January Newsletter

“We’re here, I mean, we are really here!” Well, after a LONG flight we finally landed here in South Africa 3 weeks ago. My initial response after getting off the plane was, “Man, its kind of warm here.” I say this because I left Indianapolis wearing a hoodie, a coat, scarf, and a nice warm hat, but you can imagine how quickly those layers fell off once we got here. Because it was the evening, the temperature wasn’t as high as it could’ve been when we got here, which was a relief. The reality that I was back in South Africa, however, hit me very quickly. Laureen and I (well, mostly Laureen) were so nicely helped by one of the airport workers with our luggage and finding where to connect flights at to get to Cape Town. What threw me off was what he said after he got us to where we needed to be; “You have a tip for me, man?” He received my very American response, “A tip!?!?” We were already set up for failure the minute he started helping us.
“There are a lot of students here, Lord.” Fast-forwarding, now 3 weeks into the mission trip, we have started hitting the college campuses to get a feel of who the people are and how to best meet their spiritual needs. The last week of January and the first one of February are orientation weeks for the University of Cape Town (UCT) and there are bunches of people everywhere, especially first year students getting ready to get the year started. As a matter of fact, their school years are different from the U.S.; their school year begins around the end of January and goes till about October or November, with their winter vacation being in June and July. Just a few days ago I was able to reconnect with my friend, Chris, who I met 2 years ago when I was here on a 5-week summer mission project. Chris is from Cameroon but has been living here for some time now, currently in his third year studying at UCT.
Chris and I were able to catch up on some things and as I was describing my experiences here in SA so far, he asks me, “You’re not scared?” The reason for him asking this was the fact that he’s been robbed at knife-point twice since he’s been here. My answer to the question was very certain, “No,” however, I wasn’t sure why. Then the next morning the Lord brought a scripture to mind from Acts 20:24 that gives me comfort for this coming year: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
I praise God for you, because you are a big part of what God will be doing here through me this coming year! Thank you!