Sweet Girls

We have Girls Club at 4 different schools throughout Soweto...

Mayibuye Primary School

As you can tell these are not our Grade 7 girls. Unfortunately, we have only been able to come to this school one time this term. When Girls Club is canceled I enjoy sitting on the sidelines while Zach has soccer clinic. I just love spending time in Soweto with people. These boys like to teach me Zulu. Please pray that Mayibuye will be available next term for us to come every Monday.

Hector Pieterson Primary School

At this school, we have a wonderful relationship with the Deputy Principal who is also a born again believer. We have enjoyed getting to know her and have even spent time with her outside of school. We always receive a warm welcome from these girls who seem to enjoy having us there. Please pray that these girls would understand of God's love for them.

Obed Messiane Primary School

We have only been to this school two times and I have not been able to get a picture of the girls. We do have good relationships with the teachers at this school. Please pray that we would be able to share the love of Christ not only with the girls but with the teachers as well.

Lehae Primary School

Look at these beautiful girls. We are hoping to meet with the girls and their parents during this holiday break to invite them to Lehae Baptist Church. Please pray that we would be able to minister to these girls and their families.

We have a box that we bring with us to Girls Club. We have explained to the girls that if they have any questions they can write it on a slip of paper and put it in the box. Many of the girls have no one to talk with besides friends who tend to give misinformation. I have shared some of the questions that were asked last year in Girls Club but here are some of the tough questions that we are facing this year... Pray for wisdom in how to address and answer these questions.

• What if you feel your parents don't like you and you feel lonely?
• If your friend love to sleep with boys and she don't want me to tell her parents that she sleeps with boys?
• People always tell how thin I am they say I am looking like a person who is HIV and I don't like it.
• There is this boy puts pressure on me telling me that he loves me. He keeps forcing me to love him to but I don't love him.
• If we die our we going to hell or heaven.
• I want to know that if your father left you when you were so small and you want to see him, how could you solve it. And you don't want to tell your mother.
• Does God hear us when we talk to him?
• What is rape? If someone has raped you what should you do if maybe you uncle or father does that to you. Do you have to go to counseling?
• What do you say when the boy says he love you?

Here is a video of some of our girls singing at Hector Pieterson. I love listening to their amazing voices!

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

The South African National anthem has much history behind it.

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika was composed in 1897 by a teacher at a Methodist mission school. He wrote about the struggles and suffering he observed of African people in Johannesburg. For a long time, the hymn was sung by the oppressed black population as an act of defiance at all anti-apartheid rallies and gatherings.

Die Stem was a poem written in 1918 and was widely used among the Afrikaan speaking population. The anthem speaks of commitment to the father land and to God. It was generally disliked by black South Africans, who saw it as associated with the apartheid regime, especially where one verse shows dedication to Afrikaaners.

On 20 April 1994, the State President declared that both Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika and Die Stem would be the national anthems of South Africa. In 1996, a combined version of the two anthems was released as the new South African National Anthem as we know it today.

The national anthem is sung in 5 different languages to symbolize the uniting of many different languages, tribes and people. The first stanza is sung in Xhosa and Zulu, second stanza in Sesotho, third stanza is Afrikaans and the final stanza in English.

One day as we were playing outside on the soccer field I asked some of our girls from Girls Club to sing the anthem for us. For your viewing pleasure...

Faces of Soweto

No words can describe the beauty of these faces so I won't try. All of these faces are very precious to me, therefore I'm asking that you partner with us in prayer for the people of Soweto.

1. Pray that they would seek to know God and live for Him. "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

2. Pray for those who live in fear of the ancestors, that they would put their trust in the Lord. "for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." 1 John 4:4

3. Pray for children to understand of God's love for them in spite of the abuse and neglect they may experience. "but Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.'" Matthew 19:14

4. Pray for the youth to strive to live for the Lord and not gratify their physical desires. "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

5. Pray for the believers to stand firm and grow in their faith. "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." Colossians 2:6-7

  

     

Zululand

We had the awesome privilege to go to KwaZulu-Natal for a mission trip. Amber, Zach, Sibongile and I were part of a 25 member team made up of Baptist seminary students and members from a local Baptist church, both from Joburg. We worked alongside a missions organization who works throughout southern Africa and has a relationship with Amanzibomvu Baptist Church where we stayed and worked.

Zululand was a kingdom that dominated Southern Africa until the Anglo-Zulu War in the 1870s when they were defeated by the British. Shaka Zulu was the chief of the Zulu Kingdom and was known for being a warrior. The assegai (spear) helped make the Zulu one of the most powerful nations in southern Africa.

KwaZulu-Natal is now one of South Africa's nine provinces and is composed of mostly wildlife reserves and beautiful savanna covered hills. I was excited to be among the Zulu to learn more culture, customs and language!

Each morning we were part of a team that either went to the local primary or secondary school. We would lead a couple songs, share testimonies and teach a story from the Bible to the children. They received us warmly and by the end of the week Manzibomvu Primary said thanks through a song sung by the school choir. Beautiful.

In the mid mornings we would go door to door visiting people in the community. We would pray for the sick, encourage the believers and share the Gospel with the lost. The prevalence of poverty and HIV/AIDS in this rural community was hard to witness.

This Gogo is suffering from HIV/AIDS. There are 25 million living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. About 64% of all adults and children currently living in the world who are HIV+ are living in Southern Africa. There are 14 million AIDS orphans. Please pray for these people who are suffering. Pray that they may receive the comfort the Lord is offering them.

In the afternoons, we would have a kids Bible club. The kids would show up around 3pm knowing that the club wouldn't start till 430pm... but I enjoyed going out there early and just spending time with them. These children only speak Zulu so communication was challenging but I did get an opportunity to practice the little Zulu that I know. I grew to love these children. Please pray that these children would grow to love the Lord with all their heart, mind and soul.

At night, I had the opportunity to go with a team to an amaNazarites community and show the Jesus film. The amaNazarites believe that Jesus is for white people and follow Isaiah Shembe, who began this movement in 1910 among the Zulu people. Shembe was a Zulu relgious leader and healer who claimed to be the African Messiah. The church has since divided into two main sections.

Three days leading up to the Jesus film, we walked around the community passing out tracts and just speaking with people. The first night, we started out with 20 people but by the end of the evening there were about 200 people packed into a classroom at the local school. The second night we played the last half of the film and there were about 300 people who came. It was amazing to see God moving in the hearts of these people. Because this is a rural setting, people walked from miles away to come. Please pray that God would continue to soften hearts. Pray that the people of this community would seek to know more about God and desire to live their lives for Him.

We had one free day and were able to go to Sodwana Bay and enjoy the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous and the water was perfect. It was fun to see some of the Baptist students experiencing the beach for the first time. There is no place I'd rather be then at the beach!