Freedom Park

Today I went with Noel, the youth pastor at the Assemblies of God church, and a few young adults from his youth group out to Freedom Park, a squatter camp outside Rustenburg. It reminded me a lot of the Gypsy village in Romania: houses that look like tiny shacks, no plumbing or electricity, garbage everywhere, kids running around barefoot. It never gets any easier to see poverty like this and to realize that people actually live this way.



We stopped first at the Freedom Park clinic (seen in the above photo) and dropped off food and blankets to be given to the families who need them the most. We also had several small foam mattresses for families with small children. Then with the help of 2 translators from the clinic, we walked through the camp, stopping at several houses to visit the sick and the dying and to pray over them.



More than 70% of the people who live in Freedom Park are HIV positive, and many are suffering from full-blown AIDS. The clinic provides many of the people with the medications they need to reduce what is called the viral load. When the viral load is low, they are better able to fight off infections and have a better quality of life.

But for a variety of reasons, many of the people choose not to go to the clinic. Many are afraid of the stigma of having AIDS and would rather die quietly than to admit to their neighbors and friends that they have contracted the virus. Others do not even want to believe themselves that they are sick, so they refuse to get help.



Please pray for all the people in Freedom Park who are sick and dying of AIDS. Most do not have a comfortable bed to sleep on or medicine to take for pain or nausea. They also live in tiny houses that get very hot during the day and very cold during the night.

It made me sad to be out there today and to remember that many of our babies from Lighthouse were abandoned by families in Freedom Park. But I'm so glad to know that these children do not have to grow up in such terrible conditions. Here they have warm beds, good health care, clean clothes, and, most importantly, they learn about Jesus' love for them.