The word Khula means “to grow.” This is the name Campus Outreach has chosen to identify with on the University of Cape Town (UCT) campus. At first glance, you might think this term refers to anticipated spiritual growth among the students met on campus. That’s true, but after only three years in Cape Town, it seems this term also applies to the ministry itself. There has been growth in the number of staff (from one to 11), the number of students participating, and the number of training opportunities. This year, CO Cape Town held its first summer training project, aptly named Khula Project.
For two years, students from Cape Town have traveled over 800 miles to attend the summer project hosted by CO South Africa. This was helpful and allowed students to catch a vision for Christian community and the bigger picture of Campus Outreach. But there were many obstacles: limited student attendance due to space, travel logistics, and school years ending at different times.
Why stop going to Johannesburg for the Summer Project?
CO Cape Town keeps doubling in size, but CO Johannesburg is also seeing incredible growth. There was only space for two UCT students this year. It became obvious that now was the time to expand. “In some ways, it felt like the Lord was pushing us over a cliff,” Lindsay Kent shared. “With the number of students we’re investing in and the number of staff we have, it felt like we had to try something and see what the Lord did with it.”
Planning began with the hunt for a location. Staff started with the end in mind; there would be thirty total attending the project, and the hope and vision centered around life-on-life, the hardest part about ministry in Cape Town. The pressure on students at UCT is astronomical. Students don’t get much time together. Staff struggles to spend time with students, too — even to cook a meal together. Transportation is also a challenge in South Africa. They decided to rent four houses in a small tow. Here, it was safe to walk, and where staff lived with students, allowing life-on-life discipleship to be central.
What did the Khula Project look like?
Everyone who attended had come to faith or gotten involved with Khula in the past year. This reality shaped the project’s focus on establishing students in their faith, with the theme “In Christ.” Leaders hoped participants would leave knowing how to walk with Jesus for a lifetime, confident of who they are in Christ, and know how to read their Bible and pray; how to live out the Christian life. Training centered on the wheel diagram and The Gospel-Centered Life.
The formal training was good, but less formal interactions had a huge impact, such as dinner swaps. Leaders paired students into groups, and on the first night, girls cooked for the guys, and the next night, the guys cooked for the girls. Staff attended just one of those dinners. There are many cultural norms about how men and women relate, who serves, and who is the recipient. Often, that power dynamic is used for men to manipulate or exert power over women in ways that are not biblical. When the guys served dinner, the difference was astounding. The men kept the women out of the kitchen and invited them to sit in the living room and play games instead. The men came to serve, and it became obvious that they had gone above and beyond; fresh-squeezed lemonade from a tree in the yard and bowls made of rice. For the women to experience this service as a sign of respect and care was impactful.
Was it worth it?
During the last night on the project, everyone gathered for prayer. Students were challenged to pray about returning to campus and what they are asking God to do in them and through them. Their prayers demonstrated their growth. These student leaders have returned to campus eager to continue “khula” and to boldly share their faith. One student, Dembe, was even overheard saying, “I’m going to campus to meet first-years and share the Gospel with them today.”
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