Ministry Update

 
       The last few weeks have been a great opportunity for me to do work at a local 

Christian center called CCMP (Combined Christian Ministries to the Poor). The center has a

lot of functions, but the most important are that it collects and redistributes food for 

the poor communities, it runs preschool and afterschool programs for the kids to get help 

with school and to learn about God, and it helps to build ties with the churches in the 

area and those children truly in need of assistance. 
       Most of the assistance that our team provides is with the programs that are run with

the kids. For example, every morning throughout the week is what's called the Edu-care 

program, which is for young toddlers about 4-7 yrs old. They have sometimes as many 40 kids 

come in daily, so there was a great need of help needed with that. We help to feed them 

lunch and keep them under control as best as possible. In the afternoons there are several

different programs throughout the day: Mondays and Wednesdays we have two different kids 

group (8-13, and then 13-19 yr olds), and Tuesdays and Thursdays we have soup kitchens 

(for the school kids, before them go home). The program that I am most interested in 

getting involved in is the tutoring and homework help that goes on every afternoon from 12 

to 5 PM. 
       Working with kids and helping with their homework is actually quite fulfilling to

me, I like to know that I am helping to get them a better education, and perhaps doing my 

part to bring some of them out of the poor communities, into universities and out into the 

world, where they can accomplish something. One thing that really scares me about South 

Africa, something that I've only recently realized: the reason why there are so many people 

in South Africa without jobs is not because they do not have jobs available, but it's because 

the people of South Africa are not educated enough for those jobs. Basically, the problem 

is not unemployment, but the "umemployability" of the people. Of course the overall goal is 

not just for them to receive an education. The contribution I hope to make is only one small 

part of a larger process where we hope to win them, and many more through them, for Christ. 

But how will we they ever spread the gospel, if they don't believe in themselves enough to 

go out into the world? For the most part those who grow up in poor communities live in those 

same communities their whole lives simply because that's all they know. They've never had the 

opportunity to truly dream, to think about what life could be like if they just worked for it. 

And that is the most valuable part of a good education: the ability to think big, and to work 

hard to achieve your dreams. 
       The homework help at the center is still fairly new, and so we are still "feeling 

out" how it will all look, but I have high hopes. There are plenty of volunteers in the 

afternoons to help all the kids with the assignments they have, but hopefully soon we 

can actually start to teach them new things as well. A lot of them struggle with their 

math (thankfully that was always my favorite subject), so we'll probably work on the 

basics for awhile: multiplication tables and adding and subtracting mentally. Eventually, 

whether we do lessons or review, or even playing games, the hope is to get them to 

really begin to believe in themselves.