South Africa Outreach - Week 2 Summary

2011 is now here and we have been on outreach for over 2 weeks already (including all that travel time). We’re on day 14 in Worcester, South Africa and so much has happened already! And we still have 2 months to go!

Here’s a brief rundown of what we did in week 2!

- Worship and prayer as a team – I led on Friday by guitar for the first time in years because there isn’t a piano around! And I started to write a song one afternoon!

- Started one-on-ones – These are an important part of DTS where we get time weekly with our leaders by ourselves to process how things are going. Because Shane and I are helping as student leaders, I am doing one-on-ones with 2 of the girls and Shane has all 4 boys to meet with each week. I was so encouraged last Sunday when I met with the girls! I hope this part of the week continues to be so encouraging for me!

- I got to share my testimony for the first time! – On Sundays we attend local churches (last week was a colored church that had really good worship and a great heart and today we went to a black church. They really know how to make a joyful noise and dance!)

- We’ve been doing our two dramas a lot! (at churches, children’s ministry, the beach, street evanglism, etc). I have the main part in the one drama that we do all the time and I’m hoping I don’t get too sick of doing it by the end of outreach =) I don’t have the chance to get shy here…I just have to go for it!

- Beach Evanglism last Sunday – dramas, praying for people, sharing the Gospel!

- Saw penguins at Boulder Beach!

- Vacation Bible School/Children’s Ministry at a squatter camp (Avian Park) in the mornings for 2-3 hours.

- Hospital visits at a local state hospital in the afternoon – this was a big highlight for me this week! We prayed for people for healing, encouraged people, prayed for staff, played with babies, shared the gospel and led people to Jesus (~8 people throughout the week!)

- Lunch with the team on our day off at a restaurant! Sadly, I was sick after that experience. I don’t know if it was related but myself and another guy that had the same meal were sick by that night =( I spent 4 days sick this week and had to miss some ministry which was disappointing =(

- Street evangelism downtown – dramas, testimonies and praying for people in front of a grocery store! People got saved and rededicated their lives to Jesus!

Random details and blessings:

- We’ve noticed that what seems like all the dogs in the neighborhood start barking at 10:30pm each night. It was pretty annoying at the beginning but now we’re getting used to it. Thankfully, they settle down after a little while!

- I can no longer say it’s nice and cool in the mornings and evenings with weather I like better than Kona. We experienced an African summer heat wave this week and temperatures were almost 50 degrees! It was unbearable!

- During the heat wave, the wind is even hot!

- The Christmas break is over on the base and students arrived this week. Now the place is full of more people and the kitchen has opened up so we don’t have to prepare our own meals, which is a real treat!

- As we’ve gotten to know our neighbors in our building, we really like them! Many families in our building are from Brazil and the ones on either side of us are from Brazil and Madagascar! Our neighbors from Madagascar have said they want us to stay =)

- I’m guessing there is a beehive somewhere near our window because I’ve been killing a lot of bees in our room. I definitely think that screens are very convenient! The flies and bees buzzing against the window have managed to wake me up from a nap and from a night’s sleep even with ear plugs in!

- Safety is an issue if you go off base without a group and in certain places so we are careful. The base has a wall or fence around it with barbed wire around the top. It doesn’t freak me out because it was just the same in Haiti at the base we stayed at.

My favorite part of week 2 was having the incredible pleasure of leading someone to the Lord for the first time in my life! I’ve been a Christian for a long time but I’ve never been a part of someone coming to know Jesus right before my eyes. I’ve longed for many years to be a part of this and it has been on my hopes and dreams list at the beginning of the New Year for years now. Well, it was written there again when I wrote my little list of what I wanted for 2011 on December 31^st. By January 3^rd, my hope and dream came true! And not only one, but 3 people came to know Jesus!

We were visiting the hospital for the first time. There was a very sick 13 year old girl who was having a really hard time breathing, oxygen mask, IV in and such. Her mom was with her and Shane and I asked if we could pray for her. Her mom said she needed prayer for her liver, swelling in her legs and her lungs. We began to pray for healing and the little girls situation looked pretty serious to me. The nurse in me counted her respirations, which were 48 per minute! I was thinking about how this girl needed Jesus if she didn’t know Him.

It was incredible but right them, a lady who sometimes visits the patient appears at the bedside and translates what I’m saying in Afrikaans so the mom could understand and the daughter could understand more clearly. It was a divine appointment and I’m so thankful that lady appeared of what seemed out of nowhere! I inquired and found out that the mom and the daughter did not know Jesus. I shared the Gospel with the girl and asked if she wanted to know Jesus as her personal friend and pray with me. I led her in a prayer which she repeated “Yes Jesus” after every sentence through her oxygen mask, because she didn’t have the strength to repeat all the words because her trouble breathing. We welcomed her into the family and told her that now we are brothers and sisters in the family of God! The team ended up coming in and gathering around her bed. They sang over her, prayed over her and it was a party welcoming a new sister into the Kingdom of God!

Then, her mom and the lady in the next bed both came to Jesus next! It was an incredible honor to share Jesus and meet receptive people who just needed to hear the Gospel and had ready hearts!

I don’t know what ended up happening to this girl because they were transferring her to Cape Town but I know on January 3^rd, there were divine appointments at Worcester Hospital that exploded into eternity! And I’m just so pumped that I was included! God didn’t need me, but He wanted to use me and He did! Amen to that!

Be encouraged! God is on the move and souls are being saved! Woo! Hoo!