Love from South Africa

It's been a busy (in a good way) month with lots of activity including a missions trip to Hazyview, Mpumalanga and another women's conference. We really are so thankful for these different opportunities and a front-row seat to His work in people's lives. SMASH Hazyview This was the first time we had the opportunity to take a SMASH team to Hazyview, Mpumalanga. We were serving with one of our associates Xolani, who is also a DTC alumni, at his home church. During our time there, we had a great time serving through KYB (Know Your Bible) for kids which we were able to have at two different locations. One was at Xolani's church and the other was at Mkhuhlu (about 30 minutes away) at a different church that we are building a relationship with. We had a privilege of ministering to almost 95-100 kids in both places combined. We also had the opportunity to do house to house evangelism at Mkhuhlu as well as have a ladies gathering where Ashley had the opportunity to share with t

This last month has been filled with so much excitement and joy. Earlier in August Ashley's parents were able to come visit. It was such a treat to spend time with them. Last week we welcomed back our students and interns from their 3 week holiday and are thankful to be jumping into the final term of the year with them. Over the past week, we have had tons of opportunity for community outreach and evangelism. Last Wednesday our students and interns had the opportunity to serve the community of Cosmo City and Cosmo City Baptist Church as we helped spruce up the church premises, pick up rubbish, share the gospel and have our weekly kids ministry at the church. It was a great day! Last Friday we had the opportunity to partner with Jabez Ministries to reach the surrounding area with the gospel, pray with people and connect them to the church so they can continue being discipled. Today was a stark reminder that people are hurting and so in need of the hope and restoration that can only

July has looked a lot different from what we thought it would. Due to the third wave of covid, we were put on a stricter lockdown where gatherings were prohibited. As a result, we had to postpone the 2 camps we had planned for July and pause our weekly kids and teens ministries. We're thankful that we were able to continue with our Discipleship Training Center with our students and interns and praise the Lord that our lockdown was dropped this past week. We are excited to be able to move forward with our camps and return to church and various ministries. The interns helped keep things exciting for the students by organizing a spirit week with a different theme for dress up each day (left) and a fun day with an obstacle course competition (right). We partner with an international ministry called Dare 2 Share Ministries that like us, is seeking to reach youth with the gospel. Once a month, they have an initiative called #goshareday where they invite teens to share the gospel with the

We always love to visit the beach while in Cape Town!    Cape Town Partnerships This past month has held quite a bit of opportunity for ministry and connection and partnership with local churches all over South Africa. At the end of May, we traveled to Cape Town to visit with and encourage the pastors we work with there. Our time in Cape Town is always such a blessing as we connect with our fellow laborers in the gospel. As much as we went to encourage, we were encouraged by the pastors to see what the Lord is doing through the churches in their local communities. As a  family, we always come away from these trips blessed, challenged and super encouraged by their testimonies and faithful service to him.  Joburg Partnerships On June 5, we had our first Woman of Worth conference for the year. It was such a great time to gather together again with ladies from 11 different churches as we looked at the life of Mary Magdalene and what it looks like to be 'Radically Changed'. This yea

It has been quite the busy time over the past several weeks.. We returned from the States and hit the ground running. We are settled back in and are mostly caught up with what is happening at WOLZA and we thank the Lord for that. A few weeks ago, we had an opportunity to go down to Potchefstroom to do a Satellite Camp for Teens with the church that we work with there. It is a great partnership that we are having with the church to help reach the community with the gospel. The exciting part of serving in Potch is that we need to always be prepared for the unexpected. Our slogan for these trips is always ‘Be flexible’. Even though the camp was for teens, lots of kids started coming so we had to split our team into two so that we could teach both groups. The first day we had around 40 kids and 25 teens come to the camp. The second day we had 65-70 kids and 45-50 teens. What a great time we had with both groups. 20+- trusted Christ as their personal Saviour and that is a great joy. The stu

  Precious times with family. After over 3 months of travel, 2 countries, 3 Islands, 7 states, 9 churches, and many visits later, we are settling in back home into life and ministry. Our time away was such an incredible blessing and it was definitely a bittersweet goodbye. We are so thankful though to have so many amazing people in our lives both here in South Africa and on the other side of the ocean. We know that as we journey forward, we have a team who is behind us encouraging us, praying for us, and supporting us. What a gift! The Lord used our time not only to refresh as us we reconnected with people but also to help us build new connections and take a step closer to being fully funded. We are up 15% of our monthly support with only 17% left to go!  So thankful to be able to catch up with our friends Kyle & Natalie. Kyle served with us in South Africa for several years. God has been and continues to be so faithful as we trust him to provide. In the almost 3 weeks since we'

We had special time being reunited with family as they met Leilani for the first time. Since our camps ended in December, we have been  on quite the adventure as we packed up and shipped  out on December 17 for our furlough. The Lord has blessed us with opportunities to reconnect with friends, family, and supporters as well as make new connections. We started our journey in the Bahamas where we spent time with our family as well as with friends and ministry partners. After hitting 3 different islands, we continued our journey in Florida where we reconnected with people and had the opportunity to share at Trinity College, with the Word of Life trailer park residents, at a new church, and with different individuals. From Florida, we drove north to South Carolina where we spent a few days with some family and friends before heading to North Carolina where we were reunited with some sweet friends and connected with a new church. We are so thankful to the Lord for his faithfulness through t

We hope you had an amazing Christmas celebrating the coming of our Saviour! We are so thankful for the opportunity to have been able to celebrate with Ashley's family as they met their granddaughter for the first time. December was a whirlwind as we finished the year off with several camps and packed up for our next several months of furlough. Camps This year, the camp season was a lot different due to different regulations. To meet the regulations, we decided to have a Satellite day Camp in Welkom for kids and teens. In addition, two of the orphanages that use Word of Life material from Welkom asked us to host a camp for them at our property at Word of Life. While half of our team served at the kids camp at the Word of Life property, the other half of our team served at the kids Satellite Camp at a church we work with in Welkom. We had 29 kids at our property and around 75-90 kids came to the day camp in Welkom. Praise the Lord for several kids and teens who came to trust Christ d