New life after being homeless
TWO YEARS ago, Kamohelo Molepo packed his belongings and boarded a train for Cape Town, leaving behind his heartbroken mother and his 4-year-old son in Joburg.
The then 26-year-old had been unemployed for over a year and had hoped Cape Town would provide him with an opportunity to start his own clothing company one day.
But Molepo soon found himself adrift, addicted to alcohol and living on the streets of Cape Town.
The missionary community extended a hand of friendship and helped him get back on his feet in order to reach out and help others.
He hopes some day to become a source of support for South Africans who, like him, were once without hope or help.
When he arrived in Cape Town, Molepo did not know anyone there and had used up the money a friend had lent him to buy a train ticket. Soon after his arrival, he found himself living on the streets.
“I went to Cape Town to start a new life,” Molepo said. “But things didn’t turn out well because I didn’t know anyone else in Cape Town. I hustled hard to find a job and a place to stay.”
Despite his positive attitude, Molepo soon found himself homeless. He could hardly walk into a building without being asked to leave.
Although he found a community in other people living on the streets, he felt depressed, homesick and lonely. Like the people he was surrounded by, he turned to alcohol and dagga to help ease his woes.
At some point, he had no time for God, while he worried about where his next meal would come from.
“Sleeping on the streets, I felt like maybe I’m not religious any more,” Molepo said.
After about four months of homelessness and selling small crafts and goods to passers-by at the taxi rank, Molepo was sitting on the train when he met two American men “preaching the Gospel and bringing hope to broken souls”.
Moved, Molepo got into a conversation with them and learnt about their organisation, a global movement of Christians called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). With them, Molepo said, he began to be born again.
When he learnt about the R15 000 cost to go to the school as well as additional fees associated with going on missionary trips, he was determined to raise enough money to join the mission.
Against all odds, and to the surprise of YWAM, Molepo earned the money by selling small goods on the street and working odd jobs at a car dealership. He also sobered up in a shelter support-group and went to enrol at the mission school.
Molepo was the only black South African in a sea of whites at the school. To him it seemed that the others had not experienced the same struggles he did. He met people from across the world, each with their own story.
“In that place there was 17 nations under one roof,” Molepo said. “Africans, Americans, Europeans and Asians… We were a mix, but after three months you learn to live in an environment of different cultures.”
After the three months, which were spent learning and fund-raising by hosting events at churches, selling biscuits and washing cars, Molepo went with other YWAM members to Jordan and Israel to work with Syrian refugees. He said he helped refugees, from painting their homes to getting them clothing.
For children, who were broken and traumatised, Molepo hoped to instil hope by playing and dancing with them.
“We didn’t go in terms of religion. We went to show love and care, and teach them how to show love to the world.”
During his first trip, Molepo became passionate about mission work and learnt about the struggles of people around the world. He plans to do another trip in November to Hawaii, where he will help build an orphanage and work with an indigenous community.
Through these trips Molepo wants to build a global network of people to form partnerships. By travelling the world he has met people who were amazed by his story and who have offered to help him as he makes plans to begin his own mission.
While raising funds for his next trip, he moved back home with his mother and son, with an entirely different mindset from when he left.
His community has also noticed the change in him. “Everyone can see how I have changed,” Molepo said. “Even when I talk to them, I motivate them because no one motivated them before.”
Because Molepo found his own hope through the mission, he said he hopes to provide the same for others. This means inspiring people to go to rehab to fight their addictions and then go to mission school, as he did.
He hopes to open his own mission by 2020 and introduce black people into missionary community work, which he said was still predominantly white.
“We are trying to encourage more black people to join us,” Molepo said.