BattleZone Camp 2024

Please pray for our upcoming BattleZone Camp from 21-23 March! We look forward to the work that God will do in the lives of those who attend. 

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.

Durban S.M.A.S.H. 2021

As COVID lockdown levels were down, we decided it was time to have our annual S.M.A.S.H. (Students Ministering And Serving Him) missions trip in April. Yes, it would look different this time, but that's a sign of the times. We were excited to reconnect with our youth and challenge them, both in the Word of God and in their service for Him. While we were unable to travel or to stay overnight, we could have "day camp" and would serve right where we are, redecorating the youth room at church and renovating and serving at the Word of Life Durban property.

Every morning we had meetings and were challenged in the Word of God with messages from Dwight Hostetler. small group time for personal application, and of course some songs & games. Then, after lunch, we spent the afternoons serving. 

We painted, cleaned, and reorganized the youth room at Grace Baptist Church and did a few small projects around the property.

We had a generous donation from a supporting church and some help from some friends that run a business doing renovating, and we were able to remodel the interior of the cottage on the WOL Durban property! We are super grateful to Miccol Renovating Services for setting aside other work and travelling from Joburg to help with this project! Thanks, Michael & Eric. Below are some before and after pics.

Before

And After

They repaired and renovated the shower in the main house, built a new set of steps down to the cottage, and they also did some odd jobs around the Word of Life property. 

Word of Life Durban Property

As promised, here are a few more photos of the new Word of Life Durban Property!

 

November Hawkins' Headlines

Thank you for your prayers for our ministry! We want to update you on what God has been doing here in Durban. There is so much happening - here are just a few highlights!

We had an amazing BattleZone Camp (Aug. 9-11) — the second one this year! The focus of our camp was Evangelism and the persecuted church. The teens learned and practiced several methods that they can use to share Christ with their friends. And most excitingly, one of the students decided to follow Christ! It is amazing to see the youth excited to reach their world with the gospel.

We want to share with you about a new aspect of our ministry, the Timothy Discipleship Project. We are meeting with a few teens and young adults on a regular basis in a more formal setting, doing Bible training and life on life discipleship. We are thrilled to be pouring into their lives, getting to know them better and challenging them to know the Word and live their faith.

Brandon started his second year at the Word of Life Bible Institute in New York in September,  and he is enjoying spending another year learning the Word and developing ministry skills. It's hard to believe it's already been almost a year since we have seen him. We are so proud of him and missing him so. We are ecstatic that we were able to purchase tickets for him to come home for Christmas Dec 9 - Jan 1!

We asked you to pray for our S.M.A.S.H. trip in October. There were 20 of us on the team and we traveled about 3 hours to work alongside First Baptist Church of Kokstad, running Holiday Bible Club (VBS) for 108 kids and ministering in a variety of ways in order to share the Gospel with those we met. It was exciting to see the faith of our youth grow as they relied on God to meet their needs of financial support and come to know Him as their provider! Even more exciting was the fact that we saw 53 people come to know Christ as their personal Saviour. Thank you for your prayers!

In September, 20 years ago, Word of Life South Africa was established and we were raising support to join the team. It’s amazing to look back on all that God has done and the blessings that we have experienced over those 20 years. One of the most recent blessings we have seen God provide is a Word of Life Property in Durban! There is a photo of the main house at the top of this letter. It is a large property (just under an acre) in the suburb we were living in previously, just minutes from our South African home church. We are amazed at how God supplied the funds for the property so quickly, overwhelming us with His faithfulness. The purchase was finalized last month. We have quite a bit of renovating to do to be able to meet the ministry’s needs, but we are confident that God will provide in His perfect timing. The first renovation on the list will be to replace the 30+ year old asbestus roofs on three of the buildings. We will share more photos on another blogpost. If you would like to be involved in giving toward the property project, you can do so online by going to this link or contact us directly and we can give you more information.