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!

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. 

Joburg SMASH 2019

Here is a quick video from our SMASH trip last week! 

We will write an update to go with it soon. Watch this space!

March Hawkins' Headlines

Here's a quick update from WOL Durban! We are surviving a hot, humid summer and enjoying being busy in ministry.

Brad has been busy preaching and teaching in local churches. He has had quite a few opportunities to fill the pulpit for local pastors. Also, he has just started training the youth leaders from a church new to Word of Life and there are two other churches almost ready to start training. Between training new churches and keeping up with discipleship of those using Word of Life materials, it keeps him on his toes!

Our Timothy Discipleship Program has been moving along nicely, meeting once a month with 3 young men. We now have a group of young ladies ready to start! It is so thrilling to see young people serious about growing in their faith and becoming more Christ-like.

Excitingly, the property project is moving along nicely, with all of the progress being paperwork. We are ready to see some visible changes to the property, but we know that having plans engineered and submitted properly are an important foundation! The building plans will be submitted at the end of this month, and hopefully, they will be approved quickly so that as soon as funds are available we can start on the first building project. Please contact us if you would like to give toward this project. We will post pictures on our blog, as well as on Facebook.

Mary has just finished teaching a term of Ladies' Bible Study at church on Spiritual Gifts. It is always a pleasure to teach the Word of God. She continues to homeschool Marissa (Grade 11) & Mya (Grade 6), as well as running the children’s youth at church, and serving on the worship team. Recently, Mary has applied to Calvary University to complete her Bachelor's Degree in Biblical Counseling! Please pray for wisdom and time management. We have seen such a need for Biblical Counseling in our ministry here in South Africa, and she is so excited at the opportunity to help meet this need.

Currently Brandon is on spring break from his sophomore year at the Word of Life Bible Institute (WOLBI). He has the privilege of going to Taiwan on a 10 day missions trip with his classmates from April 18-28. You can find more details at http://give.wol.org/bhawkins. He will finish his academic studies at WOLBI in May. During the summer, he will spend 8 weeks in ministry at the Word of Life Camp in Florida.

In South Africa, coming up next on our calendar is BattleZone Camp March 28-30 - a short camp to prepare our teens for the battle of living for Christ in their daily lives. Subsequently, on 11 May, we have Kids’ Fun Day. This is a great evangelistic opportunity that we run for our churches to bring children and their unsaved friends. Please pray that both of these events run smoothly and God is glorified.

2018 S.M.A.S.H. in Review

Durban SMASH 2017

Brad at the Opening Session

Thank you for your prayers for our recent SMASH Camp (Students Ministering and Serving Him). We had a total of 29 youth and leaders involved, and we had an amazing week, both in ministry, and sitting under the teaching of our country director, John Page.

Quillan, William & John Page

It is so exciting to see the faith of the teens and young adults grow as they raise their support, come away from the world to focus on the Word of God speaking into their lives, and step out of their comfort zones to serve others.
We had the opportunity to volunteer at a local home for mentally challenged residents, Horizon Farm. We also spent some time doing work projects on the property for the church that hosted us, Grace Baptist Church, Queensburgh. They worked hard, ministering to the residents, and serving there and at the church. A lot of physical work and it was HOT!

A small part of our team prepared songs, lessons and crafts and interacted directly with the residents at Horizon Farms. What a blessing to see our youth learning from them as the residents served each other happily, despite whatever physical or mental limitations they might have. We learned so much from them!

The students also had the opportunity to learn how to share the Gospel clearly, and how to effectively share their personal testimony. These sessions were taught by John Page and some of the young adult leaders in our group.

Brandon teaching about Evangelism

On Saturday, we joined up with the children from Grace Baptist Church, Queensburgh, and headed over to Flame Lily, a local retirement village. We were able to had out chocolate covered marshmallow Easter eggs and invitations to the Good Friday service. We sang to the residents, and were able to interact with the residents, giving hugs and smiles, and hopefully brightening a few people's days.

October Hawkins' Headlines

Please click on the newsletter below to read!

SMASH Update

We are so excited to share with you about our recent SMASH trip! SMASH stands for Students Ministering And Serving Him, and is a missions trip for local teens, providing them an opportunity to raise support and serve God right here in South Africa. This years’ SMASH team headed to First Baptist Church of Kokstad, about 3 hours from Durban.
On our team, we had a total of 21 youth and leaders from 5 different churches. We ran an Holiday Bible Club (HBC or VBS) for the church, did work projects around the church property, helped out at a soup kitchen, as well as a small amount of street evangelism. We saw over 40 people commit their lives to Christ.

Our first day of HBC we had 30 children, and every day the group grew until, on Friday, there were 103 children!

We started every day around the Word of God in personal devotions, and ended every evening gathered around the Word in corporate study and worship. It is such a privilege to see how God is using His Word to change the lives of His people!