Sidewalk Sunday School

[This is a letter written for a group of friends that went with me in May 2007 to Metro Ministries in New York City. Metro runs the largest Sunday school in the nation, ministering to over 20,000 kids a week. We participated in a week long ‘boot camp’ to learn how their ministry works. I have recently been connected with the team here in Cape Town that run Metro Africa.]

Dear Boot Camp Teammates!

I have thought of you guys many times over the last month, as I have been reconnected with the Metro family. Can you believe it was nearly a year and half ago, that all of us were sleeping on a cement floor and learning about Sidewalk Sunday Schools in New York City! Since then, Hen & Harry have had baby Luke and are now in Uganda, Dan & Michelle are married, Aimee quite her job at the bank and is teaching and working for the church, Susanne started Sidewalk this summer in Tacoma, Shavon is getting married this weekend…and here I am in South Africa! Time flies and Jesus is so strategic and faithful!

The couple that started Sidewalk Sunday Schools (SSS) in Cape Town is James & Janet Senior, originally from England and friends of Bill Wilson. They currently have 7 sites around the city…and James has an incredible vision to believe for 100 sites over the next 10 years. Each site has about 100-400 kids that come to here about Jesus. Metro Ministries has only two international locations, South Africa and the Philippines (I’m surprised there isn’t more). I asked James if they have had lots of Americans coming over to visit or volunteer with Metro here and was amazed to learn that I was the first! The team is made up of all South Africans, almost all of them from the local townships (which is fantastic!!!). James told me that Metro came and did a training with all the South African workers about a year ago and the guy who taught them was LEO (remember him…hint hint!).

Because SSS takes place outside, the ministry takes a break in the winter months, just like NY (just so you know it’s been winter here and we are coming into spring)…this past week they started back up. Saturday I was able to borrow a car, and head to my church Khanysia, where they have recently started up a site in the past year. I was told that it was much smaller than the other locations…but was amazed to see about 100 kids there! SSS was meant to start at noon and go until one, but typically African…there was an unexpected delay. A funeral was taking place outside of a home across the street and they asked SSS to delay their program as the music is quite loud. My new friend Asanda who is on staff with Metro, is the site leader for this location…he told me that the kids begin to arrive at church at 9:30am, and he even had some kids knock on his door at 7:30am (!)… they were so excited for SSS to begin!

When I arrived the parking lot was full of kids, and after finding out that we needed to wait…I didn’t hesitate but did what I love to do best…talking with kids, giving them hugs and encouraging them! I was so amazed by how much English they understood. I had heard the following week that SSS was primarily done in Xhosa, the native language and I was worried that language would be a barrier for me…however I was pleasantly surprised. At one point I was laughing because universally kids love the same things…here I was in a South African township, chatting with a group of girls about High School Musical and Hannah Montana! While sitting in the dirt we began to sing songs from the movie…laughed and joking until finally an hour later at 1:00, we got the go ahead to begin. Boys and girls ran to their designated tarps as they anticipated the fun to come.

After a brief introduction, which included the rules and reasons, the music got loud and the kids and leaders broke out into the Chicken Noodle Soup dance!!!! I couldn’t believe it. This was the song we heard all over NY that they kids loved dancing to…and now I was in a township in Cape Town, surrounded by 100 local children watching them do the same dance…thankfully I knew it too! Tears rolled down my eyes in joy that I was there…a year and a half ago I would have had no clue that I was going to be dancing to the Chicken Noodle Soup song in Cape Town!

I had to leave early due to the fact that I was borrowing a car, so had to miss half the games and the talk but the time I was there filled me with joy for the rest of the day. I look forward to seeing what my involvement looks like in the weeks and months to come. If it’s just sitting on a tarp with a few kids on my lap I will be happy.