South Africa + Probably My Last Blog Post

My squad and I are finally back in America! We spent the last week working at Sharp Top Cove, a young life camp in Georgia. We were doing a lot of manual labor and were just working to get the camp ready for the summer. Now we are heading back to the AIM base in Gainesville to debrief before the race is officially over.

That being said here is my update for our last month of ministry on the field in South Africa. Both of the boys teams on our squad were together for a month of “manistry.” We were located in Johannesburg and working with an organization called Impact Africa. Impact Africa is seriously one of the coolest ministries I have ever worked with, and the Lord has clearly placed a great anointing over the ministry. The organization does a number of different things in the Johannesburg area. The main part of the ministry we worked with was what they called outreach. During outreach we would go out into the slums of Johannesburg to meet people and we would love on them, share the gospel with them, and try to get them plugged into a local church we were connected with. Another part of the ministry we worked with was called Impact Students. For Impact Students we would go into schools and host assemblies which the whole school would go to, and then we would teach a lesson, do dances, and games with the students. We also would go to schools and go into classes, and lead a class in their classrooms. We would teach a lesson, share a testimony, and then pray for the kids in the classes. Another part of the ministry we worked with was called Impact Kids. With Impact Kids, once a week we would put on kids programs in 2 different slums where we would dance with the kids, do a lesson, learn a memory verse and play with the kids. Finally the last part of the ministry we worked with was called Impact Baby Rescue (IBR). Johannesburg has a huge problem of abortion and baby dumbing, which is where woman will throw there baby away in the trash or just leave them by the river or side of the road. Impact Baby Rescue tries to limit this by providing free counseling to mothers or women with unwanted pregnancies. They also have baby safes in the communities which are places where as a last resort, women can safely put there babies in the safe and it immediately notifies staff and they can take in the baby to one of their baby homes. For IBR we went to clinics and would do presentations of what IBR does, we also went out into communities and handed out flyers to people to raise awareness for what IBR is doing. Lastly we got to visit two of the IBR baby homes, we got to help clean the homes as well as just play with and love on the babies that have been rescued. Impact Africa is an amazing ministry that impacts there communities in so many ways, and it was such an honor to work alongside them for our final month of ministry on the field.

We saw the Lord work in so many crazy ways this past month. It was genuinely one of my favorite and most transformative months ever. It’s hard to put into words a lot of the things that happened, but I am going to try my best to communicate some of the amazing testimonies of what the Lord did. One of my favorite testimonies is when we were walking through one of the slum communities and we ran into some people playing a popular card game in Africa called casino. A couple days prior to this I had just learned how to play casino and had only played like 2 or 3 times. One of the Impact Africa staff members challenged them to a game of casino on my behalf, he had made an agreement that if I beat them they would have to quit playing for a couple of minutes and listen to a story we wanted to share with them, but if I lost we would leave. They accepted so I ended up playing against this African man in casino, who had just beaten 5 of his friend in winner stays on. Somehow the Lord helped me win this game of casino in this David and Goliath type scenario. After the game I got to share the gospel with the men who were playing and by God’s grace, 3 of the men ended up getting saved. One of the men was hearing the gospel for the first time ever, but as he was hearing it he was pausing me so he could translate it to his friend who did not speak great English. They both got saved and were very grateful and said “Thank You for showing me the light out of the darkness.” Afterwards one of their friends came up to us and one of the men who had just gotten saved came running up to me saying “Pastor! Pastor! You must share with this man what you shared with me.” I shared the gospel with his friend whom was already a believer. It was really cool to see this man and how he wanted everyone to be able to have the same hope he had just received and how it all came from the Lord miraculously helping me win a game of casino. Another time me and my friend shared the gospel with a man and he responded “This is good news!” And he gave his life to Jesus. We prayed with him and he received the Holy Spirit and he went away saying he was going to tell all his friends what had happened and he wanted everyone to be able to experience what he had experienced. Another time me and my friends were tag teaming sharing the gospel with a man all the way from the beginning with creation and the fall of man. After we shared with him the fall of man, he became very concerned and said “There has to be a solution!” We were able to share with him that there was a solution and share that Jesus had died for his sins. He joyfully accepted Jesus and he really wanted his brother and sister too as well. One testimony from Impact Students is after one of the classes we had taught, one of my friends felt like he was supposed to pray for a student in the class. He went and prayed for him and afterwards all of the students started shooting their hands up asking for us to pray for them as well. It turned into a mini crusade in this classroom and pretty much every kid in the classroom received prayer. This is just a glimpse of a lot of the absolutely crazy ways the Lord moved this past month. We saw the Lord moving in mighty ways and people finding freedom, healing and salvation pretty much every day. This month challenged and pushed me so much, it was a month of transformation and growth and built my faith so much.

I can’t think of a better way for my race to come to an end than my experience in South Africa. It was a great time of fellowship with all the men on the squad as well as fellowship with the Spirit. I went through a lot of growth, specifically I grew in my boldness, hearing from the Lord and my faith in the Lord. As the race is coming to an end, I am so grateful for all the support you guys have shown me the entire race. The Lord has definitely heard your prayers and answered them and I would not be where I am now without your prayers and support. As the race comes to a close could you pray for a smooth reentry for me and my squad. Please pray for peace and humility as I return home. As for what’s next for me after the race, this summer I will be doing an internship with my church and in the fall I will be attending the University of Georgia. I would greatly appreciate prayers as I transition into both of those things as well. Again thank you guys so much for all you support throughout this journey.

For everyone who supported me this year, it would mean a lot to me if you would consider and pray about supporting 3 of my friends from the race on what they will be doing next year. 3 of the guys I have lived with for the past 9 months that have really shaped the last 9 months for me will be going on a van trip around the US where they will be faithfully serving the Lord, primarily focused on serving impoverished and homeless people. The link for more information about their journey as well as to support them will be right below. Thank you guys!

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundraising/0961a259-d93c-4c5f-9143-635db99e3576