First Day Jitters!
Today we started off with an amazing breakfast and then had worship and devotion time. Nathan did a great job of leading us through worship, and the devotion by Samantha was excellent, getting us to think about faith and trusting God; it was a timely message that had been postponed by our circumstances, but God knew that we would need it for today. It fit perfectly. A few students were excited about the opportunity to share their faith, but most were pretty apprehensive, nervous, and scared. Two of the girls were so afraid of what we were doing today that they had a hard time sleeping last night.
With fear and trepidation and trying to put our faith into action, we headed off to the squatter settlements to share the gospel with the people living there; 350,000 people in one square mile. Jeremy is the person in charge of Impact Africa and he put us into many different groups that included 3 of us and an African translator. Today was more about the translator doing the bulk of the work, and we are observing and being trained how to do it. We then were given our own “street” to walk down and we began talking with people we encountered.
By the end of the day, our fears had turned into joy and excitement, as we learned that the people there were very friendly, loved to talk, and were excited to invite us in. It was more about finding out what their story was, and then sharing how God could be part of that story. If they were in the middle of chores, we would help them with their chores to show God’s love to them. Several of our teams helped wash clothes or dishes as they got to know the people there. At lunch we stopped at the school that Impact Africa runs in the middle of the squatter settlement, had lunch, and played with the kids there. The kids were so cute and came running up to us to play with us. We gave piggy back rides, let them play with sunglasses, and had a great time together.
In our debrief time, at the end of day, we learned that our teams had helped 20 people become Christians! Now that is going to be a party in Heaven! The cool thing is that Impact Africa is starting a church in this area in another few months, and these people will be some of the first members. After they had prayed to receive Christ, we got their contact number, address, etc so the staff could follow up with them. The pastor of this new church, Simon Peter, was also in one of the groups that went out to serve today with our team and is leading a Bible study right now 3 days/week. For each of the 20 people who accepted Christ today, we also told them about the Bible studies that Simon Peter is running and many of them said they would come. It is crazy to think about, but God is building a church community here and we get to play a role in that!
Cole then took us through his devotion on leadership and helped us realize that leadership is not just being the one in front. It is letting God change us to be more like Him so that we can use the gifts He has given us to be a servant to those around us.
At the end of the day, those who were scared, nervous and apprehensive this morning had a complete change of perspective tonight. Students shared about how they were filled with joy, at ease, and no longer fearful. They knew what to do now, and God was faithful and we could trust him. We have each grown in our faith as a result of being out of our comfort zone and are actually looking forward to tomorrow. After all, a comfort zone feels good, but it can never lead to growth in faith. For faith to grow, you need to be in a situation that is out of your control but is squarely in the control of God; and when you see Him do what only He can do, it gives you confidence that you can trust Him. Watching God change the lives of 20 people in one day was amazing! Now we want Him to do it again tomorrow and for the rest of this week!
With fear and trepidation and trying to put our faith into action, we headed off to the squatter settlements to share the gospel with the people living there; 350,000 people in one square mile. Jeremy is the person in charge of Impact Africa and he put us into many different groups that included 3 of us and an African translator. Today was more about the translator doing the bulk of the work, and we are observing and being trained how to do it. We then were given our own “street” to walk down and we began talking with people we encountered.
By the end of the day, our fears had turned into joy and excitement, as we learned that the people there were very friendly, loved to talk, and were excited to invite us in. It was more about finding out what their story was, and then sharing how God could be part of that story. If they were in the middle of chores, we would help them with their chores to show God’s love to them. Several of our teams helped wash clothes or dishes as they got to know the people there. At lunch we stopped at the school that Impact Africa runs in the middle of the squatter settlement, had lunch, and played with the kids there. The kids were so cute and came running up to us to play with us. We gave piggy back rides, let them play with sunglasses, and had a great time together.
In our debrief time, at the end of day, we learned that our teams had helped 20 people become Christians! Now that is going to be a party in Heaven! The cool thing is that Impact Africa is starting a church in this area in another few months, and these people will be some of the first members. After they had prayed to receive Christ, we got their contact number, address, etc so the staff could follow up with them. The pastor of this new church, Simon Peter, was also in one of the groups that went out to serve today with our team and is leading a Bible study right now 3 days/week. For each of the 20 people who accepted Christ today, we also told them about the Bible studies that Simon Peter is running and many of them said they would come. It is crazy to think about, but God is building a church community here and we get to play a role in that!
Cole then took us through his devotion on leadership and helped us realize that leadership is not just being the one in front. It is letting God change us to be more like Him so that we can use the gifts He has given us to be a servant to those around us.
At the end of the day, those who were scared, nervous and apprehensive this morning had a complete change of perspective tonight. Students shared about how they were filled with joy, at ease, and no longer fearful. They knew what to do now, and God was faithful and we could trust him. We have each grown in our faith as a result of being out of our comfort zone and are actually looking forward to tomorrow. After all, a comfort zone feels good, but it can never lead to growth in faith. For faith to grow, you need to be in a situation that is out of your control but is squarely in the control of God; and when you see Him do what only He can do, it gives you confidence that you can trust Him. Watching God change the lives of 20 people in one day was amazing! Now we want Him to do it again tomorrow and for the rest of this week!
Comments
Post a Comment