The last week of SMASH (students ministering and serving
Him) in Cape Town was an amazing time. It was such an awesome privilege to be a
part of this missions trip for the second time. While there, the Lord allowed
me to revisit many of the same churches and communities that I visited last
year which was such a huge blessing. Two of the teams ran a Holiday Bible Club (VBS) at two different local churches in addition to door to door evangelism in the surrounding community while my team traveled around to different locations working with different churches and communities doing work projects, evangelism and community outreaches.
The farm
On our second day there, my team spent the day at a small
farming community where we had the opportunity to help repair the one small
church that occupied its premises. As I was on my way back from the hardware
store where I was picking up more supplies, we met a man along the dirt road
that led to the farm. He stopped us in our tracks and motioned for us to roll
down the window. We soon realized that he was one of the men who we had the
opportunity to meet last year. He immediately began recounting to us the Lord’s
faithfulness in his life over the past year. He thanked us for the ministry we
had to the farm the previous year and began telling us of the impact it had on
his life. He expressed that while others may look down on him as being a
worthless guy from a poor farming community, he knew that the Lord loved him
and that he has worth and purpose in HIM. I left those few short moments so
encouraged by God’s faithfulness. Amidst all of the darkness in that community,
the drugs, the alcoholism, the poverty, in that moment, I saw a glimmer of
light that broke through the darkness. God is at work. It’s a never ending
battle but one that is not hopeless. God is doing things both in that man’s
life and in the lives of that tiny church called Penhill Baptist Fellowship.
The next day, we had the opportunity to return and be a part
of their weekly Tuesday church service. We divided the men, women, and children
and met with them separately. I sat in with the women as Thobile shared from
the Word with them. After sharing a message about the hope we can find in
Christ, two women trusted in Christ as their Savior and several others chose to
recommit their lives to God. Afterwards, I was talking to a lady names Nona who
was sharing with me some of the struggles of the community and expressed her
gratefulness that we had come and shown what it means to love people and live
for Christ. She said that she immediately saw a difference in us, in the way we
served and loved one another. She also said that she wasn’t the only one who
noticed as she watched the kids follow us around as we were working on the
church the day before. I was so thankful that the Lord had used the example of
our team to encourage her heart. I know that it’s in no way easy to live there
but God is working in the hearts and lives of those people. They are that city
on a hill. There’s a long way to go but nothing is impossible for God. My
prayer is that he would continue to use those people to turn their community
upside down for him.
The team
One of the biggest things the Lord reminded me of in our
time there was the value of a team. I often felt as though my biggest ministry
over that week was serving and encouraging the team. While I did have
opportunities to encourage and share Christ with those we were there to serve,
I found that sometimes the best way for me to do that was to equip and
encourage my teammates to better serve those people. I was amazed at times when
I stepped back and watched as the Lord used them to work in the lives of
others. As we had the opportunity to share the gospel in different areas, many
times, it was the students and teens who were the ones that the Lord chose to
use to lead others to Christ. Sometimes, it can be easy to become discouraged
in situations like that when you feel as though the Lord is not using you,
however, the Lord reminded me in those instances that we were all part of the
same team working towards the same goal. As a result, with that perspective, I
found myself overwhelmed with gratefulness as I saw God use our TEAM as a
single body to reach into the hearts and lives of the people we were serving. I
saw that as I had the opportunity to minister to my team, I was also
ministering to others as well. We are not meant to function as individual units
but a single body and it was so refreshing to be reminded of that as I saw Philippians
2:1-2 being lived out; “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being
united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the
Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by
being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of
one mind.”
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| The whole team |
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| My team |
Step back & watch
One of the biggest ways I saw this being played out was in
the area of evangelism. We split off into groups of two as we shared the gospel
with strangers that we met along the beach. My partner, Leslie, and I got to
speak with several different people but did not get the opportunity to lead
anyone to Christ. However, when we gathered together again as a group, we found
out that there were 8 people who trusted Christ as a result of conversations
with our teammates. While I would’ve LOVED the opportunity to lead someone to
the Lord, I was overjoyed to hear of others who had made that decision and was
happy to rejoice with my teammates in that. In another instance, we had the
opportunity to do some door to door evangelism in a township community. We
split off into small groups and began talking to people as we walked down the
busy streets. I wanted to give the teens an opportunity to take the lead as we
talked to people so I decided to take a step back and see what the Lord would
do. I encouraged them to initiate conversations and stood beside them for
support while they led the conversation. I noticed that one of the girls was
really struggling at first so I gave her a few words of encouragement and
helped her along a bit and then just continuously prayed in silence. It was so
cool to see the ways the Lord answered those prayers as this girl became more
bold and confident as she approached different people. I watched as one of the
other girls who was quite a bit younger and was with us on her first missions
trip really step up to the challenge. She didn’t let any person pass her by
without stopping to talk with them. It was clear that she was just sharing out
of an outflow of what the Lord was doing in her heart. Meanwhile, I watched
from a distance as one of the other younger guys led 5 other teenage boys to
Christ. What an awesome privilege and blessing it was to see the Lord using
those teens in such big ways and growing them in their faith as they stepped
out of their comfort zones.
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