3rd Week

Special to God
Sinetemba is the name of a day care centre for disabled children. Carine describes the work there as a humbling experience. Each one of these children’s personality is so special and they bring much joy to the kingdom of God. “I am praying for these children”, says Carine, “for joy and for their families, for their muscles to relax and for them to balance their bodied.” These children are truly special to God and through them God shows his love to all humanity.

Restoring Families
There are many broken families in Masiphumelele. While walking through the streets of the township our door-to-door prayer-team felt led by the Holy Spirit to go into the house, which had a pram in front of it. They had a closer look and knocked on the door just to realise that there was a couple in the house. They asked if they could pray for anything. The couple responded immediately: “We are struggling in our marriage,” they said. So the team prayed for God to restore the young family. Afterwards they saw them again on the road enjoying an ice cream together. Our prayer is that God will carry on working in their marriage. May they come to the saving faith in Jesus.

Science for the glory of God
Adolph and I have now come up with a busy teaching schedule for the week. Adolph has started to teach Maths and Science. A group of five students is s very eager to learn more, so Adolph is also going to teach these students in the afternoon. He is getting along well with the students and his new task to teach. His hope is for God to open up opportunities to share the gospel with the students. I joined some art lessons of the 8th and 9th grade. Here I was able to get to know the teacher and the students. I will start teaching next week on perspectives.

Walking the streets
We shared before about a shack we were helping to put together for our friend, Johnny. When Chris and I went to visit him to see how far he is with the building, we saw that Johnny only has to add a roof on top and a floor. We are hoping to enjoy a cup of tea with Johnny in his finished home before the outreach is over. On one of the walks Andries and I realised the soccer field needed a clean up, but we noticed very soon that the task would be harder than first anticipated.

Andries is facing the danger.

2nd Week in Masi

As a team we are making progress in connecting each team member with various ministry opportunities. We have, therefore, been setting up meetings with pastors, teachers and other leaders of organisations we will be working with (e.g. Living Hope, African Hope, Day Care centres).

Carine loves children, so she will be helping two day care centres. Andries has been helping out in a shop that offers many job opportunities by producing African crafts. Lucy, Jeremiah and Chris have been spending time walking through the streets of Masiphumelele - meeting people, sharing the gospel and praying for them.

Adolph and Ben have been trying to set up a schedule in Masiphumelele High School to help the teachers there in the arts and science classes. Mampho is going to work at the clinic of Living Hope. On Thursday we went to have a look around the place and were very impressed by the high quality and cleanliness of the facility, and their vision to share the gospel and serve the sick.

One day four of our team members were walking through the streets when they felt an urge to pray for a physically disabled boy. Coco is nine years old and after praying for him the group decided to come back together with the whole team to pray for the family. So the entire team went and blessed the family by praying with them and sharing the message of Jesus. We are hoping we will have more opportunities to minister to this family.

Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon we will go to the high school to do some dramas and give testimonies. We introduced ourselves last Thursday and enjoyed sharing our stories with them. We hope to get to know them and to see them grow in the knowledge of Jesus over the next few weeks.

On Saturday we split the team into two groups. One half went to a seminar to inform people about human trafficking in the world. They learnt that many people are being used as objects, sold into slavery and misused for prostitution. Especially the poor communities need to be made aware of the problem and be taught how to protect themselves from such terrible injustice. We are thinking how we can help in Masiphumelele to prevent human trafficking, especially in light of the Soccer World Cup coming up in 2010.

The other group went into the township to meet up with three friends they had met in the streets. They are refugees from Zimbabwe and we offered to come start a Bible study group in their home every Saturday. Last Saturday was our first meeting and we got to know them a bit closer and explained some Bible basics with them.

Please continue to pray that we will connect with many people and that we will be able to build meaningful friendships with them.

Thank you for your prayers.

Group picture fromleft to right, back: Adolph, Chris, Me, Andries; front: Mampho, Jerimiah, Carine, Lucy