Here’s an update from Pastor David on how the South Africa trip is going so far:
“Everything has gone very well. We had quite a long plane ride and everyone was exhausted after an 18 hr flight.
We left the airport and went directly to Cental Methodist Mission in downtown Johannesburg to work with their ministry feeding the homeless. Every Wednesday they take soup, bread, and a team of medical students around to four locations in the city center area. We distributed bread and then spent 15-20 minutes getting to know the people living on the streets. The focus of the ministry was to not just to provide food and basic medical care, but to instill some basic human dignity by learning names and stories of those we served.
Thursday we visited museums – the Apartheid Museum, Nelson Mandela House, the Hector Peterson Museum (named after a boy killed during the student protests in Soweto in 1976 that turned global attention to the brutality of Apartheid). All these museums overwhelmed us with the depth of suffering under apartheid and deepened our experience of the history – much of it within our lifetimes – that continues to shape this country.
On Friday we did more touring. We spent the morning at the old National Prison that is now a museum and the site of the Constitutional Court (equivalent of our Supreme Court). Again, the brutality and dehumanizing treatment of prisoners – many of them political prisoners who were organizing to fight apartheid – was overwhelming to many of us. In the afternoon, we drove north to Pretoria and ate lunch in the gardens of the Union Building (equivalent of our White House).
The weather in Joburg was chilly – the highs were in the 60’s to low 70’s and it got below 50 at night. The power went out at our retreat center, so we spent Thursday evening until we departed on Saturday without power (or hot water after Friday morning). But we were able get our meals at a nearby conference center and got showers on Friday evening at a pastor’s house who lived nearby.
We had an early wake-up on Saturday morning for a 7 am flight to Durban. Sleep has been in short supply thus far. When we arrived in Durban, we went to Pinetown Methodist Church (just outside of Durban) which is hosting us this week.
We then toured the apartheid museum in Durban that gave us a specific look at how the system worked in a place like Durban.
Next, we went to lunch at the Hillcrest Aids Centre. We learned about their beaders and plant nursery (economic empowerment programs) and caregivers at the AIDS Centre. Three of the ladies shared their stories how they came to work there and what the programs and care means for them and their families.
After lunch (and after spending some time buying beaded crafts), we traveled to the ‘Don McKenzie TB Hospital”. We visited with one of the two doctors there, and then went through the wards, offering tubes of toothpaste, getting to know and praying for the patients. As at the AIDS clinic and on the streets of Joburg, getting to meet and know these wonderful but suffering people as affected us profoundly.
In the evening, we meet our host families, and all traveled to one of their homes for a cook-out. Most of the host families have high school or college-aged children and have been most gracious.
This morning, we traveled to downtown Durban to Central Methodist Mission. We attended a small service in English at 9:30, and then stayed for about one hour of the huge 11 am service conducted in Zulu.
Being from Florida, we then went to the beach. We all waded or swam a bit in the Indian Ocean. Durban is warm, even now in winter. temps were in the upper 70’s or low 80’s, with beautiful sunshine.
This evening we are leading the evening service at Pinetown Methodist.”
