Sawubona (hello in Zulu) friends!
I hope that you all are doing well and
having a great summer in the United States. I have so many stories to share
with you all, so I will stick with those that are relevant to ministry in South
Africa. Ministry in general is very difficult because there are so many factors
that can hinder it such as tiredness, poor health, people being unavailable to
meet up to hear the gospel, various fears, and more. As for ministry in South
Africa at Wits University in Johannesburg, some of the factors previously
listed, created obstacles for our team when sharing our faith with the
students. The team’s biggest obstacle was to create time to build relationships
with the students and share our faith with them as the Wits students prepared
for their final exams. Wits University is like Davidson College, so the
students study all the time and so much that their sleeping schedule is a mess;
staying up all night and sleeping during the day. Also, the students were very
friendly and were willing to get to know us, so that made ministry a tab bit
easier. It has been awesome to witness God overcome the obstacles that were had
to face when sharing our faith with the students.
God has also been using Campus
Outreach’s social events on Fridays for the students to see that being a Christian
is not boring, but fun. Our past social events include a game night during week
1, a braai which is a cook out during week 2, cupcake night and girly
activities for the girls and bonfire for the guys during week 3, and a black
light party during week 4 which was last week.
As for Daniel Fox and I’s specific
ministry, God has been doing tremendous things. Last week on Thursday (June 7th)
we found out that Sizwe a first year student who lives off-campus came to faith
after a one-week period of sharing our faith and building a relationship with
him. Also, about two weeks ago Daniel and I shared the gospel message with a
student who lives off-campus named Vincent and on Thursday June 14th
he shared with me that he gave his life to Christ this past Sunday. Also, this
week God led two students named Frank and Chris to Christ through Wes Gaylor
and Patrick Mauney. As a whole, all 18 of us have been faithful with building
relationships with students and sharing the gospel message to students when the
opportunities to do so arose. Also, a couple of the students that we have been
ministering to are planning to attend a joint winter conference that Campus
Outreach is hosting at a place about four hours from Johannesburg. Please pray
that students at Wits will continue to hear the gospel whether it is at the
conference for those who are going or throughout the rest of the school year
for those who are not going to the conference, but have been attending Campus
Outreach events such as weekly meetings, socials, or bible studies.
-Alex
Wong
This week
of ministry has been different from the others in a couple aspects. On Monday and Tuesday our team was able to
help with a ministry called Rays of Hope in the township of Alexandra. Rays of Hope helps to employ women in
Alexandra by teaching them a trade—these women are learning to weave baskets
and crochet blankets. Once these baskets
and blankets are made they are sold throughout Africa and other countries. As a team we were able to make some
improvements to the Rays of Hope facilities by painting and cleaning up a
couple of rooms. Our team really enjoyed
working with this ministry because of their initiative to share the Gospel by
meeting the needs of individuals.
In light of
ministry on campus this week, we were able to be on campus from Wednesday to
Friday. This week was interesting
because many of the students left campus for their winter break. Several of the students that we had gotten to
know left campus so it was the last time we would probably be able to see
them. However, there ar several students
left that we are hoping will decide to commit to go to out Joint Winter
Conference (JWC). Please be praying that
we will see students make a decision to come!
One small thing I would also like for you to pray for is a guy named
Roger. He is a third year students at
Wits. Phil and I were able to share the
Gospel with him on Thursday and he confessed to believe in God but understands
that he is not walking with him. Pray
that God would change Roger’s heart to a heart that desires to know the Lord
and serve Him.
-Daniel Williams
-Daniel Williams
No comments:
Post a Comment