Highland Park United Methodist

Wow! What an amazing 2 days it has been traveling across 3 continents. We have had so much laughter and bonding as we have traveled on buses, trains, and airplanes from South Carolina to Philadelphia, Windsor England, and then on to Johannesburg, South Africa. In Windsor we were able to tour the beautiful Windsor Castle and downtown Windsor thanks to some generous donations from members of the church. We rode the bus in Windsor with a local student and had the best time asking him questions and listening to his accent. We have endured a few snags along the way with going through customs and security multiple times in each airport, a temporary loss of a Passport, and long lines to teach us patience. In each moment what I have really loved is the bonding between team members. It never mattered which members of the group that I went beside there were always positive, uplifting thoughts and encouragement to help us make it through the most tiring days of travel. We finally arrived today in Johannesburg, South Africa after our travels and met our Praying Pelican’s team leader Jon and his wife Emily along with their beautiful son, Evan. They were instantly like family to the team. We also met Pastor Josiah, his wife Mary, members of the church, and the church where he is the Pastor- Christian Revival Ministries. The church members present prepared us some local African cuisine that was truly delicious. They welcomed us with open arms and were just as excited to see us as we were them. During our travels God has been there the entire time giving us the strength we have needed and we are excited for what lies ahead of us this coming week.

Our view as we drove into Evaton North this evening!

Jerry is our bus driver for the week. He's also a police officer and member of the church. Evan is quite attached to Jerry and Jerry is quite attached to Evan!

Pastor Mike sharing during morning Church service!

A view of our ministry time in Tepong tonight

The young ladies of the church blessed us with a dance ministry during Church. We had an amazing day at church, in the community and doing a street ministry service.

Today was our second day here in South Africa. Since it was Sunday we went to a service with our host church and it was truly an amazing experience. It lasted 4 hours and was filled with African gospel music and an empowering sermon given by our host pastor, Pastor Josiah. As the music was playing everyone was dancing out of their seats, going to the front of the church and it was so free and beautiful that one of our own team members, Jennifer, went out and danced with them which was amazing to watch. Towards the end of the service, Pastor Josiah invited anyone up to the front who wanted to be prayed for. It started as a few people and by the time he was done talking the whole congregation was up on their feet, their hands in the air, repeating “Jesus” over and over again. It was truly an eye-opening and moving experience. The whole service was truly inspiring. After the service we had some delicious lunch prepared for us by some women of the church, and then we had a meeting about Vacation Bible School, which we start tomorrow. Everyone is SO excited about that! Later we went prayer walking throughout the neighborhood surrounding the church. If we saw children we invited them to VBS. My group found a soccer field where a bunch of children were playing soccer and the three men that were in my group spent some time playing soccer with them and all the children were having the best time. After the prayer walking we went to another church service that was very informal yet still amazing. This church that we went to Pastor Josiah is helping get started so we went and sang songs and two of our team members gave small testimonies but they had big messages. A pastor gave a sermon and offered anyone who had not accepted Jesus in their heart to come and be saved. Five women and some children came up and they were saved and it was truly a marvelous thing to experience. And that was our second day in a nutshell. All the people we met today were so amazing and passionate that we are all excited to spend the next week with them!!

We finally made it to our Vacation Bible School ministry today and it was obvious God was in control. As much as we planned and prepared, God led the kids and us in a little different path than expected and we all had the time of our lives! We have already bonded with the local children and they are so sweet and opened to us being here. We are learning how to pronounce names and some of their language. They enjoyed the little things, such as their nametags and playing with bouncy balls and jump ropes. Of course, music speaks across all languages so that was the most awesome part of our time together. In the afternoon, we worked on replacing windows and refinishing desks at the local elementary school. What stood out to me the most was that even though we were there working, we were able to socialize with the construction crew. These were people not from our host church, but people within the community we are here to serve. As with our host church, they were more than patient with us and open to us being there. Tonight, Pastor Josiah shared his life story. He had all of us laughing and then would have us in tears. After hearing his testimony, I am a firm believer that this man is truly a man of God. He puts God first and lives solely by the Word. I wish there was a way to interpret all the emotions I have been experiencing this week. I am one that keeps my emotions in check and rarely will share, but I’m already in tears multiple times a day and then laughing hysterically not but a few minutes later. God is working on my heart and sometimes it hurts and other times it grows.

Games at the field during vbs

The children attending VBS (about 200 today!) LOVE the music!

Our team has been refinishing desks and replacing windows at local schools the last two days in addition to leading the vbs prigram!

Our team that worked on windows at Kitso Primary School today.

Today was a very long day for the African Missions Team starting with a groggy morning. Everyone was mentally and physically tired from the hard work of yesterday but nonetheless we were happy to arrive at the church with children surrounding the van excited about another day with crazy, fun Americans. Today, VBS was another success with 50 more children than yesterday. Teaching these children how to play kickball was a tedious but worthwhile process. They all had a great time playing after they sang and danced at the church. At the end of VBS, Pastor Mike gave a wonderful and entertaining Bible story about baby Moses and he even played his guitar and sang for them. After a fantastic lunch prepared by ladies of the church, we split up and drove to two elementary schools so we could help repair and work on what needed to be done. One team replaced broken and shattered windows with a local group of men. They had to bust out the old windows, scrape off the previous dried clay, replace it with new wet clay, and insert the newly cut window. The other team at Phamans Elementary School took old, rough desk and refurbished them. They had to sand down the splintery wood desk and apply varnish. They made remarkable progress and about 120-180 children will have newly restored desks for when they return from break. Later that night after returning from the schools and eating, we had an evangelical service at the Christian Revival Ministries church where we held VBS. The church ladies sang beautifully and danced with enthusiasm while we all had a great time worshipping God. Cathy gave a powerful testimony about her life and how God brought her here today. After Cathy, Curtis shared scripture, a life story, and a beautiful poem about God’s love for us. Finally, Jon (or locally called, Sehanka) gave a sermon about being close to God through the parable of the grape vine. Today in general was very long but very rewarding. There is no way of explaining the emotions of the team and what we all have seen here in South Africa. We all have seen God in various places around the town and worship him every morning to every evening. If there was one word to describe this long and eventful day, it would be, “Inspiring.”

Today was a fantastic day. We think we had over 200 children at the VBS program and our entire team did a great job! We got to meet a couple of Pastor Mike's friends- Roland and Ike, who work with Upper Room Ministries here in South Africa. After lunch our team went into Johannesburg and visited the Apartheid museum. We were appalled at the injustices that happened during this era in South Africa's history. Last night we had another church service. Haley, Kevin and Jeff all shared during the service and did a great job. We're really tired, but thrilled with the way our trip is going and praising God for everything he's doing! Thursday we get to visit an orphanage and we have a youth soccer game with the young people from Christian Revival Ministries!

Today our team was blessed to visit Anna and the orphanage in Lakeside. Pastor and Anna shared some background with us before we played with and loved on the children. God is at work here with our team!

Pastor Mike tells the VBS STORY about Jesus calming the storm!

Our ministry continued today and yesterday in Evaton North. The VBS was well attended, but not overwhelming for our team at all, which is relieving. Today the VBS wrapped up and we enjoyed a talent show that the children performed in teams as we finished. We then were able to feed lunch to the children who attended- probably around 150 kids. This afternoon we did more work at the Kitso Primary School working on desks, yard clean up, and replacing window panes. Our dinner was pizza! We all enjoyed that. Curtis, Beth, and Cathy went to the Super Spar with Emily to buy food for our Braii on Sunday. We're excited to be cooking for the cooks and pastors who have served us all week. Curtis is heading up the grilling. Tomorrow we're heading to our Safari. We'll leave at 7am and return back to our hotel around 8pm. We're excited for our last couple days in South Africa but it's hard to think it's wrapping up soon.

Our Safari drive Saturday was amazing!