Our Time at Living Hope

Our time at Living Hope started with a day of touring all of the different community centers and projects that Living Hope has. We started at the main center, which is best described as a campus. There were a couple of buildings that house offices and workspaces for staff, and in a separate building is a healthcare center. We visited several community buildings within different settlements that Living Hope is involved with.

One settlement we visited is called Ocean View, which is a coloured community.

*You may have had a big red flag when you read "coloured". Side note: there are about 4 different racial groups in South Africa. The most commonly known are black and white. Black people make up around 75% of the population, white people make up about 13% of the population. A third group is the coloured population, which makes up about 9% of the population. A smaller fourth group is Indian, which makes up about 3% of the population. ALL of these terms: black, white & coloured are politically correct and not offensive. Its hard to get used to, but trust me.

Anyway, Ocean View is a settlement that looks different from other usual settlements. Because most of the buildings are "real" buildings, as opposed to shacks, it gives Ocean View an appearance of not being such a bad place. Unfortunately substance abuse, unemployment and abuse are giant issues in this community. Here are what the homes looked like:

The streets, in my opinion were eerily empty. In the other settlements we visited there were people walking in the streets, out and about. What is interesting about the homes is that often you will see small little luxuries....often people who have little to no money will own a television and a dvd player, or a cell phone, or other items like that. For a long time this was a confusing thing to me. It seems as though it is very clear--eat or watch tv? But its not as clear cut as that. At a certain level, a person needs to keep their sanity, to live life in a relatively "normal" way, to be connected to the world....and sometimes thats what a cell phone or a television can bring. Many of us would probably be willing to give up a few things if it meant we could keep our cell phone, even if we pretend to hate it.

It was an interesting place, to say the least. We met a woman who runs an afternoon program for children in the community, which provides a safe place for children to spend their afternoons. There is also a small meal that is served to children who attend. We met the woman who runs the program for the 62 children who attend....all by herself! To make things even crazier, she runs the program out of a room that is smaller than the size of my living room. It is a teeny room, and somehow this brave woman runs a program to give these kids a safe place, food, and love. Its a beautiful thing.

Meet the Team

I'm realizing it might be beneficial to introduce our team to you. We are definitely a potpourri of individuals...among us we had several parents, a couple social workers, a graffiti artist, a couple musicians, a couple staff members from Mars, a grant writer, a seamstress, and a whole lot more. It was quite the mix, and we had a marvelous time together. Here are a couple pictures of the team along the way...

The picture to the left is missing Jamie, who was missing in action at the time the photo was taken. I think he still holds it against us for taking it without him...
The picture down to the right is of our whole team at Cape Point.


During the first half of our trip in Cape Town, we stayed at Living Hope's team house. To be honest, we were really spoiled. The house was perfect for teams, but I suppose that would be the case since thats what its intended for. The house has a staff that helps coordinate visiting team's schedules and prepares many meals for teams as well. They do an excellent job....and are sure to get you anywhere on time....

The house is owned by an American who wanted the house to be used for this purpose. He is a truly generous person to allow visitors experience the beautiful view that the house has. It is located on Nordhoek Beach. Below is a picture of the view from the terrace.

To the right is a picture of the team house. It is the house right up in the front of the picture...not the villa tucked away in the mountain....: )

We were very spoiled with the view!

Masiphumelele and King of Kings

The morning after we arrived, we got up to visit two local churches. The first church we went to was King of Kings Baptist Church. The church was very traditional and reminded me a lot of the church I grew up in. It was filled by mostly Afrikaaners (people of Dutch anscestry...think Grand Rapids), singing mostly familiar hymns and choruses. The only real marked difference between the King of Kings and the church I grew up in was the fact that everyone was bilingual and had much cooler accents than we did. Pastor John Thomas spoke that morning....we had a chance later in the week to get to know John and his wife Avril. They are inspiring, brilliant people.

We left King of Kings quickly on our way to Masiphumelele Baptist Church (pictured below).

This is the church that recently tragically lost their pastor, Phillip Mokson. Click here to read more about what happened.

Masiphumelele is a settlement in Fish Hoek, a town next door to Cape Town. Our experience at Masiphumelele Baptist Church was unforgettable. We only stayed for the worship portion of the gathering. We were told that the people of the church would feel obligated to feed our team of 10 after the gathering was finished...but they would likely be feeding us food that they couldn't afford to give us- so a meal for us would mean one less for their family. Also on a side note, the entire service was in Xhosa, a tribal language.

There is no formal start time for the gathering. One by one, people trickled into the open room (which is filled with chairs on Sundays). Suddenly a woman sitting in the row in front of me stood up and began to sing. Quickly the church stood to their feet and joined right in. The harmonies were perfect, the songs were beautiful. One after the other, songs were started by a single woman. There was dancing and clapping, and the most beautiful singing I've ever heard. It was a musical delicacy. I'm not sure it could be reproduced. Somewhere during the singing the room filled up with people....the men sat in the front left, the children sat in the front right, and the majority of the room was filled with women. Many of the women were wearing similar outfits of black skirts and white button-up shirts. The spirit of the people that were gathered there was so beautiful...a mix of hope and joy with grief and pain from the loss of their pastor and friend, Phillip Mokson. It was a truly beautiful experience, and it was something I could never forget.

A little background

We spent our trip in two halves: the first half in Cape Town with Living Hope, and the second half in Stellenbosch with Global Life Works.


Meet Living Hope.


Meet Global Life Works.



South Africa is an absolutely breathtaking place. It makes the country a very confusing place...more on that later.


First, an introduction to the landscape. Cape Town has been said by many to be the most beautiful place on earth. I'm pretty sure its true...check out Cape Town....(make sure you click on this picture or you might miss the best part of the view).

Several miles off the coast is where Robben Island is located. Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were imprisoned during the Apartheid era in South Africa.

Stellenbosch is further inland in the Western Cape. Stellenbosch is known for Stellenbosch University, and is known for being the heart of South Africa's wine industry. The landscape is beautiful--there are mountians, vineyards, wineries, and right in the middle of it all is the settlement of Kayamandi (aka "shantytown"). It is very strange....much more on that later. But at first sight, Stellenbosch is also not too shabby...have a looksee:

Thank you.

After some thought about how to properly convey our experience in South Africa, I decided that perhaps the best way would be to blog about it. This way you wouldn't receive a single space printed novel via USPS (with $17 postage on the package), and you could read at your convenience....and its environmentally friendly. And if all goes as planned, I will be updating this blog over the next couple of weeks with more photos and stories.

So, to all of you kept us in your thoughts and prayers, who helped financially to make the trip possible, and for those of you who share our love for South Africa: THANK YOU.