Rebuilding the Ruins

<p>At seventeen, Dowayne had to leave his family&rsquo;s home in Manenberg, a part of Cape Town, South Africa, because of his stealing and addiction to heroin. He didn&rsquo;t go far, building a shack of corrugated metal in his mother&rsquo;s backyard, which soon became known as the Casino, a place to use drugs. When he was nineteen, however, Dowayne came to saving faith in Jesus. His journey off drugs was long and exhausting, but he got clean with God&rsquo;s help and with the support of his Christian friends. And ten years after Dowayne built the Casino, he and others turned the hut into a house church. What was once a dark and foreboding place now is a place of worship and prayer.</p> <p>The leaders of this church look to Jeremiah 33 for how God can bring healing and restoration to people and places, as He&rsquo;s done with Dowayne and the former Casino. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to God&rsquo;s people in captivity, saying that although the city would not be spared, yet God would heal His people and would &ldquo;rebuild them,&rdquo; cleansing them from their sin (Jeremiah 33:7&ndash;8). Then the city would bring Him joy, renown, and honor (v. 9).</p> <p>When we&rsquo;re tempted to despair over the sin that brings heartbreak and brokenness, let&rsquo;s continue to pray that God will bring healing and hope, even as He&rsquo;s done in a backyard in Manenberg.</p>