WEC Trek to South Africa
I would like to start by thanking all those that supported me both in prayer and financially while I was out there. From the start it was clear that as a team we were very dependant upon God and it would not have been possible without lots of prayer.
South Africa is a land of extremes: Black and white, rich and poor, hot and cold, occult and Christianity. Where England is very green, South Africa is very brown – at least in winter.
Our time out there was a mix of street evangelism, working with young children in crèches and after-school clubs, running kids camps and practical work on the Rainbows of Hope campsite.
Street evangelism in the shanty towns is very different to in the UK. The people out there are very friendly and would happily chat all day. Despite having very few possessions, they happily invite us westerners into their homes to talk about Christianity and to be prayed for. Even people who have no faith or different beliefs to us seemed to appreciate prayer.
The young children in the crèches were very cute. Some of them were tiny, and they would look at you with their large eyes and curly hair, and despite speaking no English and us speaking no Zulu, they craved love and attention. They were very imaginative in their games, and loved just having time spent with them. For some of these kids we were the only white people they had seen, and so to be able to spend time with and show love to them was an awesome privilege.
In the after school clubs the children were of mixed ages, but when compared to British kids they were much more willing to learn and were certainly not lacking intelligence. They appreciated simple things like balloons and colouring books much more then western kids. We did puppet shows, taught them memory verses and did lots of games and craft activity which they seemed to love.
The kids camps that we ran at the Rainbows of Hope campsite were one of the main reasons we went as a group to South Africa, and so a lot of prayer and a small amount of preparation had gone into them. Our team was split into two, one to deal with the younger children and one to deal with the teenagers. I was assigned to the older ones together with John and Ann, Thomas and Isla. Ours was the first camp, and we felt really unprepared. Thankfully God had everything under control, and over the whole weekend we all learned a lot about leaning on God. Even one of the memory verses was “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding”.
The kids were really brilliant, and despite our best efforts at learning Zulu, their English was pretty good and so in the meeting and when interacting with the kids we just used simple English and they seemed to understand.
Dealing with so many children is very tiring, but we knew it was only for one weekend and so we really put our full efforts into making it a memorable weekend for the kids and running around with them and being very active. After the kids left on Sunday we all just sat there on the grass for about an hour, totally exhausted.
The practical work which we did on the campsite was a great encouragement to the missionaries out there, and I am sure we saved them a lot of work. Our main project was renovating the kitchen area, most specifically sanding down, sealing and painting the old steel roof. It was a fairly large roof area, and it took much of the time we were out there to complete it, but it was great to see a shiny red roof as we left the campsite.
Shortly after arriving the missionaries somehow found out that I had done some electrical work in the past, and so they gave me a big long list of jobs to do, including installing new power points and some lights, rewiring a pump and installing a number of light switches including a two way switch which had been wired up incorrectly. I found it really encouraging to see how blessed the missionaries were by what I could routinely do.
Most evenings after eating food together, we would have a short time of devotion and then prepare for the next day’s activities. Many evenings some of us would stay up and play card games or simply talk into the early hours. The team bonded really well, and having unsoundproofed girls and boys bedrooms next to each other provided us with out of hours entertainment and ensured there were no secrets.
In the last few days we had some time to relax, and went on Safari to Pilanesburg. There we saw giraffes, rhinos, hippos, elephants, wilderbeast, warthogs and lots of zebras. As a team we got loads of photos, and some really brilliant ones. It was an amazing experience as I had never been on safari before. Seeing such large and powerful animals grazing in their natural habitat in acres of land was brilliant.
My time in South Africa was one of great encouragement and growth though the situations I was faced with and lessons I learned. Thanks again to all those that made it possible.
