Sawubona
from South Africa! Outreach has been rolling for about two weeks now. After
traveling over three continents, through four countries, in three days, our
team finally landed in Durban, South Africa, in a suburb called Pinetown. We
connected to our home church, Highway church, and moved into the flat that they
rented for YWAM students. We spent the first few days catching up on sleep and
recuperating from our travels.
We went to a local
workshop in Durban last Saturday and spent our time wandering through different
booths, checking out traditional and local wares. We attended church at Highway
on Sunday, and were privileged to experience church in a way that some of us had
never seen before. Testimonies and spoken words were interjected throughout the
worship time, and the congregation was very active in the service. Monday we
joined with the YWAM Durban staff at Highway in a time of worship, and spent
our afternoon working at a soup kitchen with local men who have lost their
jobs. Our live-in YWAM staff member, Xoli, has been helping arrange and set up
our outreach locations and contacts. She is incredibly helpful to us, as well
as a hilarious and fun housemate. Tuesday our team had the pleasure of visiting a local rehabilitation center,
Careline. We partnered with the staff at Highway and had an incredible experience
mingling with the residents of Careline. At one point during the evening, our
team experienced an amazing surge of pure joy straight from God. Many of us
ended up on the ground laughing, filled with the Holy Spirit and His joy. We
had no idea that the joy we were experiencing was meant to carry us through so
much more than that single night.
Wednesday morning
our team gathered in the family room in our flat to participate in devotions and worship.
We started to scatter after worship, but were quickly called together again by
one of our leaders, Tracy Applegate. She announced that she had some bad news
for us. She didn’t have details for us
at the moment but told us that Josh Martin (affectionately nicknamed J-Mart)
had received a phone call that morning, and that something had happened at home
and we needed to pray. After about an hour of prayer and intercession for the
Martin family, we heard the details. The phone call from J-Mart’s dad was to
tell him that two of his brothers, 16-year-old twins, and their 8-year-old
sister, had been killed in a car accident. Josh was currently working with Noah
Applegate, Tracy’s husband and our other outreach leader, to figure out how to
get home the quickest way possible. The rest of the day was a blur of pain,
sorrow, sorting out travel details, and saying goodbye to J-Mart as he packed
up to head home that evening. The depth of relationships that we have built as
a team and as brothers and sisters was entirely evident in the way that his
grief became ours, and his heartbreak our own. We are still reeling from the
shock and emotion of Wednesday, and our team doesn’t feel complete without his
presence here. Although we were close before, our family has grown closer as we
have walked through this together. Our outreach will not be the same without
J-Mart’s crazy laughter, leadership, and strength, but we know that he will
always be a part of our team and have an influence on our ministry here.
Throughout this tragedy our joy in the Lord has been restored, and it was
completely clear in Josh’s eyes as we said goodbye.
It was hard to
jump back into ministry on Thursday morning, but we knew that it was the best
thing for our team, and we wanted to gain back our momentum as soon as
possible. Our hearts were heavy Thursday morning as we attended intercession
with the YWAM Durban staff and watched a presentation on one of the townships
that we will be visiting, Burlington. Thursday afternoon we loaded into a taxi and
headed to a nearby township to head up a kids ministry. Our team was pretty
busy that afternoon as we told a Bible story, presented a skit, sang songs with
the kids, played games, and handed out fruit at the end of the day. We were so
blessed by the joy that the kids possessed as they laughed with us through
every activity.
That evening we
went back to Careline to hang out and eat dinner with the residents, and stayed
for a few hours talking, playing pool and cards, and washing dishes with them.
Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the end of the night and slept
incredibly well, waking up rested and ready to start our ministry for the day.
Friday we met with a group from His Church and helped spread the word about a
crusade that they are heading up in a township about 30 minutes outside of
Pinetown. We split up into pairs, each of us with a translator, and went
door-to-door, offering prayer and prophetic words to the local people. A
handful of us went back to the township that night to attend the crusade, while
the rest of our team hung out in our flat, practiced skits and relaxed.
Today was our free
day, and most of us took it easy, wandering the mall, updating family and
friends on current events, and chilling at home. This week has been an incredibly
challenging first week of ministry, but it has been such a blessing in many
ways as well.
We have listed a
few prayer points below, and we ask that you please continue to cover us with
prayer as we head out this next week into more ministry.
·
Sickness : our team has been
dealing with colds and coughs this last week, passing it to each other off and
on. No fun!
·
Josh Martin & Family : That God
would bring peace and healing to the Martin’s as they go through this tragedy.
That they would lean on Him and not question His love.
·
Team unity : Our team has bonded
through our trials this past week, but pray that we would continue to have
grace with one another, that we would keep short accounts and our communication
would be open.
·
Durban : There is a heavy spirit of
abortion here, not only with unborn children, but also with people abandoning
their jobs, dreams, endeavors, etc. There is also a spirit of miscommunication.
Please pray that people would be open to communicate and work things out with
each other.
·
Noah and Tracy : Please pray that
our leaders would continue to have strength in leading us, that their wisdom in
every situation would increase, and that they would have insight and intuition
on what to do in the future.
Thank you for your
support, and we look forward to updating you again soon!
