Squatter Camp(out)

When we came back from Johannesburg, I thought i would have this epiphany. I would know if we were meant to go to Joburg or not, but instead it was cloudy. We had too many fears and too many questions. Finally we said, well we enjoyed the work there and love the people there so it can't hurt to go. Still it wasn't that 100% feeling that i expected. But last night in our own squatter camp we created in front of Grace Point. In the cold with only canned goods in my belly, I heard God tell me "Run! Run with every fiber of your being to Joburg, forget all the fears and Go now!" It was clear as day. So we will find a way to get there and soon. Nothing will slow us down, we are chasing after God as he in turn gives us purpose for our lives and propels us further running beside Him. So with no more shuffling of feet, the new chapter in our lives begins now.

Sharp,

Kelly

what's stopping YOU?

Responsibility lays heavy on my heart. God's justice is waiting to roll like a river through my life and the self gets in the way. I am wearing blinders on my heart, shielding me from the tremendous love that can pour through me to the people. I wonder what it is that I fear, what do I have to loose?

To take a break from my verbose ramblings, I'll say what it is in concrete terms. A few things are keeping me from dropping all that I have and giving my life fully to God for God's purpose. In order of importance, here is my confession:

1. Bicycles. As silly as it sounds, bicycles have been an important part of my life for over 15 years. I have built a lifestyle and a self-image that defines me as a cyclist. I anticipate difficulty and pain in the possibility of separating myself from this. There are a few places where we can go that I can bring a bike and use that passion, but there are also places we could be sent that would be a bad idea. For example, rolling through Joburg on my blingin $2000 bike would be A) difficult as there are few recreational riding spots and scary roads and, B) a great way to get myself shot in the head. People are armed and steal stuff in third world countries. Hell, people will shoot you for your bike if you're in the wrong place and the wrong time in San Antonio! But nothing looks more like a target on your back than being a white guy on a nice bike in a African city.

I have tried to convince myself that my passion for bikes is a gift that I can use for the Kingdom. Bicycling brings people together socially. A working bike (I am a bicycle mechanic as well) is a means of liberation for people who need to get to work several miles away. Bicycles are good for the environment (compared to cars, at least), something that is also important to me. Bicycles are fun and healthy. But looking back on my years of obsession with pedal-powered vehicles, I find that I have done very little deliberately for the Kingdom with my bike. I have been put in situations where I can form relationships that glorify God, and God will do all that God wants to with those situations, but my efforts have been pretty flimsy.

Bicycles for me are mostly about me. The most I can ask for right now is the tranquility to let go of this aspect of my life if it is asked of me. If God sees it fit that I be placed in a situation where I can make and occupation of serving the Kingdom with bicycles as a vehicle, I will humbly accept that this is a gift from God. I remember that the Lord gives and takes away. He could take away my bike, my ability to ride, my body, someone I love, or all that I have and hold dear at any moment and I would thank God for the gift of simplicity that it would bring.

2. Vegetarianism. For reasons that I will not explain in too much detail here, I have chosen a strict vegetarian lifestyle and I have held onto that for nearly ten years now. It is out of my yearning for God's justice on the Earth and love for creation and all the creatures that I have withheld my support from the industries that enslave animals for their edible and wear-able byproducts. I feel that these industries generally waste incredible amounts of land, food, water, and beauty at the cost of immeasurable suffering of animals and God's green Earth in general. I know full well that, to many cultures, my choices will seem like a bourgeois cop-out on my part from participating fully in their culture. It could shut the doors of communication and make my work difficult or impossible.

However, vegetarianism for me is sometimes a witness to my faith. Again, I often waste the opportunities that I might have to tell people about my desire to be a part of God's reconciling work with creation and instead appeal to secular environmentalism instead. My reluctance to give up this part of myself is two-fold: A) I truly believe that vegetarianism is a good way for me to continuing living and that it glorifies God and leaving it would be somehow dishonorable, and B) I do not wish to change my lifestyle as it would inconvenience me to adapt to eating dairy, eggs, and especially meat. After a a few months, let along a decade, of not eating these things, my body will feel quite a shock as it tries to cope with digesting such strange things. I don't know how long or difficult this would be, but I know it will be unpleasant. The first reason is, I feel, noble. The latter is admittedly selfish.

3. Leaving behind stuff, friends, pets. Two years ago, Kelly and I experienced the traumatic loss of a pet. I still bear the burden of a sense of responsibility for this, although I know rationally that it was not my fault. I do not want to burden anyone with my animals (a dog and a cat), and I do not want a repeat of what happened in 2007.

Then there is all our stuff. I would like to do the financially responsible thing and sell all that we have so that we can put the money toward our mission work. I have learned that selling your old used stuff is a lot of WORK. We could also just give it away, which will happen eventually, but I would rather find places that need our "stuff." Again, the notion of selling or giving away my bikes (I have two) is daunting. I have put a lot of time and effort into building up my bicycles just the way I like them and it pains me to let go of something that took so much passion to create.

I do not want to half-ass my service to God. I want to continue to learn and grow close to God in my will and my actions. I want to live in such a way that negates the systems of domination that are responsible for the murder of our Lord. I want to turn the world upside-down.

That is it for now. I can probably think of other things that get in the way, but I should not dwell on that. If you want to help unburden me from all my junk, please let me know. I want to be liberated from it and leave these items and concerns with someone who will be comforted by them and use them for God's glory.

-Jonathan

Monday, February 8

Two weeks later…
We have had enough time to begin to process all that we saw, heard, and felt in South Africa. We have shared our stories and photos with everyone who will listen and we are trying to draw conclusions about how our lives have been forever changed by this experience. We have a newfound sense of responsibility to the “least of these” in our own community, since that is where we can have the most direct effect on lives for the Kingdom of God. We are now responsible for all that we saw. We have committed to consistently visiting and feeding the homeless who gather under the Commerce Street bridge downtown on Monday nights (come join us!) We are looking into mentoring a refugee family in San Antonio to ease their transition into American culture. We are working with Ryan in Johannesburg to feed and support more children in Joe Slovo on a weekly basis. (Please contact us if you are interested in sending funds to feed children in this impoverished community.)

In the big picture of our lives, our vision of becoming missionaries has been further cemented and we are moving forward with a new sense of purpose. We long to be with God’s children, serving them in whatever way we are called. We are prayerfully seeking and waiting for further guidance to know where we will be sent. We might end up on any continent at this point, but we have it narrowed down to a few places to which we are being called. Please pray for our quest, that we would be given clear direction.

Johannesburg, Day 8

Sunday, January 24
Our last church service at Mayfair Baptist was a blast. We led part of worship in the main service, then left to help organize snacks and activities in the children’s church. There were soooo many children in that room! This Sunday was the day for children in different age groups to graduate into their next class, so there was lots of paperwork to fill out. We had our hands full the whole morning.













We ate lunch and packed for our return trip back to the States. Leaving was a terribly sorrow and we tried our best to take in all the Africa we could on our way out. We said our goodbyes to Juma, our driver, and Ryan as we paraded into the Joburg airport. The flight home was another long, sleepless (for Jonathan at least) journey through the night, but we managed to find our way back to San Antonio.

Johannesburg, Day 7

Saturday, January 23
This would be our final full day in South Africa, a day mostly of rest. We ate breakfast at Wimpy and headed out of town to visit the lion park. The drive through the South African countryside was amazing! This large, outdoor park gets visitors an up-close visit with giraffes, lions, gazelle, zebras, meerkat, emus (?), cheetahs, hyenas, and several other African animals. We also got to enter an enclosure with lion cubs, where you can play with the cubs up close.








Stefani contacted a friend named Anna who cooks traditional African food and serves it in the park near Johannesburg University and we bought several meals from her. We ate at the mission house and tried to soak in our last African evening together. After reflecting on our experiences and what we left back home, we had grown very close together. While we missed people and places in the US, we were already anticipating how much we would miss Africa and Ryan.

Johannesburg, Day 6

Friday, January 22

This would prove to be the earliest and busiest of our days in Johannesburg, partially due to some plans that did not pan out for the day before. We started the day with a visit to the Joburg prison women’s’ section to lead a devotion time with the prison guards. We were taken to a waiting room and left to wait for an uncomfortable amount of time. We amused ourselves and shot some group photos before being informed that the guards would not be able to meet us at the time due to schedule conflicts. Instead, the guards would join us for the scheduled worship time with the female inmates.

We set up in a kitchen and dozens of women filled the room to hear us sing and speak. Some of the women from our group shared their powerful testimonies with the women and Rosie from Mayfair Baptist also spoke. Willie delivered another one of his dynamic sermons. Ryan brought the house down with a song he wrote after his previous visit to Johannesburg. The women truly went bonkers over Ryan’s singing. We sang more some songs and were later blessed by another stirring round of prisoner-led worship songs in Zulu. We witnessed an impromptu celebration among the women when one of them brought news that she was getting out of prison that very day!

This video does not show much, so just close your eyes and listen to the women sing:

That afternoon, we made sandwiches and prepared a table for some of the local street guys to eat and receive some donated clothing. Willie knows where many of these guys hang out and put out word that they would be invited to church with us that afternoon. These are young men who, for whatever reason, don’t have a permanent home. Many of them abuse drugs and alcohol. We handed out some sandwiches and sat down with them. Eventually, most of them opened up. Jeff shared with them his story alcoholism, which clearly touched some of the young men. One of the men sang a song for us at the end to thank us for inviting him over.

After this gathering, we returned to the Joe Slovo squatter camp with food and toys for the kids. We arranged for the children to wash their hands, distributed sandwiches and popsicles, and then brought out several new soccer balls and jump ropes for the kids. The appearance of these new toys caused a bit of a frenzy at first but soon some jump rope games and soccer circles started up and everything fell into place. We were never let down by the ability of kids to just be kids no matter their situation.

Friday is the youth ministry night at Mayfair Baptist. Dozens of middle and high school-aged kids come to church every Friday for worship, games, and snacks. We opened the evening with a game of “Chubby Bunny,” in which contestants must stuff large marshmallows into their mouth and say the phrase “chubby bunny” after each marshmallow until they can’t get the words out clearly anymore. We led worship with songs and testimonies, one from Kelly for the second time on the trip.

Afterward, we facilitated a game of limbo and red light, green light in the church hall. (We learned earlier in the week that South Africans call traffic lights “robots,” but the game is still just “red light, green light.”) The evening culminated in an indoor soccer match of Americans versus South Africans and team USA won!

Ian is a chubby bunny!

Friday evening brought some welcomed rest!

Johannesburg, Day 5

Thursday, January 21
Our day started with a visit to another school. This time, we had an actual stage! Kids love singing silly songs with dances and this school was no exception. Willie preached and we distributed newspapers to some of the teachers.



Our next prison visit was a grave one. This section of the prison held prisoners who were awaiting a trial. Some of the young men had been behind bars for several years for alleged crimes and would stay there until their meeting with a judge. Regardless of where these men would end up, they were scared and eagerly awaiting someone to give them some hope. After some music, testimonies, and preaching from Willie, many of them expressed a desire to know Jesus. Many individually stood up and identified themselves. As with all of the other prison visits, we noticed that 99 percent of the prisoners are black, which is disproportionate in a country that is 10 percent white. I noticed that one Arab man announced a desire to be a Christian and I wondered what his presumably Muslim community might think of his decision.

When we finished, the men swarmed us to get Christian literature. We had some pamphlets in several languages, and the Zulu ones went the fastest. I think we ran out of Zulu but many of them read English and Afrikaans as well, so I think everyone got something to read. There was an overwhelming demand for copies of the Bible and we had them sign request forms to get them each a Bible.

It rained heavily most of the day. We ate lunch at a trendy restaurant called Catz Pyjamas" which had a lot of Mexican-inspired dishes, something we all craved after a week away from Texas. Nasty weather and exhaustion kept us from doing much more work that afternoon, but we needed the time to deflate emotionally, write in our journals, and share our experiences and feelings with our comrades.

Johannesburg, Day 4

Wednesday, January 20

Another early morning brought us to a small, crowded, poor school. We had previously visited this school to make sure that it was still open, as Mayfair had made failed attempts to reach the school by phone. The school’s lack of funding resulted in its phone lines being disconnected, resulting in some difficulty communicating. The children crammed into a room to see and hear us.

Kids at this school were very mature and wanted to be involved in our songs and Biblical quiz game. We were astonished at some of the incredible answers these small children produced! Though seating was limited and rain fell outside, the children did not want to leave this little room and we did not want to leave them and their singing. This is among the schools that Ryan will visit during his stay in Joburg to teach the children Bible verses.

We next visited yet another section of the Joburg prison. Most of these men were on their way out of the prison system, back to freedom. A heavy rain during the previous night made an intimate outdoor worship service difficult, as the men were not allowed to stand in the muddy grass in front of our “stage.” The men seemed at first to stand far off, ignoring our music and stories. We had little direction but that which the Spirit gave us and everything worked out at the end. Paul, a man from Mayfair Baptist, shared his testimony in which he turned his life over to God after going to prison for armed robbery. Some of the men started singing along with us and opened up to our stories. In the end, it turned out that they were very eager to speak with us. Kelly approached a man who was very eager to learn about God. Jonathan was amazed after speaking to a man whose theological articulation rivaled most preachers. God is moving among the men in Joburg prison, creating educated leaders and men thirsting for God.

We then gathered food at Makro (South African equivalent to Costco) to distribute at the Simon Pilo (spelling?) squatter camp. We bought enough sacks of corn meal (a staple in the local diet) and canned fish to make 75 parcels for the families there. We prepared the parcels at the church and loaded them into the van. Upon arrival, we distributed newspapers to the residents and told them we would be distributing food. As the line grew, we quickly realized that we did not have nearly enough food to feed all of the 4000 or so residents in this community. I have never seen such desolation in a city. We spoke to the people about Jesus and sang a few humble songs. We learned later that many of the people here have HIV and they cannot get medicine to deal with the symptoms until they have severe AIDS. This camp serves as a hospice for many of the people who this society would rather forget. This was the lowest moment of our trip: looking in the eyes of hundreds of families and saying, “Sorry, we have food for some, but not for enough for you.” It was very humbling to know the limits of our actions, but we left reassured that, although we did not get food to everyone, the few who did get food were profoundly touched.

Pastor Willie and some of the mission house residents prepared a braai, South African barbeque, for us back home that night. It was odd to eat so lavishly on home-cooked meal that night after seeing the stark poverty of the squatter camps. There was a fierce soccer game of keep-away on the lawn while the rest of us enjoyed the sunset and the warmth of the grill in the carport. We watched bats zipping around the trees above us until it got too dark to see bats.




making pap.


Willie and the mission house crew cooking the meat.


the mission house, our home for a week.

Johannesburg, Day 3

Tuesday, January 19

We woke up early again to the “caw!” of our favorite noisy birds. A simple breakfast and a prayer sent us out to the school we attempted the day before. An unexpected crowd of over 1,100 kids met us in the schoolyard. We recognized some of the children from our visit to the squatter camp on the previous day. We were astounded by the discipline of these children when we compared them to our experience of school children in the U.S. Kelly shared her testimony with the children on a microphone! She never expected to do such a thing but God gave her the courage and the words to have an effect on these children. We sang a few fun songs and handed out some worship CDs. Pastor Willie spoke to the children with stories and parables about how Jesus can make their lives complete.

We followed our school visit with our second visit to the Joburg prison. A large inflatable pool was being filled in preparation for baptisms that morning. We led the prisoners in some songs, shared some testimonies, and worshiped with them as about 35 men were baptized. Several others decided to give their lives to Jesus that morning as well. We learned that many of the other men present had been baptized in previous years because of Pastor Willie’s ministries. It was a beautiful sunny day, unlike the rainy one the day before. Jonathan met one man named John who is scheduled for release in a few months. John said that he has been studying broadcasting while in prison and plans to use his knowledge and skills to spread the Gospel when he gets out.

John is the man on the right with dreadlocks, in the photo below:

We spent part of the afternoon searching for souvenirs at the Bruma Open Air Market. This is very similar to an American craft market or a flea market. Some of the items sold there were of questionable quality. Many of the sales people were very pushy and would tell you anything to make a sale. It was very annoying at first but after a while, it became fun to see what kind of outrageous claims the salespeople would make. We al caught a little sunburn and carted home some bargained trinkets.

Johannesburg Day 2

Monday, January 18

We woke up early and somewhat groggy to go speak to children at a local school but the rain made setting up a large outdoor convocation of students impossible. We would have to return later in the week. Instead, we got a head start on our ministry at a Johannesburg prison. We piled our 12-person team into a passenger van and splashed our way to the prison. Security was very tight but the guards at the gate is used to seeing the Mayfair Baptist Church van there, so we got through easily enough. A chaplain led us through the maze-like prison corridors to a section where medium-security prisoners live. We fanned out in the courtyard to distribute Gospel newspapers and invite the residents to a worship service. One of the guards told us that our message would be well received on such a gloomy, wet day because the prisoners appreciate visitors on rainy days.

The mission team set up in the back corner of the section kitchen to play some worship songs, share testimonies, and introduce Willie’s message to whoever would show up. We did not know what to expect but gradually the room began to fill with men in bright orange jumpsuits. Just when we thought we would start worship, one of the men started singing, presumably in Zulu. A few men answered the song and began what would be the most intense worship we have ever experienced. This was Kelly’s favorite moment of the whole trip. Dozens of men poured into the room, singing loudly, clapping, stomping, dancing, and sweating for what seemed like hours. When it came time for us to lead worship our way, we felt inadequate in face of such devotion. We humbly led the men in some new English songs, testimonies from the team, and Willie preached. Many of the men expressed interest in enrolling in a discipleship class and many more requested copies of the Bible to read for themselves.

two similar videos of some singing:

longer video of other songs including vocal mass-prayer at the end:

After leaving the cheerful men in that dank prison, we went back to the church to make sandwiches to bring to the children of the Joe Slovo squatter camp. About 3000 people live in this dusty, crowded community of rented shacks and debris. The children were playing soccer in the street among shattered bottles, many of them in their bare feet, while a pile of burning trash constantly fouled the air a few yards away. We distributed sandwiches to the children in the most organized manner we could manage. The children LOVE to have their photograph taken and grab at our cameras to see the digital image after each flash.

A new soccer ball emerged from the van and a new circle of kicking, knees, and head butts opened up there on the street. The 2010 World Cup begins in just a few months and we can tell that the local are extremely excited to host the event. It is amazing to see how something as simple as a soccer ball instantly crumbles all barriers of color, language, race, and nationality.

We ate dinner that night at a trendy restaurant called News Café. It was emotional difficult to muster up and appetite after all we had seen: joyful prisoners who see nothing of the world but the often-cloudy South African sky and children who will dance and laugh for anyone despite their empty bellies and cold homes.

A Johannesburg story, day 1

Sunday, January 17

We arrived in Joburg the night before but could do little but sleep that first night. Jonathan had trouble sleeping most of the week due to mental over-stimulation and Kelly was suffering from a stomach virus for the first day. We were both drowsy but kept our heads up. Pastor Willie Dengler of Mayfair Baptist Church preached that morning to his congregation and we got our first taste of South African worship songs. The church sings a mix of songs in English, Afrikaans, and Zulu when they gather.

We ate, gathered supplies, and rested to refuel ourselves from the long journey so we would be ready to serve for the rest of the week. Sunday evening worship at Mayfair was much more energetic since we had gotten some sleep. The people there are very warm and welcoming.

back home, back to normal?

We have returned to San Antonio but our hearts are still in Joburg. After a week of jetlag and processing all that we did and saw, I think it is time to write about it. I will soon post more photos and stories. For know, enjoy this little moment.