I’ve spent this past month in
Coffee Bay, South Africa. It is the most
beautiful place I have ever been in my life – I woke up every morning to sound
of the Indian Ocean crashing onto the shore just a few hundred feet from my
tent. Picturesque cliffs lined the
uninhabited intersection of beige beaches and crystalline waters. Rolling green hills speckled with colorful
African huts surrounded us landside. It
was seriously majestic!
The view from just outside my tent!
Picture from my hike to Hole in the Wall… it looked like this EVERYWHERE!
Hole in the Wall
Coffee Bay
Coffee Bay itself is a small,
sparsely populated village. It is home
to the Xhosa people, and to foreigners traveling through to surf and fish for
shad. We spent our month at a Bomvu
Backpacker’s Paradise, teaching Xhosa kids how to surf and play soccer. We shared Bible stories before and after our
sports clinics, and at the end of the month we baptized twenty kids who decided
to become Christians.
Performing the baptisms!
It was quite an interesting month,
and my eyes were opened to the witchcraft and tribal practices that constitute
religion throughout much of Africa. At
times, the evil was palpable. One of our
teams experienced this as they traveled to what they were told was a local Christian
church. When they walked into the hut,
they saw young kids drinking in one corner, people gambling in another, and a witchdoctor
stirring a pot of blood and muttering incantations at the front of the “church”. Needless to say, it wasn’t the blood of
Christ.
I also learned that Xhosa men, at
the age of eighteen, undergo a strange right-of-passage into manhood. They spend six weeks in isolation, where they
perform rituals to confront the water spirit, fire spirit, and wind
spirit. To consummate the ceremony, they cover themselves with white clay and are circumcised with a stone tool. Some
men die from the ensuing infection. I
joked to some of the teenage Xhosa men that I met that they better escape with
their turtleneck while they still can! However,
it is really quite serious, and it blows my mind that stuff like this is still
practiced!
The highlight of my month was
building relationships with the Xhosa men who worked at the backpacker’s resort
that we stayed at. I spent two weeks pouring
into three young men, Mike, Appalele, and Dooda, before God gave me the
opportunity to share the gospel with them.
When it happened, I found myself splitting a loaf of bread in Dooda’s
home, telling Dooda and Mike over the course of two hours about why Jesus came
to die on a cross.
They listened, rapt, as I shared
with them. Mike translated my English
into Xhosa, a clicking language, for Dooda to better understand. I made sure that they realized the gravity of
sin, and knew that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is the only way to atone for it. Eventually,
Dooda and Mike told me that they desired to turn from their sin and ask Jesus
to take it away. They prayed in Xhosa,
as Dooda’s eyes filled with tears. When
they finished, they asked me if they could thank God for forgiving them. They began to pray again. Just as we finished, Appalele arrived, and
Mike and Dooda began to eagerly share with him what had transpired. The following day, Appalele told me that he,
too, wanted to become a man of God.
From the left: Dooda, Appalele, and Mike. Appalele is showing of his new bible!
I am so encouraged to see how God
is working around the world – to see how He is truly pursuing people from every
tribe and every tongue! I wish that I
had time to share more stories from this past month, and to share about how I am
starting to hear God’s voice more clearly and walk in the Spirit. Yet, I need to go pack for heading to Mozambique
in a couple of hours! Pray for safety as
we travel by van through Zimbabwe over the next few days. As far as I know, this coming month we will
be traveling around to unreached people groups sharing the gospel and showing the
Jesus Film. I am extremely excited, especially
because I will be with the team I was with for the first three months of the
Race! It has already been a sweet
reunion!
Once again, one of the girls from our
squad, Beka Fritz (BekaFritz.theworldrace.org) made a video about our month, which should show up at the bottom of this
page. I am also in need of about $700
more to be fully funded for our trip! If
God leads you, I would be extremely appreciative of your support, just click
the “Support Me” tab on the left side of this page! God bless – and thank you all of the love and
encouragement!
