I lazily attempted to keep a running diary of my daily events during our trip to South Africa. What follows below is that lazy attempt. The words in quotes are the actual things I wrote in my journal, followed by a brief description (if necessary) to describe the words I wrote and the significance behind them. Whenever possible, I tried to document the time (local time depending on what time zone I was in) at which these events occurred. Hope that makes at least some sense…enjoy.
Friday, January 22nd – 7:08 am: “Here I am, send me.” For some reason, this video popped in my head (click here). I have a vague idea as to why… after all this video is pretty amazing, and does talk about going to all ends of the Earth, so there’s a start. Not sure exactly why it stirred my brain though. Perhaps it was out of gratitude for the things I was experiencing. Perhaps it was out of joy for the place that I was. Perhaps it doesn’t matter….just watch the video.
Friday, January 22nd – 7:28 am: “Ryan just shut us all up…God is pleased…the sun has broken through…” Let me set the scene a bit. We have been waiting in a meeting room at the Joburg Women’s Prison for about 30 minutes. Things aren’t going quite as planned…we were already supposed to be meeting with the prison guards, but lack of communication has canceled that plan. We wait…and we wait…and we wait. We’ve taken all the pictures of each other we possible can…and people are getting antsy. A guard comes in and tells us it might not be for at least another hour before we can talk to the women in the prison as well. We wait…and we wait…and we wait. Then, Ryan pulls out his guitar and beings to play. At first, it’s just background noise to our conversations. Then, he begins to sing, and our conversations come to an end. Before you know it, we’re singing along with him…we’re worshiping in the moment. After 15 minutes of singing and praising, a guard walks in, and the music stops. She tells us with a smile that we can meet with the women inmates now…and with that, we’re off. We gather our belongings, shuffle through more security gates, and I glance out a window and see that, for practically the first time all week, the sun has broken through the clouds…God is pleased…”when shadows fall on us, we will not fear, we will remember…”
Friday, January 22nd – 2:20 pm: “Felt like I was back in a bar.” We met with what Pastor Willie has tagged ‘The Street Kidz’. This is basically any guy that lives on the street and will get in a van, come to the church, and eat free food. We met these guys in the Hall at church. In the middle of the room was one long table, and sitting at it were about 20 men…ages ranging from 18-35. We gave them some food to eat and water to drink, and played a few songs for them. Then, I was asked to sit with them and share a bit about myself. I sat down at an empty chair amongst them and just started to small-talk with them a bit as they ate. A few gave me their attention…others continued on with their own conversations…all were drunk. I started to tell them about my issue with alcohol, and how it nearly ruined my life. At that, a couple more men stopped talking and focused on my words. When I mentioned the word ‘Jesus’, one guy got angry, stood up and walked away…only to return a couple minutes later. I sat there with those drunken men, and spoke truth. Some were captivated and some were annoyed, but all heard the word. Afterward, Willie spoke briefly to them, and flat out told them that they were all in horrible shape…like I’ve said before, he doesn’t hold back the truth. When we were finished, they were loaded back into the van and driven back to their street corners. A couple people approached me afterward and basically said, “sorry some of those guys were rude and didn’t pay attention”. I didn’t mind at all, I just told them that it felt like I was talking to friends at a bar…everyone is drunk, loud and has a short attention span. Two men showed genuine interest in what I had to say, and were tried of being a drunk as well. That more than satisfied my soul.
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