Welcome to Mooiplaas

Welcome back to the "Miracle Work" blog!

Will and I have returned to wonderful African soil as he takes part in a 10-week seminary field placement.   We are working with West View Methodist Church in Centurion, South Africa, from May through July - which puts us here in the dead of winter!  Having exchanged summer shorts for beanies and fleeces, we've spent the past few weeks finding our place at West View and the numerous ministries they support.

A key ministry that we have become involved with is their outreach to Mooiplaas informal settlement. 

[A view from Mooiplaas]

There are roughly 16,000 people living in Mooiplaas settlement.  Since it is an informal settlement (not officially recognized or sanctioned by the government), there is no electricity or running water in the community.  It is, in effect, a giant shanty town about 10 minutes outside the city of Centurion. 

West View church runs a preschool there for 140 kids from the settlement.  The teachers are all residents of Mooiplaas, untrained, but trying their best to educate their classrooms full of children.

Will and I go to help out in the classrooms, lead an assembly for the kids, and lead a Bible study for the teachers once a week.  The kids speak essentially no English, so we muddle our way through with silly songs, acting and dancing, and translations from the teachers.  It is often a chaotic mess during breaks and free play time, but we're getting used to breaking up fights and having at least 5 kids clinging to us at a time.  There is much to learn from the settlement, and it's a privilege to be able to serve there.

[The kids watching Will lead a song]

[The preschool playground]

[The water source at Ditshego Preschool - 

water is trucked into Mooisplaas daily 

and then collected for each home]