Heart Shift

Finally you are going to hear about what happens at PLAY camp, and the story is not even being told by me!  The June session of PLAY camp was extra special in many ways.  One reason was that for the first time, I got to share it with friends from home.  A mission team from Big Valley Grace Church in Modesto, California came to serve as camp counselors and John and Amy Hanley from Twin Lakes Church, my home church in Santa Cruz, California, came to serve as the media team to capture the experience.  This week’s blog is by guest author Amy Hanley.  Here are her beautiful words to describe her time at PLAY camp:

I met Lisa many years ago while she was living in Santa Cruz, CA and we were both involved with a non-profit group (that she helped found) that raises funds for orphan day care centers in South Africa and Zambia. Over the past eight years it has been exciting to be a bystander and watch how God has guided her step-by-step to where she is today, Makuwa Lisa.

Me and Amy

This summer my husband I had the privilege of being more than bystanders as we participated in PLAY’s third camp during its inaugural year.

Even though here in the U.S. we continue to have very disturbing racial conflicts, many people do not realize that the effects of Apartheid are still even more prevalent in South African society. Westerners consider Apartheid as history - they watch movies of Mandela and think, “That was 20 years ago, equality must be pretty much the norm by now.” While I was never in South Africa during the Apartheid years, this summer I saw a society that is still broken and hobbling along due to continued segregation and lack of willingness by both blacks and whites to know and listen to each other.  One of the goals of PLAY is to start breaking down resentment and misunderstanding in the upcoming generation.

How does PLAY propose to accomplish this daunting task?

Life in a township

Lisa is developing relationships with local schools in the townships (where most of the children live in squalor that we cannot even imagine) and in the slightly more affluent schools of the cities like Pretoria (although these areas would be considered low income by our standards). The teachers of students in Grades 6 and 7 are asked to nominate children that are leaders in their school to attend this free camp.

The PLAY camp that was held this June/July brought together 49 children from three distinct groups:

·         One group of children were from a very poor school in a rural area called Cyferskuil Village. Their primary language is Tswana.

·         The other children were from a school in the Pretoria area with a mix of white, black and coloured. The white children speak primarily Afrikaans and the black children English.

Lisa’s teaching each morning focused on the Five Purposes that God has for our lives (developed from The Purpose Drive Life by Rick Warren). The children heard that even though we are all made differently, we all have a purpose designed by God – and that His plans are always good.

Each session began with a reminder that we are all loved, special, unique and valuable. At the beginning of the week the children started out with uncertain voices, but by the end of the week they were shouting out loudly, “I am loved, special unique and valuable!” Each session was followed up by small group time where the kids could talk about what they had just learned. The small group time was led by a mission team from Big Valley Grace Church in Modesto, CA. Each group was made up of children from different schools that spoke different languages and was led by people from the U.S. You can see that there could be some challenges.

At the beginning of the week there was a huge divide within all of the assigned groups. It was quiet, it was uncomfortable, as soon as group time was over they went back to their school friends, and I was uncertain if these disparate people could be brought together.

Throughout the week the groups were challenged in physical activities that pushed them out of their comfort-zones, like the high ropes course. The groups were required to work together to complete tasks like building a stretcher that would carry one of them across a field, or building a raft that would float for 10 seconds.

They were encouraged to communicate with each other through many other team-building activities like a scavenger hunt, a night-time Capture the Flag game and many others.

During the week, I saw a gradual shift in the group dynamic. At first, the kids would try to win at a challenge by working independently or only with the kids that they knew. It was evident that this was not effective and lead to much frustration. Around the third day I noticed some differences. There was interaction during the small group discussion time. I heard more laughter and joking as teams tackled a challenge. I also heard conflicts and quarrels as they tried to figure out how to complete a task, which showed me that there was a growing level of comfort. I saw children stop and help others that were struggling, whether or not they were from the same school or their skin was the same color. I saw children walking with their arms around their teammates after they had conquered a difficult group activity.

I saw hearts beginning to change.

PLAY camp concluded by presenting the children an opportunity to be baptized - to acknowledge to the entire camp that they belong to God’s family - to show that their hearts are changed.  Eleven kids were baptized at the June/July PLAY camp. But in addition to the children who made a public profession of change, I believe that PLAY camp spurred many of the children to think about God, and people different from them, in a new way.

It is a great start.

You can read more about our experience at play camp in this blog post: 10 Things We Did at PLAY Camp

I also hope that you will check out the PLAY web page and consider donating to this amazing ministry.  www.PLAYnonprofit.org