Overcoming racism through faith, in apartheid South Africa

I was born in 1951 in the small town of Mossel Bay, a four-hour drive from Cape Town. My dad was British and my mother South African. I’m the second youngest of six children. It was during the time of apartheid and I was brought up in a racist home so never had black or brown friends. The laws of South Africa and my family did not allow it. As a family we were churched but did not have a living faith.  

After school I moved to Cape Town to study. After a while I was led to the Lord by a very rough presentation of the gospel. I found my values and outlook on life began to change. I was baptised with the Holy Spirit and found the gospel come alive in a whole new way. When I read the Bible I believed every word of it and started doing what Jesus trained his disciples to do: “Go into towns and villages and find the person of peace.” (paraphrased from Matthew 10:11). So I went knocking on doors where I thought the person of peace was, prayed with them and chatted about Jesus – and it worked! People started coming to the Lord. This was all done in the so-called white areas of Cape Town, as white people didn’t generally go into ‘non white’ areas. 

Challenged and made uncomfortable

The small group I was part of met in our home (by this time I had met and married my husband, Greg through a friend). There were mainly whites and a few brown people in the group. The leader was brown – a radical move in apartheid South Africa. The leader challenged me about only evangelising white people, asking: “What about black and brown people? I used the excuse: “It’s against the law.”   

One day God stopped me in my tracks, when the leader brought a black couple to my home to join one of our meetings. The couple’s shack had been burned down by the security police and the leader of our home group had taken them into his house and brought them to the meeting. While having coffee together I said to the woman, in what I think must have been my most patronising voice: “You are welcome in my home.” The woman replied in a non-challenging way that she was inviting me back to her house as that was their culture. When I asked her where she lived she said “Crossroads,” which was the most violent township at that time. I found myself lying and saying “OK I’ll come” but in my mind I thought: “No way!”  

For some days after I felt very bad as I knew I had lied and knew the Holy Spirit was convicting me of this. I eventually found someone to go with me into Crossroads. I was frightened out of my wits but wanted to get God ‘off my back’. 

That morning, I dropped my three small daughters at primary school. I phoned my home group friends to let them know what time the girls needed picking up in case I never made it home. At that time white people were told if they went into the townships they would be killed, so I was putting my life at risk.

There was one road into the township, which had police and army vehicles to keep white and black people apart. I hoped the security police would stop me, thinking I’d got lost, and send me back so that I could be safe and say to God I did try but was turned back. It seems God closed the security polices’ eyes and we got to Crossroads to be met by the couple who’d been to my house. I was shocked to see so many corrugated iron shacks with black plastic as roofs built on sand, one shack so close to the other that if one burned the rest would catch fire too. Sometimes 200 shacks burned down all in one go. There were bucket system toilets and a few outside taps. 

This was my introduction to the townships.  

Seeing God move 

When I got into the shack the tea tray was on a little table with doilies and cups. The community in general had not had white visitors so people popped in to meet us. A Bible study was held in the shack by the owners and I found myself chatting to people about Jesus and wonderfully they committed themselves to him. Afterwards, I had to go back to Crossroads, as how can one lead people to the Lord and just forget about discipling them? God was very clever in taking me there then saving people, knowing I would go back. This started my 20-year journey serving in various townships of Cape Town.

The next day I climbed a short way up Table Mountain to chat with God about where I’d been the day before. He said: “Well that is where you’ll be from now on.” I tried to bargain with him out of fear and also knowing it was against the government’s laws, but I knew I had to go back. 

The township had police and army vehicles to keep white and black people apart

I found when I was in the townships I came alive. I saw God do things we read about in the Bible. All I had was God and the Bible – no teams and no financial backing. At first nobody knew I was there besides my family. But as I prayed the blind could see, the deaf could hear and people who had not walked for years got up and walked. I was amazed, as this was the Great Commission in action! There’s no NHS here so all doctoring needs finance. People have no money – so we pray. I prayed for children who were dying of worm infestation. The worms left! I watched God multiply the few sandwiches I had; they never ran out until everybody had eaten their share. 

As I served this community my attention was drawn to the social justice of the nation; the laws which kept white and black people apart. I realised I was putting a plaster on apartheid, so I started addressing the government in various ways and standing up for the people of colour in South Africa. It got me into plenty of trouble!

In one area I worked, after five months the community gave me a challenge that if my God was as big as I say he is then he must give them each a brick house. An impossible request as they needed 650 brick houses! I had no money, they had no money and Jubilee Community Church, which I was now working alongside, had no money. A miracle was needed. If you go to Tambo Village in Cape Town today, you will see 650 brick houses with inside taps, toilets and electricity, a real breakthrough and glory to God as this was done through much prayer and no fundraising! 

During this time I helped to plan two church plants and handed them over to others while I visited new townships. I trained teams from the UK, Europe and the US to work cross culturally and I had teams of township people who could do everything I could do. It was time for a sabbatical. 

A new season

I was called to the UK for six months. My husband had been made redundant and was able to go with me. While there I got so booked by churches that we eventually stayed 18 years! I helped shape churches, shape leadership teams, mentor church leaders and also helped train people to work cross culturally. I laid biblical foundations and did many other things in the West I had learned in the townships. The black people had trained me well to work cross culturally and God took all these deposits and put them into the UK and Europe. 

I found that I had to learn a new way of thinking, a new way of living and a new way of being in the UK as it was cross culturally so different from South Africa. I could take nothing for granted and needed God in a whole new way.

I found there was racism in the West just as there was in South Africa. People were mostly unaware of this, but after May 2020 – when George Floyd was murdered – a black pastor friend and I started a group called The Reconciled Church. The Reconciled Church is a body of believers in churches across the UK seeking to encourage the Church that there is a desperate need for us to be reconciled to each other and to God. This reconciliation is not only needed on the issues around race but in so many areas of our lives. We need to face our history and our present reality of oppression and injustice, no matter how ugly it looks, and bring those realities to the cross where Jesus deals with them, so we can find peace and forgiveness. It is exhilarating to help a nation in this way and is part of what I feel I was born to do.

Life today

After 18 years, Greg and I felt it was time to move back to Cape Town. I still work into the UK via Zoom and other means and am involved again with Jubilee Community Church in Cape Town. 

People ask how my husband felt about my involvement in the townships. Well God is fabulous – he gave Greg grace for this time. He would say to me: “Just don’t die!” And God gave grace to our three daughters too. Though it wasn’t always easy, they made it. 

My life lesson to those reading is this: remain biblical and do whatever he asks. Stay the course, pay the price and get the “Well done, good and faithful servant.” 

Find out more about The Reconciled Church trchurch.co.uk