Sweet Tea and Salvation

“I’m trading my sorrows, I’m trading my pain” this song is over played and to be frank has become a bit cheesy. However, when hearing this sung at church on Sunday morning it brought about a new meaning to me. This song was the first song sung in my first out-of-America worship service. I attended a service at a “Coloured” church, not a racist term but a politically correct term here. 

Over the years I have had the opportunity to attend church with people of other color and other denominations. This time it was different, I realized that my Jesus in the US and Bama, was the same Jesus in Africa and the rest of the world. We as Americans tend to think that Jesus is only worshiped in the US and that we are the only people civilized enough to understand who Jesus is. This thought is immensely wrong! We, humans, all know the meaning of pain and hurt; we know what those things feel like. Jesus came to bring us joy and hope! His blood means the same and His grace works the same no matter who you are or what country you’re from! We essentially are all the same. And God loves us all, the same.  

    “For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only son that whoever believes in Him will never die spiritually but will live forever” –John3:16  

   Hello everyone! I have been having a great time here in South Africa, thank you all so much for the prayers and support. I have had the chance to experience some things that I will probably never get to experience again in my life. I have gotten to play with, hold and pet lion cubs! I have gotten to pet a full grown cheetah(the fastest land animal). I got to attend the Billabong Pro surfing competition at Jeffery’s Bay and I got to see Kelly Slater, the great USA surfer, surf an amazing heat! Also today I had the chance to co-lead 5 teenagers to the Lord! That is where the title of these came from. There were 5 salvations today and then I had some sweet tea for dinner tonight…God is good!

    I have been working in the missionaries’ office on most days helping them make some new websites for their ministries. There are certain people groups in S.A. and Namibia that have little to no Christian contact. I am compiling the information that they have gathered and prepared and I am placing it on the website so that people can learn about these people groups and start to pray for them and possibly plan a trip to visit them. Once a week I have been going to a very poor community and doing door-to-door ministries. I also have a prison ministry coming up. On Friday and Sunday nights I have been hanging out with a local youth group here. That in a nutshell is what I have been up to!