Doctor and pastor bring hope to the streets
“If someone cannot find hope, hope must find them.”
That is the core message of The Hope Revolution, born out of a desire to see significant changes in the drug culture in Cape Town.
Its founders, Dr Jacobus Nomdoe and his wife Erica, who is a pastor, were in Gqeberha last week to implement The Hope Revolution programme in partnership with Nelson Mandela University.
The programme was launched at the university’s Missionvale campus in August last year.
One of the programme’s key areas is to facilitate training in the adopted “carefronting” approach towards the community-based substance abuse module.
Nomdoe, the regional director for Teen Challenge in
Africa, founded the Enon Tabernacle Church in Kleinvlei 33 years ago with Erica.
“The ministry started with evangelism, and we realised that many of the people we reached on the streets were involved in gangsterism and abused drugs,” he said.
“So we placed our focus on young people who got caught up in gangs and drug abuse.
“The sad thing was that young children were being used by older gang bosses to commit crimes.
“It was a big concern.
“A specific department to focus on drug abuse and gangsterism and its related problems, such as prostitution and human trafficking, was established in our church.”
He said in 1996 there was a bad gang war in the Western Cape.
“I was convinced God wanted me to focus on working with young drug users.
“So in 1998 we started with residential and community programmes.
“We were then asked by international organisation Teen Challenge to start the SA branch.
“Teen Challenge was eventually established in 39 countries.
“Our flagship programme is residential rehabilitation.
“And in 2014, while I visited the slums during a conference in Kenya, God dropped the words ‘ Hope Revolution’ in my spirit.
“The drug abuse there was next level. We have to take hope to those who cannot find it. The rest is history.”
The author of No Mother Gave Birth to a Drug Addict: Bringing Home our Sons and Daughters and his wife will be the speaker at two events on Saturday.
Nomdoe also addressed a group of men at Lounge on the Grounds at the Gelvandale Cricket Club on Saturday, under the theme, “The Power of a Praying Man”.
“I want us to change the trajectory of our communities.
“I will focus on absent fathers and the naturalisation of fathers.
“I was 42 when I met my father for the first time.
“There was never the voice of a father in my ear, but in our town there was a man who fulfilled that role.
“His role helped me avoid drugs.
“Someone became my father through naturalisation.
“The narrative of children on the streets is ‘ I do not have a father ’.
“There is a role for men to play in young men’s lives through authority and mentoring.
“Men should understand that more children need father figures.”
Erica, meanwhile, addressed women at the Uniting Reformed Church (URC) in Gelvandale under the theme, “Until I Rise”.
“My goal is to give women hope.
“Fear is the challenge that women face these days.”
A combined church service of the URC and the Hope Revolution was held at the URC in Gelvandale yesterday.