A New Season In South Africa

We have arrived safely for another 3 month term in South Africa. We landed on August 13 with 5 new interns. We have reunited with 2 interns that have stayed in South Africa throughout the year, so our total team consists of 7 interns.

The new team is bonding well and works together well. We have had a lot of fun getting to know them and introducing them into the South African culture.

Prior to our arrival, we had a plan to begin and establish new ministry within the local schools. However, within days of our arrival, the public service workers went on strike. This means that public schools have no teachers and hospitals have no nurses. Needless to say this has put a damper on our original plans of school ministry. We drove through the township after the strike began and we found children on the streets with nothing to do. One pastor said that this is part of the reason why children and youth get into drugs--because they have nothing else to do. We have felt an urgency to revamp our original ministry plan to meet the needs of the community as they are today.

We have begun training local congregations in using 17 Stories. 17 Stories is a tool that we have recently started to use in South Africa. Every set of 17 Stories consists of 16 picture cards, each telling a different Bible story. For example, the first card displays a picture of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Another card is a picture of Noah and the Ark. Throughout the 16 picture cards, stories from the Old Testament to the New Testament are represented. Each card is accompanied by a written version of the story for the teacher, along with discussion questions and a game to play that emphasizes the story. The 17th story is one big picture that the child can find when he/she puts all the 16 story cards together and flips them over. This last picture combines stories from the Old and New Testament. It serves as a reminder for the child of all the stories they learned and how it applies to their life. The goal of 17 Stories is not only for the child to learn what the Bible says, but we also want the child to be able to go home and tell their families the stories using the cards they are able to keep and take home with them.

Please continue to pray for us as we plan ministry for the next 3 months. Please also pray that the strike will end soon so we can reach as many kids as possible in the school system. Please pray for continued unity among our team and Spiritual growth individually and as a group.

The First Two Months...

It is hard for us to imagine that we have been back in South Africa for over 2 months now. Our time here keeps going faster and faster, and we are enjoying every minute of it!

During these first two months, we have learned how to successfully incorporate sports into ministry outreaches, and we are currently planning several events during the World Cup this summer. We are blessed to have been a part of distributing over 34,000 Books of Hope to South Africa's youth and children.

For the next two weeks, we will be in the Free State (a neighboring province in South Africa), where we will be holding more school assemblies and distributing more Books of Hope to more children and youth. We are so excited to be a part of such a vibrant and relevant ministry. We will be partnering with a local church that will do follow up with the students that receive God's Word, as well as continue the ministry once we leave.

Beginning in June, we will be hosting enough soccer clinics to last 5 weeks straight. This will take place during the World Cup. Please pray for us as we finalize all the details involved. Our goal is to reach over 13,000 children and youth with the Gospel. This is such an exciting time for the people of South Africa, and through the World Cup we have been given a platform on which we are able to share the Good News. God is good!

Last week, we were able to take a few days off and spend time together. We went to a town called Graskop, which is in the province of Mpumalanga. The scenery is beautiful there, and it was the perfect place for us to relax and unwind. We took one day to do some white-water rafting; that was a lot of fun!

Now we are back, ready and refreshed for all of the upcoming ministry that is now upon us. We are thankful for the time we had to relax, and we are thankful for the time we have to spread the love of Jesus!

Update on South Africa

We can't believe it is already nearing the end of October. Our first 2 months here have been amazing! We have not had steady internet access, but it looks like it may be fixed now, so we hope to update you more regularly now.

The last part of September into the first part of October, we were able to participate in a program called Kids Games. Kids Games is designed to reach children ages 8-14 using active games and interactive stories.

The first day of Kids Games, almost 700 kids showed up! It was exciting to see their faces and meet them and play with them. Once the opening ceremonies were finished, the kids were divided into 8 different teams, with each one of our Nomads leading a team. Some teams had over 90 kids on them!

The rest of the week we had anywhere from 300-400 kids everyday. We played our games and then we sat down to hear a Bible story. Kids Games uses curriculum from the story of Joseph in Genesis. They use this story because it exemplifies emotions that Joseph must have felt: betrayal, confusion, unfairness. Kids are able to relate to those feelings. By the end of the week, the children heard the whole story of Joseph, and how God was in control from the beginning, even if Joseph was treated badly and unfairly. On the last day, we had an altar call, and dozens of kids responded! It was amazing! We loved being a part of Kids Games, and walked away from their feeling so blessed!

Once we returned to Mahwelereng, we continued our research. With the help of volunteers from the church we partner with, we completed over 300 surveys. Now, we will take that information and see what ministry we can do in Mahwelereng during the second half of our time here.

We are excited to plan and execute different ministry ideas here. Please pray for us as we plan, that we would hear God's voice, and that we would effectively minister to these people that He has called us to work with.

First Look at South Africa

Our dreams have come true! We are finally in South Africa, after almost 2 years of preparing and fundraising. We have been in our new "home" for a little over a week, and so far we are loving every minute of it!

Our first week was full of training and traveling around the town that we will be working in. We have learned more about South African culture and about the issues South Africans face every day. We have learned several dramas to do for little kids and for high schoolers and adults. We learned how to apply our testimonies to the dramas and make them relevent to the people.

We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know our interns better. They have already formed strong friendships between the 8 of them (they are all girls) and that has made these first several days enjoyable and entertaining!

On Sunday, we attended the church that we will be partnering with in ministry over the next few months. It was a new experience for most of the team members. We witnessed dancing, incredible singing and worship. We also saw a woman being released from an evil spirit. God's spirit was heavily there, and it was awesome to experience in a completely different culture than what we are used to.

We would like to ask for your prayers as we go into this week. We will begin holding focus groups with the people of a township called Mahwelereng (Ma-hal-er-ing). This is the town that we will be primarily working with. The ministry we do will be based on what we find out from these focus groups and door to door surveys we will do later in the week.

Thank you for your prayers and support! We look forward to updating you further from South Africa!

Until next time,

Josh and Kelly

First Trip-Nicaragua!

Hello friends! We are writing to you from the beautiful country of Nicaragua! We arrived late Wednesday evening, and began ministry Thursday morning. We feel so blessed already, and it has only been one day!

We visited 3 schools today, but each school we visted twice, so we did 6 presentations. We have a youth group team with us from Pennsylvania. The weather is really, really hot, but we have been drinking plenty of water (bottled) and standing in the shade when possible. Today alone, we have distributed 1,454 copies of the Book of Hope! Praise the Lord! This means that today, 1,454 children and youth have a chance to read about Jesus, and begin a relationship with Him. We know that the Word of God does not return void, and we are excited about that promsie being fulfilled.

So far, our Spanish has not improved much :) but we are trying! Josh played futbal (soccer) with some kids this afternoon, and they loved it! He then started shaking their hands in a funny way, and pretty soon, swarms of kids were coming up to him wanting to shake his hand! It is such a joy and a blessing to see the smiles on their faces when we love on them and when we hand them a Book of Hope.

We have been able to enjoy some great local food, also. Josh's favorite by far has been the freshly made flour tortillas! They are really good! Kelly has enjoyed the chicken, and surprisingly enough, she even enjoyed a little "sauce" made up of onions pieces and something spicy. Normally she doesn't like onions, but these were really good!

We have already gotten to know the youth group that is here with us, and they are a lot of fun. They have servant hearts, and have done a great job of talking to and ministering to the kids and youth of Nicaragua.

Please continue to pray for us as the week goes on. We will return to the States on Tuesday, the 18th. We appreciate all of your prayers and your comments!

On the Road!

Well, we are officially on our way to start our new career as missionaries! We began our trip by driving to Ohio to visit Josh's grandparents. From there we drove to Nashville, on our way to Alabama. In Nashville we were able to spend some time with Josh's uncle. Finally, today, we made our way down to Birmingham, AL where we will spend the next few days being a part of a conference at one of the local churches. We are looking forward to spending time with our collegues and learning more about South Africa and our work there.

So far we have learned a few things about South Africa that we did not know. First, the AIDS virus is spreading very quickly throughout South Africa. The need to educate the people about the seriousness of the disease and how the disease is spread is so great. OneHope missionaries are often called upon to teach teachers about the disease so they can teach their students. There is so much misinformation going around about AIDS, and the effects are devastating.

We also learned more about the place where we will be living. It is a lodge on a game reserve, and it is large enough to host many interns at one time. It sits on about 2500 acres of land, and is in a rural community. The closest small town is at least 30 minutes away. We have seen pictures, and we are excited to see it in person.

We will leave for South Africa on August 28. We will fly from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Atlanta, GA. From there we will fly straight to Johannesburg (15 hour flight!) Then, it is just a 3 hour drive to the Hope Lodge.

For now we will sign off. It is late and we have been traveling all day and are looking forward to a great night's sleep! We will keep you posted!

Let the Countdown Begin!

It's hard to believe that we are leaving St. Louis in 20 days! Time is flying by and it seems like we have so much to do in so little time. But, we know that the Lord will be with us as we prepare to make this transition, and that brings us comfort.

In order to downsize our things before we leave, we are having a garage sale this Saturday, July 11 at Kelly's dad's house. We are hoping to sell a lot of things, which will make it easier to pack in the upcoming weeks.

We have had 2 family weddings to attend over the past couple of weeks, and it has been so much fun to see family. We were very blessed to have the opportunity to say "See you later" to family that we won't see for some time. It was hard to leave them, but we must go where the Lord leads, and every one of our family members has been so supportive. We are truly blessed!

Please pray with us that the garage sale goes well, and that we will be well organized as we pack and prepare to head to Florida on July 26th. Thank you again for all of your support! We appreciate all of you so much!