ATTENTION!!! WE’RE OFFICIALLY IN SOUTH AFRICA!! ALSO. MY TEAM WAS PLACED IN JOBURG!! PRAYERS ANSWERED!
One word to describe South Africa: Yes
I don’t know what it is about this country or the city of Johnnesburg, but I’m absolutely in love with it. Ever since we stayed here for our LDW I’ve had this little heart beat for SA.
The ministry we’re working with here is called Impact Africa and I’m STOKED to be working with them. They have five main branches in their ministry and each one has had huge impacts in this community of Johannesburg. From a baby rescue center, schools, missionary internships and their evangelistic outreach program, these people are bringing the Kingdom.
In just the city of Johannesburg alone, 3-5 babies are given up by their parents everyday. That means that they’re either being thrown in the trash, left on the side of the road or worse. What the baby rescue program does is go to clinics and inform thousands of mothers how they can take care of their baby, help them with providing for the needs of a baby and ultimately try their best to support the mothers so they can keep and take care of their babies. Unfortunately, some of the babies are still given up, so the rescue program will bring them in and place them in a safe baby home where they are sure the child will thrive. Their goal is to always prevent, rescue if need be and then provide life long family care for the child and mother if possible.
Impact Kids is their preschool which has ages ranging from 2-6. Joburg is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, therefore they’ve planted these schools right in the middle of it in order to get these kids meals, out of harms way and away from any negative influences in their life. HIV/AIDS kills 800-1000 people a day in South Africa alone, and that leaves hundreds of orphans, and so many children fending for themselves. The goal of this mission is to introduce Jesus to these kids as early as possible. 25% percent of these kids reached will die because of HIV by the time they’re young adults, hence the urgency to introduce them to Jesus.
Impact Students is the public highschool program where they bring teachers into classrooms to teach on many life skills, along with the negative effects of drugs, alcohal, and sex before marriage. They also hold bible clubs after school to create meaningful relationships with the youth.
What our team will be most involved in is the Evangelistic Outreach program that they have set up for teams that come in, in order to reach and expose as many people as possible to Jesus. “The more teams that come in the more Africans changed and effected”. Our schedule is packed FULL with evangelism. We’re going out into squater camps, occupied with as many as 700,000 people and sharing the gospel, healing, praying and building relationships with Africans from ALL OVER Africa. They’re in these squater camps because they come to Johannesburg to look for work and are then “thrown” into an extremely poverished areas when they can’t find work. Yesterday, we trained for hours and are so ready to go out into these camps and spread the good news!
My team, Vessel, has been placed with team Abundance from our squad. We’ve never been with this team before, but from the looks of the last few days with them, it’s going to be SO GREAT and we’re going to learn and grow with one another a ton. WOO! I’m super stoked to get to know each and every one of them more and grow in the Lord with them. My team, “my sister gals”, “my ladies”, are truly the biggest gift God has given me for these nine months. I seriously don’t know what I’d do without them, they’re the best. We love each other a whole lot.
On a more personal note, I’ve started growing a lot more in my strength and bravery in the Lord. I’m not afraid anymore to pray for big things to happen in my life, even if what God has in store for me is scary and maybe not what I’m comfortable with. I know it’s going to be so much better than anything I could ever think of or imagine. So I’d love to ask you to join me in praying big prayers. One of them being that I become fully funded very, very soon. I know the Lord has so much more in store for me in these next five-ish months but I have to have the funds to stay here and continue doing His work. Please keep our teams in your prayers, our new ministry and the people of Africa! It also wouldn’t hurt to start praying for the Philippines, where we will be in just two short months!
Thanks everyone for all the support and love!! I wouldn’t be able to do this without all my cheerleaders from the states. Love Y’all!
-Kaylin
PS. The house we’re staying in here is literally a house off of Chip and Joanna Gaines TV show “Fixer Upper”. I AM LIVING IN A DREAM PEOPLE!!
