August Prayer Letter

Here is a copy of our most recent prayer letter. Note that there are two attachments! There are two pages, one in each file.
You will need Adobe Reader to open the files. Click here to download free.

Brad, Mary, Brandon, Marissa & Mya
Word of Life South Africa

Attachment: Aug 2012.pdf
Attachment: Aug 2012 2.pdf

Prayer Update

After a busy 2 weeks with the Student Fusion team, they left to return to the US last Friday night. What an amazing 2 weeks of ministry! Here are a couple of links to pics if you are interested! Week 1 Week 2

Saturday night we were able to attend a dinner at Paseo Baptist Church. We have really appreciated their youth leadership, Derrick & Hadessah Martin Jones, and the friendship that we've developed with them. The youth from our church will be joining their youth this upcoming Friday night and we're looking forward to fun and fellowship!

Sunday morning Brad was able to visit Toekumsrus Baptist Church. Two of our Discipleship Training Center students are from this church, and the church also has an Olympians (Children's) program. It's always encouraging to worship with them!

Please pray for my friend, Memory, and her husband as their house burned down this week. They lived in a squatter camp and the fire took 2 lives and over 20 shacks. They have been told that they are not allowed to rebuild and they don't have anywhere else to go. It is winter in South Africa and there is supposed to be a cold front on it's way, and all they have left of their belongings is a mattress. Pray that God uses this situation to draw them closer to Him and that I can find an opportunity to share the gospel through this situation.

It's hard to believe that it is already August 1! That means 3 months and counting until the planned move date to Durban. There is so much to do!!! Please pray for us as we pare down some of our belongings and pack for the move.

Serving Him,
Mary, for the fam
Brad, Mary, Brandon, Marissa & Mya Hawkins

Micro F1 in Muldersdrift

Yesterday we had a Micro F1 (Hot Wheels Car Race). We had around 115 in attendance, and 24 decisions for Christ! John Cottier, an intern with Word of Life SA, shared the gospel, Steven Bongani Ndaba, a Discipleship Training Centre Student, translated and God changed lives!
Click here to view more pictures!

New Team Members for Word of Life South Africa!

Meet our new team members for Word of Life South Africa, Luke & Erin Lacey. Please pray for them as they pursue a support team.  They desire to be in South Africa by June/July of 2013.

Prayer Update

Thank you to those that have been praying for Brad's health! He was down this past week for 4 days with gastro, and finally feels like he got his strength back today, almost a week later! He's back in the office today playing catch up and preparing for Student Fusion to arrive on Saturday!
In his absence, John Cottier (an intern with Word of Life South Africa for 2 years) and I were able to teach a second Olympians Training to a church new to Word of Life, South Hills Church. We enjoyed our time of fellowship together with them, as well as seeing their excitement about implementing new changes that will facilitate discipleship with the children in their church!
Please pray for the Student Fusion team, as they are in training this week at Word of Life in Schroon Lake, NY and will arrive in South Africa on Saturday. They are a team of students from all over the US that are coming to help with the ministry in South Africa and Mozambique. Click here to keep up with the team!

Serving Him,
Mary, for the fam
Brad, Mary, Brandon, Marissa & Mya

S.M.A.S.H. Update

Thank you so much for your prayers for S.M.A.S.H.! We returned safely from Durban, and had an amazing week!
We had a total of 34 people on our team, and we stayed at a local church, Grace Baptist of Northdene. The church was gracious to let us stay there, even though they had their own HBC (VBS) every day. Each day we would get up early, pack up all of our things and attempt to make it appear as if we'd never been there before they arrived for a full program of ministry.
Then we split into two groups, one group ministering at Crossroads Community Church and the other at Ekukhanyeni Baptist Church. In the mornings we did all that we could to help them run their HBC, in total ministering to well over 330 children.
In the afternoons, still in our two groups at two churches, we worked on training the youth in the church in personal Bible study and evangelism. We even went out into the community and were able to share the gospel with numerous people.
We were excited to see, between the HBCs and afternoon evangelism outreaches, over 45 people make decisions to follow Christ!
In the evenings we gathered all of our team back at our base church and heard amazing, challenging messages from several Pastors and Missionaries in the area.
We are so grateful for those that allowed us to come and minister alongside them and poured themselves into those on our team: Pastor Mike Blackstock and Pastor Louis Fourie of Grace Baptist Northdene, Pastor Henry and Janet Houk and Pastor Bongani of Ekukhanyeni Baptist Church, Pastor Dennis & Violet Nkosi and Darin and Kathy Ishler of Crossroads Community Church. Thank you!

Prayer Update

Please pray for us as we prepare for a second ministry team, S.M.A.S.H. (Students Ministering And Serving Him) leaving for Durban this weekend! This will be a team of approximately 35. Brad and I will be on this ministry team, and Brandon, Marissa & Mya will be staying at our home with some friends.
Pray as we plan and prepare! Pray that all of the details will continue to fall into place smoothly, and pray that those on the team as well as those we minister to will have hearts that are open to God's teaching.

Serving Him,

Mary, for the fam