Long-term Investments

We've had a great start to the year with our staff conference, several leaders training conferences, and starting up all our various ministries for the year.

Staff Conference

We started off the year with our annual Staff Conference where we gathered with our team from both locations for a week of encouragement, brainstorming, and preparing for the year ahead as we also spent time together. The Lord has really challenged us as a team to make sure that as a small team, we are focused on the things the Lord wants us to focus in on and that we serve whole-heartedly and with excellence. We are so thankful for the team the Lord has blessed us with and excited for the year ahead as we continue to come alongside local churches, raise up the next generation of leaders, and reach youth and kids with the gospel. The harvest is plentiful.


Leaders Kickoff Conferences

In the month of February we had an opportunity to do training for youth leaders in four different locations. We focused our training on how to raise the bar in our ministries. We had a chance to minister to 79 leaders in the local churches that we work with in different locations. We know that there has been lot of drop in attendance for churches and youth because of COVID but now we need to find a better way to get over this hump and start reaching out in our communities to reach the people for Christ. This is where our theme, "raising the bar", comes into play as we are looking forward to reaching out as a ministry and work alongside the local churches to better serve.

Thato teaching at the LKO in Joburg.
What is encouraging is that there are youth and children's ministries that are doing well. There are others that are struggling but we trust in the Lord to reach more kids and teens and encourage leaders to better serve their community too. Please pray with us together as we reach the youth of South Africa with the gospel of Christ. 

These conferences have also offered a great opportunity to allow our younger staff and interns to teach others the various things they have been learning from their participation in our ministries at Word of Life as well as their own local churches. It's awesome watching them grow in these different areas and seeing them put their training into practice.

Katleho, one of our interns, teaching at the LKO
in East Rand

Upcoming...

This last month has also been a lot of preparation as Thato gets ready to lead a team of staff, interns and young adults to Mozambique to serve alongside the Word of Life team there (March 20-30). We will be helping run 2 teen camps for students from a local school they minister in. Please pray with us as many of these students come from Muslim homes that God would enlighten their hearts to the truth of the gospel. We look forward to continuing to minister to many of the students who came to camp for the first time last year and seeing how God works in their hearts and gives them greater understanding of His Word and the gospel.

Please pray...

- Upcoming missions trip to Mozambique to help with camps (March 21-30)

- For Michelle (the newest member of our team) as she travels over to South Africa next week

-For wisdom for us and our team moving forward

- For Ashley to recive her visa as well as other staff also waiting on visas

- Our Durban team leading a teen missions trip to Joburg (April 2-8)

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