Today we
ate breakfast and shorty thereafter went into some teaching time from Andrew
Chi, a six time volunteer of the program who has no doubt been doing a lot
behind the scenes. Andrew shared his testimony with us and it was fascinating.
Growing up the son of two Asian math teachers,
Andrew said it took him quite awhile to understand that not all children
were required to do 100 math problems every morning before they could eat
breakfast. Andrews early years were driven by a desire to perform, and so he
did quite spectacularly. He became a national chess champion, but in the wake
of his greatest chess victory he felt unparalleled sadness because it was the
thing he had put his life into up to that point and it has come to its logical
end. As he wept in his room as his parents celebrated his victory, he hit his
head on a bookshelf he had in his room while he had been reaching for a martial
arts weapon and a bible fell off the shelf and hit him in the head. He had gone
to a Christian school one year in first grade and it had sat there for many
years unread as he was now in high school. While he had many struggles along
the way, he finally came to Christ at Harvard of all places when he
accidentally ended up rooming in a house full of guys who were all in Cru. His
story warmed my heart to hear how much God clearly loved Andrew far before
Andrew knew much about God at all. It seemed clear to me that God had marked
Andrew as his from a young age and Andrew was living out his calling to teach
here in Mamelodi. As one would imagine, the lesson he taught after was
excellent and I am still feeling silly for having forgotten my pen.
After
a little refresher on evangelism, we set out to the Univ. Pretoria satellite
campus (from now on referred to as the Old Vista Campus) So here we were, a rag
tag group of Americans setting out to walk the streets of the impoverished Mamelodi
township with a couple SA’ns spread thinly between or group of some 30 or so
people. We were armed with nothing but fliers about the who, what when, where
and why of the Mamelodi Initiative winter program and our hearts. Today we
really got to see the most important lesson Richard taught us about taking the
time to get into real conversations with people. As he walked children would
scream and giggle while pointing at us, “Mahua mahua mahua!” which is Spedi for
white. The older people were far less timid. We soon found that we would have
to talk to everyone. We were incredibly bad at guessing age in a place where
different tribal bloodlines can affect the heights weights and shapes of people
dramatically of the same age as well as the nutrition that they have been able
to get in the townships. We talked to kids I could have sworn were no older
than 8 who were 16 and one girl was 15 and as tall as me if I wasn’t minding my
posture. The one thing that remained consistent though was the overwhelmingly
positive response that we received when we explained the nature of the program.
The winter program is a math and English curriculum for 8th, 9th
and 10th graders. It is free and the kids are served lunch. All they
need is to come ready to learn and sign up and the program teaches, mentors,
feeds, loves and serves 350 kids for three whole weeks during their winter
break from school.
It
was so exciting to talk to our future students and recruit the next class of
winter program students. The thing that will stick with me everlasting is just
how kind the people were and that despite how odd they thought we were for
coming all the way from America to tutor their kids for free, they certainly
appreciated it. Love does crazy things and every single one of us out there in
the township that day were there because we were trying to reflect the
greatness of the love that we have been so undeservedly shown from by God by
serving this community. But just incase you think I’m getting a savior complex,
don’t worry I know these kids will end up teaching me far more than I will
teach them.
Please
pray that:
God
will bring kids from Mamelodi to fill the program and that they would be eager
for the Gospel.
Our
team would grow a heart for this place that would drive everything that we do.
Students
that come would be impacted by the gospel, make it to college and be the
students that bring up Mamelodi out of poverty and be the answer to the
problems of their nation.
God
bless and all the best,
Dylan
Rollins
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