Some Pictures

Language is No Barrier for God

by Naomi

Before dispersing in pairs around a shopping centre, we prayed God would be our translator in the event that we encounter any insurmountable language differences. Mary and I prayed that God’s purposes would be accomplished and he would lead us to someone who needed and wanted to know that Jesus loved them.

After walking for a bit we began heading back in the direction from which we’d come but then sensed we should return. As we did, we both noticed a woman having lunch, and agreed that’s where God wanted us. We tried to open a conversation hoping she spoke English but she replied in Afrikaans. Normally, we would have apologised and just walked away but we decided to persevere.

The lady tried telling us something and we could see that she desperately wanted us to understand. I saw a man standing not far away and asked him to translate. It was explained that her mother had recently died and her five-year-old child was lying in the hospital suffering with injuries from a fall down the stairs. She felt hopeless.

Though we now knew her struggles we were unable to offer any comfort. All we could do was to hold her and pray and weep with her. For a moment we shared her pain and as we embraced her in tears we trusted God to impress on her what he wanted to communicate to her. It wasn’t long before she was visibly comforted and at peace.

We were aware of people glancing at us curious about what was going on but we didn’t feel intimidated. We had a deep-rooted sense of satisfaction that following God’s gentle promptings was worth it. We resolved to make ourselves available to him for his purposes even if it’s not always possible to see the outcome in advance.

Down and Out in Betty’s Bay

by Zacharias Carlens, A-Team

During our outreach in Cape Town we went for three days to Betty’s Bay, mostly to get some rest but also to do some street evangelism. I enjoy street evangelism and find I don’t have problems speaking with people on the street or giving them tracts.

But this time I wanted to do it differently. Instead of approaching random people, I just wanted to allow the Holy Spirit to guide me, work through me and bring specific people come to me. I went out together with Max and Susan. As we walked through the streets of the small town we prayed silently.

We stopped to help one man unload a bakkie (pickup truck) then spoke with him and prayed. After this we continued but everything was very quiet. I concluded nothing was going to happen that day and it was okay with me if that was part of God’s plan.

As we waited for our lift to fetch us, a black guy with his dog came walking in our direction. As he passed, he gave us a friendly smile and said hi. We started talking with him and it turned out he was living on the streets. He was from another city but had felt compelled to come to walk to Betty’s Bay, not knowing why.

His name was Dave and he was forty-three. He asked us if we had something to eat for his dog. Susan gave the dog all we had which was some chocolate. When I asked Dave if he was also hungry, he said he hadn’t eaten for some while. Susan went to a nearby shop to buy some groceries for him and suddenly he started to cry very hard. He was very emotional and asked us why we were so nice to him. I told him it was because of Jesus and that Jesus loved him very much. That made him cried even harder.

He was saying he was also a Christian when Susan returned. Then we all prayed for him and explained how he could get to the nearest church. Before we left, we took a picture with him. What really struck me was that he insisted that his dog should be in the photo. The dog was like his child. I realized how lonely Dave must have been because his closest companion was his dog. I also wondered how long had it been that he had spoken with someone as openly as he was speaking with us now. As a result of our conversation and prayer, he felt like he was valued because some strangers acknowledged his existence.

I learned from this encounter that, as we go out on the streets, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit and not by our own enthusiasm, otherwise we may miss the chance to speak with a person who really needs to be encouraged and told how much Jesus loves them.

Namibia

Well I just got back from an outreach to Namibia and what an amazing experience. I’m leading a team of 18 students from Europe and Korea, and just had an awesome time with them and with the ministry. It was a 48-hour bus trip (5 flat tires and one car accident) to the very northern part of Namibia, which is just to the northwest of South Africa.

We worked with tribal people. When I say tribal I mean what you see in National Geographic—no tops and skin painted red with clay and beef-blood. While the locals painted their bodies, we painted the community’s school and picked up litter at the police station and what they call a hospital.

The highlight for me was the evenings when we would sit around a campfire with our group and some of the local Christians and just fellowship. They would start singing their songs to God. It was of the kind of caliber you’d expect from singers we invite to the microphone at the front of our western churches. Here we were, sitting side by side in ‘the wild’ with no fancy technology, just the beauty of impromptu harmonizing. The sound quality was unsurpassable.

I got to hear how God is working in such different ways in a culture so different from my own North American one. We were told a testimony by one lady who used to be into witchcraft but is now a Christian. She had a story like Paul’s on the roadside where she was instructed to go see the pastor of the town. The Holy Spirit revealed himself to her as a Spirit of Peace. When she met the pastor everything he said corresponded with what the Holy Spirit had said on the roadside. He led her to Christ and now she’s walking strong with the Lord. She can’t read but God reveals the Bible to her in dreams. One of our translators who disciples her would tell her Bible stories she would reply that she already knew that story because she’d had a dream about it the previous day.

Our God is so much bigger then the box we put Him in in America.

Thanks for all your prayers.