Last Newsletter from South Africa!

Here is the update I just wrote representing our whole team as of today. It will be emailed out soon hopefully... Enjoy!

Dear loved ones,

Blessings from the beautiful nation of South Africa! We are in the last few days of our outreach here, but here is an update on all we’ve been up to!

This new year has brought many new things for our team here in Cape Town! We kicked off the New Year by performing in a service at our host church, The Father’s House. The exact moment that the calendar flipped over went by unnoticed as we were immersed in prayer and worship. May our year be consumed with prayer and worship from start to finish! 

The new year came right in the middle of our kids holiday club! This was an unbridled success for our team and provided an incredible venue to really minister to the kids who have been hanging on our fence every morning. The first day we only bought enough snacks for an estimated 20 children, but over 70 ended up coming! But don’t worry, we managed. We led them in worship and shared over four days the complete message of God redeeming man and divided the children into 4 groups by age in which to have group discussion. Then they rotated through stations: dance, snacks, games and intercession. Every station was a blessing in affirming the value of each child and brought enjoyment and encouragement. The intercession station was quite unique as it more or less replaced a craft station. We encouraged the kids to ask God questions such as, “Who are You?”, “What do You think about me?”, and “What do You want for my community?” and then write or draw in response. Many of the kids were writing and drawing incredibly deep things and copying down scripture to pray over their area. Several of the children gave us encouraging words written in conversation form between them and Jesus. Granted some of them still scribbled and drew pictures of cars, but it was a time to learn how to hear God’s voice. It was a blessing to the leaders and the children and thoroughly enjoyed. God was so faithful throughout the entire camp and many children received Jesus and were eager to read the Bibles we gave them.

After finishing up the kids holiday club, our team moved to the Muizenberg YWAM base for a couple of weeks. It was an amazing blessing to be surrounded by our fellow YWAM family and to be so close to the beach! The community was entirely different from that of Heideveld. Although the sound of gunshot and the Muslim call to prayer were both regular occurrences in the Cape Flats, the people were open and eager to talk about God, maybe because they were fully aware that they were not living the lives they were intended to live. However in Muizenberg the spiritual atmosphere was entirely different. In a surf culture, everything is relative, new age is popular, witchcraft accepted, and why talk about Jesus when you can talk about the crazy wind? People were apathetic and content to be so. We made a point of having regular prayer and worship as a team to stay focused in such an environment and were conscious in acting out of love to all the people around us, including those involved in YWAM and locals. Sadly, our leaders Tania and Etienne, as well as their two children, traveled back to Sydney in order to begin the next DTS. They truly were a blessing, but it has also been beautiful to have Hye Jin join us and bring that mother’s touch to our group, assisting Pate.

It was during our stay in Muizenberg that we had the opportunity to minister in the

townships of Capricorn and Overcome. Capricorn had cramped housing and litter everywhere, but there were still paved streets, many houses with television dishes on the tin roofs, and a public playground. But as we walked deeper through the twists and turns of what must be called a neighborhood, we found ourselves in Overcome that was barely more than rutted dirt roads with water taps every few meters 

and barefoot children running on groups over the broken glass surrounding the makeshift shacks. The children were starved for attention and quickly attached themselves to our group, holding our hands, plaiting our hair and showing off their gymnastics. One thing that was extremely encouraging in this seemingly hopeless place was the amount of church presence we witnessed. You could not walk far without encountering a church with signs showing when their services were several times a week. When we went door to door talking with people and praying with them, they often recognized us as being connected with the local church body. Even though we will not be able to return again in our short time remaining here, it is encouraging to note that the churches in the area are being very faithful in showing Christ’s love to the area, and the local YWAM base sends in people to evangelize and build relationship weekly. 

As a performing arts team, we have often been able to bless others through our song, dance and acting. This includes randomly around the house and on the street, as well as at organized functions like the YWAM cooperate worship. We had the privilege of conducting a church service in Capricorn by performing island dancing and giving testimonies. They were an incredible blessing to our team, anointing us with oil and sending us out. We were invited to attend and perform at the pastor’s wife’s birthday party, which was an amazing cultural experience, including a five course African feast. 

Our biggest venue of ministry has been in a colored community inaccurately named Ocean View. For hours on end we have played with abused and neglected children who have no where else to go during school holiday. Some of us are sunburnt from the amount of soccer played with the boys just old enough to begin entering gangs. Some of us have had dread locks in our hair from the amount of little girls playing with it. Some of us have sore arms from the amount of children we have picked up and swung around. Some of us have sore pride from being so brutally beaten in badminton. But all of us have full hearts—full of love, compassion and joy. Even though it is clear these children have suffered from every form of abuse and would rather be on the street than at home, they are still bundles of joy and always wanting to dance and cuddle. We were working with a DTS here on outreach from Kona, Hawaii, USA. They have been able to be more of a constant presence with these kids and will continue to reach out to them after we leave the country in a few days. An even more constant presence within the community is the local church we were working with. We were able to attend their anointed Wednesday night service and bless them with a performance and testimony from our team, but honestly we were far more blessed by that beautifully genuine church. Even today they were running a feeding program for the children and their families who might not have access to nutritious food. As part of their ministry, they run the Praise Cafe which offers affordable food, but more importantly a safe atmosphere and real loving people to talk and pray with. They were an incredible blessing to our team, and it was a privilege to labor with them.

We also had the opportunity to hike Table Mountain as a team on our “day off.” The view was incredible and the climb definitely tested our endurance as it took up to 3 hours. Taking the cable car back down only took 5 minutes. The first time we attempted the trek we were conned out of our team debit card, so that ended in a long process at the police station. Although our lack of team finances due to the robbery has been challenging, it has definitely strengthened us as a team and we have seen it as an opportunity: to pray for those men who may not have anyone in the world praying for them, to see the Lord move on our behalf, and to allow God to work through us to bless our own team members. God has been faithful, and we have not lacked anything to accomplish what He has brought us here to do. 

The birthdays of Teira, Kristina and Katelyn were joyously celebrated since our last newsletter. Rest assured, they were far from forgotten! 

Prayer points!

Thanksgiving for...

-Safety for Tania, Etienne and the kid’s travels back to Australia

-Safety for Hye Jin (who as I am writing this is currently traveling back to Sydney, so putting this under thanksgiving instead of requests is a prophetic act on my part)

-God providing despite the theft

-Ministry opportunities 

-Continual blessing from those we are partnering with

-God’s protection 

-Success every time we perform, whether spontaneous or planned

-General health and wellbeing 

-the joy serving with the people in our team and otherwise

Requests:

-That we would finish strong even in our few remaining days

-Pate, as he is now singlehandedly leading 11 girls between the ages of 18 and 22

-Unity as we perform and reach out in the Cape Flats

-Safety as we are back in the ghetto and as we journey back to Sydney this week

-Continued provision as we have very limited access to team funds

-That we would make the most of every opportunity

-The churches, communities and schools we are touching in this last week

Thank you so much for your continued support and partnering with us in what God is doing here in South Africa! We look forward to catching you up more individually once we are back safely in Sydney! May God’s grace and peace be upon you. Love, 

Pate, Karissa, Annika, Teira, Kaitlyn, Stephanie, Kristina, Ida, Kate, Sade, Helene, and Megan <3

Photo Cred: Teira and Hye Jin
Laptop Cred: Teira (THANK YOU)