Issue 167 - FREE
16 MARCH 2018
Community News. Original - accurate - first
017 631 1903 / 017 631 1845 • admin@thebulletin.co.za • 1 Kiewiet Street, Secunda (Lake Umuzi)
Kruinpark held a Sprayathon recently. The children were overjoyed when the Cansa mascot Toktokkie arrived. Read the story on page 3.
Unconditional Love!
Unconditional love was the core message of Pastor Craven Engel when he delivered his sermon at the Secunda Reformed Church on Sunday. Pastor Engel and his team visited Secunda over the past weekend to bring awareness about the work done in the Cape flats areas of Cape Town. The areas are under tremendous pressure from gang violence, substance abuse and general moral decay. Craven speaks with a tremendous passion for his work, his people and the people he serves. Throughout the interview, he managed to bring the humorous side into this very tragic situation. The way that they interact with the gangs and their responses sometimes come through as funny but he stressed the very severity of the situation to the Bulletin. During his sermon, he spoke about “mirror neurons” and used a very
simple comparison. “People reflect on themselves and others through mirrors,” he said, “we stand up in the morning and the first mirror is your partner, then the bathroom mirror etc.” Then Craven said what the problem is with drugs. “Drugs switches off your mirror neurons and the drug user (or substance abuser) cannot see the pain that he or she is causing!” When asked by Doctor Anton Knoetze of the Secunda Reformed Church how to switch it on again Pastor Engel replied: “with unconditional love!” He went on to say that parents should also take responsibility for their children. “We can help with programs but the parents must take responsibility,” said Craven. One of the main reasons for inviting Craven and his team to come to Secunda is the steady increase in drugs and drug abuse. Secunda’s drug users have not resorted to the levels
of violence that is so prevalent in the Cape Flats area yet but as one of his support team said: “with drugs comes violence.” The Bulletin has reported on a number of drug cases, most recently the bag of cocaine found behind one of our primary schools. The courts have also seen a steady increase in the use of Naope, especially in the township areas. Dealers sometimes even include school children. Craven’s model is based on international standards and they benchmarked with Chicago. “Chicago is a small hellhole on its own,” he said. The problem with gangs and their related violence is that there is always the need to retaliate. And this retaliation is what brings all this sorrow. If someone is shot or stabbed there will always be problems with retaliation. And this is where Pastor Engel and his CeaseFire project is so very effective.
He and his team operate from the First Community Resource Centre, which houses counselling services, jobplacement services, a drug restoration centre and a safe house. The success of this program is based on the fact that the “interrupters”, as they are called, are all ex-drug users, gangsters and convicts. Craven introduces each member of the team to all the gangs and gets them to accept them as members of his team. “The gangs have a tremendous respect for faith-based ministries,” Craven said. They start with the following steps: Detect and interrupt conflicts: Interrupters respond immediately to a conflict to disrupt the conflict. If a shot is fired, they can pinpoint the location within seconds and respond to disrupt the conflict. The idea is to mediate ongoing conflicts, prevent gang retaliation and keep conflicts “cool”. Continued to page 3