Joy and Sorrow

            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!