David, a gentle and gangling teenager, stepped into my office asking how he could get a South African identity document. He presented me with an unabridged birth certificate, which children born in South African to non-citizens receive at birth. I explained the requirements for citizenship by naturalisation, a possible pathway for him to attain a South African
ID. However, a timeous and administrative eventuality.
He soon explained that his mother had returned to Mozambique and they had lost contact. He has been estranged from his father for a long time and is currently in the care of a family friend, who he cautioned at his need to leave, because of her gambling habit. David finished high school last year and has joined many young people in the arduous task of finding
work. Most days he finds himself walking the streets in the hope of chance, occasionally assisting someone with their garden or a plumber who lives on his street. He held back tears and lowered his head, cowering from the loneliness this world has given him.
David was brought to our offices by a vulnerable, elderly woman who waited outside the door of my office. He explained that she is a neighbour who looks out for him. Maud,who has lived in South Africa for almost twenty years with no regularised document, has provided David with food and a place to find support in the long days of his search for something
better.
‘Fellowship is a kind of belonging that isn’t based on status, achievement, or gender, but instead is based on a deep belief that everyone matters, everyone is welcome, and everyone is loved, no conditions, no exceptions. It’s not the kind of belonging you find at the top of the ladder among those who think they are the best, but at the bottom among all the
rest’
-Brian D. McLaren
Has our openness to others perhaps become dependent on benefit: I will be open to those who I can gain something from in return? What image comes to mind when you think of fellowship, and would you invite David into this fellowship?
Imagine being a young person in Johannesburg, having finished school, without the support of a secure home and family and facing an uncertain and precarious future?
As this young person, who may you hope open’s their door to you as you search for care and the hope for your imagined future?
