Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.—James 1:27
Last Saturday about 20 college students from Georgia who are spending two months working with Campus Outreach in Johannesburg came to Mamelodi for the day to serve with the Powerhouse. Their mission was twofold: to clean/paint/restore the houses of widows in the community and to get to know the people of the Powerhouse, finding out about how they love their community (and for almost all the students, it was their first time to visit a township). The group was divided into two teams that went to different sites. Both houses they visited are homes we visit weekly during the feeding scheme and both were in serious need of cleaning and painting. After first removing all the items from the homes, the teams went to work scrubbing and scraping the walls and washing all the blankets, clothes, dishes and anything else that needed it. At Gogo Makubo’s house, a smaller group laid the foundation for a wall that we’ll hopefully finish with the teams from our churches that have arrived today. All throughout the day there was laughing, singing, sweating and even dancing as the two groups partnered in doing the Lord’s work (check out the video below for evidence).
One of our church members, Katherine Donahoe, arrived ahead of the rest of our team and jumped right in on Saturday, although she didn’t know a soul except us. It was encouraging to see her roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty. There were two blind gogos who needed a lot of attention while the rest of the group was busy cleaning inside their house. She sang to them, rubbed their backs and even gave them much-needed sponge baths. You could see by the end of the day that the gogos’ countenances had changed, and it was certainly an encouraging experience for Katherine.
At the end of the day, there was ample evidence that major work had been done, including a fresh coat of paint for all the rooms in the houses. The atmosphere felt lighter, happier and generally uplifted. And while the physical improvements certainly played a part in bringing joy to everyone, I believe that the greater reason was God bringing his Kingdom from Heaven down to earth as He answered our prayer, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The work done and the love shown did not go unnoticed by the neighbors either. This demonstration of love in action can’t help but amplify what is taught and preached every Sunday at the Powerhouse.