The "Starter Pack" Ministry

The make-shift cross 

Dancing for Jesus! 

Testimony 

Everyone crammed into the house.

This evening we had the honor of being a part of a community Outreach with the team that is here from Colorado, US. They’ve been ministering in Masiphumelele all week doing door-to-door ministry and training the church leadership (that at this stage is only a few newly converted men and women). We asked our short-term volunteers, Mike and June, to join this small team of 4 for the week and it turned out to be a great experience for them. The team has been working tirelessly in visiting tons of people and inviting them to the Celebration Service tonight. The small church building – which really is someone’s small house that has been converted into a large room, didn’t look too much like a church. So we found some wire and a cross bean to turn the outside post into a cross. I also found some thick thorny bushes outside our house to shape a crown of thorns for the top of our new cross! The little room was packed to the brim. It rained outside, so people were squeezed in and it was amazing to see everyone worshiping and dancing in such a small space. The pastor would joke and say that this building is his “starter pack’! LOL Now that’s a visionary for you! Every single one of the team was called up to share their testimony… and true to African Church services, we were also called up to share our testimonies! Being that today is my birthday, the Pastor and our Chaplain asked everyone to sing Happy Birthday in first English and then Xhosa to me... so special! After our testimonies, the Pastor shared a message of encouragement and so many people were challenged. 3 and ½ hours later, we finally served dinner to the people – we prepared about 150 hot dogs earlier in the day, so we just had to hand it out. It is amazing how people were so hungry for the word that they didn’t mind having dinner so late. They truly celebrated with God tonight.