Tomorrow (Saturday) Juli and I head into Khayelitsha for the first time. We’ve driven by it but weren’t able to venture in at the time. For those that might not know, Khayelitsha is South Africa’s largest township and is home to more than 2.1 million people (which is an estimate — a large portion of the township is informal settlements).
It’s a place desperately in need of the transformative power of the Gospel. Approximately 60% of the population is estimated to be unemployed. There are estimated to be more than 14,000 orphans living here. Approximately 32% of the population is suspected to be HIV+ and 16 out of every 1000 infected with TB. It also has one of the highest crime rates in the South Africa and the world. It’s murder rate has been reported as the highest in the nation (in the past it’s been commonplace to hear of 10+ in a given weekend) and it’s estimated that one in every two or three women have been raped (and approximately half of those under the age of 13). If all of this doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what will.
Anyways — the urban sprawl (pictured) got to us on our first drive by and we’ve been praying about seeing it first hand and the opportunity has finally come. We will be going with a YWAM ministry called “Justice [ACTS].” It’s mission is to see an end to human trafficking, something that has unfortunately escalated here in South Africa as the World Cup approaches.
This time, we were just invited to tag along. We see it as a time to potentially begin taking steps into some of the God-bred dreams in our hearts. Pray that God opens our eyes and hearts to see the people of Khayelitsha as he sees them. And pray that a move of Jesus sweeps through that place and forever changes it (as we know it can be changed).