EBC Wentworth Conference

This week we ran the youth program for the Evangelical Bible Church Wentworth Conference. There are around youth from ages 13-25. It was a privilege to be able to encourage them to take the next step in their relationship with Christ and be ready the stand tall in their faith when they return home.

Merry Christmas!

 

December

December is a little chaotic here in South Africa. 🎄 Not only is it the beginning of the Christmas season, but it's also the end of the school year! Tonight was the closing for our Children's ministry at our church. Here are a few photos for you to enjoy! 

Please continue to pray as there are many events over the next couple of weeks. Pray especially that we keep our gaze on Christ as we "juggle all the balls" of various functions. We really appreciate your prayers for our ministry!

WOL Indo-Pacific Youth Ministry Summit Update

What an encouraging week at the Word of Life Indo-Pacific Youth Ministry Summit! We really enjoyed the fellowship, learning from great leaders, and cherishing every moment we can with Brandon, Brianna and Sarah. We met missionaries from around the world with the same vision of evangelization and discipleship of youth through various means consistent with the Holy Scriptures to strengthen and build up the church of Jesus Christ. We walked away refreshed and renewed in our passion for reaching youth with the Truth!

Here are some interesting statistics regarding Word of Life missionaries: 

Currently, WOL is in 107 locations worldwide and we have 1,593 missionaries! 

2024 missionary breakdown 

National missionaries to their home country: 1,035 

National missionaries to a foreign country: 233

US missionary to a foreign country: 145 

Medium-term (launch): 113 

Medium-term (intern): 67

Hillary Baptist Church

Great opportunity to encourage one of our local church ministries last night by visiting and teaching their youth! Good reminder about tithing, "Where Your Heart Is." Always an extrarordinary time with the youth & leaders from Hillary Baptist Church!

Go Share Day!

We partnered with Redfern Bible Church today for a great day of evangelism and ministry! 

"Thank you and your team for joining us for evangelism at Redfern Bible Church. We appreciate your help and training our men for evangelism. May God's glory continue to shine on you and your ministry. Blessings"

WOL Indo-Pacific Youth Ministry Summit

 

Amongst other upcoming ministry opportunities, November brings a trip to the Philippines for the Word of Life Indo-Pacific Local Church Ministries Conference. Our Regional Directors John & Christy Page requested that we attend to prepare us to better coach and serve the Local Church missionaries throughout Africa and the Middle East. It has been exciting to see God's hand of provision for this trip. Please pray for smooth travel and for things at home to run smoothly while we are away!

S.M.A.S.H. (Students Ministering And Serving Him) Update #3

  

“I am thankful for you and Uncle Brad and everyone at Word of life for the opportunity to serve on SMASH. I am now even more challenged to share the gospel everyday outside of SMASH in my personal life. I also learned the importance of sharing certain struggles with other Christians and praying and growing together…. This year has been quite a challenging year spiritually, so I am grateful that this short time at Smash was replenishing and encouraged a stronger walk with the Lord.”

Mala Shingleton, Age 16

S.M.A.S.H. (Students Ministering And Serving Him) Update #2

 

God’s provision is so breathtaking. It has been great to see how He provided for each of the students on our recent missions trip! S.M.A.S.H. (Students Ministering And Serving Him) gives young people from all around South Africa the opportunity to be missionaries for a week. Our annual SMASH trip was 22-29 September, and we had ten students and young adults take part. They raised support from their churches and various individuals and committed to spending their school break to doing ministry. The team had the chance to minister in a variety of ways in order to share the Gospel with those we met. We ran children’s meetings, youth meetings, evangelistic outreaches, and various other opportunities to serve and share Christ in the community. We were able to come alongside various local churches and ministries and lend a helping hand, including Malvern Children’s Home and Sinakekele Children.

Durban S.M.A.S.H. (Students Ministering And Serving Him)

Durban S.M.A.S.H. started yesterday (Students Ministering And Serving Him)! The team has seen God answer so many prayers of provision already. Yesterday was a day of training and getting to know each other and today the team ministered at Malvern Children's Home and did outreach and evangelism in Mount Vernon and Chatsworth. Here are a few pics! The team will be busy with ministry all week. Follow along on FB to see pics and updates - we would appreciate your prayers

UBI Youth Ministry Training

Brad, Mary, Joshua, & Ngcebo taught on youth ministry at Union Bible Institute in Pietermaritzburg on August 17. It was a great day spent equipping others to reach youth with the gospel of Christ!

 

A Visit to Taiwan!

June brought with it the blessing of our first grandchild! Brandon & Brianna are serving in Taiwan with Word of Life and we were able to visit them in July and meet our little sweetheart. We are so grateful for the time we were able to spend together with all of our children under one roof!

Leadership Development Conference - Thriving Through Change

6 July was our Mid-Year Leadership Conference, a special time of fellowship and encouragement with the local church leaders in Durban with sessions taught by John Page and Brad & Mary Hawkins. Our theme was thriving through change. It is amazing that while the world is constantly changing, our God is never changing.

PLACE Training

It was great to get a week-long visit with Word of Life Regional Directors, John & Christy Page at the beginning of July! John spoke at our Leadership Conference and Christy spent some time teaching Brad & I to facilitate PLACE ministry training. Every PLACE course Is designed to help believers discover how God has created you and others to fulfill His purpose in relationships, career, and ministry by understanding your unique combination of personality, spiritual gifts, abilities, passions and experiences. This is another ministry tool added to our belt to help encourage and build up WOL Local Church Ministries throughout Africa and the Middle East. We are excited to see how God will allow this to be used for His glory!

Core Fifty1 Youth Ministry Training

Brad, Joshua, & Ngcebo have been doing weekly Fifty1 youth ministry training with the youth leaders at Lambert Road Baptist Church. We are excited about the impact that they will have on the teens in their area!