GO Mitchell’s Plain
The annual GO Mission traditionally took people away from Cape Town for a week of mission but, this year, we have “decentralised”. We held a second GO Mission at Trinity Church, Mitchell’s Plain which ran from 23 to 27 September.
We wanted people to realise that they didn’t need to “GO” very far to find a cross cultural, mission field. Our goals were simple. We hoped the team would get to know the local congregation and forge long term friendships, learn a bit about the community, reach out to the community with the gospel and consider the role of the church in a place like Mitchell’s Plain. News bulletins tend to paint a grim picture of Mitchell’s Plain and perhaps, as a result, many would be scared to just wander in for a visit. So we prayed that the Go Mission would be considered a “safe” way of venturing in. People came and went as their time allowed, but on Thursday 24th, over 50 people attended.
The theme was “A New Community”. Mitchell’s Plain is very community orientated but is marred by substance abuse and violence. So the seeds of a new, Jesus centred community need to be sown. The theme also covered the need for a new Christian community in Cape Town, that transcends cultural and, especially, economic divides. It was our prayer that Go Mitchell’s Plain would begin to address these issues.
Colin Banfield provided excellent training and armed us with questionnaires to take out into the streets. The questionnaires were designed not only to stimulate evangelism but also to help us learn something about the religious views and attitudes held by a cross section of people living in Mitchell’s Plain.
Over the weekend there was 5-a-side football including training and a mini-tournament. Our thanks to Brad Wos for his tireless refereeing and coaching. On Friday afternoon we played on a dusty piece of ground next the church and on the Saturday, in the rain, the payers slid all over a wet tarmac. But the kids that came obviously loved it. They were delighted afterwards to participate in freestyle dancing and listen to live rap. We also took 20 or so men across to another church in Mitchell’s Plain for a men’s breakfast hosted by the “Sons of God” choir. The men loved the singing and were visibly engaged during the sermon.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say, and so it is a privilege to report that since the mission, the Sunday numbers at Trinity have swelled with plenty of new faces and returnees and encouraging new friendships have formed.
GLADiator Holiday Club
Riding the momentum of the GO Mission, we ran a holiday club on the Thursday and Friday of the following week. The Holiday club was held at Trinity in the mornings and St Lukes in the afternoon. (St Lukes is another CESA church in Mitchell’s Plain)
The theme “GLADiator” gave us an excuse to have pool-noodle sword fights, human chariot races, straw-javelin throwing contests and a “run the gauntlet” version of dodge ball. More importantly we had an opportunity to explain, from Paul’s letter to the Romans, that Grace saves where Law condemns. This was well illustrated with a puppet show that starred a Roman Centurion called Law and a toga clad, happy man called Grace. Law tried to do everything on his own and failed while Grace was happy to be helped by the children. The children learned that we will always fail to make up for sin by our pathetic attempts at good works but that God has graciously made it possible for us to be his children again by simply trusting in Jesus and his payment for our sin on the cross. 