Two weeks in South Africa down!
We are staying at and working with an organization called Impact Africa. Their ministry has many programs with different purposes, Impact Outreach, Impact Baby Rescue, Impact Students, and Impact Kids Outreach. We’ve had the opportunity to spend many hours in the community talking to and praying with people and hearing their individual stories. Many people have accepted Christ as savior, quite a few of whom had never heard of him before our teams came and talked with them. Even as we’ve been encouraging them we’ve also been learning from and encouraged BY their testimonies and hunger for truth.
There are so many stories and things I could share about this trip so far, but I’ll highlight a couple that will hopefully be an encouragement and shed some light on what God is doing through us in South Africa.
On one of our first days of ministry we met a sweet lady with a one year old baby and through conversation we were able to present the gospel through our translator, she had never heard of Jesus before so we got to explain from creation to resurrection. She explained to us about the ancestral worship she had been raised in and the fear of having to keep the spirits happy. She was very interested and happy to hear of a hope and the free gift, given in love that Jesus offers. We were able to pray for and with her and give her a copy of the gospel of John. Impact is unique in that they have quite a few local staff members and connections with churches in each area they minister to, so we were also able to direct this woman towards the African church in her area.
This past week we had a community outreach day on a school holiday, my group of 5 spent nearly the entire morning talking to 3 teenage girls, Amo, Anele, and Lerato. They had so much joy and were so excited to tell us about the things that they loved to do and to ask us questions about everything imaginable. They knew English very well so we were able to communicate with little to no language barrier. They asked questions about why we should believe the Bible is God’s word and what happens to your spirit when you die. They had been taught to believe in reincarnation as someone or something else after death. We were able to explain that your spirit does go somewhere when you die, but that there are only two options, and as a Christian, that option is eternal life in heaven. We also discussed how God is a jealous God, and you should not worship both him and your ancestors or other spirits. God is enough and he is THE way the truth and the life. We also worked through forgiveness, both God’s gracious forgiveness to us as well as the need to extend that to others, love, and conflict resolution, as they openly shared struggles they were having within their friendship. Two of the girls had already proclaimed Jesus as their savior before they his week. When we asked them who he was to them they said he was the savior and that he died for them. The third girl was quite skeptical, but towards the end of the conversation after discussing many things, she made the decision to follow Christ. After praying with her, the joy expressed on her face was such a sweet thing to see! I was so blessed by their deep questions, heart, and desire to know more about God. Plus the opportunity to learn more about them, their lives, and their culture while being a messenger of Gods truth and love.
On a personal note, God has been teaching me so much through this trip. He’s been challenging me to slow down and rest in His love and to stop striving so hard. I’ve been reminded of the all surpassing value of knowing Him. He’s been helping me to be more joyful and to grow in love my for Him and for others, to be more joy filled and listen to the Spirit’s direction to minister, and share my faith with others boldly without worrying about what to say or how others may perceive me. I’ve always struggled with fear of man and allowing perfectionism to hold me back. He has consistently provided the opportunity to grow in this over the past few years and has been helping me to let go and experience more freedom from these fears on this trip. He is so faithful to continue to peel back and address new layers of old patterns, and also to reveal new truths and questions and answers I never thought to consider, through experiences and His word. I pray that he will continue to search my heart and help me to become more like Him daily.
I pray for the opportunity to have many more edifying conversations and to hear the stories of many people who God puts in our paths. Pray for continued wisdom and humility in our team to be able to learn from and share the truth and hope of the Gospel with the people of South Africa. Also to be intentional in spending quality time with the Lord and to be attentive to what He is doing in our own lives.
Leave a Reply