Link to 2011 South Africa Trip Pictures

Wanted to give you a link to the pictures I have on my computer that can be downloaded.

2011 South Africa Album

Ritch

Mon. Feb 28th

We had a wonderful dinner here in the camp last night to celebrate. We managed to see all of the big 5 in one day yesterday. We went out again in the afternoon and saw a leopard. It was a quick look at it as it crossed the road but that topped the day for us. We were up at the crack of dawn again this morning and again were blessed to see so much including a black mamba in the road and a pack of wild dog. Erlo couldn't empasize how blessed we really were and we let him know he must bring an American if he wants to see all of these things. We leave for home tomorrow and it is bittersweet as we have all grown to love Africa. We will have a ton of pictures to share after we get back. There will be no more posts for this trip. See you all when we return. God Bless You!

lions, tigers... oh my!

Sorry there hasn't been posts lately but after we left Estcourt I didn't have access to the internet. 


Durban was beautiful but hot and humid. The container Ministry Conference was as awesome as last year and the Lord's provision of the beach house was again such a huge blessing.  The South Africans are so warm and hospitable and thankful for all the Lord is doing with our team in their country.  We delivered half of the team to the King Shaka International Airport for their flight home on Friday, spent a relaxing night at the beach house.  On Saturday morning we left at 5:45 for Kruger Game Park and didn't arrive at our destination until 5:30 that night.  They lock you in at night at the different camps in Kruger and then turn on the electric fence so the predators don't get you.  Sunday morning we were up and out the gate when it opened at 5:30.  This turned out to be a good move as we were able to see alot of the big wildlife before noon. Elephant, zebra, giraffe, antelope, black rhino, cape buffalo, wildebeest and lion were all located. We only have the leopard left to see and we will have seen all of the big 5. Thank you Lord!!


Thank you for your prayers- can't wait to tell you all our stories of His glory!

Friday and Saturday Feb 17 and 18

Friday – Talk about the Power of Prayer….today we had a prime example of that power. We had an assembly of the Estcourt Christian Academy and did our bible stories and a skit for them. We were then scheduled to head off to a new area not yet reached by Hearts of Compassion called Zwelisha. Apparently there is some strong ancestral worship that goes on there and several murders recently in this area. This is the area I felt was the key to all of the areas around Estcourt. If HOC could begin work here the word would spread quickly about the Lord. We’ve been traveling in two separate vehicles because there are so many of us and as the second vehicle was leaving the church compound the engine started racing. Eugene was able to figure out that the accelerator rod had bent below the pedal where it was welded to a hinge. He was able to keep his hand on the pedal and drive it back to the compound. All of us in the vehicle started praying and Eugene went to call Erlo to tell him what had happened to us. He went to the main church office and when he passed through he smelled a welder working on the property. This man came back with him and welded a support rod for us. It was fixed in 5 minutes. God overcame and we went on our way to Zwelisha where we had a great meeting with the new home based care workers in that area. Was this a coincidence? I don’t think it was. I think it was an answer to prayer. I think God was saying ‘if you are willing to go, I am willing to help you get there’. Later that night we went to the church’s youth gathering and had a blast with the kids as well as being able to pray with many of them.

Saturday – Today was a rest day. We were ready to roll at 5:45am and all went to Weenan Game Reserve where we saw lots of different buck and giraffe. We really wanted to see the black rhinos but could find any visible anywhere. We stopped at one of the picnic areas for a terrific breakfast that Auntie Shacks made for us.

We came back to town and rested before heading over to Shack’s and Tony’s house for the traditional brai (BBQ).

Sunday and Monday Feb 19-20

Sunday-


We had the services at Midlands Christian Centre and Pastor Dermot preached on forgiveness. This is what we have been sharing about with the Zulus all week so it was very fitting as he didn’t know what we were doing when he gave that message. Reconciliation is what is needed here so those types of messages are wonderful. We then had some lunch before heading off to Dalton Bridge to worship with that Zulu community. There is always lots of singing and dancing out there. I absolutely love it and get right into the middle of it. We were able to baptize 8 yesterday. What a blessing to be part of that since we were there to hear the first sermon Erlo ever gave out there. God is working is a mighty way.

Monday –

We are dividing up today with most of the guys going back to Dalton Bridge to finish the play structure and the rest going to the orphanage at Colenso to sort school books that were shipped over in one of the containers. More to come …………….

Friday – Talk about the Power of Prayer….today we had a prime example of that power. We had an assembly of the Estcourt Christian Academy and did our bible stories and a skit for them. We were then scheduled to head off to a new area not yet reached by Hearts of Compassion called Zwelisha. Apparently there is some strong ancestral worship that goes on there and several murders recently in this area. This is the area I felt was the key to all of the areas around Estcourt. If HOC could begin work here the word would spread quickly about the Lord. We’ve been traveling in two separate vehicles because there are so many of us and as the second vehicle was leaving the church compound the engine started racing. Eugene was able to figure out that the accelerator rod had bent below the pedal where it was welded to a hinge. He was able to keep his hand on the pedal and drive it back to the compound. All of us in the vehicle started praying and Eugene went to call Erlo to tell him what had happened to us. He went to the main church office and when he passed through he smelled a welder working on the property. This man came back with him and welded a support rod for us. It was fixed in 5 minutes. God overcame and we went on our way to Zwelisha where we had a great meeting with the new home based care workers in that area. Was this a coincidence? I don’t think it was. I think it was an answer to prayer. I think God was saying ‘if you are willing to go, I am willing to help you get there’. Later that night we went to the church’s youth gathering and had a blast with the kids as well as being able to pray with many of them.

Saturday – Today was a rest day. We were ready to roll at 5:45am and all went to Weenan Game Reserve where we saw lots of different buck and giraffe. We really wanted to see the black rhinos but could find any visible anywhere. We stopped at one of the picnic areas for a terrific breakfast that Auntie Shacks made for us.

She has been keeping us well fed and yesterday was no exception.  After we returned we had a traditional South African brai (BBQ) at her house yesterday and we had bit of a downpour and wind during the middle of it.  It didn’t dampen our spirits at all and we totally stuffed ourselves as Shacks kept prodding us to “eat more, eat more” as is her nature.  I think that is her way of showing love to us.  Her husband’s name is Tony and he works shift work at the Nestles Coffee factory here in town.  He was off at 8am in the morning and we come round at 5pm and stay until almost 9pm.  I feel so sorry for him to have to work as hard as he does but he says he is going to retire in two years so that is great.  They are of Indian descent (last name is Singh) and such great people you wouldn’t believe. 

Thursday Feb 17

We had a physical work out on Thursday.  We are building a new playground at Dalton Bridge School.  The school has a broken down slide and swing set that are not only broken down but also way too small for the older kids.  This playground will have three slides as well as a couple of climbing ladders.  The men dug 13 footings while the ladies did a skit at the school for the kids and then went on to deliver some food and do hut to hut ministry.  Bevie was able to visit the blind fellow she led to the Lord last year.  He told her he had a dream that she was coming to see him and that there would be a party.  It was emotional times for all that were there as he was so excited to receive a Proclaimer from her.  With this device he can listen to the bible in Zulu.  He indicated he wants to be one of the people being baptized on Sunday in the Bushman River. They use the school building to hold Sunday service and the team plans to be part of it and the baptisms afterward.  After they came back to the school we began the laborious process of setting the brackets in cement.  It was a lot of work mixing the cement by hand on a big sheet of plastic under the hot African sun.  Suzanne and Rachel jumped in to help with the cement which old man Ritch a break.  Thank you girls! We all were totally wiped out from the emotion, sun and hard work and our showers felt sooo good.  A few hours and a wonderful dinner later we were off to bible study and prayer at the “home cells”.  Essentially these are like our life groups.  These people are so gracious and open hearted with the “American visitors”.   It was a long but very rewarding day.

Wednesday Feb 16

Today was another awesome day.  We started at Umthezi High School where we were treated to some beautiful Zulu singing and a receptive audience for the orality stories on forgiveness.  The kids definitely got the message of forgiveness and enjoyed the stories.  Ritch did the introduction, Patty did the story of David and Bathsheba, Kim did the story of the unforgiving servant and Nick did the prodigal’s son.  Nick was very creative in his as he grabbed a couple of the guys on the team as the two sons and they acted the story out which was not only very fun for us but also  was a great way to get the point of the story across in a fun way for the high school kids.  Ritch closed with an alter call asking if any of the kids want to either ask Jesus into their lives for the first time or to recommit their lives to him.  All of the kids prayed to ask Jesus to be their Lord and savior. At the end when asked if there was anyone that prayed the prayer for the first time none of them raised their hands.  This was a blessing as it meant that all of these kids were already Christians.  We spent some time telling the teachers how much we Americans appreciated them and that we know how difficult their jobs are. We then went to Wembezi to the Fountain of Life Church to do a reading glasses clinic for the residence of that area.  We tested approximately 350 people with four stations going simultaneously and a prayer team praying for everyone that wanted prayer.  It was lots of fun and I know it was a blessing for so many of them to be able to read their bibles.  There was lots of smiles and many thanks from those that were served.  We loved it!

Feb 11-14

We made it to South Africa!  I never doubted we would but it was definitely an adventure from the very start.  We thought we had plenty of time to make our plan in San Francisco but it turned out we barely made it. Then in Washington DC Mike Snyder was called up to the gate agent and told he could not board because South Africa would not allow him into the country without a blank page passport page for them to stamp.   That was a shock and really bazaar as we had no idea of this regulation prior to this trip.   We knew we had to continue without him.  On the next leg of our journey we stopped in Dakar, Senegal to refuel and some sort of mechanical ground equipment malfunction caused us to be late in taking back off.  There was no way we could make our flight in Johannesburg to Durban.  Also we had one bag turn up missing and spent some time at the baggage service desk to see if they could track it down for us.  We barely made the next flight which as the last flight of the day.  Our luggage however did not make the flight with us.   Thankfully Erlo and Eugene were there to meet us even if it was much later than they had first expected us.  Bless them.  We found we had no luggage and the earliest flight was not until the next morning so we had to leave it and get to Estcourt and some much needed sleep.  We had been traveling for 33 hours, on the run most of the time and finally got into bed around 1:30AM.  We had again talked to the South African Airways baggage service agent and after much talk were assured they would be bringing out baggage to us the next day (Sunday)  which they did.  We went to church Sunday morning in the same clothing we had been traveling in (God says to come as you are right ?).  We did just that.  But…..we were very happy when the luggage showed up a few hours later. We are off to a high school to share tomorrow morning and then some hut to hut ministry the rest of the day.  Thank you for all your prayers.  They did help.  We trusted God and he did not fail us.  There were so many things that could have happened that did not.  We don’t have our fearless leader for a day or two but we will persevere and follow where he leads us.

Sunday -   Even though we didn't get to bed until early this morning we all got up and went to church and I'm glad we did.  It is energizing to worship and we did all need some energy.  We got a chance to relax the rest of the day and have a good team meeting about our schedule as well as put the gift bags together.  Our luggage arrived!!  We were so happy to see it come as we were getting a bit sick of our same clothes.  We were able to shower  and put on clean clothing which was a blessing.  There was a great movie shown at the church at 6pm and we all went to it.  It led to some tears so you know it had to be good. I think I can speak for the team that we all slept well with a nice rain coming down.

Monday - The high school we were scheduled to visit this morning didn't confirm so we didn't go there as we had planned.  This worked out ok as we had some time for Bevvie to teach us how to help blind people as a sighted person.  We get the rest of that training tonight.  Most of today was going hut to hut in two different teams.  It ended up being an emotional day with some terrible stories of abuse in some families.  Both teams got to experience leading people to the Lord.  Halleluja!!  That alone makes it worth coming here.    Keep the prayers coming.  We feel them and are encouraged.  We are blessed to bless and it more apparent every day that Gateway is a fantastic church with it's mission mindedness.     We will try to put some pictures in the blog sometime in the next couple of days. 

Tuesday - We had a visit to a different high school this morning but.....again that fell through so we had more time to get prepared to have a meeting with the home based care (HBC) workers at Ntaba.  We ministered to them on forgiveness and Bevie was able to talk about the cane mobility training and the Proclaimers she brought with her.  These are cool devices that are talking bibles and a different chip can be put in them for whatever language is needed.  It is charged with either solar, a crank on the side or with 240v power.  They were presented with one and asked to share it with their community.  Several of the ladies expressed their gratitude to us for brining this message to them and revealed that there was some hurts and anger that had been held inside until they heard this message and decided it was time to release it.  Wow!  There is nothing more powerful than to have an effective message that reaches people.  We were blessed.  We served the lunch to all of them before serving ourselves.  We then went up on "Erlo's Hill" overlooking all of the communities in the Estcourt area to pray.  Erlo gave us his heart for these people and how he is learning more and more that he has to just stay out of the way and let the Lord do the work.  He explained how hard this is for him because of his take charge personality.  He teared up telling how much it means to him and Deli that Gateway teams have partnered with them over the years.  We were all very emotional about what he said and very proud to be part of a church that sends out missionaries to work with local ministries.  What an amazing day and what a blessing to have been a part of it.

Prayer Request for the 2011 South Africa Team

We ask that you pray that God would give us His vision for the ministry in South Africa.


The dates & ministry locations for the Gateway South Africa team.

Feb 11 & 12 - fly from SFO to Dulles to Johannesburg SA to Durban SA. Drive from Durban to Estcourt.

Feb 13 - Midlands Christian Center sharing AM. Dalton Bridge, baptism service & childrens ministry PM.

Feb 14 - Ntaba hut to hut ministry, Umshezi High School, AIDS cube, Bible Storying & Evangicube.

Feb 15 - Ntaba support group ministry, blind cane ministry, Mhubeni High School AIDS cube, Bible Storying & Evangicube.

Feb 16 - Wembezi eyeglass clinic, blind cane ministry.

Feb 17 - Dalton elementary school Bible Storying, prayer for the area, food distribution, playground foundation, evening home cells .

Feb 18 - Zwelisha home based care workers ministry, Midlands Youth Ministry, "The Greatest Gift" skit

Feb 19 - Weenen game reserve, quiet time for the afternoon

Feb 20 - Midlands Christian Center, Dalton & Wembezi Sunday worship services

Feb 21 Umshezi & Mhubeni High schools "The Greatest Gift" skit, Ikahya Lethu orphanage, sort school books, Midlands leader meeting in evening.

Feb 22 - Dalton Bridge playground structure install, eye glass clinic, support group ministry, Bible Storying, Ikahya Lethu orphanage, sort school books.

Feb 23 - Container Ministry Conference in Durban

Feb 24 - Container Ministry Conferene in Durban

Feb 25/26 - Return flight from Durban to Johannesburg to Dakar, Senegal, to Dulles to SFO.

Thank you for your prayers & support!

Ritch, Jenni, Nick, Suzanne, Bevie, Kim, Rachel, Teri, Eric, Patty & Mike

Our Prayers are with the Guam Team

Please pray for the Guam Team as the depart this week. God protect them but most of all may they share the gospel in all that they do.

2011 South Africa Trip

We are all getting excited about our 2011 short term mission trip to South Africa.  We have some members of the team that have been before and a few newbies as well.  It's a good team and we are getting prepared for our mission there.

We have purchased the tickets!!  We depart from SFO on Feb 11th at 7:50am on the first leg of our jouney.  We land several hours later on the east coast at Washington Dulles International where we board our South African Airways flight to Johannesburg. That will be a long and numbing flight for us as we will be in the air for approximately 16 hours.  Anything for the Lord!!!