Hello from South Africa once again. How I am loving this country and the town of Middelburg. Seriously! It is amazing. For starters the weather is great, low of 45, high of 75. The people are so nice and friendly, and hello, they have zebra’s! Pronounced like Debra. LOL. So we are told. We don’t have them, so we can’t name them.
Meet our hosts: Pastor Renier, Thys, Jan, and Morne. Together them and their wives form the leadership team of Kruis Generasie.
Lets start at the beginning. My new team and I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with a ministry called Cross Generation, or Kruis Generasie in Afrikaans. We have been going to the different schools in the area and teaching/worshipping. We have taken turns speaking and ministering. It is truly amazing the presence this church has in this community.
We held a session for the youth workers that was truly amazing. They are constantly pouring into their youth and co-workers and we wanted to create a space to bless them. We briefly talked about the good influence they are in people’s lives, and then we gave them a chance to rest. It was what they needed and it was amazing.
We have attended prayer meetings, we met the mayor of Middelburg who incidentally is a strong believer. He promotes prayer meetings for the city. We have met and done feedback with the elders of local churches. So much.
I have caught the vision for this town and I see the need for Jesus.
There are about 240,000 people that live here in Middelburg, of those people, 10% speak Afrikaans, 90% speak english or Zulu or some other tribal language. There aren’t enough churches here to house even 40,000 people.
Our purpose here was so significant. We helped launch an English service that can help start to reach the other 200,000 people. We designed, printed and cut flyers, then passed them out at the local college and on the street.
The turn out on Sunday was small, but I truly believe that a great foundation will be built by a small beginning. From us taking the time to get to know the people that did show up, I truly believe that friendships began. Plus, one day the testimony of this service will be amazing. Everyone will know it was a God thing.
Our month here was also filled with blessings. So many blessings! It was overwhelming. Our hosts arranged for all of us gals to get haircuts, for free. Then we went micro-gliding. Then we went to The Kruger, and not just for 1 day, we spent two days in the park. Someone blessed us with 3 nights in this amazing house on Crocodile River, where we could see into the park from the house. We had a Braai, or a BBQ at least 2-3 times a week. Ohh, the meats! So delish. We went to the shooting range, we went to the darby, a local high school rugby game. It was televised nationally and we were on TV! 🙂 It was amazing. The bonfires, the food, and most of all the fellowship.
The thing I have loved the most about this month was the fact that we got to know our hosts. They blessed us by speaking English all the time to us, and in return we got to know them so well. The friendships were just easy, and fun. We had many laughs and games, and also many serious prayer filled moments.
This month was EPIC!
It is literally paining me to leave. But, I leave with great memories and big dreams.
Here is one last picture of when we went to the shooting range. We had a blast!
