Our last week--from Barb

This is our last week here, so I have spent time at the Living Hope Homeless Center, on several mornings, where I have had the joy of counseling several people including a young man, Greg, who is not really homeless, but who lives in a shack in a nearby township. It is a very abusive situation with an alcoholic father who beats him, his mother and younger brothers when he is drunk.

Greg is a parapalegic as a result of a shooting accident several years ago and he is brought to the LH Homeless center when possible to give him some relief from his home environment and let him help around the center. He is 23 years old and wants to get some education to be able to work with computers.

The staff at Living Hope are working with Social Services to find ways to help Greg, in the meantime he continues to peel potatoes, make crafts or whatever he can do to help. Greg is trapped in a “hopeless” situation apart for the intervention of God and people who are praying for him.

As Greg and I prayed together we asked the Lord to help him focus on the love of Jesus and the fact that God spared his life in the accident for a purpose. We also asked the Lord to bring help to him so that he can move forward in his life in spite of the very difficult circumstances. His life is surrounded by poverty, crime, drugs and abuse. This ministry is so well named..."Living Hope"!

This week I have also revisited a township called Red Hill. This is a very poor squatters camp with very rustic shacks, dirt streets and a high percentage of HIV/AIDS. The photo is of the Staff from Living Hope who work there and a group of men who are part of the support groups which have been formed to help encourage people and teach them about a number of topics such as care for chronic diseases (TB, diabetes, asthma) .

The support group also encourages growth in faith and helping one another. Today I was asked to talk about “how to pray for your community”. We did a very simple, foundational talk on praying for one another and for their community. I decided to involve them in a practical way by doing a prayer walk. Some of them had never prayed with anyone else, one man said he couldn’t pray out loud, another said it was too cold to go outside (it’s summer here-warm and sunny). So, we enthusiastically divided into pairs with a staff member walking with the support group folks and before they could think of any other excuses we moved out to walk and pray!

When we got back to the shipping “container”, which is their Living Hope Center, they were singing and smiling. They all said it was a wonderful experience and they would like to do it again. We felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as we sang together. They sang songs in their language, Xhosa, and followed in English so I could understand. Beautiful! The Life Skill staff leader said he will follow through and make sure they pray for one another and do prayer walks for their community every week! Praise God for this special anointed time!!

Thanks for your prayers,

Barb