Church rises from South African landfill

By Tony W. Cartledge

BR Editor

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Barcelona Baptist Church is built on what used to be a giant garbage dump. It is not "down in the dumps," however, but working to be a positive congregation committed to serving those who are among "the least of these" in southernmost South Africa.

Visitors who arrive in Cape Town by air often fly directly over the church, which is in a large township of squatter huts called Barcelona. The area is a former landfill for the city of Cape Town. Almost as quickly as a thin layer of soil could be spread over the last loads of garbage, thousands of flimsy squatter shacks were erected by the poorest of the poor, many of them immigrants from other African nations who have come to South Africa in search of a better life.

Church planter Julius Bonani, who previously served as pastor in the nearby township of Yanga, first felt a burden for the area in 1993. Bonani, a large man now approaching 60, said he often parked across from the township and prayed for it. "But I was afraid to go in there," he said. His wife Irene - who had been instrumental in leading Bonani to Christ - encouraged him, saying, "Let us go in, and if we die, we die together."

In 1994, Bonani was asked to be an election officer for the area. As he facilitated between warring political parties, he gained credibility with local leaders. Later, after Bonani made an official request, an area committee designated a prime spot in the heart of the township for him to establish a church.

The church plot is located several hundred yards up a narrow, rocky dirt pathway that leads from a paved road fronting the township. Tiny shacks made of corrugated tin or thin wooden planks crowd the sides of the path. Many of the short, rough boards come from wooden shipping pallets. The shacks range from six feet square to larger, rectangular structures, with relatively flat roofs of corrugated fiberglass or tin. One of them houses a "shabeen," or beer hall.

The first order of business was to erect a strong chain link fence to prevent squatters from building on the property. Under South African law, it is very difficult to move someone who has built a house in a squatter area.

With help from the Western Province Baptist Association (WPBA), Bonani was able to erect a fence, and during the 2000 Easter season, the WPBA assisted him in obtaining a tent to be used for a series of meetings. Bonani recruited some of the same men he had once feared to assist in erecting the tent, and invited them to attend the services. After he preached in the tent for three nights with only the headlights of his car and a few candles for lighting, several people accepted Christ. "And that was the beginning of the church," he said.

Soon thereafter, the Bonani's left their home in another part of the city and moved into what South Africans call a "windy house" - a small wooden building - that was also used for church services. They are currently living in a shipping container while attempting to straighten the walls and shore up the wooden windy house, which is no larger than the average breakfast nook in a typical American home.

"When you preach to people, you must be among them," he said. "If you just come in your car and then leave, you can't know them, and they don't know you. But we feel at home here now, and it is easier to win the people."

After they had been in Barcelona for two years, Bonani said, township leaders presented him with a letter of appreciation. Crime in the area had decreased since the church began, they said.

The church soon outgrew the tiny house: when Terry Rae, former general secretary of the Baptist Union of South Africa, came to visit, he had to stand in the doorway while preaching so he could be seen by people both inside and outside.

Following a joint service with the Durbanville Baptist Church, an established local congregation, a woman in the Durbanville church offered to donate three large shipping containers that had been used by a local phone company.

Two other containers were added later, ultimately becoming the primary walls for a permanent building. Steel arches hold a corrugated metal roof and support the remainder of the exterior. Claremont Baptist Church, another local congregation, also offered support. "Africa for Christ," an organization led by Rae, provides a small stipend for the pastor.

The assistance is needed because people in the township are very poor, and have little to give. The unemployment rate in urban townships such as Barcelona ranges from 80 to 90 percent.

"I was crying out to the Lord about it one day," Bonani said. "I had only five Rand (about 80 cents) in my pocket. I said, 'Lord, I have been to college, why do you send me here?'

"The Lord said to me, 'Look up,'" he said.

"When I looked up, I saw three of my church members scavenging in a dirt bin (trash can) for food. Then I hid myself and I said 'Lord, I am satisfied. No matter if I get nothing, if I can win the souls of the people.'"

But the Bonani's care about the body as well as the soul. They have raised children of their own - one of whom was murdered by militant activists during the apartheid era - and they now care for two grandchildren and five other small children who have been orphaned by HIV-AIDS. Two of the children are also HIV positive.

Thandiswa, the youngest, is two-and-a-half years old. Her parents died in 2003, and the Bonani's took her in. She was sickly and weak, but with loving care and an AIDS-fighting drug regimen provided to foster families by the government, she is currently healthy and gaining weight.

The other children are a few years older. Together, they sleep in a prefabricated wooden building just large enough to hold four neat bunk beds.

Mike Boone, a former pastor in Salemburg now serving as a missionary with the International Mission Board, has plans to assist the church in using some of its land as a garden that would produce fresh vegetables to improve the children's diet as well as possibly providing some additional income.

The church currently has 37 members, five of whom were baptized on Easter Sunday. Seventeen of the members are HIV positive, Bonani said.

Late on a stifling day in mid-March - early fall for South Africa - nine women and a single young man held choir practice in one of the metal containers. Standing in a sweaty line, they followed words to new songs that were posted on a wall, their powerful voices ringing with strong songs of faith in the melodic Xhosa language.

All of the singing was a capella: one of the women would sing out the first few words, then the others would join in, singing counterpoint and harmony with rich, rhythmic voices. Choir members added accompaniment to some songs with a tambourine and a "pom pom," a small vinyl pillow that is slapped to produce a pounding bass note.

Outside, the sun was setting over Table Mountain. Beneath a spectacular array of clouds lit with shades of pink, orange and gold, the crowded hovels of Barcelona shouted with irony. Yet, with Xhosa choruses punctuating the background, the presence of God was clear, even in Barcelona.