December Hawkins' Headlines

 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! 2023 has been a whirlwind of a year from South Africa to the US and back - a year full of blessings from God! In October we returned to South Africa after a 3-month home assignment in the United States. We drove over 7,000 miles (11,000 km) and visited many friends and family. We also had the opportunity to have all our children under one roof for a week! Our time in the US was a blessing. Brandon & Brianna continue to serve with Word of Life in Taiwan, and they are expecting a baby in June. Please pray for them as Brianna has been experiencing morning sickness and fatigue, and navigating the maternity system in another culture can be a challenge. We are thrilled to be Grammy and Pappy soon - another blessing! Marissa came back to South Africa with us, and she is planning to continue her studies remotely. Please pray for wisdom as she makes decisions in this regard. Mya is continuing homeschool and will be starting Grade 11 in the new year. We are blessed to have time with them as we know it won’t last forever. We have two young men living and working with us currently, Joshua Mashele and Ngcebo Buthelezi. They are continuing in their studies of the Word of God, alongside with working on support raising so they can continue in the ministry. They are a blessing to Mary and I as both ministry and property maintenance would be too much for us to handle on our own. It was spectacular planning the 2024 ministry calendar together. It is a blessing to be able to pour into them and to work side by side! Joshua Ngcebo The end of the calendar year in South Africa means the end of the school year as well, as schools run from January-December. This means, amongst other things, planning and executing year-end functions and Christmas parties for children’s ministry and teen ministry, as well as our Christmas Carol service at church, and the gospel message was clearly presented at each one! It has kept us on our toes and is just now beginning to wind down. We are looking forward to celebrating the birth of Christ and taking some time to remember that this blessing is the foundation of our lives and ministry. Please pray with us as we look at the year ahead and strive toward every student everywhere hearing the gospel from a friend.

November Hawkins' Headlines

 

Sawubona and greetings from South Africa! We are now 237 days into lockdown due to Covid19, but have transitioned into Level 1, the lowest level of lockdown. We are still required to wear masks and social distance, but the church is allowed to meet at 50% capacity, and international travel has reopened. While we have started our high school youth group meetings at our local church, our Word of Life ministry is still primarily virtual. Despite lockdown, it has been a privilege to have an intern working with us for the last few months. Ailton Pedro is an Angolan living in South Africa and is a youth leader at Bethany Baptist Church. While he has been doing discipleship with Brad for a while, he has recently begun shadowing Brad one day a week to see what it means to be a Word of Life missionary. It is a blessing to have him working with us!

Before After Property Update: We were able to repair the kitchen floor, as well build a much needed retaining wall with the special project funds that came in. THANK YOU! There are several long term projects that need done, as well, but we will continue with the urgent needs, and work on projects as funds become available.  The next big project we would like to tackle is to renovate the guest cottage to be able to use not only for guests visiting WOL from other areas, but also for pastors and their wives to utilize as a retreat.  We will post more pictures here on our blog so you can follow the progress! If you would like to give to this project, you can do so here https://give.wol.org/SouthAfricaPropertyProject and send us a note  to let us know so that the funds are allocated to our projects in Durban. It is exciting to envision the potential of this property to impact those in our community with the gospel. Thank you for your prayers and giving!

July Prayer Letter

Please click on the newsletter below to read!

Interns

Caleb, Macy & Taurai

We have recently added 3 interns to our Word of Life Durban team.

First, let me introduce you to Taurai Manyamba. We have been working with Taurai for a few years now as a youth leader from Bethany Baptist Church. Brad has had the chance to disciple Taurai, and Taurai is, in turn, discipling the youth at his church. Taurai will be interning with us through the end of 2016.

Caleb Bonney and Macy Ford are part of the Word of Life Cross Cultural Internship program. They have been in Johannesburg, and joined us in Durban the beginning of June. Macy will be returning to Joburg on July 9, and Caleb, July 17. We are so grateful for the extra help during this busy ministry season!