FIXING CAPE TOWN

For several months, I have been following the developments within RLabs, an organisation set up on the Cape Flats, which is seeking to bring about positive change to communities in tension, through innovative means. There is a strong focus on social media and the power this has to get people to interact and engage with issues and each other.
One of these courses is called 'Legacy', designed to help young people who have left school, but are unsure of where they are going to go next in their lives, to develop visions and goals and dreams! And to believe that they can leave their mark on the world , and a legacy for the future. They have each been tasked with a project, to identify a problem they observe in their community, and to come up with innovative ways to solve the problem and make an impact. This idea will then be put in the Rlabs 'incubator', worked on, developed in consultation with others and hopefully put into action.

We were able to sit in on the beginning of a Legacy class when visiting Cape Town, in April, and have since got to know one young man, Nathaniel Wagner, very well. With another student, Robyn Smith, they have an exciting vision , developed from living in the Cape Flats, and being aware of the massive housing problems that exist. Across the city, there is overcrowding, poor quality housing, shacks, tin sheds, street dwellers and a lack of care of the environment generally. The huge contrasts between the beautiful tourist sites and the affluent areas, and places like Kewtown, Langa, Khayelitsha and Blikkiesdorp are only too obvious.
There is also a sense of feeling both local and national government is not doing enough, and that a 'people's movement' to bring about change is whats needed.
And so the idea ' Fixing Cape Town' has been born! They have presented the idea by means of a powerpoint slide show to their fellow legacy students, and we were also able to hear it on another occasion. The plan is to build up awareness of the issues, a desire within the communities themselves to want to see change, and not rely on the authorities to bring it about. For people to feel empowered and equally passionate about change and to be willing to contribute. They would like to see 'donation days' across the city, with many just contributing small amounts of money, even just a few rands, but if large numbers get involved, then there is potential for a great impact. Also, involving communities themselves in the restoration of homes, and neighbourhoods. As this grows, they are hoping businesses might take notice, perhaps offer sponsorship, materials etc, get buy-in from radio presenters, and eventually local politicians themselves may even see this as something they want to be involved in. This would be a grass roots movement, and would increase people's confidence and self -esteem along the way!
It sounds ambitious, given the real difficulties in some of these impoverished parts of the city, and yet I know these guys have the passion and heart and commitment to see this come into being! And even the remarkable progress of RLABS itself over the course of a year, is an inspiration that change can happen and that all of us can 'be the change we want to see'.

So for now, a Facebook page has been set up, and many are showing their interest and support by 'liking' it! over 300 in just 5 days!! So if you are reading this and havent 'liked' the page yet, please do, but do more than that, keep checking back to see the progress of the project! It is so exciting to see young people full of energy and enthusiasm , believing in themselves and in others to see transformation coming about!

I was reminded of a verse from Isaiah 61 (v 4) that is, I believe, God's word to these young people and this project:
'They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations'.
I pray that this promise comes to fulfillment in Cape Town and wish them all the best with what they hope to achieve!

Band Of Brothers

A few weeks ago, whilst in Cape Town, I had the privilege of joining a group of young men who have recently started meeting together on a Friday night. Most of them have a history of significant drug misuse, some for years, and some as recently as a couple of weeks previously. They are there mainly to support each other and find strength and determination in their ongoing commitment to live life differently , and most importantly to follow closely the One who has set them free.
The group has been started by Bradley Naidoo, who himself used drugs heavily and was a gang member for many years, until over 5 years ago , he met Jesus and his life has been transformed. Since then, Bradley has developed a real heart for former friends, community contacts, and the next generation of young people growing up in the Cape Flats communities, where the role models are 'successful' drug users and gang bosses. He spends much of his time, counselling, networking and just 'being' and creating a different kind of presence in his neighbourhood, than the one he used to create, where he was feared by many.
Bradley has been drawing a group of 10 plus guys together for a few weeks, and I had wanted to go to meet some of them and hear their stories. I was also asked if I could talk to them a little about the effects of drugs on mental health.

What an amazing privilege it was to be there! The format was simple, they just one by one shared how their week had been. I was struck by how brutally honest they were, as for some it had not been easy. One had been tempted to go off and buy 'tik' (crystalmetamhetamine) and had coped with this by handing his bank card to someone in the family to look after. As the meeting went on, I saw how as they shared, they gained strength and support and ideas from each other. One spoke of how he was seeking to recreate some order and routine in his life (tik use especially destroys sleeping and waking patterns, and the ability to eat regularly and healthily), he was running at 5 am everyday. Others thought this might be a good idea for them to try as well. Another guy talked about how he was managing temptation in his thought life, every thought that he felt was unhealthy, he took hold of it, and threw it out. I shared with them that this may be what was meant by the verse in 2 Corinthians 10 v 5 ' we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ'. This seemed to be exactly what he was doing.
Yet another person talked about his struggle with eating, and this led onto a general discussion about how they could cultivate healthy eating patterns and lifestyles. Everyone had something to contribute, there was an acceptance of each other's weaknesses and yet a desire to press on , to reach forward to goals as yet unattained , for example with work, in relationships and in serving God.
I spoke a little about the effect of some drugs on mental health , especially in causing paranoid symptoms and psychotic experiences. This was something many could relate to but fortunately their symptoms had subsided once they stopped using. This is not the case for all, and I warned them that ongoing mental illness, of a severe nature, can be triggered by drug use.

After a while, Bradley asked if I would pray for them, which I was happy to do, but as I did I found myself overwhelmed with emotion. I don't think I have ever been with such an honest group of people and it struck me that I had so much to learn from them. I try so often to cover up how I really am, my day to day struggles , my disobedience, my failings, I fall back into certain traps over and over , just as they have. And how all of us are so dependant on God's amazing , extravagant, scandalous and outrageous grace!

A Visit To Pollsmoor Prison- 'Place of New Beginnings'

During my last visit to Cape Town in February, I had the privilege of visiting the notorious Pollsmoor prison with Bradley Naidoo and John Palm (left). It was an incredible experience and very humbling to see how , even in the darkest places, the light of Christ can shine and change lives.
John has been visiting the youth section of Pollsmoor for several years. He has himself had a number of sentences in his younger days and spent many years in the prison. It was there, 14 years ago that he met the Lord and has been returning ever since, to share the good news of the gospel with the young people who find themselves there. John explained that the numbers of young people housed in Pollsmoor has reduced recently. This is as a result of changes in the law , discouraging the use of adult penal institutions for youth offenders. It does mean, however, that those youth still in Pollsmoor are charged or convicted of very serious crimes.
When we arrived, there was a meeting of all the spiritual workers who visit the prison, chaired by the senior chaplain. It was quite amazing to see the sheer numbers of people who are regularly going in to care and show God's love to the prisoners. Some, like John, were ex-prisoners themselves, and two we met had been members of the notorious prison numbers gangs. It was also clear from what people shared that God is working there, that hearts are open and searching for peace and fulfillment .

After this meeting, we were able to go and meet the young boys in their cell. There were 37 in total in one cell, with a maximum age of 19. Bunks down each side and another set of bunks in the middle. They usually only get out for one hour exercise a day. It was apparent that John has built up a close and trusting relationship with some of these boys over time. He explained he tries also to help them , wherever possible, on the outside too. This can be even tougher as their families may well have deserted them, and they have nowhere to live and little chance of employment or education. Hard for them therefore , not to return to a life of crime. John also feels the established churches do not always welcome them and there is often distrust and suspicion when they seek out fellowship on the 'outside'.

After some introductions, the boys sang some worship songs, 'This is the day that the Lord has made' and ' Cast your burdens onto Jesus'. What happened whilst they sung totally astounded me. First I was conscious that almost all were joining in. There were one or two lying on their bunks seemingly not engaged, but most genuinely were praising the Lord! And as they sang, something very tangible changed in the atmosphere. That oppressive, dirty overcrowded prison cell was transformed into a house of praise, a place that God inhabited and was touching their lives.
Bradley then shared something of his testimony, how God had spoken to him in a prison cell at Pollsmoor too, and how later on (5 years ago now), he was saved out of a life of drugs and gangsterism and has not looked back since. I watched the boys faces as they listened; they could identify with Bradley's story, his family background and early life experiences. They were intensely concentrating and hanging on every word he said, as if desperate to believe that there was hope for their future too.
John asked if I would like to share something. I was choking back tears but I wanted them to know that their praise had transformed the place they were in and also felt God wanted them to hear the verse from 2 Corinthians 5 v17, about how in Christ we are new creations, that the old is totally gone, and they can be new people. I think with their heads they can believe this , but their hearts tell them people still see the 'old' person, no matter how much God has changed their lives. I then prayed for them and spent some time talking with a couple who had clearly made definite commitments to Christ whilst inside the prison. One of them was due to leave prison the coming week and I was left thinking that life on the outside will be tough for him, and that as the body of Christ we need to be prepared to support these fragile souls in their onward walk with the Lord.

As I left Pollsmoor, I was overwhelmed by a complexity of emotions; sadness and shock at some of the conditions, the heartbreaking stories and the needs of the prisoners, hope and respect at seeing the commitment of those working into the prison, joy at seeing the reality of changed lives and also remembering the words of Jesus ' I was in prison and you visited me ......'
I pray that those doing this wonderful work will continue to be empowered to show the love of Jesus and share His amazing grace and that the sign outside Pollsmoor ' place of new beginnings' will be more and more of a reality day by day for so many who find themselves there. I would like to say a special thanks to John Palm for facilitating this visit for me.

LIFE IS NOT A SNAPSHOT

Last Friday night we had an amazing encounter whilst out on Street Pastors. It had been a quiet and extremely cold night and by about 2 am I was desperately hoping the club would close early and we could get home before the usual 4 am. I then noticed someone dressed slightly strangely outside McDonalds: green wellington boots and farmer-type clothes, not the usual gear for the night revellers! He was pacing about , quite agitated and distressed. He came into McDonalds and we began to engage him in conversation.
He told us he had been out with his girlfriend who had quite suddenly gone off with a complete stranger who had invited her for a drink. He was tearful and gradually more of the story unfolded; she was wanted by the police to be returned to prison, for breaching the terms of her licence. They clearly had a stormy relationship and he had a methadone bottle in one pocket and a bottle of vodka in the other. He worked as a gamekeeper but money was tight and he told us he had been helped out many times by the Salvation Army in our town with food parcels (the SA leader is also a street pastor and we were able to tell him this).
He talked about his girlfriend, who was a crack cocaine addict, but said he still loved her, despite her volatility. They had two children together and he became even more distressed as he said they had both been adopted as social services had decided that he and his partner were 'failures' in this area. He got out his mobile phone to show us a photo of the children and to our amazement we recognised the older one as the little boy that friends at our church had fostered from birth until his very recent adoption (over 18 months). It felt like this was a real 'God -incidence', and although it wasn't possible to reveal this to him, it was possible to talk in a way that encouraged him to believe his children had been well cared for. As time went on, we learnt he had at one time been baptised as a Christian, that he still had a Bible he read sometimes, that when the baby was born, they had asked a local Baptist pastor that we knew to pray with them all, as he was extremely small and unlikely to survive. I also knew that the baby had been born opiate addicted and had many health problems early in life and God had surely answered prayers.

At this point I felt strongly it was right to ask if we could pray for him; right in the middle of a crowded McDonalds at three in the morning, and he was very grateful. I just prayed that God would touch his life, look after his children , give him assurance that they were well cared for, and begin to intervene in the problems that he and his partner faced.
In some ways it seemed a small thing, and I'm sure that he faces many struggles ahead, but it just felt like we never know what God does and we are called just to take the opportunities He gives us. That there were many evidences of God touching this man's life, that God cared about his child and had placed him in a lovely Christian home for the first 18months of his life and that this encounter we had had, in some ways, totally randomly, would also be evidence to him that there is a God who loves him and has a future and a hope for him.

The title for this blog, 'Life is not a snapshot' comes from a Josh Wilson song and reminds me that we only see things in part, but God has the bigger picture and He is the expert at putting the pieces together. It encourages me to see all the encounters I may have in my day to day life, whether at work or out doing street pastors, or in any other place , as possibilities to extend God's grace and mercy to those who need it. I may not be able to provide all the answers for people, but I can point them in the direction of a God who can and at least show them that He cares.

Goodbye Ordinary

When I chose the title for my blog, 'An Ordinary Life', it came after quite a long time of thinking my life was so ordinary that there was nothing worth blogging about! And in some ways that's still what I think! It might explain why I haven't blogged for months , partly as I still think I have nothing particular to say, and partly because the everyday things of life, working full-time, family activities , church life etc, take up so much time that I don't have much left for it.

But for the last couple of weeks this 'Mercy Me' song has captured my thoughts and just seems to say something about how, despite all the usual stuff we have to do everyday, there can be 'something more':

"Live like there's no tomorrow, love extravagantly, lead a life to be followed, Goodbye ordinary, goodbye ordinary".

It captures what I want my life to be like, I want to make each day count. I want to do my job to the best of my ability, I want to love and invest in my family and friends, I want to serve God, with the gifts He has given me, I want to give generously, I want to break out of the 'ordinary' greed and consumer driven life that is now normal in my culture, I want to be someone who appreciates and encourages others and I want God to lead me continually forwards into new things, out of my comfort zone, into unknown territory which will definitely not be 'ordinary'.

I realise its aspirational, and maybe ambitious, but I do know God is real, He has changed my life and He continues to do that. He has greater things ahead for me , and so I really do want to say 'Goodbye Ordinary' and "Hello" to the abundant extravagant exciting life of the Kingdom!

Cape Town - Getting ready!

In less than a week we will be on our way! There have some interesting developments over the past couple of weeks. We have been asking for donations to take with us for the children at City Mision school. Our house is now beginning to be taken over with football kit, balls, stationary items and it has been great to see people's generosity. The most surprising gift was from my husband and son's football team (AFC Wimbledon, long story!!) who donated approximately £1500 of brand new kit! AS we began to look at all we had, we were wondering how on earth we were going to get it over there! Having made our children promise that they would pack lightly (difficult especially for a 14 year old girl, who's insisting at least that the hair straighteners get to go!), it was still looking unlikely that everything would fit in!
So a phone call and subsequent e-mail to British Airways were made and they immediately DOUBLED our baggage allowance when we explained what it was for. And not only ours, but the other members of our party too! So now we have the next few days to sort through everything and decide what to take.

Another development has been finding out about a project in Paarl (Montecristo Ministries), in the cape winelands. This contact has been made through Worldwide Emergency Relief who support it. The chief executive of WER is Alex Haxton, who, with his family were a part of the church I grew up in, and we have recently reconnected through Facebook. I have just met with Alex and Rita and heard about the work going on in Paarl, where over 1000 children from the informal settlements have been engaged in sports teams, including over 200 girls. As a result, I have made contact with them and we plan to visit, taking two of the guys from the Impact Centre to see if connections can be made and ideas transferred. The Impact team have just finished a holiday club for the children and young people of the Athlone area and are wanting to continue to engage with and build relationships with them on an ongoing basis. Development of sport might be one way forward and I am praying this visit might open up some doors and opportunities.

So, with just a few days to go, we are excited and expectant and praying that God will once again take us out of our comfort zones, put us in situations where we need to trust Him and amaze us by what He is going to show us. To Him be all the glory!

'Break Our Hearts' - Back to Cape Town!

We are just getting ready to go back to Cape Town for a second mission trip. We will once again be the guests of Cape Town Christian Fellowship and will be helping out where we can at City Mission Educational Services and at the Impact Centre, between July 23rd and Aug 7th. Both these projects are situated in Bridgetown, on the Cape Flats and serve the community there which is seriously affected by drug misuse and gangsterism. This time last year was the first time we had really encountered first hand the difficulties in these communities. We were humbled and our lives have not been the same since. We are not arrogant enough to suggest that we made a lot of difference in the two weeks we were there, but we learnt so much and what was started was a deep love for the community and the church, and a certainty that this was only the beginning of future links , relationships and God-given connections and opportunities.

Since we came home, we have enjoyed building relationships with people from the school, centre and church, hosted some visitors in UK, formed a partnership between our church (Redhill Baptist)and CTCF, facilitated some financial support from another UK church, made some links between some UK schools and CMES and prepared to return this year with another team.

And so soon we will be off! There are 12 of us from two churches and the team includes 5 teenagers. We expect to be helping out with sports, arts and crafts, team building activities and one to one support with the school pupils (all of whom have been excluded from mainstream education, many have challenging home situations and some are former street children.) At the Impact centre, there will be opportunities for interacting with the seniors programme, involvement in training and supervision of the team, as well as times of fellowship and continuing to 'build the bridge' between the UK and SA.

I'm excited, expectant and humbled because I know how much my life is different to what it was, as a result of getting involved in these projects, and experiencing so much of God's life changing power and grace. I am wanting Him to do even more this year!

My prayer as we go is this :' Break our hearts with the things that break Yours, Wake us up to see through Your eyes, Break our hearts with the things that break Yours and send us out to shine in the darkness.....'

Watch this space for more updates!