During the Summer of 2005 Debbie Cannon led a Synergy Team to work with U-Turn, a project ministering to destitute people in Cape Town, South Africa. Extracts from her emails show that this was both a challenging and rewarding experience. In February, Debbie returned to  work with U-Turn for a year.

email of 6th August...

My afternoon in the park allowed me to find a lot of old friends. Huddled together around a small fire, I found Denise and baby Zelda. I have brought Zelda trousers, a jumper, nappies and some porridge. These provisions are a very unsatisfactory solution until the Aids project with the street women and orphans gets underway.

I then introduce myself to a grandmother whose circumstances mirror those of so many here. I wait for her to speak, but she doesn’t for a while. Then the tears come. It turns out that this woman has been on the streets now for over 20 years. She has lost her husband, her boyfriend and her children. She stinks of alcohol, and she tells me between the splutters that she never drank before the deaths, but grief has taken over her life. I wonder how many more are out there in this town tonight, mulling over the same predicament.

On Monday we are taking 13 guys away on retreat.

email of 13 August...

It has been another tremendously hectic week in Cape Town, but it has been good. The retreat with the male U-Turn residents was fantastic, in a beautiful setting two hours outside of Cape Town. How wonderful it was to see these men relax in a safe environment!

The journey gave me an exciting opportunity to start talking to Simon about his life. His story is one of transformation - once a drug dealer, he described his time in jail and his affiliation with one of the notorious street gangs. Simon is changing and it is great to see. He asks a lot of questions, helps enormously around the shelter and loves to assist with those still sleeping outside.

As much as I love the work, it is immensely draining at times. My old friend Maria told me some very sad news, that she has recently been raped again. I was the first person she had told apart from the police and I think it was a tremendous release to her to tell someone. Maria needs prayer that her alcoholism will end – she ended up back on the streets last month because of disorderly behaviour in the refuge that had taken her in.

email of 23 August...

We set off on our women’s retreat this week, with eight excited and very noisy U-Turn women, me driving a kombi bus complete with trailer, listening to some rather ‘interesting’ Afrikaans music!
It was a delight to take these women away – when we arrived they were left speechless by the beautiful setting and cottage that they promptly named ‘the palace’. This would be their home for three nights. I was intrigued by their constant obsession with cleaning – every hour of the day one of them seemed to be sweeping or scrubbing or washing. On return we learnt that these women were desperate to play ‘homes’.

In the evening sessions, we split into small groups looking at salvation and the hope of heaven. I was struck by the extent to which they engaged. The hope of heaven and the need for salvation are embraced in a way I rarely see back home.

The crime-rate is high in Cape Town.  Daily dealing with people caught in a web of homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction, rape, violence and Aids is at times very draining.  On more than one occasion a man has made his way to the shelter after being stabbed. Two of the team were present when a decision was made for child-welfare to remove one of our street babies. Such action was made in the light of a vicious assault on the child’s mother by her drunken boyfriend. While such exposure was difficult for the team, each member learned a lot and it taught them just how urgent is the task of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.