Townships

I have just returned from Capetown, South Africa. My first experience after stepping off the plane was to visit a "township" Church meeting. This is where the poorest of the poor live in the area of the city. Local statistics were in the range of 1.5 million people live in six to 12 foot shacks (some bigger) that are thrown up in a day. I received a warm welcome and was shown some interesting music and dancing. It was an awesome experience. The Churches thrive in the townships. There are very few other faiths present there although there is a large contingent of Muslims that live nearer to the city. I haven't seen that much poverty in one single area ever in my life. AIDS has a growing stronghold there though. We were able to visit "Beautiful Gate", a division of YWAM that works with AIDS orphans there. It was amazing to see what is required to care for a single individual and then to enter back into the fray of need outside the gates of that compound. Overwhelming is the word that remains consistently on my mind - not impossible, overwhelming.