I sat on a small
plastic chair, the kind you might find in a preschool. The other members of my
team were seated in other, equally random things: the dusty ground covered by a
carpet that was just as filthy as the ground on which it was placed, a not-so-sturdy
bench, and a chair whose back rest had fallen off long ago. We were here, at
shack number 5871 in Diepsloot extension 1, for the second time in as many
days.
Let's backtrack to
the day before.
We were out trying
to find houses in a squatter camp that has never learned the meaning of
organization. The follow-up card in our hands told us that a man named Joseph
lived at shack number 5871 and we needed to talk to him. A short-term team had
come and talked to him sometime in July, and now here we were, trying to talk
to him again, with nothing but a 4"x4" piece of paper to guide us. We
successfully found shack numbers 5869, 5870, 5872, and 5873, but no 5871. We
asked around the area to see if anyone knew a guy named Joseph who lived around
there but no one seemed to know who we were talking about. We decided it must
be the wrong area or house number or something, and were about to walk away
when a lady called out to us and pointed to a guy coming down the road towards
us. It was indeed the man of the hour. He invited us to come sit in front of
his house (it was the one right in between 5870 and 5872 but had no number on
it. Who knew?), and we started to get to know him.
It turns out that when the team came to talk
to him, they really had a conversation with his mom; he had just happened to be
there and they wrote down his information. As we talked to him, we found out
that he had questions about the Gospel that were as basic as "Who is
Jesus?" We were able to tell him the story of the Gospel and answer his
questions about how his life would change if he decided to follow Jesus. He
confessed that he drank a lot and sometimes smoked marijuana and wanted to know
if that would have to change. We were able to explain the balance of obedience
to God and grace when we make mistakes and encourage him that being transformed
into the likeness of Christ is a process that will span the entire course of
his life. At the end of the conversation, he considered all we had to say and
decided to make the decision to follow Jesus! We gave him the book of John and
told him we could come back the next day with a full Bible and talk some more.
He asked us when we would be coming the next day. "My friends need to hear
this. Tell me when you're coming tomorrow so I can bring him to hear about
Jesus." We told him that we'd be back at about 2 the next day and left
after praying for him.
Now, back to me
sitting in a preschool-sized chair.
We were back at
Joseph's house, and now we were sharing the Gospel with his friend Gift. He
sat, listening intently, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Joseph
was quiet, hearing the story of Jesus for the second time in his life. When we
finished talking to Gift about Who Jesus was and what He had done for him, we
asked him if he wanted to make a commitment to following Jesus like his friend
Joseph had the day before. He was silent for a short moment, thoughtful. Then
in a quiet voice, he said yes. What happened next is burned into my brain… I
will never forget it. As soon as Gift said yes, Joseph's entire countenance lit
up with exuberance and his fist shot into the air in celebration - he was the
living picture of what God's excitement must look like every time a person
comes to know Him.
Shortly after we
prayed with Gift, Joseph left again to go get more of his friends. As we struck
up new conversations with the people he brought to us, he continued to come in
and out, bringing more people every time. He kept saying, "Tell them about
Jesus! They need to hear about Jesus!" We ended up with 2 more guys
(besides Gift and Joseph) and 2 ladies, one of them Joseph's sister. By the end
of the 2 hours we spent at Joseph's house, all but one of his friends had
gotten saved. I was absolutely blown away by each of their responses to the
love of Christ. In the very middle of a squatter camp that knows misery like
the back of its hand, God's presence was tangible.
Please pray for this
group of friends to stand together in the midst of the dark place in which they
live. Pray for continued growth in Christ and love for God and His Word.
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| From left: Gift, Joseph, Logan, James, Brian (Bailey on bottom) |
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| From left: Chelsea, Salamina, myself, and Asamahle (Mindy on bottom) |
