Tucked between the Queensburgh Industrial Area and Malvern, is an informal settlement called Burlington. While the world sees poverty, AIDS, violence, garbage, and hopelessness; God sees the next Gideon, David, or army of Israel.  Our heart for this community developed as we visited and prayed, and God lead us to serve the people. We have now been there for over 4 years.

Siyanela Burlington means “be satisfied” and became our weekly feeding scheme. Every Wednesday we fed anywhere from 20 – 150 young children after a Bible lesson. Outside churches graciously partnered with provision of food supplies, while some of the women in the settlement did the cooking. However, recently we passed this ministry onto a team of ladies from Burlington, empowering them to touch lives in their own backyard.

Along with Siyanela Burlington, we do house visits, set up training seminars, partner with the small church, do basic health care, enjoy evangelism and prayer walks, and are building a team from within the community that will empower those surrounding them. We have had the pleasure of having two teenagers as DTS students on base, two adult women as FCD students on base, running a life-skills course for the unemployed of the community, training a woman to run “Cherish” (an abstinence-based identity course for women), and hosting a variety of visiting teams that have truly blessed the community with the love and joy of Jesus.

We have only scratched the surface of what God dreams for this small community of powerful Zulu warriors. As we wait on Him, get His strategies, see people come to know who they are in Him, we believe that Burlington will indeed rise above its current state and cause great transformation throughout South Africa!