Navarre United Methodist Church

The team arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa after a long flight from Atlanta. From the airport in Johannesburg, we drove about an hour to our lodging: our home away from home for the next 10 days. After dinner and some brief instructions, we are making our way to bed to get some "needed" rest. Tomorrow we start with a full day of ministry! We are excited for what God has in store over the next week in a half!

Pastor Alan preaches to several hundred primary school aged children. He shared about Joseph and making decisions.

Today was a day that was full of excitement. The team was tired from the time change, but was a great day of ministry that took place. We started with some prayer walking to get more familiar with the area of Orange Farm that we are serving in with Pastor Josiah. The team had a good chance to see what the culture was like around the church and got to talk with many of the locals and invite them to the services taking place later in the week. We then had a time where we got to go into one of the local schools for an awesome message brought by Pastor Allen. He talked about Joseph, but what he didn't know is what had happened that morning with the devotion that one of the school teachers had taught... on Joseph! God must have been in control with the South African teacher preaching the exact thing as the Preacher from America! Pastor Josiah said that they children even knew that something so special could only come from God. We ended the day with VBS in the local park, and WOW! The team had prepared for 250 kids and it was safe to say that there was about 500! We taught the children some new songs they had never heard before. We then had a time to teach the children, do a craft, and just play around them in the park. Pastor Josiah said that tomorrow we should be expecting more children tomorrow!

Well the Lord did some great stuff here today in Orange Farm with the team. It started out early with a devotional at the school where we were once again blessed by the children singing and dancing for us. Savannah was able to share her testimony with the kids, and you could tell that she was a great encouragement to them. We found out from the principal that we are the first group to come in and teach the kids about Jesus! They were so happy to have us and wanted to see when we would be back!!! Up next, we started our service project where we will be spending some time painting houses in the community. Pastor Josiah has identified some other needs with housing a little further from the church. We are working hard to try to get out there and paint them as well. You might be asking how could this get better... well here you go... So as you read yesterday, we had about 500 kids at VBS. Today.... between 800-1000!!! What an awesome experience that we have had with the children in the community so far. We can hardly imagine what the Lord is going to do on Monday and Tuesday after the kids have the chance to tell there friends over the weekend. Ending the evening with our first of six evangelism services throughout the week. The tent we have set up is definitely getting its use out of it between the Children Ministry and Evangelism Services. Excited to see the Holy Spirit move throughout the rest of the week.

On Saturday, we finished priming the houses that we started on Friday. It was great for the team to continue the work that they had started and fellowship with the family who they were serving. We then got to go to the world famous Apartheid Museum. There was a quote that we read that explains just one of the reasons why we are having a life changing experience with Pastor Josiah and his church. It said "The Europeans came and had the bibles and we had the land. Now they have the land and we have the bibles." The people of South Africa are a strong people. A people who have endured a lot, but keep the Word of God close to there heart. The team went on there first orphanage visit on Sunday, and it is safe to say that it was a life changing experience. The Lakeside Orphanage had a good chunk of it burnt down in the past year, leaving some children who had close to nothing with literally nothing. So serving these children was something special for our team. They provided outfits for the children, balloons to play with, and different medication. The rest of Sunday was spent in church. We had about a 3 hour service in the morning with Ben bringing the Word. Then in the evening we had our third of six evangelism services.

Savannah teaches guitar to a couple of the children at the orphanage. Navarre UMC donated a guitar to the orphanage.

The team stands outside the entrance to the apartheid museum in Johannesburg. On Sunday afternoon we had the chance to learn more about the history and the role apartheid has played in South Africa being the country it is today

With hundreds and hundreds of children at VBS, we had to improvise our game time a little bit. Here Kristin is leading the Over/Under relay. With about 150 kids in each line it took a while to finish the race.

Ben, Greg, Bethany and one of the leaders from the church sing during VBS. The orange tint in the picture is caused by the orange tent that VBS and the evangelism services are being held in.

Tammy immediately fell in love with this child from the orphanage

Christy stands with the orphanage director and a few of the children

Some of the team members sit outside the orphanage with a couple of the littler children.

Today was a great day of ministry. We continued to work on the houses that we have been painting and should be close to done tomorrow. Getting to know the homeowners was very special experience for the team. We then had the last day of VBS today. Just a day to play and have fun with the children. It was sad to see them go, but it was a great time that we had to spend with them. They are just full of joy and laughter that we will never forget. The fifth evangelism service was the last thing of the day. The service was just full of the God's presence. Pastor Allen brought the word with passion and joy. He then handed it off to Pastor Josiah who did an alter call... 26 people were lead to Christ tonight! What a special moment that happened in that tent. The pastors' then prayed over the people who came forward. Lives were changed, and that is what we came for. To preach the Word in order to change lives. Praise Jesus!!! Please be praying for the team as we have our last day of ministry tomorrow, that they would have the energy to finish off this awesome week.

Well the team is all wrapped up with ministry in Orange Farm with Christian Revival Ministries, for now… What a great way to end the trip with another day with multiple ministry opportunities. We just about finished painting the houses that we have been working on the past week. The homeowners are some of the sweetest people, and we couldn't of asked for the Lord to put these people in our lives on this trip. Then the team focused on something that we were starting to work on earlier in the week… the orphanage. So after the emotional visit on Sunday afternoon, there were many needs that the team thought after the visit. Some of the ladies from the group got together and went out and bought TONS of stuff in order clean, entertain, and love on the children. We ended up going before the kids were out of school so we could clean for the ladies that were there, and to our surprise, the pastor had ordered bricks for the extension to the back that arrived earlier that morning. Playing with the children was once again another blessing to the team. But, once again, leaving was very difficult. The service was powerful. The sixth, and final service that pastor Allen had prepared. With the worship teams that partnered together, the pastors’ feeding off one another, there was no doubt that this was a “partnership” that will last. It was truly special and wonderful to see. The team didn't want to leave Orange Farm, but they did make sure that it was a "see you later" rather than "goodbye". Then we got to go on a safari... not much to say about that other than it was awesome! The team is travelling home tomorrow. If you are a part of Navarre, you better be ready to hear some touching stories when the come back. So blessed to see what the Lord has done through this team, and see what He will do with them in the future.

So we dropped the team off at the airport this afternoon. They should be leaving in the next 2 hours. We had our last meeting this morning to debrief on the trip. I know that they are looking forward to sharing the stories that have, so be ready to listen because the Lord did some amazing things on this trip.

Due to the amazing donations from the mission team, these bricks were delivered to the Lakeside Orphanage today for construction to replace the portion of the facility that had burned down several months ago. What is not seen is that there are more bricks around the side of the house and many bags of cement inside.

Savannah dances with some South African children at the final evangelism service.

This lion decided that Greg's water bottle was just the right item to be chewing on during our rec day visit to the Lion and Rhino Reserve.