"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." -Psalm 46:10-11
Learn the Culture: Poverty and Crime in Cape Town
After church last Sunday, where I learned that my friend Mitchell had been stabbed, I said hello to a man I assumed was a part of the congregation, taking part of the coffee after the service. Only after he blatantly told me, "I have been 15 years on the street," did I see his clothing and backpack and realize he was a homeless man. He wouldn't make consistent eye contact with me as he told me of his 'secret,' that he had a son and he quickly asked me to come with him a couple blocks down the street to 'buy his son a meal' at the fast food place there. Thankfully I was riding home with Wesley (our missions mentor) so I pawned off the responsibility easily to him who had a better understanding of dealing with poor folks in town and so that I wouldn't compromise my own safety. He disappeared. As we left he was waiting outside and urged me to ask. I asked Wesley if I could buy the man a meal. He said no. The man continued to beg Wesley as we got into his car and left. "Foster, hey, sorry man..." he told me about how this guy has been coming to the church after the service for handouts for a long time. They've tried to invite him into the congregation, but he's uninterested.
After seeing Mitchell in the hospital, the blade wound in his shoulder, his red eyes but good spirits, we stopped by McDonalds for those of us who hadn't eaten yet (around midnight). We got out of the car and a small woman began targeting Wesley for money. "Sorry ma'am. No, sorry ma'am." When we left with our meals she told him she'd 'watched his car' and wanted money for it. As we drove away she became verbally harassed by some other person out late on the street.
This all makes me sick. Sick that there are so many homeless people around to ask for your pity. Sick that if I help them with money, they may blow it on addictions. Sick that if I give them food they may target me and expect it every time I pass. If I don't give them what they want this time, they may become violent (a police officer's warning from past experiences). Sick that some of them want to live this way, and there's nothing I can do about it. So you pretend like they don't exist, because you can't support people who desire to live like this. And you stay in public areas, lest some homeless soul approach you from behind and when you refuse him money he begin to stab you.
I want to help. "Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard." -Proverbs 21:13 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" -Matthew 25:40 But when is it actually good and not actually harming these people? I won't be giving that man who hangs around after church anything, because I know it isn't really helping him. How can you be loving when you're tied to a chair by the circumstances from helping?
SPIRITUAL LIFE
I named this post the way I did for two main reasons. First of all for what happened to Mitchell last Sunday, and also because of the hurt and anger of specifically the colored community in South Africa.
Thankfully we (the Veritas group) had a meeting with Wesley mid week to go into Scripture (Psalm 23) and fellowship and talk through last Sunday! Ouma and Belinda (the heads of ISA here in Cape Town) came too for the support they were desiring through this all, which was really cool! I got to see Belinda's faith laid open, her great reverence for God and God's Spirit resting powerfully in her! The main theme God was showing me in this and Psalm 46 was that even though it doesn't feel like it, though the mountain is being cast into the sea and all you can do is stand and look at it in horror, He is powerfully present with those He loves. I saw Him in Mitchell as he quickly recovered and his spirits lifted again! How he's dealt with it is truly amazing and from God Himself! When someone acts in hate like this, it makes a person feel like hate is powerful and really affects people. And it most certainly does affect people. But "love never fails," (1st Corinthians 13: 8a). And not only is God present, He's teaching me He's there to 'set the table before us!' His good loving will to feed us and care for us will happen, even in the presents of our enemies; satan and his demons.
On Friday we had a particularly haunting lecture in African Dance. Our dance instructor, Professor Rani, despite looking no older than his mid 30's, is fifty years old and lived through part of the apartheid era. He painted a bleak picture of the pain and anger that he and many others deal with from that time, and the echoes that still linger in the government. White paper, black pain was the moto he introduced to us. Afterwards I was really struggling to understand where Christ was in all of this. The Gospel has been here since the 15th century, yet this country is still in massive amounts of pain, inequality, and many maimed hearts are still not healed. As the nurse put it, 'the Bible says in Revelation that satan will reign in these days.' So I asked Jesus, "where is Your kingdom! Where is the power of Your resurrection?" And He said to me; "'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.'" -Matthew 13:31b-32 "and again He said, 'To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.'" -Luke 13:20-21. Both of these processes, the tree growing, the leaven spreading, are invisible processes in the moment. If you look at the Gospel's spread in respect to all of time, it exploded and moved quickly all over the world! But in the moment when you look at the advance in the midst of the little time we experience, it seems slow. But like a tree in the lawn of my childhood, every time I come home I think, "wow, that tree's gotten bigger!" Similarly the kingdom can be seen advancing in some moments better than others! Jesus is here. And like soldiers behind enemy lines the kingdom remains hidden, slowly taking back this world with everlasting change until we make it to satan's throne itself and Jesus sends it toppling into the sea of fire!
join me: The Zulu Warrior Dance
Come with Mitchell and I as we walk to the School of Dance in UCT's lower campus! It's a nice little walk, past the School of Music, which my heart longs for, missing the amount of time I've spent in Dordt's music building! Music wafts to our ears like the smell of a pie from a baker's window! It's hot, and every time you pass under even a hint of a shadow you feel the difference! You make it to the little gym where we dance. It has nicer bleachers than anywhere back home; with backrests! Other international students are stretching or chatting. Some one tells you, "you better start practicing or he'll yell at you." So you do, as much as you remember. You do it halfheartedly, because to get intense now means you may burn out during the hour and fifteen minutes of nearly straight exercise later!
Professor Rani greets us with some pounding of his large cane (not for walking mind you! This is his spear), and we begin. The beginning 'warm up' is a long progressive dance, where each movement of a group of movements builds on each other. It starts with tapping your feet in the same pattern with decreasing frequency on each step at the end of each repeated pattern so that the pattern speeds up. He yells and we begin to step to our right four counts, then back to the left four counts. Then we do the same again but crouching down and flexing and arching our backs to puff our chest at cut time the beat. Then we do it again but this time raising our right hand and looking to the sky with each step to our right, and the opposite with each step to the left. We progress on to more moves, many of which are lifting your hands and looking up, or spreading them behind you and bowing low. You feel pretty enabled by the nature of the dance to worship God, despite your fierce concentration to remember the next move progression! The 'warm up' climaxes (thus far learned) in the Zulu warrior stance, crouched, legs spread far apart. Stomping to the beat with each stomp you alternate bowing down low and lifting your arms to God! "Strong arms", Professor Rani reminds us! This progresses into the same stomping, except looking up the whole time and alternating reaching higher with one arm at each stomp. You reach for God!
We break and the real dance begins! You get a little baton for your spear, your left arm crossed in front of you as our shield. This dance is all in the Zulu warrior stance, so you know you'll have beautiful thighs by the end of it, as Professor Rani said 😜 There's a lot of spear thrusting up and to your right, and back down and to your left, your eyes tracing the spear point! As you begin you feel excited, on the brink of adventure as you realize God is calling you to war. There's leaping with the percussion of the congregation's feet making a sound like the percussiveness of "Shi-ka-ka" when we land. "Bdah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah... one, two.. one, two, is the percussive sound of our feet as you 'gab the bull's horns.' In the middle of the dance you find your preordained partner to dance with, not a contact dance like swing, but an eye contact dance of the soul. Few in the group are willing to be so trusting yet. And it ends as abruptly as it began, having not yet learned the entire length of the choreography.
Thanks so much for reading this! God bless you!
After church last Sunday, where I learned that my friend Mitchell had been stabbed, I said hello to a man I assumed was a part of the congregation, taking part of the coffee after the service. Only after he blatantly told me, "I have been 15 years on the street," did I see his clothing and backpack and realize he was a homeless man. He wouldn't make consistent eye contact with me as he told me of his 'secret,' that he had a son and he quickly asked me to come with him a couple blocks down the street to 'buy his son a meal' at the fast food place there. Thankfully I was riding home with Wesley (our missions mentor) so I pawned off the responsibility easily to him who had a better understanding of dealing with poor folks in town and so that I wouldn't compromise my own safety. He disappeared. As we left he was waiting outside and urged me to ask. I asked Wesley if I could buy the man a meal. He said no. The man continued to beg Wesley as we got into his car and left. "Foster, hey, sorry man..." he told me about how this guy has been coming to the church after the service for handouts for a long time. They've tried to invite him into the congregation, but he's uninterested.
After seeing Mitchell in the hospital, the blade wound in his shoulder, his red eyes but good spirits, we stopped by McDonalds for those of us who hadn't eaten yet (around midnight). We got out of the car and a small woman began targeting Wesley for money. "Sorry ma'am. No, sorry ma'am." When we left with our meals she told him she'd 'watched his car' and wanted money for it. As we drove away she became verbally harassed by some other person out late on the street.
This all makes me sick. Sick that there are so many homeless people around to ask for your pity. Sick that if I help them with money, they may blow it on addictions. Sick that if I give them food they may target me and expect it every time I pass. If I don't give them what they want this time, they may become violent (a police officer's warning from past experiences). Sick that some of them want to live this way, and there's nothing I can do about it. So you pretend like they don't exist, because you can't support people who desire to live like this. And you stay in public areas, lest some homeless soul approach you from behind and when you refuse him money he begin to stab you.
I want to help. "Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard." -Proverbs 21:13 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" -Matthew 25:40 But when is it actually good and not actually harming these people? I won't be giving that man who hangs around after church anything, because I know it isn't really helping him. How can you be loving when you're tied to a chair by the circumstances from helping?
SPIRITUAL LIFE
I named this post the way I did for two main reasons. First of all for what happened to Mitchell last Sunday, and also because of the hurt and anger of specifically the colored community in South Africa.
Thankfully we (the Veritas group) had a meeting with Wesley mid week to go into Scripture (Psalm 23) and fellowship and talk through last Sunday! Ouma and Belinda (the heads of ISA here in Cape Town) came too for the support they were desiring through this all, which was really cool! I got to see Belinda's faith laid open, her great reverence for God and God's Spirit resting powerfully in her! The main theme God was showing me in this and Psalm 46 was that even though it doesn't feel like it, though the mountain is being cast into the sea and all you can do is stand and look at it in horror, He is powerfully present with those He loves. I saw Him in Mitchell as he quickly recovered and his spirits lifted again! How he's dealt with it is truly amazing and from God Himself! When someone acts in hate like this, it makes a person feel like hate is powerful and really affects people. And it most certainly does affect people. But "love never fails," (1st Corinthians 13: 8a). And not only is God present, He's teaching me He's there to 'set the table before us!' His good loving will to feed us and care for us will happen, even in the presents of our enemies; satan and his demons.
On Friday we had a particularly haunting lecture in African Dance. Our dance instructor, Professor Rani, despite looking no older than his mid 30's, is fifty years old and lived through part of the apartheid era. He painted a bleak picture of the pain and anger that he and many others deal with from that time, and the echoes that still linger in the government. White paper, black pain was the moto he introduced to us. Afterwards I was really struggling to understand where Christ was in all of this. The Gospel has been here since the 15th century, yet this country is still in massive amounts of pain, inequality, and many maimed hearts are still not healed. As the nurse put it, 'the Bible says in Revelation that satan will reign in these days.' So I asked Jesus, "where is Your kingdom! Where is the power of Your resurrection?" And He said to me; "'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.'" -Matthew 13:31b-32 "and again He said, 'To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.'" -Luke 13:20-21. Both of these processes, the tree growing, the leaven spreading, are invisible processes in the moment. If you look at the Gospel's spread in respect to all of time, it exploded and moved quickly all over the world! But in the moment when you look at the advance in the midst of the little time we experience, it seems slow. But like a tree in the lawn of my childhood, every time I come home I think, "wow, that tree's gotten bigger!" Similarly the kingdom can be seen advancing in some moments better than others! Jesus is here. And like soldiers behind enemy lines the kingdom remains hidden, slowly taking back this world with everlasting change until we make it to satan's throne itself and Jesus sends it toppling into the sea of fire!
join me: The Zulu Warrior Dance
Come with Mitchell and I as we walk to the School of Dance in UCT's lower campus! It's a nice little walk, past the School of Music, which my heart longs for, missing the amount of time I've spent in Dordt's music building! Music wafts to our ears like the smell of a pie from a baker's window! It's hot, and every time you pass under even a hint of a shadow you feel the difference! You make it to the little gym where we dance. It has nicer bleachers than anywhere back home; with backrests! Other international students are stretching or chatting. Some one tells you, "you better start practicing or he'll yell at you." So you do, as much as you remember. You do it halfheartedly, because to get intense now means you may burn out during the hour and fifteen minutes of nearly straight exercise later!
Professor Rani greets us with some pounding of his large cane (not for walking mind you! This is his spear), and we begin. The beginning 'warm up' is a long progressive dance, where each movement of a group of movements builds on each other. It starts with tapping your feet in the same pattern with decreasing frequency on each step at the end of each repeated pattern so that the pattern speeds up. He yells and we begin to step to our right four counts, then back to the left four counts. Then we do the same again but crouching down and flexing and arching our backs to puff our chest at cut time the beat. Then we do it again but this time raising our right hand and looking to the sky with each step to our right, and the opposite with each step to the left. We progress on to more moves, many of which are lifting your hands and looking up, or spreading them behind you and bowing low. You feel pretty enabled by the nature of the dance to worship God, despite your fierce concentration to remember the next move progression! The 'warm up' climaxes (thus far learned) in the Zulu warrior stance, crouched, legs spread far apart. Stomping to the beat with each stomp you alternate bowing down low and lifting your arms to God! "Strong arms", Professor Rani reminds us! This progresses into the same stomping, except looking up the whole time and alternating reaching higher with one arm at each stomp. You reach for God!
 |
| Arms Raised: A worshipful dance! |
We break and the real dance begins! You get a little baton for your spear, your left arm crossed in front of you as our shield. This dance is all in the Zulu warrior stance, so you know you'll have beautiful thighs by the end of it, as Professor Rani said 😜 There's a lot of spear thrusting up and to your right, and back down and to your left, your eyes tracing the spear point! As you begin you feel excited, on the brink of adventure as you realize God is calling you to war. There's leaping with the percussion of the congregation's feet making a sound like the percussiveness of "Shi-ka-ka" when we land. "Bdah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah... one, two.. one, two, is the percussive sound of our feet as you 'gab the bull's horns.' In the middle of the dance you find your preordained partner to dance with, not a contact dance like swing, but an eye contact dance of the soul. Few in the group are willing to be so trusting yet. And it ends as abruptly as it began, having not yet learned the entire length of the choreography.
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| The Zulu Warrior Dance |
Thanks so much for reading this! God bless you!
What a semester you are having. So many new adventures, things to ponder and pray about. I look forward to your posts.
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