God has totally blessed this trip. It has been amazing.
We started out by heading toward Durban. Mallorie had some contacts out there from her collage missions work. They have a facility in Hillcrest just outside of Durban where they host teams. We were able to go and stay there for three nights.
Pat is an American woman in her fifties that lives at the Apostolic Church Center where we stayed. She works with YWAM and also co-leads the teams that come in. She has been raising and African boy since he was 5 years old. His name is Mseizi, and he is now 14. He is an amazing kid, and we had a lot of fun hanging our with him while we were there. We also got to tag along with Pat on some of her regular ministry while we were there.
She teaches bible stories at a local school, so she opened it up for us to lead. It was perfect! We already had all of the material from our kids camps, so we just used one of the stories from that. They had a small assembly time first with all of the kids. They sang songs and prayed. We did introductions and taught them one of our songs. After assembly, we went into the fourth grade class and taught the Bible story. The kids were great.
Pat also has a Gogo ministry in the afternoon. Gogos are grandmas that care for orphaned kids. They all gather on Wednesdays for a Bible study and soup kitchen. Again, the study was opened for us to lead, so Jake talked about God’s love for us as individuals. Pat told us that the people here do not think of themselves as individuals, everything is community and family. That is great in many ways, but they do not see their individual importance. They responded well to the idea of God’s love for each one of them.
As we sat there, I kept getting the idea of the priesthood of all believers. I was going to suggest that we discuss how each person has a roll in the church, but I felt like I needed to wait and see what happens. After Jake finished, people just opened up and began sharing testimonies of how God has worked in their lives. It was perfect, and I didn’t have to say a word.
After the study was over, they opened the kitchen for the ladies and the men that had come to have soup and bread. They had enough for us as well, so we joined the ladies on the lawn and just spent time with them. It was so good to just sit with them and talk.
I know it was a great ministry to them and to us as well. It was the perfect opportunity for our little adventure. To think we just kind of showed up without a plan, it was obvious to all present that God had it planned well in advance.
We also had a chance to meet Bongi. She is a walking miracle. Being HIV positive, she has recovered from TB twice, and is on her way toward becoming AIDs free. For more on her story, your can read Mallorie’s
