4. Isaiah 61

I enjoyed DTS and was enjoying South Africa, but I still had no clue why exactly, of all the places in the world, I was there. Well, all of that changed in the events of one memorable night.
One Thursday night, when a group of friends and I were in town hanging out with the kids I saw something that impacted me in a way that I could have never imagined. We were just hanging out and talking with a group of about ten kids.
There was also an older homeless man named Snakes that was hanging around and talking with us. One of the kids, a small ten year old, was teasing an older street lady and she went up and complained to Snakes.
He went straight over to the kid, who was four times smaller than him, and backhanded him across the face. The small boy’s body flew back, like a rag doll, from the blow. His feet were lifted off the ground and he almost did a complete backwards flip, landing on his head. I can still, to this very day, vividly see the image of the small boy flying backwards and hitting the ground.
The boy jumped up and ran off in tears. This was the first time that I had ever seen one of the kids cry. Up to that point I had known them as being extremely “hard”. He ran over and sat on a bench and sobbed.
I didn’t really blame Snakes much because I realized that, though it was wrong, it was the only way he knew to handle the situation, and he was probably treated the same way when he was younger. At the same time, I felt bad for the kid.
I went over and sat beside the kid. When I sat down, I saw that he was crying uncontrollably and that his tears were coming from much deeper than just a hit across the face. It was almost as if that had been the last straw, and the hit across the face was just the thing that burst open the floodgates of all the pain, hurt, and grief that was bottled up so deep within.
I put my arm around him and tried to comfort him but felt incapable. There was really nothing I could do or say at that time and even if I had thought of anything, I didn’t speak Afrikaans at that point and he didn’t speak or understand English.
I was torn. On one side, I was happy that I could be there and offer what little comfort I could. But on the other side, I realized that there were much deeper issues that needed long-term attention. That was when something started happening in my heart. He finally stopped crying and seemed all right and I went home and went to bed.
The next day I was miserable. I kept seeing that picture of the little boy getting hit, over and over again in my head. Anytime I closed my eyes, or even blinked I saw the vivid scene play through my mind. I went to class but didn’t pay much attention and for the rest of the day I could not really figure out what was going on inside of me.
Finally, that evening, I went into my room, shut the door and decided to ask for some answers.
I started talking, out loud, to God. I said, “Ok, God, I don’t know what’s going on but I feel miserable and I’m not walking out of this room until you speak to me and tell me what is going on!!”
It was amazing! The thought, “Isaiah 61” immediately came into my head. Up to that point, I was not familiar with that scripture. I actually opened up my Bible half expecting to read something about a destruction of some city or something like that. I was taken back when I began to read the scripture. I started reading,

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;”

As I read those lines, my eyes filled up with tears, so much that I almost couldn’t read on. I began to cry pretty hard and I read on,

“to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. THEY will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord to display His glory. THEY shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; THEY shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.”

Right then and there I knew that the Lord was calling me to work fulltime with the kids.
After that night, the other details started to fall into place one by one. I continued to pray and I got a specific vision of how to approach working with the kids. I saw that there were actually tons of people working with the kids in downtown Cape Town.
There were homes, shelters, and daily programs offered for the kids. There were soup kitchens and places where they could go to get meals, showers, and haircuts. All of these services were being provided by Christian organizations, non-Christian organizations, youth groups, churches, and even random individuals.
All of these are great (some actually are not), but it seemed like there was something missing. I saw that all of these people who offered these different services to the kids expected the kids to come to their program and conform to their rules. No one was really going out on a regular basis and hanging out with the kids on their terms and in their territory.
The ones that did hang out with the kids on the streets would not allow them to swear or use drugs in front of them and it was also very much a specific time when they would go. It was more of a nine-to-five kind of thing, a job.
Another thing that I noticed was that the majority of the relationships the kids had with the people in these organizations was based on whatever they could get out of them.
They would go to these people or organizations for the food or the clothes or whatever it is and as long as they got it, they were happy. But if they didn’t receive what they wanted, for whatever reason, they would be upset with the people or organization and would try and manipulate the situation by not attending the program anymore or by going to another organization and saying bad things about the other one.
The kids are aware of the division between the different organizations and they use it to their advantage.
Through these observations I got the vision to just go out to the streets on a daily basis, hang out with the kids, build their trust and relationships, and work towards bettering their lives in whatever way possible. For me, coming to the Lord was one of the most incredible things that ever happened to me, so I obviously also wanted to share that joy with them.
But at the same time, I saw something else that was happening. The kids’ perceptions of Christians in general were pretty warped, and for good reason. I was troubled to find out that their were some Christians that would offer things like clothes and food to the kids, but in order to get it the kids had to say the “sinners prayer” or something of that nature.
The kids in downtown Cape Town are probably the most “evangelized” group in all of Cape Town! They know exactly what to say to make the people happy, in order to get what they want out of them. I have heard some of the kids preach the gospel better than a TV evangelist.
I once heard that in one of the programs the kids were asked to draw pictures of different things. One of the pictures was supposed to be of a “Christian”. One kid drew a picture of a man holding a book. It was a good picture except there was one strange thing about it.
The man had two mouths and one ear. The child was questioned about it and he said, “Yeah, this is how Christians are!! They talk too much and never listen!!!” That is the view that most of the kids have about Christians.
I really felt that I was supposed to share with them the gift that I had received, the gift of the Lord, but I knew that it had to be in a real way. One of my favorite sayings is, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!” I adopted that as my motto and my approach with the kids.
I was called to walk with them, listen to them and to LIVE the gospel, rather than preach it. They have all had Christians come and preach to them and condemn their behavior and then go away. But they have rarely seen someone stick in there and walk through things with them and be an example to them rather than harp on them and preach to them.
So I had the vision and I went to my school leader with it. She told me that it sounded great and that YWAM would probably serve as a covering for me so I would not just be out there ‘on my own’ and would have an organization that could support me.
But she told me I should first go speak with Uncle Peter, the social worker at Beautiful Gate. I only saw that as confirmation because I had already made an appointment with him for that afternoon.
I went and spoke to Uncle Peter and told him my vision and then after I had said it all, I asked, “So…do you have a guy like that, and if not do you need a guy like that?”
He laughed and said that they did not “have a guy like that” but they would love to “have a guy like that”. I made plans to move back in August 2000 and to begin working with Beautiful Gate as their fulltime street worker.
I finished my DTS, doing my outreach phase in India. India was AMAZING and I learned a lot while I was there. I also enjoyed getting to know the street people, especially when I was in Calcutta. Spending time with them was only a confirmation that those are the type of people I love being around and I looked forward to moving back to Cape Town.
After my DTS, I went back to the States and began raising money to go back to South Africa. I had to raise a monthly support, to pay the monthly telephone bills, house rent and other expenses, because Beautiful Gate is a missions organization and I would be volunteering with them.
I raised the monthly support and money for a plane ticket and on August 1st of the year 2000, I found myself back in Cape Town.