In the church with the youth girls of Ocean View Methodist on Girls Day
Over the last few weeks we’ve been getting to know the youth group at Ocean View Methodist. We played Uno and Bannanagrams with them in the front hall of the church. We hosted a night where a speaker talked to them and their parents about good communication. We bonded with them while walking around Ocean View. We traveled with them twice to Hillsong, a huge church in Cape Town—and listened to them sing/shout everything from Rhiana to Michael Jackson on the whole 45-minute taxi ride home.
Many of the girls (I say girls because there’s only one guy in the group, and he hardly ever comes) live in flats, which are one-room apartments in Ocean View that house entire families. The flats are where you’ll find most of Ocean View’s biggest problems—drugs, alcoholism, rape, gangsterism, domestic violence and abuse. These girls grew up witnessing all of those things. Most of them don’t have fathers or fatherly figures. Besides going to Hillsong, they hardly travel outside of Ocean View.
These girls have great potential, but they severely lack hope and ambition for the future. In Ocean View no one asks, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” No one thinks about it.
So on Saturday we planned a Girls Day—an entire day dedicated to them. At the beginning of the day over muffins and hot cocoa we told them that the whole day had been planned for them, but they weren’t allowed to know about the activities until they happened.
Katie started the day with a message about God’s love, and how valuable and special they are. It’s an important message, and something these girls don’t hear on a daily basis.
Listening to a lesson
Then I gave a short lesson about building a relationship with God. I talked about how he’s here with them, and they shouldn’t be intimidated to pray. I had them do an exercise that Tammy (my chaplain at Chapel of the Cross) did with us at ECM—I had them sit still (nearly impossible for them) and instead of using a formal prayer, to imagine that Jesus was sitting right in front of them. I told them to just talk to Him about anything that was bothering them at that specific moment in time. I said it’s important to talk to God about everything, no matter how big or small, to build a relationship with Him. After all, you don’t just tell your best friend when something big happens in your life—you tell them everything. The same should go for your relationship with God.
Then I told them to sit and listen for a moment—that they’d never hear God speak unless they listen. I also shared a little about my journey to South Africa:
My final semester of college I was so worried about what I was doing after I graduated. I didn’t have a job. It was all I thought and talked about. Then I decided to start praying about it. But it wasn’t until I started listening (actually from that same exercise I did with Tammy) that I got the overwhelming sense to just stop worrying about it, that the right opportunity would present itself when it was time. Two weeks later a random girl from one of my entrepreneurship classes (Alison) messaged me on Facebook and asked if I’d like to come to South Africa with her.
I didn’t know if it was just some crazy coincidence or whether it was God trying to speak to me. So I decided to lay down all my problems before Jesus again. I prayed “God, if this is your will, just make me sure of it.” And then a few weeks later I got two scholarships to go—making the trip completely free. So even though I knew almost nothing about South Africa, Alison, or the trip, I figured that’s what I was meant to do. All because I sat down and listened.
After my session, we cooked hot dogs and served them with chips and soda. Then Amanda gave a talk about having patience, and Alison spoke about thinking about the future. We gave them wire heart-shaped rings as a gift.
We also did two activities in between sessions. The first was button bracelets—to demonstrate how they held their community together. The second was called “paint something positive.” We gave them paper and paints, and left it pretty open. The result was very inspirational.
Ivana, painting
Amy’s painting said “God wants 2 use you”
The girls, painting. Some said this was their favorite part of the day
Silly photo
The girls left their paintings to dry and climbed in the back of Casey and Sarah’s truck with no idea where they were going.
They have no idea where they’re going.
Katie made them be quiet (again, virtually impossible for them) the entire ride to Noordhoek beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in the Southern Peninsula.
Walking up the beach
We walked along the beach, climbed rocks, took hundreds of photos and watched an incredible sunset.
The girls with their leader, Chevonne, who has become one of our good friends
All of us
When we got back to the church again we made a banana-chocolate dessert over the grill. Basically you split a banana in half long-ways with the peel still on, and push pieces of chocolate inside. Then you wrap it in tin foil and place it on the coals.
At the end of the day several of the girls told us it had been the best day of their lives. That was so inspiring to us. I also think that through conversations we all connected very successfully with the girls. Such a great day!
To top it all off, as we left that evening Sarah and Casey were heading to the hospital to go have their baby! So exciting!
-Mary
