We regularly host teams from churches all over the U.S., and often connect with them through various friends or acquaintances, but just recently we experienced a divine connection.

A pastor at a church in California recently contacted us, and was interested in sending a missions team here in the fall. Because our internet crawls along at a snail’s pace, it’s sometimes difficult to keep in frequent contact with people, but this church was patient with our African internet.

Soon after their contact with us, the pastor shared an amazing story about how he’d found out about our ministry. The church itself is large, and has a good-sized missions program. They have missionaries going out all over the world, but recently decided that they all felt like God was calling them to Africa. A couple of the families specifically felt like the church was being drawn towards South Africa. With this exciting knowledge in their minds and hearts, they began looking for organizations with which they could send a short-term missions team to South Africa. For weeks they couldn’t find anything, and all possibilities kept falling through.

A group of them that were involved in this vision of Africa met in the pastor’s office and prayed for a door to be opened and clarity as to where they should go. Immediately afterward, the pastor went to check the church’s mailbox, and the only thing sitting in his box was a mailer from us! This was the very first time we’d ever sent out a mailer to churches that we weren’t connected with, and God utilized the opportunity at once! One line on the mailer stuck out to them instantly: Looking for a mission trip destination?

They contacted us at once with intense excitement and immediately began planning their trip to serve with us. We’re so thankful that God made that connection between the two of us, and are encouraged that there continues to be interest in the evangelization of Africa, even though fuel prices and plane tickets keep creeping upward.

The Frontline team is now gone, but they have left numerous changed lives in their wake. In the weeks to come there will be some incredible testimonies about their ministry in the villages online for you to be encouraged by, but until then I thought I’d explain how they impacted me.

Frontline was a college-aged team that stayed with us for almost 2 weeks, and in that short time span, I saw a powerful God in them. I guess you could characterize them by saying that they were on fire for Him, but that doesn’t do them justice. The one thing I valued most was the fact that they’ve gotten to a place that few others have, and even fewer at their age. Their lives have no boundaries; they haven’t compartmentalized their life to the point where the world and God never intermingles. In fact, God is in every aspect, but not overbearingly. It’s not like they came with something to prove; they just live in a way that reflects Him, that screams His name loudly with every breath, but is so unimposing at the same time.

In them I saw a promising future; something I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around for a long time. Even though the Church is constantly growing and that means that there should be even more people for the mission field, we’re plagued daily by reports of how poorly our youth are growing up. We’ve seen growth in missions, but nothing like the growth in our modern world. But they proved, in a week and a half, that young people do have the potential to change this world. Not only do they have potential, but they are drastically changing the world already.

The team from Cornerstone began their relationship evangelism this past Monday in Qwa Qwa, revisiting the same area that several had worked in the previous year. On the hour-long bus ride into Qwa Qwa, the team was incredibly focused on their preparation. I heard several people quizzing others on certain Sesotho words and others running over lists of questions to ask in the homes if they got stuck. Still others were running through Bible verses that addressed ancestral worship and ones that would encourage and give hope.

When the bus pulled into the courtyard of the school where the church meets, gobs of kids surrounded it almost immediately. As we got off, we had the attention of every child in the yard, and they were all asking for hugs and clamoring for our attention and love.

We then met our interpreters and got to know them through a game. The ministry group that I was with had the opportunity of meeting a young married couple the first morning, and spent the better half of the day simply getting to know them and their culture. We promised them that the next day, Tuesday, we would come back and plant a garden. They were thrilled with the fact that we were willing to do that for them. Tuesday morning we went to their house first thing, and the wife Anna was beaming when she saw us. We planted a small garden in the front of her house, and ended up leading her and a friend of hers to Christ! It was incredible to see the gravity with which God moves in each and every situation, and how a simple vegetable garden can open up priceless opportunities.

The Cornerstone Church missions team will be here in just a few days and preparations for their arrival have been underway for a while now. While they’re here they’ll be involved in relationship evangelism, and a few of them will be speaking at our Leadership Day on April 21st.

It’s exciting to have teams come through because it gives us an opportunity to hear what’s going on back home and to get to know a whole new group of people. A few members of this team are getting the opportunity to speak at our Leadership Day this next Monday. The Leadership Day hosts over 300 students from 17 schools and is focused on building the students’ leadership abilities. While a few of the team are speaking at the event, the others will be going house to house in relationship evangelism.

I’m excited to meet this new team and even more excited to see the fruit that they will not only reap, but have the opportunity to benefit from as well.

We had a team of young people from Willow Creek Community Church (Barrington, IL) spend a few days with us over Easter weekend. They attended a special Easter service in Intabazwe, did some maintenance work at Limakatso Disabled Center, and visited people at the hospital Easter morning.

They painted, replaced windows, and planted a garden at the Disabled Center. The children are on school break right now so they will be very surprised and excited to see the work the team accomplished when they return. Everyone at the hospital was overjoyed to have visitors on Easter Sunday. The team was able to share the hope and joy of the risen Savior.

Although their time with us was very short, their impact will remain forever.

Zion arrived here for a mission trip with his church with the hope of finding his self-worth. But he ended up gaining a truth far more integral to God’s Kingdom than his own self-understanding. He’s realized that it’s not about his worth anymore, but about helping others find their worth in Christ.

Zion came to understand that the desperation he sees in a Mosotho’s eyes is the exact same as what he sees in the girl that walks beside him in school every day—their pain is merely veiled differently. This experience has opened his heart wide to see a hurting world that’s sitting directly in front of him. As he talks about the children and how they exude so much more joy than children anywhere else, his heart still pains at the fact that when you look closely into their eyes, you can still see hopelessness and that when they run to you for love, it’s a run of desperation.

He had the distinct opportunity to teach some of the children part of a song he wrote called “I Belong to You”. The song focuses on belonging solely to Christ and having a distinct place in Christ’s heart. They welcomed him back the second day by flocking to him and singing the chorus of the song he had taught them the previous day. Even though he realizes that they might not entirely understand what they are singing, it’s incredible to hear them speak those words over their lives. They belong to God.

Zion’s team came across Agnes, an elderly woman, on the very first day and began tentatively cultivating a relationship with her. As they discovered more about her, she told them that several years ago she was struck by a car and had been left with knee injuries. Her age and ailment was striking a blow to her Christianity. She spoke about how she was a Christian and that she believed in God, but that her strength in believing in Him was quickly waning. Before they left that first day they prayed with and over her, for both healing and strength. When they revisited the second day, she was thrilled to see them and share the praise that her knees were no longer hurting and that she had found new strength within her to trust God.

Relationship evangelism at first frightened Zion unbearably, but now is nearly natural. He remarked how in America it’s not possible to do door-to-door evangelism because people won’t even answer their door. It takes years to disciple and grow the same relationship with Americans as it does for South Africans in 3 days. Zion summed up his trip so far with this statement: “Each of us came to give as much as we can to these people, and yet we find ourselves receiving so much more than we could have ever imagined or hoped for.”

We host mission teams throughout the year, and our team of interpreters makes relationship evangelism possible for them. Rabele, one of our staff translators, was reminiscing about a ministry time last year with a team from Kensington Community Church (Troy, MI).

When we got to the house, we saw that the people in the home were in pain because they recently lost a loved one. It was very hard, but God gave us wisdom to encourage and minister to the family.

We sang with them, and while we were singing they cried and said the song reminded them of the person who had past away. The mission team members read some verses to give them hope.

The family was happy to have us in their house because we inspired them and put hope into their hearts. The team prayed with the family and we left the house in peace. It is an honor to minister to my own people alongside the mission teams.

The team from Kensington Community Church (Troy, MI) was our last mission team for the year. It was amazing to see God transform the team members’ lives as they stepped out of their comfort zone. They focused on sharing Christ’s hope and love through relationship evangelism. Through the team’s openness and obedience, God was able to use them to touch many lives.

One team member shared:

“God opened my heart to Him even more through a land and people much different than my own. I trust that God is continuing the work He started through us and will accomplish His purpose for the people of Qwa Qwa.”

Africans love to dance! And what better way to spend a lunch break.

Learn more about what’s it like bringing a team to Thrive Africa.