I Will NEVER Forget.
Sometimes I look back at my journey to South Africa last summer and wonder
what happened to all of the people we met in the squatter camps.
And then, I start to picture their faces and remember their stories. Each of them had a different story to tell. They all came from different places and different walks of life. But the one thing I will always remember is the smiles on their faces despite the poverty and harsh life around them.
There are days when all I can do is smile when I remember the little kids who I danced with and the parents I laughed with and shared Christ with. But other days, I can't help but end up on my knees or face down on the floor crying for them...
I don't know what happened to those families or the children I met. And it scares me... not knowing. The worst part is... I don't know if some of them even survived up to this point. I know that sounds so harsh and depressing but that is the reality of the squatter camps. The people there are struggling so hard to survive and many don't make it year to year.
When I went to Diepsloot I heard of the horrors many people had to face every day and every night.
-There were women who were being raped by men or beaten by their husbands
-Children who were sexually abused
-Families starving because parents can't find a job to buy food to feed them
-Crime
-No clean water to drink, bathe with, or cook with.
-Floods that destroy shacks and even take lives
-People were dying of treatable and preventable illnesses because they had no money to get medical help.
-The statistics were, 1 in 4 people were dying of HIV AIDS.
-There were religious cults like the ZCC controlling people's lives. (I was told by many that if they gave their lives to Christ and stopped following the ZCC they could be killed.)
-There were prostitutes, drug dealers and drunk men on every corner.
-People were living under the bondage of spirits and ancestral worship.
-The local witch doctor was payed to curse neighbors for wronging them.
No matter how many times I walked through those squatter camps I will still never be able to understand the horrors these people face. I couldn't imagine myself in their posistion. Those people are written off by all of society. No one wants to go to go to those squatter camps because they are afraid.
I remember there being a big road that ran next to the Diepsloot squatter camp. There must have been hundreds of cars passing by everyday. And I couldn't help but wonder "How could all of these people pass by a place like this and not even think twice about it?" I wondered if maybe some of these people drove by everyday and had just learned to forget about it. Maybe they are even too afraid to wonder what goes on within the walls of the squatter camps.
But I can assure you... I will NEVER forget.
It is impossible to walk through a place like that everyday for weeks and not be changed. It is impossible to forget the faces of the people who had nothing yet invited you into their homes to offer you what little they had. It is impossible to foget the times when our bus pulled in everyone would smile and wave at us. Children would jump up and down and run next to our bus.
It is impossible to forget the bonds and the friendships we made with those people.
I will never forget the children waiting for me every day as I stepped off the bus. They would run up to me with a huge grin on their face and try to be the first to hug me. Soon I was surrounded by children trying to hug me and they would all take turns holding my hand. They would all dance with me and beg for me to pick them up and hold them. All the little girls would sit next to me and play with my hair and touch my face.
I will NEVER forget them. I will NEVER foget the hope so many people were given when my group and I were able to tell them about Christ. I will NEVER forget that no matter how much I worry about their circumstance, God has it all under controll and I have to trust Him. No storm and no struggle is ever to great for Him to handle.
I WILL NEVER FORGET
-There were religious cults like the ZCC controlling people's lives. (I was told by many that if they gave their lives to Christ and stopped following the ZCC they could be killed.)
-There were prostitutes, drug dealers and drunk men on every corner.
-People were living under the bondage of spirits and ancestral worship.
-The local witch doctor was payed to curse neighbors for wronging them.
No matter how many times I walked through those squatter camps I will still never be able to understand the horrors these people face. I couldn't imagine myself in their posistion. Those people are written off by all of society. No one wants to go to go to those squatter camps because they are afraid.
I remember there being a big road that ran next to the Diepsloot squatter camp. There must have been hundreds of cars passing by everyday. And I couldn't help but wonder "How could all of these people pass by a place like this and not even think twice about it?" I wondered if maybe some of these people drove by everyday and had just learned to forget about it. Maybe they are even too afraid to wonder what goes on within the walls of the squatter camps.
But I can assure you... I will NEVER forget.
It is impossible to walk through a place like that everyday for weeks and not be changed. It is impossible to forget the faces of the people who had nothing yet invited you into their homes to offer you what little they had. It is impossible to foget the times when our bus pulled in everyone would smile and wave at us. Children would jump up and down and run next to our bus.
It is impossible to forget the bonds and the friendships we made with those people.
I will never forget the children waiting for me every day as I stepped off the bus. They would run up to me with a huge grin on their face and try to be the first to hug me. Soon I was surrounded by children trying to hug me and they would all take turns holding my hand. They would all dance with me and beg for me to pick them up and hold them. All the little girls would sit next to me and play with my hair and touch my face.
I will NEVER forget them. I will NEVER foget the hope so many people were given when my group and I were able to tell them about Christ. I will NEVER forget that no matter how much I worry about their circumstance, God has it all under controll and I have to trust Him. No storm and no struggle is ever to great for Him to handle.
I WILL NEVER FORGET
LOVE IT!
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