Transitions

We have had a great time of ministry over the last month with a Satellite Camp, a student missions trip, and our Genesis students graduation. It's definitely been a month of transitions for our students, our staff as we continue pioneering the Genesis Program, and our family as we get ready to welcome another baby soon.

Putfontein Satellite Camp

During the last week of June, we had the opportunity to partner with a local church in Putfontein to have a Satellite Camp. Our team split in half during the day as some ministered to the kids and the others ministered to the teens and in the evening, everyone came together as the teen program continued. I (Ashley) had the opportunity to help out on one of the discussion panels where teen campers were welcomed to freely ask tough questions and seek biblical answers. I am grateful for chances like this to point teens to biblical truths in a world that promotes everything but biblical answers to controversial topics and constantly pushes worldy ways of thinking.


SMASH Port Shepstone

Students Ministering And Serving Him

The day after wrapping up the Satellite Camp in Putfontein, we loaded up again and made our journey to Port Shepstone (about 8 hours away on the coast) for our student missions trip with our entire group of students and interns and some additional teens. 
Our entire SMASH team
We are always grateful to partner with Port Sheptone Baptist Church in reaching the community for Christ both young and old. It is encouraging to see how the church has grown and has even started a youth since our last visit which was one of the major goals of our ministry there - to help the church welcome younger members and families. This year we hosted two days of Holiday Bible Club and one day of youth. We also had the privilege of spending the day at an old age home where we got to do hospitality, maintenance, gardening, chat with old people and have a chapel just to minister to both to the staff and residents. Our time there was definitely a highlight for our entire team. Even for our little Leilani enjoyed spending time with old folks and they loved spending time with her too. We are grateful that we could do this ministry and expose young people what is missions all about. Now we want to do the same for our kids. Please be praying for us as we involve our kids and for wisdom to know when is too much so that we do not overwhelm them but still show them that serving others is a blessing and a joy. Please pray for us that we would be faithful to share the gospel to our own kids to as we are enthusiastic to share it with others too.

The kids had an awesome time at HBC

Nhlanhla (our newest staff in training) sharing at
the old age home. We are so thankful for God's 
work in his life!

We started out the week with some training on 
how to share the gospel in preparation for the
week of ministry.




























Genesis Students Graduation

A few weeks ago we celebrated the graduation of our first batch of students for the year. It has been a blessing to see God working in their lives and being able to serve alongside them at different camps and events. Three of them will continue on through the rest of the year as student leaders, doing more independent Bible studies, gaining practical life skills, and getting more involved in ministry with additional responsibilities. We can't wait to see how God will continue to use each of them.
Our graduating students

This week we welcomed our new intake of students and are excited to get to know them over the next 5 months as they study God's Word, are trained in ministry, and serve alongside of us.
Our new students

We are so thankful for your love, care, encouragement and involvement in our ministry. It is such a blessing! We pray that the Lord continues to bless you and use you to further his kingdom!

Please Pray...

- For wisdom and faithfulness in each of the ministries we are a part of both with WOL and at our church

- For our new Genesis students as they adjust

- For a safe delivery and healthy baby (due date is August 4)

- For Ashley to recive her visa quickly.

- For our family as we adjust to having a new baby

- For the Lord to grow our team as we are short staffed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Camps Near & Far

Image
It’s been a while since our last update and so much has happened since we arrived back from furlough. Thato took a trip to Zimbabwe to help with some camps alongside the WOL Zim team, we assisted with our church’s Holiday Bible Club (VBS) as well as a winter camp alongside one of the churches we partner with in the East Rand.    Our team also continued with our annual camps happening at Potchefstroom (True Word Bible Church) and Mozambique (Trichardt School). The biggest thing that has happened over these past few months though it that we welcomed our third baby girl, Aliyah Mphonyana (translated ‘little gift’ in Sotho) 3 weeks early. We are thankful for the smooth delivery of our sweet Aliyah on Thato’s birthday (June 4) The pastors cooking for the campers Zimbabwe I had a privilege to go to Zimbabwe after coming back from furlough to help teach at camp. The trip was great ias we were able to meet with Pastors and have fellowship with them as well as teach the word of God to ...
Read more

There & Back Again

Image
It's been a month now since we returned to South Africa and have been settling back into a normal rhythm. We are so thankful for the time we had on furlough to reconnect with friends, family and supporters. It really was such an encouraging time and though it was quite busy with lots of traveling, it was also refreshing. We started out our time with some downtime with our family over the Christmas holidays. It was a wonderful and special time especially since it was the last time we were able to spend with Ashley's Pop Pop before he went home to be with the Lord in March.  We officially began our furlough the first week of January as we caught up with friends and supporters and shared in churches in Abaco, Spanish Wells and Nassau (3 different islands). We were so overwhelmed by the love, generosity and care we felt as we visited with different people and churches. It was also encouraging to see God at work in each person's life and their own spheres. Our time in the US was...
Read more

Weeping & Rejoicing

Image
The Lord gives & the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This last month has held some really high highs and some really low lows. There has been weeping and rejoicing. But through it all, we continue to say through tears and smiles, "blessed be the name of the Lord". Just a few weeks ago, Thato and I joyfully received the news that in less than 7 months, we would become parents to our first baby. We were ecstatic and so thankful for this gift the Lord had given us. However, the excitement was short lived. Just 5 days after discovering I was pregnant, we were told by the doctor that we had a miscarriage. Though we had only known about the pregnancy for less than a week, we were devastated to hear that we had lost our baby. We struggled to understand exactly why the Lord had allowed this but we continued to trust that He is good and faithful and that he would use it for our good and His glory. Our hearts still hurt but we are thankful for the Lord's lo...
Read more