This month in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa our team of 7 was split between two ministry sites – a few of our teammates were assigned to teach a Sex Education class at a local public school and the rest of us were assigned to do manual labor at the Global Leadership Academy. When the other members of my team came home daily with amazing testimonies of how God was moving in Sex Ed. class I knew I wanted to capture the story. I took a break from sanding bricks for a day to witness Jesus speak to these students. Just the one day that I spent at Nico Malan brought so much glory to God and live’s were changed including my own. He is moving in Jeffrey’s Bay – Here’s the story
As I was interviewing Celenne for the video, two girls came into the auditorium and recognized Celenne from the class they had with her earlier in the week. Two girls quickly turned into fifteen students standing around us asking questions about how we got here, Jesus and if we had heard Him speak to us.
Twenty minutes went by and these kids could have been skipping class for all I know, but I honestly didn’t care. They were knocking on the door curious to know more about Jesus and I couldn’t help but turn the handle and invite them in to my own story.
We both got to share a bit of our own testimony and how God has redeemed our past and turned our mess into our message. I recounted how when I was their age I struggled with defining myself by what others said about me instead of what God says about me. We told them that God speaks, you just have to learn to listen and we explained that the more time we spent in God’s word – the easier it’s gotten to hear His voice and grow in relationship with Him. They were all ears.
All I wanted to do was sit and talk to them for hours – I realized then that the reason I didn’t want to stop talking to these students was because all the things I was telling them were things that I wished I would have heard at their age. In High School I used Jesus as a fall-back plan when my worldly gods rejected me. Long story short – that didn’t turn out too well for me.
It was liberating to explain to the students of how I realized Jesus is most definitely not a fall back plan. I learned the hard way that He’s not plan B or C – He’s plan A – He’s actually the whole dang alphabet. He has and always will be The plan. Nothing before or after.
Leaving the school that day it started to hit me that there’s a reason I word vomited my testimony onto these teenagers. My calling to youth ministry never made more sense. I couldn’t help but feel like I was reading a missing chapter of a book that I’ve read a million times.
Coming on the race my focus was on the little ones – I thought my heart was set on working with Elementary aged children. I’m shaking my head at my obliviousness to how God’s plans are way better than I can imagine myself. It makes so much sense that I feel called to the High School age group because that was the age where I needed someone to speak life into me the most. Never in my life did I think that I would be so eager to minister to teenagers, but lo and behold God is changing my heart.. Per usual.
The video below details more of what God is doing in the students at Nico Milan and in Jeffrey’s Bay. Check it out and let me know what you think! HUGE Shout out to Dylan, Celenne, Davante, and Chandler for putting so much heart and prayer into this ministry – it’s been amazing to see God use you all as tools to further His Kingdom.
