South Africa is AMAZING!

Hello!! It is Wednesday afternoon here in JoBurg and it is officially winter!! The temperature is a brisk 9 degrees Celsius (which is around 46 degrees Fahrenheit) I can't believe that tomorrow is our last day on the campus of UJ but my has God shown  up here! The time with our ministry partners has been so refreshing and encouraging. AND some super exciting news is that Monday, Mpho shared the gospel with a first year that she has known and that Lindsay and  I have been praying for since we met her a few weeks ago...Mpho came to share the news yesterday that Kelebogile accepted Christ as her Savior! And what is really amazing  is that one of our prayer requests is that one of our ministry partners would lead a girl to faith! God is so faithful and works  in funny ways! And this just shows that when God's children pray, he listens! 

So this weekend we are going on to a Leaders Camp with all of the students leaders at UJB and I am so excited to see how God moves. This is  going to be a chance for the leaders here to learn more about discipleship and to help further the movement here at UJ. After that we are going to stay in Sun Valley to do our Mercy Ministry. I am still not sure what we are going to be doing...but I'm excited to experience more of South Africa! This past week we were able to attend the Word Alive conference hosted by the church we go to here. Pastors from Perimeter Church in Atlanta spoke to us about living lives centered around the gospel and living out our faith in the workplace, in school, or wherever you go. It was really encouraging and the student leaders here ate it up!

Love from SA! 

Taylor

Sabona from South Africa!!

So it is crazy to think that I’ve been in Africa for three whole weeks now and have yet to write a blog post! Internet is a precious commodity in our busy schedules and hard to come by when we do get it! I absolutely love this adventure the Lord is taking me on here and really think I could stay here forever! The little time that I’ve had here has been so rejuvenating and encouraging! We spend most of our time on the campus of the University of Johannesburg Bunting Road Campus and I am loving the student leaders that Lindsay and I are partnered with! Tuesdays through Fridays from 2:00-10:00 p.m. are spent in the res (or dorms) with our partners Nkuli, Mpho, and Vuvu. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know these women and encourage them in their walk with the Lord. We’ve met a few first years, whose names I can not pronounce, and started to build friendships in order to share the gospel with them. We’ve had many fun nights learning African games and watching soapies (soap operas) and seeing how these women live. Each week is a new adventure and I am trying to soak up every minute of it! Each Tuesday morning we have Theme Training, where we talk and unpack our theme of “Completion” based off of 1 Thessalonians 3:8-10. We have a chance to apply what we are studying in 1 Thessalonians to our mission here in South Africa. Wednesdays are our free morning where we travel to Pick and Pay to do our grocery shopping. The first time we went grocery shopping I think our entire team was overwhelmed thinking of how to convert Rand into dollars. Thursday’s mornings are our extended study mornings where we have two and a half hours to dig into one aspect of our Christian walk. So far we have looked at gospel identity and the Holy Spirit and God has blown my socks off each time! Friday mornings we have life groups where we have a chance to share what the Lord has been teaching us and to grow deeper with the others on out team. Each Saturday we get to explore some aspect of South Africa and I have enjoyed the vastness of this country. Our first week here we went to a Lion and Rhino Park. I really felt like I was on Kilimanjaro Safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom! We saw white lions up close and personal and were somewhat chased by ostriches and warthogs! We also got to play with baby lion cubs, which I think was a real dream come true! That night we ate a restaurant called Carnivores where I was able to try zebra, antelope, and crocodile! That day was defiantly a once in a lifetime experience! The next weekend we went the opposite way of the tourist route and went into a township outside of JoBurg called Mamelodi. There we partnered with a organization called Africa Revolution (Check out their website at www.africarevolution.org) and helped paint and clean the homes of two blind widowed gogo’s (or grandmothers) This experience really opened my eyes to how much I am blessed and how I take all of these blessings for granted! This past weekend we traveled two hours outside the city to a town called Kriel to help with a ministry to farm children. These are children that live on farms but do not receive much interaction with other children. We taught them games and had fun singing and dancing together. Many of the children spoke Zulu, which was somewhat a barrier, but you could still experience the joy radiating from their precious faces! It is crazy to think that it is already June and that we only have two more weeks on the campus. I would love it if you could pray for the rest of out time here and that we would be intentional with our time and make the most of the eight days we have left with our partners here. Pray that we would serve them and strengthen them in their walk and in their ministry here on the UJB campus. I am so excited about what is yet to come and continuing to praise God for all he is done here so far!

Much love from SA!

ltf