities is limitless, really, and is why we are excited about technology training centers as all things can (and should!) be done in the context of Jesus’ mission.
I did want to highlight for you all one young lady we will likely be working quite a bit with. Her name is Bethany O’Connor and she does a lot of social work “stuff” within the townships of Cape Town. Our teams these past couple of summers have spent quite a bit of time working with her and it’s really life giving to see her heart for the widowed, orphaned, sick and broken. Her primary focus currently is a project called the Baby Safe which is a place where mothers and fathers can drop unwanted infants anonymously, insuring their care, rather than dumping them in trash bins or just on the streets.
Her most recent blog post is a good introduction to what she does, I think, and would be good for any of our readers to read to get a broader picture of what God is doing in Cape Town and South Africa.
