The End of Another Great Outreach

The Gauteng Challenge has ended and what an exciting time it has been! We've seen miracles as people throughout the Gauteng Province have come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Praise God for his grace and mercy! We hope that this is not the end of your outreach, but that you continue to be the breath of hope as you return to you homes and communities!

The Gauteng Challenge Photo Gallery is coming soon. If you were a participant in this year's challenge and have photos or a story that you would like to share, please email them to the GC office, challenge@rsa.om.org

Healing Hearts in Hurting Homes

Another three of our outreach teams are working with Eastside Community Church putting on a holiday club for children in inner city Pretoria. About 150 kids show up everyday for lessons, crafts, games and memory verses. In the first two days, ten children have already made the decision to ask Jesus into their hearts.

Eija, one of this year’s participants, was talking with a ten-year-old girl who had come to her for prayer. After talking for a while, the girl felt comfortable enough with Eija to share that her mother had been beating her at home. Together they prayed that her situation at home would get better, that her mother would realize how badly she was treating her daughter and change, and that the little girl would find strength and hope in Jesus. The next day, the little girl came back with a letter for Eija. In the letter, she thanked Eija for praying for her and said her situation at home had already gotten much better. Most of all, she was thankful for the happiness she found in knowing that Jesus cares for her.

Remember to pray for the teams working with children. They have a tremendous opportunity to plant seeds of truth into young lives. Some of the kids from the inner city are dealing with very grown-up problems at home; pray for openness and trust between the children and counselors. Kids need the hope of Jesus too!

Dancing in the Wards

Three of our outreach teams are working with The Oasis, a hospital/AIDS ministry in inner city Pretoria. Every day during visiting hours, they go through the hospital wards with guitars and drums and sing praise songs with the patients. The life and hope they bring to the sick and suffering is amazing! On their first visit, an elderly grandmother was so happy to see them that she got out of her bed (holding her catheter bag) and began to dance.

Pastor Ransom, a team member at Oasis, was called over to the bedside of a man who had suffered severe burns over most of his body. He was heavily bandaged and in such pain that he was unable to move freely. Pastor Ransom was able to share the hope of Jesus Christ with him and the man decided to accept Jesus as his Saviour. He was immediately filled with so much joy that he too got out of bed and began to dance! His pain had been relieved and all he wanted to do was praise the Lord!

Please continue to pray for the teams as they minister to those who are suffering and in need. Several patients have made commitments to Christ and we would love to see many more do the same in the final days of the outreach.

Orientation

Gauteng Challenge is off and running! We opened with four days of orientation, with various speakers teaching on ministry related topics such as evangelism, children’s ministry, preaching, discipleship, religions of the Gauteng region and AIDS awareness to name a few. 236 people from 22 different nations are participating in this year’s challenge and we have already seen God work in amazing ways.

On Wednesday, Surine (one of our participants) was rushed to the hospital with severe abdominal pain. Her appendix was infected and inflamed and she was scheduled for surgery the next morning, provided the swelling went down enough to operate. All of the Gauteng Challenge participants joined together in prayer on her behalf. She spent the night in the hospital, but the next morning all of the pain, inflammation and infection was gone! The doctors had no explanation for what happened, but we know that God miraculously healed her. While she was in the hospital, Surine was able to minister to and pray for the other patients around her. Since she was healed, she has been able to rejoin her outreach team and is now out ministering in the community. We praise God for His healing mercy and the tremendous encouragement this was to the teams just before they went out to minister on Thursday.

All 19 outreach teams are now working with their churches and ministries throughout the Gauteng region. We will continue to bring you stories of what God is doing in and through their lives over the course of this outreach. Please keep them in your prayers over the next week. We want to see many lives impacted for the kingdom of God!

Application Deadline- 31, May

You have less than a week to send in your application for the Gauteng Challenge! Things are gearing up with applications pouring in from every corner of the globe. Secure your place today by making sure your application is sent in by 31, May 2009. To request an application form; click here http://www.om.org/item/G877/0080000000

We'll see you at the Challenge!

Gauteng Challenge

Welcome to Gauteng - the heartbeat of the country. It's the economic and cultural center of South Africa. Gauteng is an unique fusion of democratic and traditional values, where people work hard and play harder. So take time to peel away perceptions of business suits and briefcases and discover there is more depth to Gauteng than meets the eye.

Theme: Be the breath of hope
Date: 29-Jun-2009 - 11-Jul-2009
Application deadline: 31-May-2009
Cost: R 1000.00
Outside of Africa $400

Before going out in a team of 8 to 10 participants to partner with a local church, you will be equiped at a three-day orientation which will be held at a local university or high chool in the vicinity of Johannesburg, where all 400+ participants will be together. At the orientation you will receive some teaching in cross-cultural communication and the Biblical basis of missions. You will also receive tools that will be useful on the outreach, like how to share your testimony, how to share the gospel with someone, creative evangelism tools, children's ministry, AIDS ministry, etc. After the orientation you will be sent out in your team to work with a local church in Gauteng.

Pick and Pray

So far we have heard of the drive-thru doctor but now we have another edition. The Pick and Pray! As teams are doing street evangelism they have many opportunities to pray with people. Heather was one such person. While her team was ministering near a shopping centre she met a woman that needed prayer. When she finished praying for her, two more people stood behind her to also receive prayer. When she finished with that next person she opened her eyes again to see two more people join the line! Most of these people were from a Hindu background. We have experienced that both Hindu's and Muslims are very open for prayer and are quite thankful to receive it. Heather's team also had opportunities to visit a Hindu temple and a Mosque and pray with either the priest or the caretakers there.

Please pray for more opportunities to pray together with those who do not know Jesus and that through these encounters they would get to meet Him.

Take it to the Streets

Take it to the Streets
Many teams have been busy sharing the love of Christ through their hands, by being involved in practical work such as building, caring for children and gardening. However, there is also a very important place for sharing Christ's message of hope with WORDS. This can be a little bit scary, but some teams are combating their fears by heading out into the streets and explaining the gospel to the people of Durban.

Member's of team Chile reported that they were not quite sure at first how to approach the task of street evangelism. What should they day, and who should they approach? They committed their concerns to God in prayer. Imagine their surprise to reach their starting destination and be greeted with cries of "Are you here to tell us about Jesus? Come and chat!". Jesus opened up many opportunities to talk, and they didn't have to approach a single person to talk - the Lord sent the people straight to the team.

Another team was sent out to do door-to-door in a largely Muslim and Hindu area. "Wouldn't you rather be visiting the Christian homes?" they were asked. It took some explaining by the team to convince their companions that just as a physician tends to the sick, Jesus was sent to reach the lost. Whilst some people didn't quite understand their point, one eight-year old boy at the church caught their vision. He became their unofficial escort, giving the rallying cry,"Here's another Muslim home! Here's where some more Hindu's live!" and leading the team to those her realised needed to hear the truth as well.

Other teams have faced opposition as well. For some, this has meant doors slammed in faces, spiteful words, verbal abuse, or simply disdainful looks. One team became intensely aware of the spiritual battle going on when, upon finishing praying with man, they turned around to realise they were literally right in the middle of a mugging (all team members were safe). Despite the setbacks, the teams can be encouraged by Christ's own words:

""Remember what I told you:'servants are not greater than their master'. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also..."John 15:20

We thankfully accept the rejection, struggles and hardships that come with preaching the gospel, because we know that the Lord Jesus Christ understands completely.

Jesus film

The Jesus film has always been a very effective tool to bring the Gospel to people and it has been used extensively in Africa. This year we are very excited to be using the Jesus film for kids, especially since we have it in all the official languages of South Africa. On Sunday evening a team in the valley of a thousand hills showed the film to their community. The film touched peoples hearts and the woman was weeping when they showed the scenes of Jesus on the cross. But the best news is that afterwards ten kids came up out and gave their their lives to Jesus!

Drive Through Doctor

We have been constantly amazed by the many people God has put in place to be a part of this outreach, even if not as participants in teams. People have donated food, given transport, lended sound equipment and other areas of expertise, not for praise or recognition, but simply and humbly as an offering to God. One such example yesterday was by a lady we would now like to call "The drive-through doctor".

Jackie, on the team leaders from Barbados, has been feeling a bit ill for a few days, but it finally reached the point where she needed to see a doctor. Now the quandry: in a town that none of us are all that familiar with, and with limited budgets for things like Doctors' visits, where do we take the sick people?

One doctor who had heard about the Global Challenge agreed immediately (during her sleeping time - she was on night shift) to help out. She heard the symptoms over the phone, and directed Jackie and her overseers to the hospital car park. Here, amongst the cars, she consulted with Jackie, right in front of the hospital! Imagine the look on the car guards face when she pulled out her stethoscope! She provided her services free of charge, and had even already purchased the antibiotics Jackie needed before the green overseer "ambulance" pulled up in the Doctor drive through.

People like our drive-through Doctor are the unsung heroes of the Global Challenge. We have been blessed by their contribution, and know that so much of the Challenge could not be pulled-off without their help. Something so simple as a Doctor's consultation in a car-park has been a huge gift for the kingdom.

Prayer points - 7 July

- Please continue to pray for health. Although some of the participants that has been sick is much better, others have fallen sick. Cold evening temperatures in especially the rural areas is not helping.
- Pray for the participants as many of them is faces with death. Two participants has each lost their dad during the outreach and another team sees it eevry day as they work with people infected with HIV/AIDS.
- Pray for perseverance as the team have full schedules and they are getting tired.

The bucket thing

One of the beautiful things of the global challenge is the cross-cultural situations that team members experience. Yesterday a few told us about their experience with 'the bucket thing'. In a time where most of us are used to showers and baths not everyone has the same luxury. These team mebers that we talked with were all in a situation where there was no such bathroom. Only a bucket, some cold water and a wash cloth! Especially one young girl was shocked when they just have her a pan and she did not know what to do with it. But she just prayed 'Jesus help me' and she continued on bravely. Many others are struggling through different types of cross-cultural situations such as the places they sleep, the food they eat (there is a lot of curry out there), but they are determined to push on to be a witness for Christ.

It starts at home

Although Esther's team has a lot of ministry opportunities she confided with us that a lot of her ministry might be at home. The team stays with various host families from the church that they are working with. The family that Esther is staying with has a Hindu friend who came to visit the first morning she was there. Showing a lot of interest in what she was doing the Hindu lady started asking a lot of questions about Jesus and Esther had the chance to spend a larrge part of the morning with her and answering her questions. She was even able to give the lady a bible which she eagerly accepted.

Please pray for this Hindu lady as she reads her bible and that she would get to know Jesus.

Building up the temple of the Lord

The extreme makeover team has not even a chance against team UAE!

For the first two days of the outreach,the team was given the opportunity to display love in action through a building project. A widow and her ill daughter were living in poor conditions, in a home that desperately needed upkeep.With the permission of the family, the 9 member team, as well as people from their hosting church, arrived to replace kitchen benches, fix roofs and paint walls. It was not only the family themselves who were affected by the team's generous actions.

One neighbour visited the "makeover team" with tears in her eyes. "I have been praying for this family," she said."I didn't know how they were going to survive. God is good!"

A contrasting reaction was received from a neighbour on the other side of the house. "Why are you only helping them?"he asked. "We are all poor on this street.What makes them any different?" The team did their best to explain the situation to the man. In the end, whilst maybe still not quite undesrtanding their motivations, of his own volition he erected lighting equipment around the house so that the team could see to paint in the evening.

The highlight of the excercise, the team agreed, was explaining to the many spectators why they would give up so much, travel from countries all around the world, spend money on equipment and work so hard, just for one little family."Did a church send you?"

"No."

"Are you doing this for some special organisation?"

"No"

"Then who sent you?"

God. God sent them. The same God who numbers the hairs on our heads, and knows when a single sparrow falls from the sky, decided he wanted to paint the living room of a lady from Durban. May we all learn to recognise the personal, all-encompassing love of the creator God in the same way that one family in Durban learned it this week.

Prayer points - 5 July

- Please pray for one of our participants who heard this morning that her father suddenly passed away. She is currently on her way home to be with her family.
- Please pray for health. At least two of the teams have a few sick people and they find it discouraging. Pray that God will heal them, revive their spirits and use them wherever they are.
- Pray for good opportunities to share the Gospel. Some teams are working in very difficult communities. Team 'Afghanistan' is helping to restore one of the communities primary schools as a way to show love and care and hoping it might attract people that normally would be antagonistic.

Out and about

First I have to apologise for not posting news in the last few days. Our orientation time was just far too busy for me to be able to write stories. But in the following days I hope to recap on what happened and on what is currently happening on the teams.

The main news now is that all the teams have gone out to their areas they will be working in and have settled down for their first night. Some has already even started ministry today! We are so excited about the different churches we will be working with. They differ greatly in the areas they are based and the ministry they will be doing, but we know they all will have a great impact on the city of Durban.

End of the spear

One of the most familiar stories about missionaries is that of Nate Saint and his four friends that served and died in Ecuador as they reached out to Waodoni tribe, one of the most aggressive and unreached tribes of their time. Last year the film 'End of the spear' was released based on the story of Steve Saint, Nate Saint's son, that later returned to be a missionary to the same tribe.

The Ecuadorian missionaries' story remains a challenge to us as Christians, as we contemplate if we really are willing to sacrifice our lives for God and to bring His message. As we watched this film last night many participants were processing these same thoughts. Outreaches like the Durban Challenge has no guarantees that everything will go smoothly and safely. As we share the Gospel there will always be opposition and we need to get to a place where we decide if we really are willing to risk it all for God.

Miracle!

On Monday afternoon we were shocked to hear that one of our team leaders was taken to the hospital with the fear that she might have contracted Meningitis. The reports we received were a bit sketchy in details but as we understood the doctors were really concerned for her life. As a group we all prayed together for her as part of the main programme at 8:30 PM. Yesterday we received the news that at the exact time we prayed there were a radical turn around in her condition. Further we received the news that all her bloodwork is now clear and she is currently recuperating at such an extent that she might be able to rejoin her team tomorrow as they go into the outreach part of the programme. We serve a great God!

Huff and puff

Have you ever seen the show on TV called the Amazing Race? I have always secretly hoped to one day be able to do it. Yesterday the participants got their very own opportunity to be part of the Amazing Race. Set up as an opportunity to do some team building, the smaller teams were all given a set of clues that they had to figure out. These clues would lead them to a certain location on campus where they would have to an activity of some kind. For example they have to find the tallest tower on the campus and when they reach it they have to build a high tower from spaghetti. So the contest needed some brains and some speed.

It was 'amazing' to see the level of excitement the teams took to their tasks and the first team to arrive did so in a record time. Which was easy enough as we have never done this activity before =) For us it is always wonderful to see how the team start to 'gel' together. Every year the task of putting teams together is a big project that needs a lot of prayer. And we thank God again for the way He has put together this years teams. Please continue to pray for the teams and their unity.

Refuse to be offended

Its 7PM. The hall is filled to the brim (more than 500 people) and everyone waits in anticipation for the Durban Challenge to officially start. Suddenly the music starts and the hall is filled with waving flags and people dressed in the costumes of the world. Walking up and down and finally coming to a stop where upon we all joined together in worship before the Lord. What a beautiful picture it was to stand together, friends from across all the cultures.

Mike Hack, a long-term OMer, shared with us on how we can live out the message that we want to bring to Durban: "You are loved". The best way to do that, Mike shared, is to love one another. Not an easy thing to do, especially in outreach teams made up from different cultures and people who has never met before! But if we make the decision to refuse to be offended, then we truly can live out love for one another and ultimately show Durban the love of Jesus.