It’s great to have something familiar to comfort yourself with when you’re so far from home. We all decided when we got here in January that we would celebrate everyone’s birthday, even if it meant their half-birthday. It’s one of those traditions that have been ingrained in us so long ago that it’s almost impossible to forget. Plus, it means cake and other yummy desserts, and who wants to pass those by?

We just recently celebrated Marc’s half-birthday with an amazing costume party. I’m not even close to exaggerating when I say amazing. We had to get creative because it’s not like we can buy costumes here, and some of the creativity astounded me! The Outreach Staff were invited as well, and some of them did wonders with the little that was in their suitcases.

Our amazing evening was speckled with delicious cake, fun dancing, and a costume contest judged by none other than Niel and Dave! The whole evening reminded me of home and how much I appreciate a good birthday party with good friends.

A mission team member from the Cornerstone team we hosted back in April shared this story with us:

At the schoolyard I introduced myself to three women that were watching our team play with the children. I started to have a conversation with them and they told me they were Christians. We talked for about twenty minutes or so and they were asking me questions about America and I was asking them questions about Qwa Qwa. Then I asked them if their church was a Bible-believing church (the women could speak English really well). They said that it was. Then I asked if they believed in witchdoctors or their ancestors. They said, “Yes we believe in our ancestors.”

I began to talk about what the Bible says about those things. I told them that those things aren’t from God! I shared from Deuteronomy, Hebrews, and Joshua, and showed them that God was the only One to put their trust in! “He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!” I took time to minister to them about being deceived by Satan. I could see their faces begin to change and they said that they hadn’t known about all this! I asked if they wanted to surrender their life to God and ask Him to forgive them for believing in other gods. I shared how I was a single mom and that God always provided for me and my children! I encouraged them that He would provide for them, too! They all wanted to pray and I led them to the Lord! Praise God! I told them that I look forward to seeing them again–in Heaven!

Matt P., one of our interns, really enjoys connecting with his students at LaunchPad.

There is a guy in my class named Sylvester; he’s a fairly laid back guy and seems pretty quiet. What I like about him though is the questions he asks me when there is time after class. After the first class he attended, he came up to me afterwards and asked what the proper day to do the Sabbath on was. Pretty intense question, but I loved it. Here’s a kid who is really thinking about his faith and wants to understand it.

I think what I like most about Sylvester’s questions is that they are exactly like the ones I asked when I was in high school. I had my dad to give me answers back then and those answers solidified my faith during that time and helped me to keep it through today. I don’t know Sylvester’s parents—I do not even know if he has his parents around—but it is incredibly humbling to be playing, in some small way, the same role my dad did and in so doing, helping a young man from Qwa Qwa grow in his faith.

Although LaunchPad is on winter break, Jody wanted to share about one of her last few classes of the term:

The lesson was about healing. Going into it, I was not as prepared as I normally am or as much as I wanted to be. I had so much going on personally in my mind and heart that it was hard to focus. The entire way to LaunchPad and then while Matt was teaching the first part of the lesson, I was praying that God would just send His Holy Spirit and give me power, boldness, wisdom, passion, and the words to say.

I began teaching my part of the lesson, and God did just that—He filled me with a huge passion for healing. Words were jumping off the page at me left and right. Finally, I reached a point where I honestly did not know what to say next. My mind went completely blank—I didn’t even know what concept I was trying to get across. So while Rabel finished translating my previous sentence, I said a quick prayer: “God, I’m going to step out in faith, open my mouth, and speak. Fill it with what You want said, because I don’t know what to say.” Boy, did He. I did not even know what the end of the sentence was going to look or sound like; God just put the sentence in my mouth word-by-word. And after that, the words kept coming with power! I was humbled and amazed. God doesn’t need my plan. He needs my willingness, obedience, and faith in Him.

I could feel my faith in Him stretching. As scary as it was, it was a good lesson for me to learn.

This past Saturday we had an amazing opportunity. Hope House (the orphanage that we visit on a weekly basis) recently had some paint donated to them for repainting purposes, and they asked us if we’d be interested in helping out. We said yes with great excitement, and went over on Saturday to begin. The Outreach Staffers had a wonderful opportunity as well! They had the chance to spend almost all of their Saturday with the kids, keeping them busy while all of the interns painted inside. A few escaped here and there, but we managed to keep most of them completely paint-free!

We were able to get a lot done, and are even more excited for the future plans for the orphanage bedrooms. We plan on painting each bedroom in a theme chosen by the kids, and they’ve already expressed immense excitement about it! It was great to be able to impact their lives in a way different than we usually do. It’s a blessing, too, to show them love in so many different fashions. More than anything, I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring color to their lives, and to inspire them to live beyond what society has told them they deserve.

Leadership Summit has been in the process of recruiting and training additional coaches so that the program’s can continue to expand its reach. The current coaches have been active participants throughout the whole process and are eager to embrace their new teammates. They know that more coaches means more students will be changed for eternity!

Our coaches sat down to brainstorm ways they can help the new coaches feel welcome and part of the Leadership Summit family. It’s encouraging for us to see them eager and ready to welcome the new coaches in. Their hearts are open wide and they are excited to see their family grow!

Hope House is a small orphanage located in Harrismith that we’ve partnered with over the last year. With about 33 kids living there, there is plenty of opportunity and need for discipleship and love. Our goal is to spend time at Hope House each week so that we can impart knowledge of the Bible, inspire love for Christ, and demonstrate love for each other.

Each week our ten interns go to the orphanage ready to teach a Bible lesson, lead a craft, and spend time playing with the kids. We hope you enjoy the video.

We regularly host teams from churches all over the U.S., and often connect with them through various friends or acquaintances, but just recently we experienced a divine connection.

A pastor at a church in California recently contacted us, and was interested in sending a missions team here in the fall. Because our internet crawls along at a snail’s pace, it’s sometimes difficult to keep in frequent contact with people, but this church was patient with our African internet.

Soon after their contact with us, the pastor shared an amazing story about how he’d found out about our ministry. The church itself is large, and has a good-sized missions program. They have missionaries going out all over the world, but recently decided that they all felt like God was calling them to Africa. A couple of the families specifically felt like the church was being drawn towards South Africa. With this exciting knowledge in their minds and hearts, they began looking for organizations with which they could send a short-term missions team to South Africa. For weeks they couldn’t find anything, and all possibilities kept falling through.

A group of them that were involved in this vision of Africa met in the pastor’s office and prayed for a door to be opened and clarity as to where they should go. Immediately afterward, the pastor went to check the church’s mailbox, and the only thing sitting in his box was a mailer from us! This was the very first time we’d ever sent out a mailer to churches that we weren’t connected with, and God utilized the opportunity at once! One line on the mailer stuck out to them instantly: Looking for a mission trip destination?

They contacted us at once with intense excitement and immediately began planning their trip to serve with us. We’re so thankful that God made that connection between the two of us, and are encouraged that there continues to be interest in the evangelization of Africa, even though fuel prices and plane tickets keep creeping upward.

The Outreach Staff are finally here! It took three of them a little longer than the rest, but they got here nonetheless. One of the Outreach Staffers was stuck in Paris for a couple hours because of a passport misplacement, but she finally got here in one piece! Two more were stuck in New Jersey because of plane delays, but they finally arrived late Wednesday night. The 13 that got in on time drove in late at night, so we didn’t get to see them until lunch the next day, but it was exciting to finally match faces with names we’d been hearing for the past couple of weeks! All of them together are a hilarious bunch to be around and we’ve already formed long-lasting friendships. By the end of these two months I’m sure there will be plenty of funny stories and insides jokes to go around!

One of our curriculums, “Living on Purpose”, is being taught to thousands of students this term in our AIDS prevention program. The curriculum emphasizes that each person is given a dream by God that He desires for them to accomplish. The students are led on a journey of discovery as they realize their dream, learn to let go of the things that hold them back, and deepen their faith in Christ as they trust Him to bring their dream to pass.

One of the chapters refers to God as our travel guide. He is our road map, compass, and companion as we are on the journey towards the accomplishment of our dreams. According to Matthew, one of our coaches, this chapter had a particularly great impact on his students.

“The students liked the thorough explanation about the naming of God as our travel guide. They were very happy to discover the ways of allowing God to be our road map, compass, and companion. Since He is our travel guide, they were more ready than ever before to start the journey.”