THE TRAIN CHURCH: Every weekday morning, thousands of Capetonian commuters crowd onto the trains to make the journey from the outlying townships to the City. Workers jostle to find a space in the jam-packed carriages. Hundreds of them head directly to coaches that have informally and gradually become a refuge for the Devoted and the Devout. The Apartheid government established Kayelitsha in 1985, to accommodate the influx of people seeking employment on Cape Town, initially housing about 30 000 people. The Township is now home to more than 10 times that number. It took some years to provide a Rail Link and commuter service to the area, but within several months of the train service being established , a group of women started using certain coaches as a Church. The first time [we did this], we sang and sang, from Khayelitsha to Cape Town says Primrose Nzibongwana, a regular preacher on the morning train and one of the Mamas (as she describes herself and her friends) who started the Services. Some of us did not go to Church at the time, so it was a chance to go to Church with the train. Within a few months, the Church had spread to all the other morning trains. Weve got sisters there now, weve got brothers, and weve got a lot of friends. Sometimes, if someones got nothing to eat, we share about that, says Nzibongwana. WE PREACH FOR EVERYTHING WE FEEL SAD ABOUT...and WE HELP EACH OTHER. (What a Wonderful Read....That is what Life should be all about).
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 15:13:52 +0000