Our trip to South Africa took almost a full day, including 16 hours in the air from Atlanta to Johannesburg. After flying across the Atlantic all night, the first view of the African continent was an amazing moment.  Beautiful clear views of the Namibian coastline gave way to the arid Kalahari Desert.  After a tense moment at the customs desk (the consulate in New York had misdated my visa as expiring in May 2021), we rechecked our bags and boarded our connecting flight to Durban where we were greeted by brothers Barry van Heerden and James Kapassa.

That evening we were shown to our lovely accommodations at Bethel, the ecclesial hall in Westville.  They have several apartments in the back of their beautifully landscaped lot which are used as residences for visiting volunteers.  The accommodations have all the comforts of home including a lovely patio area surrounded by beautiful trees and gardens.  It’s a perfect environment for getting some work done while occasionally sighting wildlife, such as the Vervet monkeys that trapeze through the canopies and across the rooftops. 

Our first full day in South Africa mostly consisted of getting setup logistically.  We went shopping at the grocery store across the street where we found some familiar brands including Doritos, Oreos and Old Spice, all of which made their way into the cart but also less familiar items such as biltong, ostrich meat, and a wide variety of Cadbury chocolate bars I had only known from my days as a teenager in New Zealand (“hello Top Deck, my old friend”).  Later that day, we went to Pavilion, a nearby shopping mall where we had our first experience with South Africa’s unreliable power grid.  While standing in line to get SIM cards, the lights went out unexpectedly, plunging the entire mall into complete darkness for about 15 seconds.  Although this outage was unplanned, South Africans are constantly dealing with “loadshedding,” planned power outages that occur for two-hour intervals sometimes several times throughout the day and night.  It is very disruptive but somehow life goes on.  

Our first week of activity with the Community Outreach Program Trust (COPT) mostly consisted of tagging along with sister Yvette van Rooyen and the COPT staff to witness the regular programs occurring at the Good News Centers and Bible Education Centers (BEC). These activities include creches (childcare and education), feeding programs, bible seminars, chess clubs, Gospel Girls club, adult computer classes and the list goes on. COPT uses a “Touch to Teach” philosophy so programs are designed to uplift the community in different ways but every event includes spiritual elements including teaching and prayers offered to God (or “Unkulunkulu,” in Zulu).  It is amazing how many people the gospel reaches when we consider the community’s needs as a whole.

Although COPT operates a BEC in the central business district of downtown Durban, most of its facilities are located in the townships.  These neighborhoods were historically reserved for non-whites.  Although apartheid was abolished in 1994, the townships remain racially segregated and underdeveloped.  Poverty and unemployment are major issues, and it is clear people struggle to make ends meet which is further complicated by substance abuse and crime.  At the same time, life goes on: children go to school and play soccer in the Kingdom Football club, parents go to work and study the God’s Master Plan course, and the gogos (Zulu for grandmothers) practice yoga with Diego on Thursdays.  

I am reluctant to attempt a description of the townships because Hannah and I are just beginning to understand their complexities, but it is clear these communities have real needs.  We acknowledge that the problems we face (especially the origin of all other problems, deep in the human heart) won’t be fixed for good until Christ returns but there is so much opportunity for kingdom-citizens to proclaim God’s glory, bring joy and hope to others and offer a glimpse of kingdom-living in the present.  It is quite thrilling to imagine Jesus returning and showing him all the good work that is already underway: “look here, Lord … see this …” in a spirit of true joy and enthusiasm, for the work he assigned is prospering and bearing fruit.  

In this first month, Hannah and I have been challenged to spontaneously answer questions we had never thought of, to communicate across cultures and language barriers, to calibrate our own expectations in unfamiliar environments, to be instantly recognizable as outsiders by the color of our faces.  There’s discomfort in each of these areas but there are also growth opportunities.  We’re forced to take inventory of our own abilities and skills, question our assumptions and get back to basics in areas we might have taken for granted.  It’s exhausting and energizing at the same time.  The COPT team has done a great job of keeping us busy with projects while also making space for our own journey of personal discovery and exploration.  

This blog post is just an introduction and we hope to describe our experiences and the projects we are involved with in more detail in further updates to be published regularly for the duration of our mission so please stay posted for more to come!

Ben & Hannah Link
Durban, South Africa