During a 24 hour prayer watch in the early hours of December 17th, somewhere around 3:00 AM in the morning, while standing on the back deck of our team house here in Cape Town, one of the young people working with us saw flames shooting high up into the sky a couple kilometers away in a community called Masiphumelele. ‘Masi’ is one of the communities where we serve the poor.
The young lady who spotted the fire quickly woke up others on the outreach and they began to pray for God to stop the fire. Within minutes it began to rain and the fire was quenched.
But the damage was already done to people’s small shack homes. The fire burned 160 homes and left 600 people homeless. Within two hours the young people participating in “Ten Days for Jesus,” a Christmas outreach during December, were on the site of the fire. But the rains were hindering the help they brought to the people forced out of their homes. So the team prayed again. This time they prayed for God to stop the rains. Once again, God extended his hand and the rain stopped. Rescue operations got under way.
It was a long weekend of removing rubble from the home sites, distributing blankets, food and materials to begin rebuilding, and working besides the people to reconstruct their tiny shack homes.
And it showed 30 young people on the outreach that God answers prayer.
It was a tragedy that the fire happened in the first place. Sadly, fires in the townships are common on Friday and Saturday nights. Mostly they are caused when someone is drunk and accidentally turns over a kerosene cooking stove.
We are committed to long term solutions to the housing problems of the poor here in Cape Town. We can’t do much to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people, but we can help one family at a time, one life at a time.
And we can serve besides people in their times of tragedy. Listening, getting involved, serving where needed, and praying expresses the love of Jesus. We understand in times like the fire what Jesus felt when it says of him,
“Jesus was moved with compassion for the crowds because their problems were so great - they didn’t know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36
Click here to view a slide show of some pictures of the damage to Masiphumelele. They are also on the photos page.
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Justice. Community. Hope. Discipleship: Our vision is to establish a training and outreach community in Cape Town that impacts Africa from Cape Town to Cairo. Our vision is for a multi-cultural community that exemplifies the kingdom of God and brings heaven a little closer to earth. read more
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Starting a House Church
by Larry Kreider & Floyd McClung
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It`s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can`t find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.
Bono, rock star and anti-poverty activistWhy Africa?
It is Africa's hour: Africans are rising up in great numbers to take hold of the promises of God for their continent. The president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, says there is an African renaissance in the making. Everywhere you turn you find a spirit of entrepreneurship and vision for new things. read more
WOW God! We pray on and plead the blood of Jesus over you.
Love with prayers,
Paddy
Praise God for the display of His power. We are anxious to hear a follow-up on how God turned this for good. May many come to Jesus through this.
When God came to planet Earth he was born to a poor family. He spent his formative years as a refugee in Egypt. As I read about God moving today around the world it it usually with the poor. He understands what it is to be poor, to be raised by his mother in his teens. He knows what it is to be a refugee. How many rich refugees do you know? I believe his ministry is with the poor today as it was when Jesus walked this Earth. The prostitutes, lepers, the opressed were in the focus of his minisrty. What he started two thousand years ago is multiplied today as the poor and opressed are everywhere. He is the I AM, the present, the now forever.
As he is in us all we have to do is go. He is sending me to Botswana for four years and I am excited to see how he will manifest himself in me. May God continue to bless the young people who are willing to make a difference.
hi Sally and Floyd, i love to see how the Lord turns bad into good. He truly is a compasionate, merciful, God. May the Lord continue to bless you mightly. IN HIM, nancy