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!
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