South Africa Missions Communities

During the last week of 2012, Hein and Helene van Wyk, African Coordinators of Experience Mission, together with their son Daneiko, hosted and facilitated EM's first mission team to South Africa, a 22-member mission team from The Annex in Boulder, CO. Here is a recap of that trip!

The Annex team stayed at Camp Discovery near Rust de Winter, during their 2-week outreach in the neighboring community of Hammanskraal, and worked with a couple of local initiatives in and around Hammanskraal, including the Moretele Sunrise Hospice in Temba, a semi-rural community with a population of about 4,400. At the hospice ("hospice" meaning non-hospital care), the Annex team had the opportunity to interact with children and young people, paint the building of the local church where the team attended worship services, and play soccer against the local community. During the services, the team was able to join in with the local worship group in learning and practicing songs. Some of the members also ministered to the congregation.

The team also spent time in Vingerkraal, a "shantytown" community of more than 5,000 inhabitants who mainly live in tin shacks, with a permanent shortage of water and electricity, medical services and transport. Poverty and disease abound in the community while women and children are left on their own for long periods of time with men and husbands working in distant towns and cities. They spent two days here with the 17, home-based care workers of the Vingerkraal Sunrise Hospice. The team had fun with the many children in the community and also accompanied the staff of the hospice in visiting the many needy families in the area. The team also provided, prepared and served hot dogs to the children and staff.

Lastly, the mission team from Boulder, CO, served at the Tshwaraganang Orphanage in Hammanskraal. This orphanage has been open for ten years, ever since the founder and manager, Catherine Sepato, took the plight of homeless, orphaned and abused children in Hammanskraal upon herself and started a safe house to provide food, counseling for raped and abused children, and after-school homework assistance. Catherine works tirelessly to serve and feed up to 330 destitute, abandoned and abused children on any given day, while the orphanage has more than 50 permanent residents. The Annex team had two days of great interaction with the staff and the children. They played games with the kids and spent time building relationships with the personnel, encouraging and affirming them in the selfless work they do. The team also provided food for lunch, cooking and serving everyone at the orphanage.

Jenn Underwood, Assistant Director of The Annex and one of the team leaders, had the following to say about their experience in South Africa:

"The South Africa trip was better than I could have hoped for...God did some incredible work in the lives and hearts of our teams AND those we met. The local missionaries we worked with were an incredible couple who invested time in our team to understand the why and how of their ministry vision. In the day and half of orientation, Hein introduced our students to the effects of African and Western worldviews. He laid out the weaknesses of secular and animistic worldviews and contrasted them to a biblical worldview. He challenged out students to understand the difference between the gospel of salvation (evangelism) and the gospel of the Kingdom of God (evangelism and discipleship/life transformation). He helped explain why relief and development efforts will never be enough to change Africa without transforming the way her people think. He summed up a seminary semester in a few hours and blew our students away. He also laid the foundation for some incredible conversations throughout the trip.

While the mission trip wasn't as much manual labor as many trips tend to be, our students definitely walked away with an understanding of incarnational ministry that will forever change them."

Hein, Helene and Daneiko all agree that it was a privilege to have the opportunity to host The Annex team in South Africa and to come know each member of the group. We're extremely excited to have more teams go and serve alongside EM and the van Wyks in South Africa in the future!