Blessed

Hello good friends! I hope all is well with you and the weather is getting warmer as it cools down over here. Things have lightened up and i've got time to write a longer blog...so here it goes! God is doing wonderful things here. It's so cool to live with 30 other full-time missionaries, because when we meet at the end of the day, our living room is filled with awesome stories of people encountering God's love. Our two vans pull into a community and we all scatter for a few hours and whether it's street ministry, soccer coaching with the local youth, bible studies with families or caring for people with AIDS in a local shelter, i am always humbled to see what God makes of it. Here are a few of my favorite stories:

I go with a few of my teammates to a rehabilitation center in a local township on Tuesday afternoons. We have spent the last few weeks building relationships with the residents there and listening to their stories. Some of my favorite people i've met so far are living in that place. We mostly listen and pray. Sometimes we help them make crafts to sell or sort through the food donations with the children who live there. I was able to share in the joy of a woman who could move out of the shelter into an apartment all her own. Some of the residents, who are doing poorly, just need a hand to hold or feet to massage. I am a sucker for washing feet, and it's been so cool to massage the feet of those Jesus came for. "I have set you an example that you should do as i have done for you..."

On wednesdays i go with part of my team to Sir Lowry's Pass, a colored township we do house visitations and kids ministry in. The past few weeks, we've been doing a bible study with a woman, her boyfriend, and her neighbors. The woman has no income and struggles to get food. We've been blessed to be able to bring her food when we come, which really touches her heart. Her neighbors are rastafarians, a religion that believes a lot of the gospel, but twists and adds things to it, making it hard to get at the truth of salvation through grace alone. Her neighbors are also HIV positive. The woman, who is 23, has really been opening up to me with her struggles of living with AIDS and wondering where she's going when she dies. Yesterday, i got to speak the truth of the gospel into her life and tell her that when God sees her, He sees someone completely whole and beautiful and clean. Our bible study is the basic gospel message and i believe God is really opening up their hearts. It's so humbling and amazing to watch.

This week, we've been doing a 12 day discipleship program with the youth of Stellenburg, a white upper-class area north of Cape Town. We've been partnering with a local church and local high school. The school system is wonderful here in the fact that we can openly come on campus and share Christ! We've been discipling and encouraging the school's christian club, inviting students on our local outreaches, and doing worship and teaching nights. It's been really cool to see the students respond to us being there. It's also frustrating and challenging at times to see the lack of commitment and apathy of others. Some of our events only brought in a few students. Because christianity is so accepted and mixed in with the school and community, many claim Christ, but don't follow Christ. It's been a good ministry for me, because the kids remind me so much of the kids i've worked with in the US. And the fight against apathy is what I'm used to, coming from America. I guess this apathy transcends borders.

At the end of next week, our team is breaking up into three groups for outreaches farther away in communities we will be going to periodically throughout the year. My team is heading off to Mahvusa, a rural village in Northern South Africa. We will be working with young people there, continuing construction on a camp we are building and spending time in zone two, a refugee camp for people fleeing war and persecution from their own countries. Then, we'll be heading up to Zimbabwe to lead a week long conference for church youth leaders. Zimbabwe has many young christians who are eager and ready to do youth ministry, but don't have the knowledge, skills, and leadership training to disciple and lead others to christ. We get to train them up! Please pray for God's wisdom and direction in knowing what to teach and what these young leaders need to hear.

I can't believe i've already been here two months! I'm beginning to feel more at home in this new place God has brought me. There's a passage in Luke where Jesus turns to his disciples and says that their eyes are blessed because of what they see. Many prophets and kings wanted to see God on earth fulfilling his plan for the redemption of the world, but didn't get that chance. Right now, i feel like one of those disciples. My eyes are so blessed to see God moving and changing lives. God is so good to let my eyes see his greatness!

Outreach

These last few weeks have been full of really awesome ministry moments! God is really passionate about the people of South Africa! I hope to share details soon, we've been a bit busy lately.

This week begins a 12 day discipleship program with the young people of Stellenburg, a white suburban area near Cape Town. We actually get to present the Gospel to the entire local high school in one of their assemblies! Please pray that God reignites passion in their hearts and challenges them to take steps towards Him.

Community

I want to start off my sharing what I’ve been experiencing living in community. First off, we are doing a new thing. My ministry family consists of people of all different races from all over South Africa. Because of the recent end of apartheid, you just don’t see that here. Walking down the street, you hardly ever see a white and a black or a colored hanging out together. We hang out all the time. And although there are work places and ministry organizations that are mixed, we don’t know of any other group who actually live together. As an American, I feel a great privilege to be able to look in at the diversity of a people from a country with a past, forming a family.

Our diversity is beautiful. Our diversity is also messy.

We have different ways of interacting with each other, different ways to joke, our voices speak in different volumes and different languages. We eat different things and pray differently, worship differently, and think in different manners. We offend a lot and have to back pedal often. A few times we have had to sit down and argue things out. It’s important and good that we do this because we are a family and a body working towards the same mission. If you look at history, you see that every big movement arose out of really strong, committed community. And I think that if we’re able to do this with the extent of differences we have, the extent of movement potential is enormous. A mentor of ours told us that if we can’t do life in community together, there is no hope for the future of South Africa. He may be right.

We had a girl’s camp this weekend and it was wonderful! We had about 20 Xhosa high school students and youth adults from one of the biggest townships in South Africa. They were beautiful girls and were really eager to hear from God. They soaked in all the sessions like a sponge and it was amazing to hear them sing their praise and worship songs to God. A lot of breakthroughs happened on the second night and God really helped many to let go of things they were holding on to. We also did an outreach on Saturday with the girls and our guys at a local township. We had over 500 children and youth. I’m pretty sure we had the whole township out there!

To the extent that ministry with God in South Africa is amazing, it is also really hard. There’s a lot I miss about America, and I feel like if I count the challenges here, I would never run out of things to say. I’m just glad that God loves to lift up His children when they are down, because I am down a lot. I was okay letting God make me weak, so that He can be strong, but then He asked me to be nothing so He can be everything. And that’s a lot harder. But that’s following Christ. And that’s the road I’m trying to walk right now. It’s worth it.