To South Africa and beyond

Who knew when we first came to South Africa that God would expand our ministry to the "beyond" part of Africa?  Well He did!!!

Mike had the chance to go to Zimbabwe at the end of February, to join an Annual Equipping Event hosted by Global Disciples.  He had been in discussions with Global Disciples for about 8 months (met with them first while we were in Canada) and this was an opportunity to hear about their work first hand from current program directors.

About 75 Global Disciples program directors (all pastors) came to the event from 10 different countries.  (Just in 2014 these 75 men and women planted about 40 churches in their respective countries, and well over 100 churches in the last 5 years!)  Around the world, Global Disciples planted 1400 churches last year, with 40,000 new believers in these churches! 

I think for most Canadians, when we hear the name Zimbabwe, we think in our heads “ends of the earth.”  Well after spending a week at the “end of the earth,” Mike has a lot to say about his incredible week.

"The country of Zimbabwe has been struggling for the past 20 years, with unemployment now at 90% in one of the poorest countries on earth.  But praise God, the church is stepping forward to share the gospel with this nation of desperate a needed people."

Could the church feed a nation?

"We were hosted in Zimbabwe at this amazing church that is reaching out in so many ways to the people of the nation including teaching them how to grow better crops.  The church is a part of the Zimbabwe Evangelical Fellowship and it is their vision to feed the nation, both spiritually and physically.  In order to accomplish this the church uses a combination of church planting and farm training."

"They run crop demonstrations at the church where their crops are 10 times the yield of the average Zimbabwe farmer.  They have now trained 10,000 farmers, and these farmers currently average 3 times the yield of the national average with just some basic training techniques.  Currently Zimbabwe only produces 25% of the food that is needed to feed their nation, but the church believes that they can feed the entire nation by training their farmers!"

"Each day during the event there was testimony after testimony of how God was working in these servants to make disciples, to plant churches, to heal the sick, and to provide for their communities.  We spent hours every day in worship and prayer, and also took 24 hours to fast and pray on Thursday.  That evening we spent many hours praying for the salvation of the nations, praying for God’s church to fulfill the great commission across the globe.  We prayed against the evil in our world, recognizing that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rules, power, and principalities of this dark world.  We prayed throughout the night in shifts with me having the 2-3 a.m. shift with a few other pastors.  I was amazed how quickly the time of prayer went, and in the morning we started to pray again at 7:30 a.m.  The passion in this group to fulfill the great commission seeing churches planted in every people group of earth was both encouraging and contagious."

Our hope and prayer is that in 2015 I will be able to launch some of these programs with the churches of Cape Town.  We are hoping to start with the church leadership training and sometime after that, hopefully to launch a discipleship and church planting program.  We am very excited to see where God will take all these things.

Beep Beep

Oh life in Africa is never, EVER, boring.  These last few Sunday’s I’ve taken the opportunity to attend a Xhosa church (Xhosa being race/culture of the people who live in the township we serve in SA).  Every week has been a huge adventure, seeing the body of Christ operate in another language and culture!  Xhosa churches are full of life and excitement, and this was no different.

I wanted to share one amazing testimony with you from August 3^rd church service, and it’s bound to blow your mind.

A middle aged man came forward and began sharing what happened during his last week, on his way home from work.  As he was walking home and saw a bunch of children playing on the road in front of him (this is very typical as most houses don’t have yards for kids to play in, so the children play in the street).  While he was watching, a taxi comes driving towards the kids. 

To understand this story, you have to understand what “taxis” are here in South Africa.  They are the people’s primary option for public transport.   

South Africa taxi

There are 2 large taxis companies in the area and both of them are run by gangs.  There are regular “taxi wars”, where taxi drivers are shot and killed for taking other drivers’ routes.  Just a little over a month ago, only 5 minutes from where we live, about 10 taxis drivers were shot and killed due to a dispute.  Sadly the police have very little control over the taxi system. 

On the roads, the taxis completely do their own thing.  Daily, I witness taxis driving through red lights, speeding, cutting people off, using turning lanes to go straight, etc.  Basically they do whatever they want to do and since everyone knows that, the rest of traffic just yields to them.

Back to the story, as this taxi is driving towards these kids, there is also a 2 year old child on the road (who is unable to move away on time) and the child is driven over by the taxi.  The man from church goes running to the child, but just before he picks up the child, he senses the Holy Spirit telling him to pray.  So he prays for the child, picks him up and looks around for the parents.  It takes a few minutes to find the parents, but he finally locates them.   

Quickly relatives, neighbors and others gather around this little boy who is bleeding badly from the head.

After a few more minutes, surprisingly, the same taxi driver comes back and offers to bring the child to the hospital.  So the man from church jumps into the taxi with the child, to make sure the taxi actually goes to the hospital.  On the way there, the driver starts to complain about the cost of fuel for the trip, and so the man from church has to put fuel into the taxi to keep going.  He keeps praying for the child, and while sharing this in church, he was very emotional still.

Once they arrive at the hospital, the doctors do a rapid assessment and since the child is not doing well, they immediately transfer him to Cape Town biggest children’s hospital.  Upon arriving, the doctor there comes to see the child.  With the family all gathered, the man from church simply tells them that in faith, he is confident that God is going to heal the child.

Capetown Children Hospital

Just a little while later, the child is discharged from the hospital and the doctor says the child is 100% ok!  It was amazing to hear this testimony and the whole church praised God for saving the baby.

He is powerful to save!

Wow oh Wow, God is good!  God is so faithful, His desire is that none should perish but that all come to repentance and faith in Jesus!  This was so apparent as we taught FDG (Faith Discovery Group) for the second time in early March.   

Just like in the 1^st class, the Holy Spirit was powerfully at work right from the first day, opening the hearts of our students (26 of them) to the gospel.  My heart breaks as the students share about being abandoned or rejected by their parents, experiencing the trauma of violent crime, and trying to recover from the deep hurt of rape.

I (Mike) would like to share a couple brief testimonies from our group:

"At first I didn’t believe in God.  I had this anger that lived within me, and I asked myself that if God is as good as he is said to be, than why did he take both my parents? I always blamed God for everything that is going on in my life.  I am now a changed person.  I have found the heart to try and to let go and forgive.  I now believe in God, for he is a loving, caring, and forgiving God.  I can now proudly say that I believe in God.  It’s all thanks to faith discovery group."

"Firstly when I was here at the faith discovery group I was not myself because I have a sin [and do] not forgive myself for what happened to my brother and I blame God for what happened to my brother.  When I’m watching TV or movies and I see a story, I feel the pain and I will start to cry because I know how my brother die and I see him when he was stabbed.  But now I started to forgive myself and I also pray God that he must forgive me for blaming him for what [is] happening to myself.  My life has been change because of the session of the faith discovery group and like to thank Mike and Mawande for helping me and give me an advice to me that God is here for me."

God’s hand moved powerfully among this group, and on at the end of the class, 9 out of the 26 students gave their lives to the Lord for the first time.  

We are very excited to now be in the follow-up process with them to help them begin growing their new lives in Christ.  Please continue to pray for them in these early stages that their faith would be strong and they would daily draw near to God.