Red Hill
If you take a drive through Cape Town Peninsula you might encounter a road leading to Red Hill. Striking scenery, cliffs, the ocean & beautiful vegetation will take your breath away…. Nestled in all of this beauty is a little informal settlement called Red Hill. Yesterday a small group of us took a trip down that beautiful road. It was very sobering to see this majestic view change to rock & cinder with almost no warning….
The purpose of our trip was to assess the damage of the fire that left almost 500 people homeless. Red Hill informal settlement consists of 5 camps with an estimated population of between 3500 and 5000 people. The sections that were affected by the fire are now nothing but rock, cinder, burnt metal & rubble.
Standing in the middle of it I was asking the Lord – "how do I begin to comprehend the impact of this fire?" He pointed out the tree standing nearby. The bottom part of it was charred but the crown was still green. The tree was still alive. Three days ago it was flourishing, just like a person who does not expect the fire of circumstances to come & sweep through his life… The fire will burn & scar, but the Lord will bring His rain & sunshine and slowly new green leaves will reappear and the healing process will start.
Slowly the people will come back & rebuild their lives around this tree & life will return back to routine. But what will the impact of this fire be? Anger? grief? or hope? The vision our team has is to bring Jesus through practical assistance starting with small steps - help the owners to rebuild their homes, clear the rubble, listen to their experience, and share our love, sandwiches & water. We want to see the Lord touch their lives through practical help – clothing, housing, better infrastructure, food….
Soup Kitchen
When we heard about the fire, the Lord challenged me to trust Him for the means of giving a meal to at least 25% of the affected people. By the time we made the assessment trip we had 60 litters of soup, 500 sandwiches & 40 loves of bread as well as other food loaded in the van. Isn't it amazing?
As we were driving through the sectors that were not damaged by the fire we saw not just shacks – we saw a COMMUNITY of people. This is what the burned camp must have looked like – people sitting in front of their homes, chickens running in the road & children playing in the dust. Our first stop was to pick up Virginia - an "African Mamma" who was hanging half way out of the van proclaiming in her loud voice the arrival of "i-soup" as the van was moving down the main road.
After the distribution we drove back and one picture is still impressed in my mind: a couple sitting on the ground in front of their shack, dipping their bread into a bowl – the bowl I just filled… Tears filled my eyes – not because I felt I made a "contribution to the cause" but because it cost only R2 to feed one person. To me R2 is only small change – less then what I would give a parking attendant. To them it might have been the only warm meal they had that day…
As I am writing this it is raining. The Lord is starting His healing, soon the leaves on the tree will appear... Our team is also out there, working with the community. I trust that the Lord's healing will follow down the streets of Red Hill too.
Inesa
If you take a drive through Cape Town Peninsula you might encounter a road leading to Red Hill. Striking scenery, cliffs, the ocean & beautiful vegetation will take your breath away…. Nestled in all of this beauty is a little informal settlement called Red Hill. Yesterday a small group of us took a trip down that beautiful road. It was very sobering to see this majestic view change to rock & cinder with almost no warning….
The purpose of our trip was to assess the damage of the fire that left almost 500 people homeless. Red Hill informal settlement consists of 5 camps with an estimated population of between 3500 and 5000 people. The sections that were affected by the fire are now nothing but rock, cinder, burnt metal & rubble.
Standing in the middle of it I was asking the Lord – "how do I begin to comprehend the impact of this fire?" He pointed out the tree standing nearby. The bottom part of it was charred but the crown was still green. The tree was still alive. Three days ago it was flourishing, just like a person who does not expect the fire of circumstances to come & sweep through his life… The fire will burn & scar, but the Lord will bring His rain & sunshine and slowly new green leaves will reappear and the healing process will start.
Slowly the people will come back & rebuild their lives around this tree & life will return back to routine. But what will the impact of this fire be? Anger? grief? or hope? The vision our team has is to bring Jesus through practical assistance starting with small steps - help the owners to rebuild their homes, clear the rubble, listen to their experience, and share our love, sandwiches & water. We want to see the Lord touch their lives through practical help – clothing, housing, better infrastructure, food….
Soup Kitchen
When we heard about the fire, the Lord challenged me to trust Him for the means of giving a meal to at least 25% of the affected people. By the time we made the assessment trip we had 60 litters of soup, 500 sandwiches & 40 loves of bread as well as other food loaded in the van. Isn't it amazing?
As we were driving through the sectors that were not damaged by the fire we saw not just shacks – we saw a COMMUNITY of people. This is what the burned camp must have looked like – people sitting in front of their homes, chickens running in the road & children playing in the dust. Our first stop was to pick up Virginia - an "African Mamma" who was hanging half way out of the van proclaiming in her loud voice the arrival of "i-soup" as the van was moving down the main road.
After the distribution we drove back and one picture is still impressed in my mind: a couple sitting on the ground in front of their shack, dipping their bread into a bowl – the bowl I just filled… Tears filled my eyes – not because I felt I made a "contribution to the cause" but because it cost only R2 to feed one person. To me R2 is only small change – less then what I would give a parking attendant. To them it might have been the only warm meal they had that day…
As I am writing this it is raining. The Lord is starting His healing, soon the leaves on the tree will appear... Our team is also out there, working with the community. I trust that the Lord's healing will follow down the streets of Red Hill too.
Inesa
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