mbjones

September 24th is National Braai Day in South Africa! Archbishop Desmond Tutu approves and so do I. Honestly the best pork I’ve ever had was the braai at the Masi Spur.

As many of you probably are aware of, I leave for 3 weeks in South Africa on June 4th. My team and I are really excited and have expectations of seeing God work in miraculous ways. That sense (and particularly its urgency) has only been heightened due to recent events in South Africa, which you may or may not have heard about on the news.

Lately, there has been a lot of unrest among the poor population and violence has been breaking out over the past couple of weeks. At first, it was relatively isolated to Johannesburg, but recent reports put it elsewhere, including Cape Town where we will be.

Now, to hopefully quell any fears (and perhaps guide your prayers), here is what is going on:

• A xenophobic spirit has fallen on many living in the poor townships. As a result, they are actively seeking out and attacking foreigners living amongst them. There are two things to be aware of here: the foreigners being attacked are Africans living and working in the townships (From Somalia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Nigeria). While I haven’t heard much about the root causes, my best guess would be that it stems at least in part from the gloom of recession that has fallen over our globe. You may or may not recall protests over the rising costs of food in mid April. Then, they acted non-violently but as the reality of trouble has settled in, reactions have become violent against what they feel is threatening them. What seems to gel this thought in my mind is that the violence is being directed primarily towards foreigners taking local jobs (be they labor, as in mines, or mercantile, as in local shops).
• Note that violence has not been occurring against foreign aid workers or tourists.
• Also note that the government has stepped in and is working to quell the violence.
• And finally, be aware that the violence is contained in the townships. We will be going into one of these every day but not living here.

As we go, one of our team’s prayers is that God would embolden us to directly confront the violence in the hearts of man with the peace that Jesus brings. Crazy? Probably. Needed? Definitely. For the past few months, we’ve already been praying for understanding of the deep rooted issues affecting lives (economic woes, alcoholism, sickness, paganism, sexual brokenness, etc) and the ability to speak to these areas in meaningful ways. And two verse sections we’ve prayed through as a team are found in Isaiah 61 and Revelation 22, both of which I think speak to this as well:

61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has chosen me. He has commissioned me to encourage the poor, to help the brokenhearted, to decree the release of captives, and the freeing of prisoners, 61:2 to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor, the day when our God will seek vengeance, to console all who mourn, 61:3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion, by giving them a turban, instead of ashes, oil symbolizing joy, instead of mourning, a garment symbolizing praise, instead of discouragement. They will be called oaks of righteousness, trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor. 61:4 They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

Isaiah 61:1-4

22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life – water as clear as crystal – pouring out from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 22:2 flowing down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:1-2

If you weren’t aware, the verses from Isaiah are the same as the ones Jesus uses to announce His ministry. As His disciples, we want to continue walking in His direction, bringing good news to the poor, helping the brokenhearted, decreeing release to captives and freedom to prisoners and announcing His favor over the people. Additionally, it is our prayer to see both healing and release from demonic oppression. I haven’t really mentioned it prior, but this last one I think is particularly important. Another piece of information that a lot of you may not know that concerns this is that Cape Town is considered a hub of pagan activity because of the so called “spiritual energy” there. Be it pagan and be it spiritual then it is most assuredly demonic and we’d prefer to see it replaced with the light of Christ.

Well, I stop for now. This has kind of been a long and rambling note but perhaps it gives an idea for how to pray for South Africa and my teams time there…