South African Safari and Lion Park

While in South Africa, we had the opportunity to do two pretty fun things during our free time.  We got to go on a safari and to the Lion Park.  Since this was my second time in South Africa, it was also my second time visiting each of these places.   

While we were on our safari...

we were about 20 minutes in and we hadn't seen any animals--besides deer (impala, spring buck...) and who really cares about deer on a safari! Anyways, one of the students on my team decided to pray that we would see giraffe and no lie, as soon as we turned the corner there were three young giraffe standing there. 

We thought it was cool and continued on the way. We saw a rino WAY off in the distance (basically it looked like a rock...) anyways, someone else said lets pray to see one up close--so someone did and we all agreed. We met a truck carrying another group and our drivers stopped to talk--the driver said there weren't any animals this way and we would be wasting our time to go there. Our driver went anyway and we turned the corner and there was a

RINO and BABY! It was so awesome. Then we prayed for elephants and we had the same thing happen with another truck, but we turned the corner and

saw a big group of elephants! We did the same thing wtih Hippos and we saw hippos. The one of them prayed for lions. I was thinking, yeah right...we will not see lions--they said there were only 2 prides living there, so the odds of seeing them is SLIM. Well right before we got to the place we have our barbeque, we saw 2 lionnesses! It was so awesome--seeing how God answered even those simple prayers.  We also got to see zebra, a warthog and hyena!

About a week into the trip we went to a lion park where they have lots of lions and other animals that you can drive through their habitats. 

Our Experienced Driver

There are also some wild cubs that you can touch/take pictures with. Well...I was posing for a picture and there was a lion right beside me and...

 it BIT ME! I GOT BIT BY A LION! It hurt a little, but didn't really bleed, so that was good....but who can say they got bit by a lion cub in Africa?!?

Kwandebele

We spent the second half of the trip in Kwandebele--a more remote village/area. Since it was more spread out, we didn't get the chance to do children's ministry there. We did door to door each morning and afternoon and then we did a revival in the evenings. I PREACHED AT A REVIVAL IN AFRICA! I never thought I would do that, but God spoke through me and I believe it was good and touched some lives. I don't rememeber everything I shared, but it's better that way right--cause that means God was talking not me!

We met many people who after answer many questions gave up worshipping their ancestors and chose to follow Christ. It was awesome to be a part of that. We also met many Christians who were discouraged and we were able to encourage them and pray for them. Some of the families we ministered to we were able to go back and visit them before we left--I really felt connected there--and I wanted to stay.

We spent one morning visiting a clinic where we shared the gospel and laid hands on the sick to pray for them - many were aids patients, so that was sad. We also went to an old person home where we shared the gospel and prayed for them as well. God was working and we were just extensions of His hands.

One story from Kwandebele that stands out is about my new friend Julia. She walked up to me while I was at another house and she asked me how to get Satan out of her mind. I began talking with her but she had to go to a meeting so she made me promise to stop by her house that day. I made it there right after lunch. She was under some intense spiritual warfare. She was depressed and had often contemplated suicide. She had been abused in her past and just had a rough life. Her parents didn't want her, so she had grown up with her grandparents and she still lived with them. She had an 8-year old daughter and her daughter was the only reason she was still living. My heart broke for her and I shared from my heart. I told her about how I struggled with spiritual warfare in college and how through proclaiming the Word of God it went away. I shared the gospel with her and the authority Christians have as HIS children and that Satan has to listen to us. She committed her life to Jesus right then. It was so awesome to hear her cry out to God in her own words, why she needed him and wanted to change. Then I instructed her to read the Bible out loud and if she ever had those feelings that she was being attacked to speak out loud that she is God's daughter and that Satan needs to leave her alone. I made her say it out loud with me. She was shy/hesitant at first, but after my leading a few times, she was proclaiming it. She ended up coming to the revival that evening and she told me that she had already started saying that and reading the Bible out loud and it was helping. She also asked me to counsel her to help her work through her problems, but I was leaving in a few days, so I connected her with the Pastor's wife and she was going to disciple and counsel her. It was t that point that my desire to be full time in missions hit me more. I deeply desired to stay and disciple her. I wanted to see what God was going to do in her life.

I have heard from the missionaries and our translators that followup/discipleship and Bible studies have already started with the people we met/led to Christ/prayed for. God is still working and it's awesome.

A family from my church made hats for me to take and distribute to the children I met in Africa.  I had 36 hats and these are a few of the beautiful kids who now have warm heads:)

I was so blessed to have a great team and awesome translators!

South Africa

I got a co-leader, Cory, the day of the trip, he was a complete rookie. He had never even heard of Teen Mania before...but we worked well together!

We had a great team of 23 high school/college students and throughout the trip, many of them had the chance to lead someone to the Lord for the first time. We even had a guy come on the trip who wasn't a Christian (he thought it was a humanitarian trip), but halfway through he committed his life to Jesus:) It was truly awesome! 

Before we left Texas, one of my girls, Sara, was short $2,000. You don't get to go on the trip if you don't have all your money. Sara is from NYC. Her family doesn't have extra money and she wasn't sure if their family was going to still have a place to live when she got home.  She came to Texas for the training because she wanted a small vacation away from the reality of her life. Our team came together and prayed for her and within 24 hours, she had ALL the money she needed! It was so awesome for the team to witness God's provision/miracle because they were all expecting more when we got on the field.

We spent the first half of the trip in Johannesburg working in the squatter camps. We would have one group stay at a central location to do Jabulani Kids (VBS) and the other groups would go out door to door. We did this in the morning and afternoon. We switched the groups going out and staying for Jabulani Kids and my coleader and I switched between Jabulani Kids and door to door. At Jabulani Kids, either Cory or I would give the gospel message after the team led songs, story, games...it was awesome! One afternoon we had over 400 kids show up! Over the whole time in Johannesburg we saw 335 children commit their lives to Jesus. 

The door to door ministry was also amazing...we would help the people with whatever they needed - dishes, laundry, sweeping...and we would talk with them about life and what they believe.

We prayed for people to be healed, to get jobs, for salvation...the list goes on and on...and we saw God answer those prayers. There were two guys that got phone calls for jobs right after we finished praying for them--and they quickly called back and took the jobs. We had a pregnant woman who was on bed rest and couldn't do anything get cleared from her Doctor the next day and return to work. We saw people who had trouble walking start dancing and praising Jesus. We saw people who were stuck in bondage get set free. We saw a child who was possessed, be freed. We saw the lost surrender to Jesus.

One of the most exciting things that happened was while we were doing Jabulani Kids at Kya Sands (Squattercamp) the second day of ministry and there was an older lady there the whole time. After I gave the net I was going to talk to the mommies and that lady was gone. A few minutes later the woman was back and she came up to me and asked me to pray for this child that was hobbling behind with the use of a walker. A second ministry group (MIG) had shown up a few minutes earlier, so I gathered both MIGs over and we prayed for Lillian. The woman was praying with us, which was neat. While we were praying, Sara (one of the missionaries) had her hands on Lillian's knees and she felt her bones shifting. When we had finished praying, another Sarah grabbed Lillian's hands and pulled her away from the walker and then she let go of her hands and I stayed behind Lillian--in case she fell--and we asked her to walk.

Lillian's first step was VERY hesitant, but when she saw she could do it, she got this HUGE smile on her face and she walked quickly over to Sarah. 

We spent a day learning about how to minister to Muslims and went to an area of Johannesburg where there are MANY Muslims. We got to tour a Mosque and ask questions. There are so many similarities between Christianity and Islam, but they miss out on the Love aspect of God. It really is sad. We were able to have some conversations with Muslims, and the missionaries are continuing to develop relationships and they are seeing God do some pretty incredible things in the lives of those people.

Then we went to Kwandebele for our village trip...