Jesus Walks In A Township Called Capricorn

{The Children of Capricorn}

Hello Again Everyone! So much is happening in the beautiful nation of South Africa! We want you all to be informed and to feel a part of everything we are doing here. Since arriving we had a debrief week in a town called Paarl. There we assessed how the 3 months in Panama went and ways to improve our overall impact to those in need. Jeanette and I really gained a passion while in Panama for addressing peoples needs with a hands on approach. We prayed and talked and thought about all of the ways we could do this...we thought about money and about God and about everything else that could possibly factor into these decisions. (Believe me, the list was long)

So, needless to say, today we write this more committed than ever. We have a fire burning inside of us... we want to see the world changed for through the person of Jesus Christ. We have had long talks with the committed individuals of photogenX, from the people we were serving with in Panama to the founder of it, Paul Childers.

I just had to clarify that to let all of you know, because many of you had heard tidbits of our heart and the things we were thinking of. As a community of individuals, photogenX is committed to fighting injustice and learning as much as we can as we go.

{Capricorn Township Before Sunset}

We have been getting involved sort of heavily already with the time we have had in Cape Town, South Africa. As you may or may not know, South Africa has a history (recent history) of extreme racism, violence, and xenophobia... even though the days of apartheid are over, the effects remain... The coloreds and the blacks (they are differently classified here) have been pushed and isolated out. The poorest of these live in communities called townships. These are some of the poorest people in the world. We are working in a township called Capricorn. There are over 20,000 people crammed into this plot of sandy earth that is stacked with shanty homes. We are working with 5 different Bible Studies in 5 different homes and we are going to try to see these numbers grow. As we build relationships, we are devising ways to influence the factor of life in Capricorn also. So, we will update soon with the practical ways we plan to affect Capricorn in a lasting way physically and spiritually. Down the street from Capricorn there is another township called Kaylitsha...this township has over 1.8 million people living in it!!! If you have seen the movie District 9, the townships do actually look like what they show in the movie....only of course take out the sci fi factor...lol

Anyways, God has shown us His heart. We have found that when we aim to take Jesus to people, He is always already there....we just have to open their eyes to Him. These people are beautiful, and Jesus Christ came for them... So, we press on, with faith we will hope in love.

We will be in touch, hopefully to relate our hearts and our ministry here in more detail and with more precision and heartfelt description. We will create a newsletter and send that out soon.

We want to thank all of you so much for supporting us in prayer, heart, and finance. We could not be here without you. Please keep us in your prayers, it is very strengthening for us to know we have friends and family who are praying and who invest their time into interceding for us.

Also, we do have some rather large bills coming up and we could really use some more help with them. As most of you know, we are totally on volunteer basis and all of our expenses are paid for by us (as is everyone in photogenX). We have about $6,000 we need to raise by the second week of October for our budget here in South Africa. (This includes all funds that go towards ministry - such as the book we created in Panama). If you feel called to support us in our mission, you can hit the paypal button at the top right of our blog, or you can contact us for a way to donate that is tax deductible. We love you and thank you again. We plan on updating on the blog our total so (God willing) we can all see the provision for our finances come through. Thank you again for your support, and as the apostle Paul always says, we thank God for you every chance we get!

Love and peace,

Ryan and Jeanette

due to us being in Africa, we are unable to upload our photos....regrettably....because I took some pretty sweet ones...hahah