Every 3rd Saturday of the month we go out to meet up with the guys on the Melville streets. Meet at 09h30 at Melville Junction Church and we will go together.
For more details contact Gareth or Tina
OPERATION SPRING CLEAN - Saturday 18 September 2010
We will be having a Spring Clean sale at Melville Junction to raise money for our new programme: “Soccer Life Skills” It's the end of winter and the perfect time to go through your house to get rid of the things you don't need any more! We will take anything, in good working order, and the money we raise will go towards full soccer kits for the Melville street guys. “Soccer Life Skills” is a programme that will bring hope and direction through the passion of soccer. Through this programme, they will learn about teamwork and family, to hygiene, to slowly weaning many of the street guys off glue, this programme is all for bringing the positivity of soccer into the upliftment of the homeless.
Here are the ways you can help: 1. Help sort, price and sell the jumble 2. Clean out your unwanted things and bring them to Melville Junction Church 3. Come find some bargains 4. Tell your friends
Get hold of Gareth or Tina to drop things off at the Church or to offer help.
Donations: Drop off at Melville Junction Church or we can collect from you.
Banking Details: NB!! (Make sure to note on donation "Blanket Drive.")
Standard Bank Melville Branch Code: 006105 Account No: 002868997
NEWS
T-SWAP
On Saturday 15 May we met at Melville Junction Church and then went out to meet and spend time with some of the Melville street people.
Check out this video to see how it all turned out!
April - May 2010
These previous months have been ones of joy, of seeing young lives changed by what is happening on the streets within our interaction. But more than that is the fact that the choices made, the directions mapped out for themselves; this has been done by the individuals themselves and not forced into any choices by us.
Meet Siyabonga. A young man brimming with passion, excitement and a conscience that he believes has come from God. In 2003, Siyabonga broke into a car while living in Capetown and ran away. Not too long after he was apprehended and a court case was put in place. Yet again he ran, this time towards the fake gold coloured lights of Johannesburg. Ending up on the streets, he learnt how to surive and how to protect himself. We met in late April as the nights became colder, and he asked me to spend some time with him as he had something urgent he wanted to tell me. He told me the above story, of how he left his family, felt the emotions of this and of living on the streets, and shared with me things that I was very humbled for a man who hardly knew me. What he said next took my totally be surprise. In his own words - "I need you to take me the police station so that I can hand myself in." Totally taken aback by that one!! That night we prayed, and he met with God in a real way, and started a real relationship with Him. God had been following him throughout his life, running from his past and welcoming him "home" with open hands. Makes me think....does this make Siyabonga less homeless?
Siyabonga came to the church for a prayer meeting that night and prayed for strength for the next step, and even though his heart was strong, the will was not. When I went to pick him up on the Friday, he was not there and I heard he was in Johannesburg "picking up something" for someone here on the streets. I use the apostrophes only because I am unsure what he was actually doing there. Either way, he was not there ready to follow through with his goal. But I got three things out of this moment.
1. Trust is only given when it is in a place of safety and of mutual respect, which can sometimes a lot of time invested into the relationship.
2. He knew that God was pursuing him, and He allowed God to meet with him right there on the cold street corner.
3. Even tho he did not complete his goal of going through to the police station, he took the first difficult step of admitting he needed to.
So wherever Siyabonga is, he still reminds of strengths shown. I do not know what happened to him afterwards, as I have not seen him since, but I do believe that God spoke with him and became a huger part of his life than before. And that He will not let go of Siyabonga, wherever the streets take him.
T-Swap was also a major turning point in how we perceived the street life and how us all should be treated like humanity and not charity cases. T-Swap was a chance for people to associate themselves with the street people and if not for an hour or two, disassociate themselves with themselves. A glance is easy, a stare normal, a possible quick handshake not overly easy. But how about taking off your clean and favourite t-shirt, and giving it to someone on the street and taking theirs and putting it on your own body. Difficult? Yes! No matter who you were on that day, it was not an easy step to take. To actually put something that the guys wear constantly, washed or not, it was difficult! You smell like the streets, you get looked at as one of the streets, and this really changed the people's view of what we think of living on the streets and being one of the guys. Actually, we will never know how it feels to be homeless, to live on the streets for majorly "extended" periods of time, to fight for your own safety, to keep warm from the cold.....but on the day of T-swap we did get a minor "taste" of how it might feel. Dean, Melville Junction's lead elder went into the Mc Donalds to buy some food for the guys and he said the smell was very overwhelming to him and the other people buying. He said he felt slightly embarressed, the natural response, because of the invasive smell! The best way of explaining T-swap is a sensoury experience. I wonder how they do it, our guys on the streets. The smell, the dirty clothes, the stares, the disdain by others. These precious guys have names, backgrounds, emotions, hurts and growing hopes. They deserve to be treated as equals and not as charity cases. I feel everyone will have to be educated in the "school of life," myself very much included, and in this one sometime uncomfortable morning, I believe this started.
To be comfortable, one must become uncomfortable first. And all of the guys on the streets are worth every bit and more to become just a little uncomfortable for, as Jesus did when He was on this earth. He got his feet dirty in the dust and humanity around him. We can but hope to portray just a bit of this.
March 2010
Looking back over the past 10 months, so much has changed, people have grown and there has been such blessing. Bringing food to the street people has developed into spending time with them and chatting while they eat their food. We’ve changed in our approach: from taking food just to feed, to taking the food with eyes opened up to humanity. Almost moving from the unseen to the seen - hearts changed and in this our relationships have grown exponentially with these people. When we started Stand up for Hope, the guys took the food and left quickly and didn’t want to chat much. Now, over the time, our beautiful, dirty and unkempt dream of what we were hoping to see happen on the streets has multiplied and moved in directions we were not expecting. We are so happy they did!
Since the beginning of this year, we now have 2 wonderful people from the Melville community that have given of their time and space to go with Gareth to take the guys food. This is so exciting because it shows that there is a desire from within the Melville community to increase awareness and interest of what is happening right in our backyard. Relationships have grown through spending time with these volunteers as we butter and jam the sandwiches and chat. This is something that has been in our prayers and part of our vision from the very start. Eventually we want to entrust caring for Melville to its residents and us as a church.
These unexpected gifts are so wonderful and they so often come at times when energy, passion and drive for the project starts to wane. This is not to say we lost love for what’s happening with the guys, but the injection of enthusiasm and excitement has been fantastic. It has also shown that others care too and want to be involved and added momentum to this thing and reminded us why we do what we are doing.
Let’s hope that this is just a small piece of what 2010 has in store.
