Meet a Resident

Meet a Resident of Cape Town: Mike Makedama

Mike Makedama is a large man with a large heart. He always has a piece of candy or spare change for the children in Cape Town.

As an English and social science teacher who also coaches basketball at Linge Junior School, he sees the kids need role models. As the children of absentee fathers, the only men they have to look up to are neighborhood drug dealers and gang members. Makedama tries to set a positive example.

Most importantly, he tells the students about Jesus. Makedama works with an IMB missionary to lead a Bible study for students at the school every Friday.

He is passionate about working with children. “I believe it’s what God has sent me to do here on this earth,” he says. “I believe on this earth all of us were sent by God [for] a purpose. … I was called by God to do this work.”

Meet a Resident of Cape Town: Nash Booysen

Nash Booysen, a former professional soccer player from Cape Town, saw nothing was being done in his Coloured* community to keep teens out of gangs. “All over the place, every corner where you go, [there are] just drugs,” he said.

Booysen started a soccer academy to train young athletes while also sharing the Gospel with them. Many scouts follow high school teams searching for recruits for professional teams. Booysen helps acquire scholarships so his students can play soccer at these schools.

“The reason I teach football (soccer) is to just get the boys out of drugs,” Booysen said. “Just to see one boy turn his life around from nothing into something. … That’s all I want to see.”

After each training, Booyson teaches Bible lessons such as laying down your life for another. He emphasizes that God loves the students so much that He laid down His life for them.

“Most of them come to play sports and then get saved,” Booyson said. “Share the Word with them, share on their level [and] their lives are changed.”

*Coloured refers to a defined people group unique to southern Africa