First I want to apologize for my lack on faithfulness to this blog. It reflects on my character and it is poor responsibility on my part. Please forgive me. I want to share a few highlights of mine from the past few weeks.

The weekend of June 10^th-13^th (Friday-Monday), our team drove an hour to the township of Botleng to stay at Ebenezer Farm. It is a neat little place to get-away and find time to rest and refuel. However, we spent each day working and completing odd jobs that require physical labor. we were split up in groups and assigned to specific tasks that involved jobs such as painting, digging a fire ring, moving stones from one place to another, as well as restoring stone floor. We had each of our nights free to spend however we wanted which involved stargazing, a bonfire, and plenty of fellowship. The weekend proved to be a great team bonding experience for all of us! Then on Sunday, we drove into the town of Delmas and attended church at Botleng Christian Centre (BCC). Let me just say that their style of worship is exciting and the dancing was fun!

This past weekend, our team took an exciting trip to the Burma Markets! There you can find anything and everything that you want to buy especially African statues and handmade jewelry. The best part about it is bartering with the owners to lower the prices! I am not good at this at all, but I certainly tried my best!

As you know, majority of our time is spent on Witz campus hanging out with students and talking about spiritual things. We hold Bible Studies in each of the residence halls once a week and also put on events for the students. Our latest event was Game Night and it was a great success! We had nearly 85 students attend and some even signed up for our Unashamed Camp that will be the first week of July! Please pray that we would have a total of 90 students attend camp. We are trusting God for this and can’t wait to see Him work! Tonight, Thandi, one of the girls that we've been praying for came to bible study for the very first time! It was so neat to hear her ask questions and really engage! I hope to get more time with her this next week! 

On a personal level, I have been impacted recently from talks and sermons regarding friendships, community, and fellowship. I think it’s true to say that some of our greatest pains and pleasures come in context of relationships. Often times if something is wrong in our horizontal relationships, then there must be something lacking vertically with God, our most important relationship. We all enjoy friendships, but I’m seeing more that my tendency is to run to them first before I run to God. I also place more expectations on friends and hold them to a high standard that will never be met. In the end, it just hurts both of us. That is not unconditional love, the way that God unconditionally loves us. Also I’m seeing the importance of having spiritual leaders close to us to speak into our lives. It requires on my part taking some initiative as well.

Lastly, it is hard to believe, but exactly 3 weeks from today we will be boarding a plane to fly back home. Right now the thought of home brings excitement because I miss family and friends, but I also feel like things here aren’t quite finished yet. Time here has been great and I'm super thankful for this opportunity! Thanks for all your support!

Hello!

Hello again from South Africa! The past week has gone by incredibly fast and I can't believe it!

This past week seemed to be a pretty average week, although God has been doing alot in my heart! We learned about personal vision and how it is driven mainly by a discontentment that is happening around you that you also have to desire to make a difference in. It was really neat perspective for me to hear and to assess what vision I have for my life.

Ministry Training, which we have everything Tuesday morning before we head to campus, was solid this week! We got to dialogue back and forth about faith filled evangelism. A neat quote by Mark Dever reads, "We don't fail in our evangelism if we faithfully tell the gospel to someone who is not converted; we fail only if we don't tell the gospel at all. Evangelism itself isn't converting people; it's telling them that they need to be converted and telling them how they can be." The previous statement challenged me, but at the same time brought freedom. I realized that I can step out on faith and through boldness plant seeds that God grows!

It was also week #2 of bible study in Jubilee Hall, the residence hall that we have been hanging out in! Several new girls came and got to hear the gospel from John chapter 3. We talked about being born again and how God removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." That is an amazing promise! Please pray that the girls would continue to attend bible study and keep asking questions with the same hunger each week! God is faithful and is really moving on Wits campus! We are just praising God that he has counted us worthy to share in laboring for his kingdom!

Culturized

It has been one whole week since I have posted last, which means that I have plenty to update you on!I titled this post "Culturized" because I thought it appropriately describes what I've been up to here. So here goes...
Last Sunday was our first day attending church here in South Africa. Everyone goes about 30 minutes early to drink tea or coffee and fellowship with each other. I really enjoy hearing them sing worship and pray in one of the many native languages! The most common around campus is Zulu and I've been attempting to learn some of the words, but it's much harder then I thought. After church, our CCP team got to have lunch with Neil and Jennifer Gooch. Neil was involved with Campus Outreach ever since he was in college and was part of the original team to begin CO in North Carolina. He is the head of Campus Outreach Johannesburg here! They have lived here with their four boys for several years so it was neat to hear perspective from both of them. They also have an amazing backyard perfect for playing soccer!

We recently traveled to Soweto, just outside the city of Johannesburg, to watch the Orlando Pirates Soccer Team play in what could have been their final match of the year. But, they won by a score of 2-1! It was such a neat opportunity and I just really enjoyed watching competitive soccer live right in front of me! The stadium is literally right smack in the middle of a slum or poor township. Houses are right next to each other and it's not clean either. We got to give our tshirts we got from the soccer game to some of the little kids running around. They absolutely loved it and we could tell that it made their day!

We just finished our first full week hanging out and laboring on the campus of Witswatersrand (Wits).  We have met several first-year girls in the res hall! My ministry partner is Kayla Burns so we spend time on campus together and it's been really sweet! Our floors we are spending most time on are 8, 9, and 10. Please pray that we would meet plenty of girls and get to share with them the love of Jesus. Some of the girls names are N'kule, Mafunase, Rouda, Nthabiseng, Noumvoula, and Nokwazi.

This past week we helped host the final Campus Outreach meeting of this semester. It was called High Definition (HD). Our CCP leader, Kyle Wallace, got to share some perspective with us. His talk was really encouraging! Basically, he opened by stating that everything we do is the result of our pursuit of happiness. But we put our faith in other things such as athletics, academics, wealth, a spouse, our reputation, etc. Ultimately, like at hamster running on a wheel, we spend all of our energy chasing after these idols only to find ourselves exaclty in the same spot we started. Perhaps we are just far too easily pleased, which comes from a quote by C.S. Lewis. Just when all seems lost, God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (1 Corinthians 5:21)

Throughout this journey (our first 11 days), I've been attempting to become familiar with the culture as much as possible! At times, I've definitely felt uncomfortable and anxious because I'm in another country out of my comfort zone. It has caused me to draw closer to God to put my strength in Him rather than my own. I have been trying to rest in the fact that it is God that pursued me first and loved me despite me always turning my back. 1 John 4:10 says this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. I don't have to worry because God loves me unconditionally and will never turn his back! Praise Jesus for his unfailing love and perfect grace!

Time once again has just flown by and I must wrap it up. We have church again tomorrow that I'm really looking forward to! take care and thanks for reading!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

First, I wanted to rewind and start off by saying thank you to everyone that joined my support team! You all have made this trip possible and for that I am forever grateful. Also, thank you to everyone for all of your prayers for safety and for our time here. Please know that you are all greatly appreciated!
I cannot even begin to tell you all that God has been doing here in South Africa! We (Campus Outreach Indy) are partnering with Campus Outreach Johannesburg, which is a branch of our christian ministry group with the same vision of reaching college students for Christ. This means that we will spend alot of time on the college campus of Witzwatersrand University located in Jo-burg. We recently took a tour of campus and it is absolutely amazing. Not to mention huge! The buildings are well designed and it nearly took us an hour to walk around the entire campus! One of the neatest events so far would have to be meeting the student leaders that are already involved in CO and having worship and prayer time together. They are all truly my brothers and sisters in Christ from halfway around the world! We have little in common, yet so much at the same time because of our love for Jesus, our Savior! The funniest thing is trying to remember all of their names and pronounce them correctly. It is quite a challenge, let me tell you!

We just hosted a huge braai, which is known as a party or bar-b-que in America. It went very well! There was plenty of dancing, laughter, and food to last all night! It was the perfect way to celebrate our arrival in South Africa as well as a chance to meet new students to hang out with on the days we go to campus.

Our overall theme for the summer is "Down and Out." It is a catchy reminder that the more we study the scriptures and that the gospel penetrates our hearts deeper, the more love and compassion overflows and helps us go out and share the gospel! Recently, we had our first orientation and ministry training to help us better understand the vision and direction behind the ministry here at Witz. It is "Be," and comes from Philippians 2:1-16. I feel like I'm beginning to finally understand what it means to truly give your life away so others may know Jesus. It is the purpose to which I have been called and I want to do this wholeheartedly. Our team has been studying the gospel of Mark and have learned neat things about Jesus' life and the way that he does ministry. Ultimately, we want our lives to look more like His as we boast only in the cross of Christ!

Next time I will share about our first day of church and more after I reflect further on the first 5 days of being here! Until then!

Finally in South Africa!!

After a long 8,600 mile flight that lasted nearly 16 hours, our team of 20 from Indiana arrived safely in Johannesburg, South Africa! Because of the time change (SA is 6 hours ahead of us) along with the long flight, we were basically flying for nearly the whole day!
The place we are staying, Tower Lodge, is even more amazing than the pictures we found on the internet previous to our arrival! There are several porches and verandas for us to relax and hang out on plus our own tennis court! The vegetation here is beautiful and there is green everywhere! Our view over looks several houses and buildings because we are up on the side of a hill. It is so neat and already feels like home!
I apologize this is my first time posting and I've already run out of time! I will post more as soon as I get the chance!