Email from Student in South Africa

One of my Western students who went with our Campus Outreach Team sent me this email.  It was really encouraging and wanted to pass it along to you.  

"So what up ya’ll, just kicken it here in South Africa. Na, but seriously everything over here is great. God is working like ya’ll would never understand (quite honestly because I don’t even understand it myself sometimes.) We just got back from the JWC (Joint Winter Conference) and meet some of the guys that are going to be in my Res (dorm) and they are awesome guys. I am going to ministering in a Res called Mopanie and my ministry partner, Brink, and I are partnering with the staff guy in Mopanie, Sammy. Sammy is an African and is really cool; he goes well with our personalities.

So at the JWC I was the assistant to Neal Gooch, the director of COJ, and was pretty much his slave. The first day he challenged all the helper to work with a joyful heart and I really wanted to but honestly could not. I really had to pray that God would change my heart and one of my boy’s gave me a verse Matthew 20:28 and it says; Christ came not to be served but to serve. I really had to own that verse along with prayer and after a couple of days God really gave me joy and it was SWEET!!!! I had to do medial tasks that I have never done before and I really hated it. But I knew God had a plan for me being around him because he is a spiritual STUD!!!! The biggest thing that I learned was to continually pray. So I know that sounds like DUH, but you don’t understand how much this dude prays, it’s like ALL the time. Every time I was with him we always prayed together and it was so sweet. I have never witnessed that much prayer from one person, there were times when I felt I ran out of things to pray for that’s how much.
So the conference in general was sweet as well. I was really able to meet with the Lord in so many different ways (worship, prayer, fellowship, etc.) These people really love God in a completely different way than many people I know at home. They are not ASHAMED at all of God, unlike us in America, we put God in a box so much its ridiculous. They worship with these chants that sometimes don’t mean anything but they are still praising God. I can’t really describe in words that any of you can understand and I’m sorry but I just can’t it’s just the way it is. I know I said I want to help everyone experience it but in a way it’s humbling that I can’t explain it.

Well I’m gonna wrap things up with some prayer requests.

-That I would continually see Christ as “THE END” in everything.

-Guys in Mopanie (Dodo, Ofentse, Riaan, Andre, Seige, Sammy, James, Pieter)

-That I would grow in knowledge of God (cause I need it)"