A Touch of Heaven

Hi everyone!

We’ve been in South Africa for about a week now, and I LOVE it! This piece of heaven has quickly become one of my favorite placements on the race! And such an answer to prayer!

Over the months, my team and I have been in some very spiritually heavy places. We’ve seen a lot of darkness, and we’ve witnessed a lot of brokenness and heartache. Not that there aren’t these things here in South Africa, but there is also a lot of light and love that are noticeably different here than in other places we’ve been to.

As we were praying in preparation for this placement a couple of weeks ago, some of the words the Lord laid on my heart to pray into South Africa were heaven and peace.

Within our first few hours in this country, we experienced a tremendous amount of peace. It literally felt like we were experiencing a piece of heaven as we were driving through the country! (We had a 16-hour bus ride to our placement, so we actually got to see a lot of South Africa.)

We feel extremely blessed to have been given such a beautiful experience as we close out our time here on the race!

That wasn’t the plan. We weren’t supposed to be here now. We weren’t even supposed to be with the ministry we are with now.

For those of y’all who don’t know, we were supposed to come to South Africa back in July. We attempted multiple times to fly, and once even got turned away at the gate. Instead, the Lord said “no” to Sputh Africa and sent us to Romania. But the Lord brought us here eventually!

It’s crazy to think we could’ve had a completely different experience if we would’ve come at a different timing other than the Lord’s! I thank God over and over that we are where we are when we are. And I thank Him that He is sovereign and that He will always align things to His perfect will!

Which brings me to what we are doing here! We’re in a small town called Heidelberg. It’s about 20 minutes from the southern coast of Africa, surrounded by mountains, and flooded with peace!

We are partnering with Heidelberg Christian School and Charis Bible College working with students from Grade 1 to adults. We’ve been given opportunities to pour into them through prayers, testimonies, and devotionals. We’ve also been able to play sports, game nights, and outreach with them as well. Our ministry is to simply love and encourage these students to be the warriors for the Kingdom they are called to be!

These are some specific prayer requests from our ministry hosts!

Prayers for the students:

• For a hunger for the Word of God amongst all ages
• That they will learn and grow in their identity in Christ and become bold in their faith
• That Jesus will fill them with a new compassion for people
• That they would be diligent in praying for souls, sharing the gospel, and discipling those who turn to Jesus
• For the safety of students to and from school and in their communities and from evil influences
• For the purity of the students and teen pregnancies
• For the kind of Christ to be over the students and that their hearts will be softened to the Counsel of Truth

Prayers for the school & college:

• For the leadership of the schools to lead with integrity, with the wisdom of God and will steer with Godliness
• For the refreshing for teachers and compassionate hearts to help the students who are struggling
• For the finances of the schools really struggling as parents have lost employment recently in every demographic
• For the youth workers’ and ministries’ creativity as they embark on reaching children in schools and in the community
• That the Lord reveals ways to bring more hope to the schools

Prayers for the community:

• For the mercy of God over their land
• For the comfort of the Holy Spirit for many who have suffered loss
• For the parents who have lost and are struggling to find employment
• For healing, safety, and hope
• For the other schools that were destroyed, for the pupils and staff of those schools, and for divine solutions
• For the Smart Choices and Crossroads programs in schools and that the parents will take a Godly stand

Prayers for my squad:

• As we head to Lesotho, for safe travels, and that the Lord will prepare our hearts for whatever He has in store for us there
• That we remain safe and healthy and able to continue to do ministry
• That as we finish the race, God will prepare us for our next direction in life
• That the Lord will provide the funds to get the rest of the squad fully-funded (there are four of us – me included – not fully-funded yet. We are only about $5000 away total)

Thank you again for all of y’all’s prayers! Literally the most important thing y’all can be doing for us, is by partnering with us and the Lord in prayer! These prayers are greatly appreciated!

God bless!

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And the greatest of these is love.”