Joint Winter Conference

JWC!!!!!!!!!!

Hey friends and family!

I hope you are all doing well and having a great summer so far! So Rachael and I have the great privilege to update you all about the JWC aka (also known as) the JOINT WINTER CONFERENCE. The last time campus outreach-Johannesburg had a JWC was four years ago, so this conference was going to be a big event. All four of the campus outreach-Johannesburg affiliated varsities (universities) attended this conference. The conference lasted for two nights and three days (June 24-26). At this conference there were four main talks by Andrew Holbrook (the Campus Outreach- Charlotte regional director), break-out seminars, worship, great conversations, free-day activities such as hiking, bridge swinging, soccer and rugby tournaments, and more. 

My experience at the Joint Winter Conference was absolutely indescribable and one thing I got from the three-day experience was that God is a sovereign and powerful God. Now how is God sovereign, you may ask? Lets just say I had amazing conversations with a lot of different people. I met a guy from University of Johannesburg at Bunting Road named Ernest and he was a guy that was raised Muslim and became a Christian last year or two years ago. I met another guy who grew up atheist named Enze and became a Christian two years ago. Kabelo who is a guy that Daniel Fox and I invited to the JWC left the conference with a desire to want to be disciple and pursue discipleship because growing up, discipleship was not emphasized in his life.  Lastly, SG who was a guy that came to the JWC from WITS University came to accept Christ Jesus in this life and before the JWC, SG was thinking about becoming a Muslim because of riches and wealth, but after the hearing the Gospel message, truth was revealed to him.

                                                                                                ~ Alex

UJesu Malibongwe,(Malibongwe)

 Ujesu Upakeme, (Upakeme)

Ujesu Unamandla, (Unamandla)

… Oh li lo li lo…

150 cries lifted up these Zulu words of praise to Jesus Christ. As I stood in the throng of black and white faces, I felt the power of this battle cry to God coursing through my body. I tasted in this brief moment of one day getting to worship with all tribes, tongues, and nations in the presence of Jesus. My heart rejoiced in these worship times that included Zulu, Afrikaans, and American praise songs. Over the course of three days, as African and American hearts swelled with worship, our minds were filled with the word of the Lord.

            Teaching from the book of Titus, minister Andrew Holbrook spoke of the grace of God appearing through the man of Jesus Christ to all people.  From the stage, Andrew ripped open the word grace for the students. Our sin that ripped us from relationship with God ripped apart Jesus. Because of God’s grace, Jesus’s death and resurrection repaired our relationship with God. This grace, Holbrook proclaimed, has the ability to transform, regenerate, train and give purpose to our lives I sat in my chair feeling the grace of God wash me anew. Jesus spoke to me. I set you free. Hold fast to this grace. Many students hungered for this grace. Following the talks, men flocked to talk to Holbrook. I saw him with African man after man teaching them and laying his hands on them to pray for them.  Hearts transformed as Jesus appeared to these men for the first time.  Through his teaching, the laboring of the CO Johannesburg staff, South African student leaders, and the CCP, disciples of the nations were being made.

            In being with the South African students at JWC I realized the difficulty of disciple-making. It is a labor of love that takes time, patience, and sacrifice.  This love can only come from Christ in us. The labor of our lives requires endurance. Analogously, I felt the extent of this endurance as I ran in the early morning in the mountainside of Magaliesburg, South Africa. Frigid air burned my lungs. I gasped breath after breath asking for strength from the Lord. In these runs I realized we endure and run our race only because we have a savior who stumbled to and endured the cross.  At night I looked to the black, vast, sky abounding with stars. In the frosty air I whispered, “God made that.” As “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork,” (Psalm 19:1) I could hardly find words to describe the glory and magnitude of God.

            At the JWC, we sinners, chosen by God, tried to declare how great is our God.  Through song, dance, soccer, netball, eating we had the opportunity to come together as one people to make His name great. My spirit groans knowing that it is impossible here on this earth to praise God in the way He deserves. As the writer of Hebrews said, we are strangers and exiles on this earth and we desire a better country, a heavenly one. (Hebrews 11)  One day, one day, that day we will get to see Christ in His glory and rightly praise God.  

                                                                                    -Rachael Newmister