GOD IS FAITHFUL

As February comes to a close, I want to share with you several ministry updates of what it’s been like serving with Impact Africa. We’ve been at Impact for two weeks & have two weeks left. Richard, the founder of Impact Africa, came to speak about their mission statement and a phrase that stuck out to me was when Rich said, “You’re not here to fix people or their problems, you’re here to introduce them to the one who can!” And just like this phrase says, we have been sharing the hope of Jesus to the unreached people of South Africa.

Impact Africa is broken down into five different ministries: Impact Baby Rescue, Impact Mission Adventure, The Mission Experience Program, Impact Kids, & Impact Students. While partnering with Impact for a month, we are serving with the Impact Baby Rescue, Impact Kids, & Impact Students ministries. On top of that, we outreach / share the gospel to multiple people living in tin houses that are maybe 10x10ft which are technically called informal settlements right outside of Johannesburg. And we could not do these ministries without the National Staff here at Impact Africa. Quick shoutout to Elizabeth, Denise, Senzi, Boity, KB, Nelson, Chloe, & so many others who I’m forgetting! These lovely individuals have cultivated trustworthy relationships with the students & kids who we are continuing to disciple daily. There’s the base staff, Clayton, Savanna, Nina, Rich, Jordan, Ashley, & Auntie Mary who take great care of us so that we are equipped & ready for ministry! These hard working individuals serve the ministry by keeping everything in order, creating our ministry schedule, cooking our delicious food (thank you Aunties), & cleaning our sleeping areas!!! I am so thankful for each person mentioned above:) THANK YOU IMPACT STAFF!!! LOVE YOU<3

Quick break down of the different ministries!

Impact Baby Rescue

With Impact Baby Rescue (IBR), we hand out fliers to the settlements that we are allowed to enter. This act of handing out fliers is called canvassing. While canvassing, we speak to every person that we can to share how IBR has free resources for women & children. I walk up to a person and wave the flier so they know why a scary white American is approaching them – to give them a flier. I say I’m with the organization IBR and explain that if they know of any women or child who need free tools to secure a healthy life then they can contact a specific number. Impact Baby Rescue offers free pregnancy & parenting counseling, free clothing & soap for a baby, and (as a last resort) a safe place for a women to drop their baby off if they can not provide for their child and they are considering dumping the baby in the trash. What I love about Impact is how they are connected with adoption agencies, so if a child is “dumped” and found by Impact, they will take care of the child and hopefully find a placement for the child to enter a safe family. To summarize IBR, our group handing out fliers spreads hope to these women who might have no idea how their baby will survive the night. Just this past week the team gave out over 1,500 fliers and spoke to around 800 people!!! Praise God:) The cover picture of this blog is after a day of serving with Impact Baby Rescue with Senzi & Boity!

Impact Kids

I love Impact Kids (IK) because it’s a time when we get to enter the classroom and join the teachers! This is a time when we get to read a children’s book to the class, color pictures with the kids, play games on the playground, and build legos with the youth! I had a classroom full of thirty 5-year-old kids this past week which is a bit overwhelming but a ton of fun. These kids will have unlimited energy & ask you to do everything either with them or for them. And it’s impossible to say no to these kids because they have such innocence & cheerful spirits! My arms are so sore from picking all them up and throwing them around. I do have to pray for supernatural energy to keep on smiling through the days we serve with Impact Kids because I just can’t keep up with the kid’s energy levels:)

Impact Students

Alright so, Impact Students (IS) is awesome because this is the middle schoolers / high schoolers who are able to understand lessons and put them into practice! We go into classrooms and teach lessons on the gospel, dreams, potential, bullying, natural highs, etc. We do what’s called an attention grabber which is a fun application used to hook the attention of each student. Then we dive right into the lesson and have the students get interactive in the teachings by asking questions to make sure they stay engaged (I know how hard it can be to learn while sitting at a desk all day). Another way of sharing these same teachings is through assemblies. Now, assemblies can be in front of thousands of students which is incredibly cool. We start the assembly with some dancing to songs like Waka Waka and my personal favorite Church Clap:)! Then we get to the heart of the lesson, but still keep the students engaged by chanting and bringing tons of energy to these assemblies. And today we had a Bible exposure with some of the kids after their school. Derek & Dani spoke on courage relating to David and Daniel in the Bible! It was so cool because John, one of the students, got to pray at the end of the exposure by applying what he learned about courage into a powerful prayer! So beautiful!

Fun Updates

With all these powerful ministries, we have a pretty busy schedule but it’s such a fruitful ministry and a gift that we get to serve alongside Impact Africa this month! I turned 19 last week and on my birthday the National staff pranked me hehe! After a long day of ministry, KB asked for me to pray over the group, so I entered the center of the circle to pray, as I was asked to do. I closed my eyes to pray and once I said Amen, every single person dumped water on me!!!!!!!! I was shocked and laughed because it was a clever prank. It was very silly & goof of them and but very funny:))) Needless to say, I won’t be forgetting my 19th birthday anytime soon:)

On a more serious note, Elizabeth came up with my African name which is Tumelo! Everybody say “Woah, that’s cool Josh what does it mean!?” Well let me tell you, the word Tumelo translates to faith & I LOVE IT. In this current season of my life, I’ve been challenged to increase my faith in various ways, whether it be literal physical healings, trusting the Lord’s faithfulness with my future plans, or simply walking in a spirit of faith not fear. Some scripture on faithfulness that I’ve been reading is Psalms 26:3, 92:1-2, 96:13, 119:30, & 119:90 if you want to check that out! If you can’t tell I’m a bit obsessed with the Psalms at the moment.

So yeah, that’s my rant. I appreciate you taking the time to read about my life:) It means a lot to me that you take interest and care! We are in this together as one body so please continue praying for me as we wrap up our last two weeks here in South Africa & head to Guatemala on March 13th or 14th, not sure on the exact date yet. And please be praying that each person we come into contact with will see the Lord’s goodness through our actions & love for one another! And please let me know if you have any prayer requests because I’d love to join in fellowship with you by interceding through the Spirit! Love you guys! Keep the faith:)