Please meet Patrick and Claudia

I just returned from visiting an inner city church of some new friends of mine.

Meet Patrick and Claudia Crowster!

Their church sits on a square block and is surrounded by a steel fence. On top of the fence is razor sharp barbed wire. The church windows are covered to protect the glass and all but one door is boarded up. It looks like a war zone. It is. Right across the street lives a drug lord and traffic is constant. Jobless men are standing everywhere.

The church, built in 1879, was abandoned when the whites fled South Africa in 1993 at the end of apartheid. Refugees immediately moved in and over 1000 people started living and cooking inside the church on open fires using the pews, the floor boards and whatever else they could find. They were destroying the church. Patrick saw this and asked if he could have the building which is right in the middle of Woodstock, a very poor black Muslim section of Cape Town.

They gave him the building and he repaired what he could (looking for a work project?) and started a church which has about 100 worshipers each week. But, because of where it sits, it also has a ministry to 60 or so homeless people every Thursday evening with a hot meal, a hot shower and a Gospel message.

But, that's not all this couple is doing.

Claudia is a professional woman, so, during the day she is teaching the local women, many with no education, how to sew, cook, read, do first aid, get a job, save a marriage, raise their kids, care for babies, protect themselves from AIDS and so on. They have classes everyday from 9am to 3:30 pm year around and the women of the community come.

On one of our earlier blogs I spoke of how trapped a woman was when she had no skills. How she could be subjected to great abuse by the men around her. That is very true in this community. By training these women they are offering them a better life.

I sat with Patrick and listened to his vision for the church and the influence of the church in the community. Amazing. He is really making a difference in this community. When every one else left...he arrived and stayed!

I sat with Claudia and heard story after story of rescued women...praise God for this faithful, live by faith, woman. She could be doing a lot of other things, but there she is, giving back to the community capable women, one at a time!

Pray for Patrick and Claudia,

Ron