Monday, June 11, 2012

Week 3, Ministry

            Ministry on the Wits campus has been quite an experience! Relationships are being formed with many students on the campus, and I am really seeing that ministry comes a lot more natural when friendships have been established. After a week or so of talking with students about America and what we think of South Africa, through God’s grace, we have been able to have conversations about Jesus and also share our own personal story about walking with God. Katlyn and I have been able to get to know a few girls pretty well so it’s so cool to get to answer questions they have about Christianity and to talk with them about what is holding them back from fully giving their lives to Christ. This has been a very rewarding experience but at the same time it takes A LOT of perseverance and love.  Please pray that we will rely on God’s strength and that we will have an increased love for the lost.
                                                                                    -Jessica Reed

            Ministry for my partner and me has been pretty good so far.  We have met all types of people.  Some of the people we have met have asked us to come party and go to the clubs and drink with them and some of the people we have met have been really strong Christians and we shared our testimonies with each other.  There have been three girls that really stuck out to me and have just been sitting on my heart ever since we met them, there names are Tanaka, Chido, and Tatenda and they are all from Zimbabwe.  Them being fro Zimbabwe has made it really cool getting to know them and they have taught us a few words in Shona, which is their language.  They even translated my favorite Bible verse and my partner’s favorite Bible verse into Shona for us to memorize.  All three have come to all of the Campus Outreach meetings so far, which has been really cool that they have been so faithful because all the students are in the middle of their exams right now.  Therefore, they have all been studying quite a bit because exams and school are just so important to the students at Wits.  They are all under a lot of pressure.  There has also been one girl named Thelma who has really clung to me and another girl on our team, and she has been really fun to get to know.  She is only 16 years old, so she is much younger than most people at school.  Last week at the beginning of our social on Friday she pulled me aside and we walked around the Matrix (student union/food court), and we had a deep gospel centered conversation.  She told me she was glad that I had invited her to the weekly meeting the night before, because it was a really good talk.  The talk was about how most people only look to having money, fame, and fortune and that ultimately that’s never gonna satisfy us, because only God can satisfy us.  She was telling me that she couldn’t wait to go back home because she wants to share this with her brother, because that’s all he wants in life is the money, fame, and fortune.  Somehow we got onto the topic of the gospel, and I asked her what she thought the gospel was, and she was kinda taken aback for a moment, like she didn’t know how to answer that question, but then she said that she thought of Romans 6:23.  So I asked her, “What does Romans 6:23 say?” to see if she really knew or if she had just heard other people say that a lot.  She answered and said, “For the wages of sin is death, but…”  Then she couldn’t remember the rest of it, and I said, “Well the rest is the good news part,” so I helped her to remember the rest of the verse.  Then she said, “I just like to tell people the first part because it makes them feel bad.”  This makes me think that she doesn’t truly understand the gospel herself.  So, hopefully I will get another chance like that to talk to her again, or someone else on our team will.
            Ministry for our guys has been going pretty well also, I think.  They have done a lot of their ministry by going to play soccer with guys they meet.  I think the guys at Wits have enjoyed this a lot, but at the same time the culture of South Africans is to say yes to things such as this no matter if they want to or not.  So our guys are trying to be able to “read” or with the guys more and see if they really do have the time to go play soccer or if they are trying to study instead.
                                                                                    -Erika Lowder
                                                                                    

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