God is good

Outreach in South Africa is almost over! I am leaving for Italy in just a couple days. It is crazy to think of leaving this place because we have really been able to get to know and love people here. We have been so fortunate that our ministry has been very discipleship-oriented. What I mean is that a lot of people (the majority) we talk to here are already Christians, so we have the chance to encourage them and challenge them in their faith. I thought that outreach was going to be a time when we would lead a lot of people to the Lord, but there has only been one person who has become a Christian from our ministry here. His name is Jeremiah, and he is just awesome! He is recently out of prison, where he spent most of his time reading the Bible. When two of my teammates talked to him on the beach, he was so ready to accept Christ, but he didn't know how. But now he is the most on fire for God person I know... he just doesn't stop talking about God - like, we literally cannot get a word in. He was homeless, just sleeping on some rocks near the ocean, and didn't have anything at all really. We were able to get him a Bible (which we all had to sign and write our countries so he could show people how missionaries came from overseas to lead him to Christ) and we also got to buy him a house!!!!! It is actually only a small garden shed, but it was only $50 and he has a roof over his head! He is also now connected with the pastor here, so he has someone to mentor him. So maybe we aren't leading hundreds of people to Christ, but if Jeremiah is the only reason we came to South Africa, I am ok with that!

God is doing lot's of other awesome things too. We have been experiencing something I have never witnessed before - healings! God heals people when we pray. Today we were at this woman's house in Delft, the township, and she told us about her legs that have been sore for the past 6 months and it is difficult for her to walk. We prayed over her legs, asking God to heal her and when we were done, she stood up and was able to jump up and down and move all around. God literally healed her before my eyes. It was so amazing! God still does miracles today! Then she invited us in for tea and we watched the royal wedding. So good.

Outreach is going good. I can't believe it's a third of the way through, but I am excited for the rest of it! My team is doing well. We have been getting along well, although I have realized how hard it can be to live with and hang out with the same people all the time. It's all about patience and not letting people get on your nerves. It's good though, it really is. We have a lot of fun times together and we all work well together. Continued prayer for unity and safety over the team would be awesome! Thanks!

Outreach...

I love this place. And these people. And everything! I am really enjoying myself here. It is hard to believe how fast it is all going - only two and a bit weeks left! It is going to fly by. We have been keeping pretty busy here, mostly just going different places and talking to people. We spend a couple days a week in a township called Delft. We mostly just go door to door talking to people. In their culture, an open front door means "come on in, we're ready for visitors" so we can literally just walk into someone's house, sit down on their couch and start chatting with them. They are very open people and will tell you their entire life story - what's going on with the family, health concerns or troubles finding a job. We usually just chat a bit and then spend time praying with them. It seems like most people here believe in God and absolutely love prayer, so our role is to really encourage them in that and help them grow in their faith. I remember on the first day as we drove through the townships, I jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions about them and the the people who lived there. I now know that they are a beautiful group of people who are friendly and open and welcoming. I feel very secure and welcome in Delft and just love spending time there. I also got the opportunity to preach in the church there last Sunday. It is a pretty small church, but it was my first time every preaching! It was definately a great experience. The congregation was so welcoming and really put me at ease. Just imagine a bunch of black mama's amen-ing and hallelujah-ing after everything. LOVE IT! We are running the entire service on Sunday, so that should be interesting! I'm not speaking at all, but I'm just excited to go back there.

We also spend a fair amount of time at the beach evangelizing. Just as people are very open in Delft, it seems that South Africans are very open in general. It is becoming so easy for me to just sit down next to someone and have a conversation with them. They love chatting and sharing about their lives. I have met a lot of really interesting people who have crazy stories to tell. I have talked to quite a few homeless people, but also to a lot of the surfers or other people who hang out at the beach. I have noticed that these people are very spiritual, just in general. Mostly everyone I have spoken with have some sort of belief in God and have stories where God has supernaturally showed up in their lives in miraculous ways. However, there is this disconnect when it comes to living a daily walk with God. So I think that our role here in SA is not to necessarily preach the gospel and lead people to Christ, but to encourage people who are already Christians and disciple them and help them grow stronger in their faith.

I am still loving this beautiful country. Today we went for a hike up a mountain near where we live. It took a pretty solid 1.5 hours to get up and it was pretty intense. But the view from the top is amazing! So worth the hike :) Every time I am struck by the beauty of this city (which is quite frequently) I remember how awesome God is. He made it all.

I don't really know if anyone reads this blog, but thank you to the ones who do! Your support is greatly appreciated, as are your prayers! Some specific prayer requests would be for safety for our team, as Capetown can be potentially dangerous, and also that God would open up so many opportunities for us. Pray that God would direct us to specific people or ministries or situations that we need to be involved in. Thank-you for your prayers! I hope everyone is doing well!

OUTREACH: Capetown, South Africa!

I still can't believe I am here. It is so surreal to me. The base we are staying at here is so awesome. It's an old hotel, so it has all these neat staircases and stuff. I share a room with the three other girls on my team and we seriously have way more room then back in perth. And we have a shower between the four of us versus two showers between like 30 people.. This is like luxury living here. I feel almost guilty.. ahaha I actually don't mind at all.. it's really nice.

Yesterday we went into the actual city of Capetown (we are living in a suburb called Muizenburg). It is about 45 minutes on the train to get there. The train is pretty cool.. really rustic and old and crowded! We go in the first class just because there are less people who ride in it but it was still so full coming home during rush hour. The doors don't close automatically so there are people holding them open and hanging out of them, or they are outside in between two of the cars. It's a cool experience for sure. We walked around the city for a good while - it is so interesting! This is the most polarized city I have ever seen in terms of money distribution. Walking down the sidewalk.. you look to the left and there are poor street vendors and on your right are high end clothing stores. The contrast between rich and poor is everywhere. We all really enjoyed walking around, lot's of cool stuff to see. However, we did get a sense of the city and the darkness and danger that is there. There were a lot of people who came up to us begging for money and stuff or just hanging around us. We have been given many tips on how to travel safe, so if we are smart we will be totally fine. That being said, Capetown isn't the safest city ever, so prayer for safety over my team would be awesome! Because our team is multicultural (7 countries represented!) we look more like tourists.

Today was an even better day. We went into a township today, called Delft. We went there with the pastor of a church there who is going to always lead us when we go. Basically we visited his church (it's just a square building with nothing in it) and then we visited some of the people he knows. The township is like a slum area. It is a huge area or these super run down shacks. The government actually makes really nice (comparatively speaking) houses for them and gives them to the people for free, so that is good. But a lot of people live in terrible looking shacks made out of scraps. But when we went inside them, they are actually homes. They have furniture and electricity and it is a home. I was really surprised at how comfortable they are...at least the ones we went to. And the people we met were all soooo friendly. Very welcoming and just loved it that we were there wanting to help out and everything. And the children! Oh my goodness. My heart feels complete. They are just so full of joy, it is incredible. A whole swarm of them came up to us and just jumped on us. The climbed all over us and we gave them piggy back rides and swung them around and everything. And the cutest thing was that they kept on grabbing my hair and sort of stroked it. They actually took it out of the braid I had and were playing with it and said they loved it so much. It was so sweet. We are going back tomorrow and I can't wait. I loved it there.. I felt safe and comfortable - the people are awesome.

So basically, I love it here. I am excited for everything that is to come and all the opportunities we will have to talk to the people of this amazing city and share Jesus with them! So excited for the next month :)