South African Dispatch, Pt. 1

My time in South Africa has begun in a blur. After some long flights, I arrived in Cape Town last Thursday evening to be met by Pastor Ohm at the airport. One of the first things he told me was that my travels were not quite over - at 5 am Friday morning, we would be embarking on a 12 hour road trip to Transkei, homeland of the Xhosa people. I spent the evening riding around with Pastor Ohm, learning more about his ministry and seeing the African Thelogical Seminary and one of the Sunday Schools in Khayelitsha. I also met a short-term team of Korean Americans from Seattle that I’m working with these first couple weeks. I had to laugh when my first meal in Africa was short ribs and kimchee eaten with chopsticks with Korean conversation flowing across the table.

Bright and early the next morning, we left for Transkei. A flat tire and finally a dead car turned it into a 17 hour journey, but we all made it in one piece. Transkei is a beautiful land of rolling golden plains running up to mountains, where the Xhosa people have kept their sheep, goats, and oxen for hundreds of years. It is closely connected to Khayelitsha in that many people in Khayelitsha have moved there from Transkei to find work. Pastor Ohm has been working there to share Gospel and plant churches for several years.

In many ways it is the Africa of imagination (minus the big animals) - most people still live in round, thatched huts; sheep, goats, and oxen wander through the fields; warmth in the winter comes from a “Xhosa heater,” a small fire made in the center of the hut; a morning shower consists of a bucket of hot water that you attempt to rub over your body with soap without freezing in the process. Two funny moments . . . in one of the huts we visited, the woman was scrubbing her floor with water and cow dung - amazingly it didn’t smell, and apparently it adds a nice polish to the floor. Later, we were visiting another hut, and the peace was suddenly shattered by a blaring cell phone ring - the Xhosa owner calmly answered her phone and then returned to our conversation - a striking juxtaposition of old and modern ways.

Our time in Transkei was spent doing a variety of things. The first day I did construction work at a clinic/church that Pastor Ohm is building in one of the villages - I mainly shoveled concrete and handed bricks to the local 22-year old master brick layer, Mkongoze Gcelu (I had fun trying to pronounce his name correctly with the click “c”). Other days we would do door-to-door evangelism (another cultural difference - this actually meshes well with Xhosa culture). Each night we would have Sunday School for the kids and a youth service, and then a normal worship service for everyone in the area. It was amazing worshiping there, singing Xhosa songs and realizing how God’s kingdom bridges such a wide cultural divide. The work in Transkei is only beginning - there is a great need for training for the leaders and for discipleship - but the seeds are being planted.

After several days in Transkei, we returned to Cape Town on Wednesday night. Yesterday, activities commenced again, now revolving around the ministry in Khayelitsha. We visited a retreat center north of Cape Town that Ohm has been establishing. It will be an amazing facility when complete, but for now it is blocked by a ghost of apartheid - the white neighbors won a law case forbidding Pastor Ohm to use the public road to bring in blacks. In the evening, Pastor David from Seattle led a teaching seminar for the Khayelitsha Sunday School teachers (I’ll write more about this ministry another time).

At this point, I am just taking in as much as possible, learning what I can and enjoying the people I get to meet. It has been great so far working with Pastor Ohm, the Seattle team, and the other folks at the mission house. I look forward to sharing more with you soon!

Summer with African Leadership in South Africa

Summer is at last coming, even for those of us on the quarter system. Last summer, many of you supported and encouraged me as I went to San Pedro, Mexico to serve with Stephen and Marcela Tolman. It was a rich experience, building relationships and learning the language and culture, and really getting a feel for how God’s kingdom is advancing in northern Mexico. This summer I have the opportunity to take part in the work of the kingdom in a totally different context. Through African Leadership, a non-profit organization working throughout the continent of Africa, I will be traveling to South Africa to live and work with Pastor Young Ohm, a Korean missionary based in Khayelitsha, a township near Capetown.

Khayelitsha, established during the days of apartheid as a black settlement, is now the largest township in the area (~ half a million people) with a population that is primarily from the Xhosa people. Though apartheid is officially over, the township still faces serious issues with great poverty and crime. Pastor Ohm has been in Khayelitsha since 1996 working to share God’s love through all sorts of ministries: daycare, sports ministry, English school, business development, and a school of theology for training pastors.

With Joey, another Stanford student, I will be spending 5 weeks living at the Africa Leadership mission house and working with Pastor Ohm in Khayelitsha. My purpose there is fairly simple: to learn what I can of the culture and the ministry going on there, and to serve the local church and Pastor Ohm however I can. Beyond that, I will be working primarily in their youth ministry which has an outreach to over 400 unchurched teenagers who are playing soccer under Christian coaches and helping with their Saturday schools where over 1000 children come to hear the gospel. Africa Leadership has a camp ministry I hope to participate in, and I may be able to work some in the Transkei homeland where most of the residents of Khayelitsha came from and AL has a church planting ministry. Many of the details of our work will be finalized as we work together with the local team and other summer interns. I am excited about this opportunity to see God’s work in a totally different culture, and also about the challenge of encountering the unique (and not so unique) hardships facing Khayelitsha.

If you are interested in learning more about these ministries you can check out the African Leadership website (www.africanleadership.org) and Pastor Ohm’s website (www.africanleadership.org.za). I look forward to sharing stories of what God does.

Now, as they say at African Leadership, For the Kingdom!

“Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him – to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.” - Romans 16:25-27