A Reflection About an Interaction With a Resident of Masiphumelele, a A Community of Beautiful People We Seek to Serve - Written by a team member named Karen Strickland

“I’ve been living here on these wetlands for twelve years now. We have been forgotten and overlooked. People come in here and raise our hopes then we never see them again. More people come in later and the same thing happens. “

When I told her to not give up hope she agreed and then I told her that even if she feels that people have forgotten about them, God will never forget her. She agreed wholeheartedly with this. She said that us coming there today gave her hope again. I think the fact that we would even dare to walk the filthy, muddy maze was an indication to her that we cared enough to come and presence ourselves in their midst…

She also said, “Last week my whole house was under water. There’s nothing we can do about it, the water just comes up when it rains. But we have nowhere else to go. But there is hope, things will change. He will not forget us.”

How is it possible for this woman to still smile? She’s brave. Her life is a daily struggle yet she can agree that God will never forget us and that there’s always hope in him. Where does she get the strength and the tenacity to mop up time and time again in these cramped, awfully depressing conditions.

We prayer-walked these filthy, muddy pathways, networking through the flimsy, roughly made wood and iron or wooden shacks – mostly 2mX3m, hopelessly inadequate. Their front doors are about one and a half meters from their neighboring walls, or even at times the view from your front door is your neighbor’s bed. The children play in the dirt, the muck and the mire – they seem happy enough, there’s a lot of them around. I think disease must thrive in these unsanitary conditions.
May God’s grace and his blessing be upon these people. Lord show us what we can do to reach out to these people with your love and practical deeds.