Pastor Henry Mhlanga, the Pastor at Savannah Park Baptist Church has been journeying with CAST since 2022 through our emergency relief initiative to assist flood victims in the area with food, clothing, and other essential items. “We were in terrible need,” he says. “CAST came along, lent a hand and gave us hope in that situation.”
Pastor Henry describes his community as economically disparate between those who have the means to survive, and others who live in abject poverty because of broken families and unemployment, particularly among the youth in the area where levels of drug addiction are high.
As part of our Masihambisane journey, we aim to support churches in thinking through how to respond to the needs in their area; bringing hope and light where it’s needed most. And more broadly to think through how to live out God’s peace and justice in their community to restore relationships: with God, with one another, with themselves, and with creation. The Contextual Bible Study methodology and action-reflection approach are tools that we use to create a shared vision for their work that is rooted in scripture and social analysis.
“My journey with CAST has changed me…there are quite a lot of things that I’ve learned…it transformed my thinking and my understanding. We’ve engaged [with our community] and then we’ve seen [and asked ourselves]: how can we bring Shalom into our society? How do we share the Gospel of God and bring along the Kingdom of God?”
In 2023, CAST piloted the Just Leaders programme with a group of the youth in Pastor Henry’s church taking part to develop their ability to turn the vision into a reality and lead others out of poverty and towards transformation the ‘Jesus way.’
This year, the church leadership and congregation have put their plans into action to establish a programme for addiction recovery offering support to those in need. Partnering with Project Exodus, learning from other churches who’ve set up similar programmes and listening deeply to the lived experiences of youth in their neighbourhood, Pastor Henry and his team have developed something truly exciting .“I was very, very excited because one of the guys that was involved in drugs gave himself to the Lord, so we are journeying with him now,” shares Pastor Henry.
This project is in its early days of start-up and so we’d love to invite you to join us in praying for them as they reach out into their neighbourhood. Specifically, Pastor Henry asks,
“Pray for us is about this project to support the people that are involved in drugs, and to support the church and the leadership. In this journey you need some people who can anchor you…You can’t do it alone.”
