South Africa

After a full trip of ministry and learning we got to have a great day full of interacting and seeing some of the wildlife of South Africa and getting to experience shopping in a market. 

The day started at the Lion Park where we got to meet a little tiger cub. Each kid got to go in and pet her! She was absolutely precious. We then got to go and walk around the park and see lions, hyenas, white bengal tigers and many other animals native to Africa!

After the Lion Park, we went to the Chameleon Village Market and got to go around all the shops! The kids got the opportunity to buy souvenirs and experience shopping in a South African market! They loved getting to interact with the shop owners and gained so many memories from it! While we were there, we ate lunch and then headed to our next adventure…a SAFARI!! 

We got the opportunity to go on a Safari in one of their national parks and got to see 3 out of the 5 BIG animals that South Africa is known for! We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos, a rhino and many many other animals! Once we finished up with the safari we sat down and had dinner together! It was an absolutely wonderful way to end our trip and to experience South Africa one last time before we leave! Thank you all for keeping up with us and for praying over us along the way!! 

Today we got the opportunity to partner with Impact on the amazing work they do to combat a silent epidemic. In South Africa due to a variety of reasons, mothers often resort to throwing their baby away or dumping them.

It is estimated that every single day 3-4 babies are dumped by South African moms who feel as though they simply have no other options. Life within the squatter camps can be difficult and even impossible. Impact has an amazing program that works to save these valuable lives and place these babies into safe and loving homes.

They do this with the numerous resources they offer including free parental counseling, pregnancy counseling, and even baby safe drop stations. These stations are monitored 24/7 and offer moms a chance to surrender their baby in a safe way. Once a baby is left in the safe box, they immediately respond and run several health checks.

Impact then works to get the baby adopted and find their forever family. This is a wonderful ministry that Impact has been doing for years because they saw a need and met it. We got to be a part of their strategy to educate the people of Johannesburg on these resources so that people understand there is a safe place to leave their child.

We walked around the neighborhood and passed out flyers. Any person who we saw, we would offer a flyer and explain the resources provided. It was amazing to be a part of all that Impact is doing to save lives and connect people to Jesus.

While this was our last ministry day, we are so excited. We leave feeling confident that we have accomplished everything we hoped for. During our time in South Africa, 92 people gave their lives to Christ and 12 people received healings. That makes it over 100 people who experienced a move of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Tomorrow we have a fun day of shopping and a safari. However, the highlight of this trip has been carrying the light of Jesus into the hearts and homes of our friends here in South Africa.

Today was our second day in Diepsloot and our final day of door to door ministry. Our teams were fired up and ready to take space for Jesus so we went out with an expectancy that God was going to move.

One story of many was meeting a grandmother named Anna. After talking with her about Jesus, they asked if she needed prayer. She had severe arthritis in her hands and was having issues with her eyes. The team laid hands on her and prayed. When she opened her eyes, the clouded vision was gone! When asked about her hands, she extended her fingers which she had not been able to do in a long time.

God is doing amazing things here in South Africa! As we look forward to one last day of ministry, we want to thank you all for praying for us. Your continued prayers are covering us with strength and preps the way for many more encounters like this one.

After a weekend of rest, food, and shows, we jump back into ministry to the community of Diepsloot. Rather than spending half a day doing door-to-door ministry and half doing impact kids, we spent a full day ministering to the community. The evidence of Johannesburg, South Africa being hungry for the Gospel of Jesus continued as we stepped out in ministry and within the first 4 hours, 15 people received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It is incredible to see the way that God works through our willingness to serve. By the end of the day, 22 people got saved and 2 healings took place.  

We are also seeing life transformation in our students! Watching them go from uncertainty in sharing their testimony to fully sharing the gospel, and what God has done in their life has been a blessing in itself! You can see the boldness of their faith rising. A passage of scripture that has been on my heart through this trip is Mark 10:45, “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…”  With this in mind, our team is carrying that same mentality. Today the boys in my group got the opportunity to wash this woman’s blankets. Usually it takes her 4-6 hours, but many hands make light work. We were able to not only wash the blankets, but also lead her to Jesus. It was a powerful moment, realizing that it was not just her blankets that were washed clean that day!

Already thus far, South Africa has been a life-changing experience, and we still have many days ahead. Please continue to pray for the Lord to protect us, as well as the Holy Spirit to lead us to the homes and people that we need to interact with. Thank you for your prayers and support. We love you and miss you and cannot wait to bring so many testimonies home!

After a weekend of rest, we are gearing up for another four days of ministry. Saturday, we got to spend some time at the Nizamiye Mosque and learned about the Islamic religion. After returning to base for dinner, we had s’mores by the fire and continued to bond as a team!

Today, we attended church in Diepsloot. There was a lot of dancing and cheering. It was amazing. After lunch, we went to the Lesedi Cultural Center where we learned about five of the tribes in Africa and had an incredible dinner.

We continue to be filled with joy and excitement for what God is doing around us. Please continue to pray for our team as we head back into the squatter camps, for divine appointments, an opportunity to plant seeds and reap the harvest. We look for the light in the darkness and know we will not be overcome!

Today our team had a much needed day of rest. After two days of traveling throughout the squatter camps of Johannesburg sharing the gospel, our team began the day by heading out to the biggest Mosque in the southern hemisphere. Our team was led by a guide where we were able to learn the traditions and practices of the Islamic religion. We were so grateful to learn more about Islam and how we can better minister to the people who live here. We finished the morning by having lunch as a team where we also got to indulge in candy, ice cream and Turkish coffee!

After making a quick stop to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities, the team got to experience a few hours of free time where many students and leaders took advantage of this time to rest, recover and prepare for the upcoming week.

We finished our restful day with a bonfire at our base camp where we got the opportunity to worship, eat s’mores and spend some quality time together as a team. As we look ahead to the rest of our time here in Johannesburg, we are expectant and excited for all that God is going to do. We are grateful to see all that God is doing in the hearts of the people of Johannesburg and we appreciate everyone’s continued prayer and support.

Today was such a great day! We went out to the squatter camps again but this time we went to a new area called Kye! In the morning each of our mini teams went out and got to pray with people, help people with their chores and get to know them! The people of South Africa are so welcoming and so friendly! They are so willing to spark up conversations and are SO HUNGRY for the GOOD NEWS!!! God is so faithful!!!

In the afternoon we split up the full team where half of the team went out and continued talking and praying with people and the other half did JK which is the kids ministry that Impact Africa puts on! There were 161 kids that attended!

In the evening we all got to go to this restaurant called “Carnivore”! It was wild! We all got to try different kinds of meats like zebra and crocodile! It was a great evening and a great day! Thank you guys for praying for us and supporting us! God is MOVING here in South Africa!

Erin Ventura
Global Outreach
July 13, 2023

Today was truly a gift from the Lord and a testimony to the fact that we came to South Africa for a reason! We started our door to door ministry and had the opportunity to meet so many of the amazing South Africans. Sawubona means “hello” in Zulu. While there are many different languages spoken here in South Africa, Zulu is a very common one. As we roam the streets, we do so while smiling and greeting every person we can.

During this time, we split up into small groups and took to the squatter camps. They are called squatter camps, as many of the people who live in these communities are actually immigrants from other African countries who come to Johannesburg looking for jobs and advancement. Unfortunately, many times people are not able to find stable income or housing and end up in these makeshift communities that sometimes include hundreds of thousands of people.

Being American, we immediately draw attention when walking into the camps. People know we are here for a reason and their curiosity brings us opportunities to connect with them. God is moving in the hearts of the South Africans and we are so grateful to be a part of it.

With that being said, the communities feel very heavy. When you walk through them, you can feel the darkness and hopelessness that surrounds the people here. However, God is good and He continues to pursue His people and bring them the good news that will never fail. In just our first day our team has already gained such a deep love for the people of South Africa.

The ministry in Johannesburg is so fruitful and the laborers are few. The people here are incredibly eager and willing to speak with us. Every time we meet someone, we leave having made friends. Today we saw over 20 people give their lives to Christ and also experienced some healings.

We are simply so grateful to be a part of God’s plan for the people here. Join us in believing for major change and transformation in the lives of the people in Johannesburg and all of South Africa.

Today was a day of preparation for the weeks to come! After breakfast we spent the morning being trained by the founder of Impact Africa, Rich Franzen. We learned the reason why they began the ministry of Impact Africa and why there is such a need for everything they do. He also trained us in proper ways to greet as well as gave us tools to prepare our four avenues of sharing our testimonies. They are our testimonies of salvation, healing, faith and of death! These four topics are ones that will help us when we interact with the people of the communities and create ties with them so they become more open to learn about and receiving Christ into their hearts.

The second half of our day started with lunch and then shortly after we started our second training. This was to learn all about their kids camps called “Jabulani Kids” which means “Happy Kids”. We will be participating in their kids camps continually throughout our trip and will start off tomorrow. We learned dances, Bible verses and stories to share with the kids! After our training we got to enjoy free time, play games, eat snacks and practice all the things we had learned throughout our day.

Once the evening came around we ate dinner, played games and had our team devotional time. We spent time in worship, dove into a scripture together and learned our theme of “Carry The Light” for the trip. We had each team member work on their four testimonies and shared them with each other.

Tomorrow is gonna be a great day full of amazing opportunities to love people and let them know that Christ’s love is not complicated and is so easy to receive. Please be praying as our team goes out tomorrow and puts to practice all they have learned today!

After more than 30 hours of travel we have officially made it  to Impact Africa’s campus where we will be staying. We are nothing but grateful for all the traveling mercies that we received as we made our way to a whole other continent!

Since we arrived in the evening, we will just be eating dinner and settling in for the night. Tomorrow we begin the day with ministry training to prepare us for all we will encounter while here.

Please continue to pray for us. Pray that God would work through the students to reach and impact the lives of the people here. But also pray that the students themselves would feel a shift within themselves and their relationship with God.

We are so excited and grateful to be here. God is so good!

We are so excited for all this trip has in store for us. As we leave Peoples Church, we prepare for about 30 hours of straight travel.

Please pray for us that we would have a smooth and easy time as we take buses, make our way through security, and board planes.

We know that the ministry has already begun and we look forward to any and every opportunity to help introduce people to Jesus. Thank you for all that you have done to help pour into this trip and make it happen. We are so excited to update you on all the Lord does throughout our time in South Africa.