We were asked to put together a 5 minute video to provide an overview of our experience with Thrive. We showed it at King Street Church in all three services and had aprox 1,700 view it. Amber, Jenn and I (Tyler) met with people after the services to answer questions. You can view the video by following the link: Africa Final
Our team was featured on the Thrive Website. To read the post, check it out here
It is Sunday and we have been in the States for 2 days now. We are recovering from Jet Lag and slowly unpacking and starting to share our memories. We continue to pray for the people of South Africa and think of ways to continue our support of the ministry while back in the states. We will continue to update the site with updates from the field and what we are doing. We look at the trip as the beginning of our ministry and not the end of our IMPACT.
We thank each of you for your support and prayers as we spent these two weeks ministering. It was an amazing experience that while continue to IMPACT our lives.
Please pray for the other half of the trip tomorrow as they head back from Cape Town and make there way back to the U.S.
On Thursday after the morning game drive we packed up and started the 2 hour drive back to Johannesburg. The trip went quickly until we hit traffic due to construction for World Cup 2010. We sat and sat and watched as the workers slept on the job, making us wonder what the hol up was 
Once we made it to Jo-Burg, Jenn dropped us off at a market where we got to spend our money and by some items to remember the trip by. After two hours of shopping, we all loaded into the van and headed to the airport. We parked in the parking garage and we repacked all of our new souvenirs into our suitcases. We then headed into the airport.
Four of us (Tony, Trevor, Bonnie and Jeanette) were heading back to the U.S. while the other four (Tyler, Jenn, Amber and June) were heading to Cape Town for a weekend or R & R before heading back to the U.S. We ate out last meal in South Africa and said our farewells to Jenn (from Thrive) and checked in our bags and went through Security. We did some last minute shopping in the airport and bought some World Cup Memorabilia then boarded the plane for our 16 hour flight back to the U.S.
On Wednesday morning we said farewell to our new friends at Thrive and the base. We packed up and headed 5 hours through Johannesburg to a 6000 acre game park. The drive was fun and we got to see a lot of new things. We drove through two provinces to get to the Mabula Game Lodge. When we arrived we unloaded our things and went to eat at a delicious buffet they had ready for us. It was very good and we got a special treat of ice cream for dessert.
After the meal we went back to our rooms to dress warmly for our evening Safari. We headed up to the game lodge at 3:30PM and met our Safari driver Sam, we loaded into the land rover and header out into the “bush”. The first few 15 – 20 minutes were uneventful as we drove around tracking animals. We drove into a large field where we spotted deer, monkeys, giraffe, rhinos, zebra and warthogs. After that the trip got interesting. We drove around for hours and had the chance to see hundreds of animals. One of the highlights was getting to see a park of 9 elephants cross the road in front of us.
As the sun began to go down we started to head back to the lodge where we had another delicious meal then we header back to our room to play a game and head to bed. We had to be up early to leave for our morning Safari at 6AM. We all slept well in the heat.
at 6AM we got a cup of tea and some cookies and loaded into the Land Rover for the morning drive. We header straight to the lion park to try to spot them, sadly after a hour of looking we did not get to see them, however, it was okay because we got to see them the week before at the Lions Den. We headed back over to the regular game park and saw hippos, cape buffalo, and many other animals. One highlight that we saw was a bird with over 10 different colors on it, it was truly beautiful and a reminder of God’s Creativity. After a fer hours we headed back to the lodge to eat breakfast, pack up and head back.
Today was our last day of ministry. It was a bitter sweet drive to Interbazwe for our last day. After some prayer time and photos with our interpreters we headed out to a new area of the city. We stopped by a house that was across the street from a supermarket and Amber and June began talking to a lady who was in her kitchen. She spoke English and was very interested in the United States. After a few minutes she invited us in and we spoke about her job and family. After an hour or so people stopped by and she said she had to leave so we prayed for her family and left. We went a few doors down to Issac’s and Samson’s house. Samson was an older man and had suffered a stroke. Issac was his son and worked at a local freight hauler. Issac had to leave for work shortly after we stopped in, but we were able to talk to Samson for awhile about his faith and family. We opened scripture with him and shared some favorite passages as well as the gospel. He shared that he attended a church and had prayed for salvation earlier in life. After encouraging him with a few more scriptures we went back to Togo’s house, a lady we visited the first day of ministry. She had expressed interested in teaching children at her church, but lacked lesson plans. The Thrive staff had provided some resources and we dropped them off and explained how she could use them.
During Children’s ministry we started off slow but built to our biggest day yet, over 100. We had singing with puppets and game time. Amber shared the story of the fiery furnace and the rest of the team acted it out. We also had Abram share the gospel in their language and give an invitation. Many hands went out and he led them through the prayer for salvation. The day ended with a game and the handing out of balloons, which the children loved.
It was then back to base for a short walk around and packing. The people of Interbazwe will always be on our hearts.
This morning we visited a day care center. As we arrived the kids were playing outside and so we had the opportunity to play and share with the 1-5 year olds. They had short times of instruction by the teachers. I was struck by how similar the topics of instruction were to what kids this age would be learning in the US…days of the week, seasons, months, numbers, letters. Play continued 0utside and we had some opportunity to talk with the teachers. They gave us a tea and bread. There was approximately 65 kids at the daycare.
The afternoon of children’s ministry started with only a few kids, but slowly our number grew to around 60 kids. School was back in session this week (after a week of winter break) and so some of the kids were a little late because of school letting out. We sang songs and danced! We did a puppet show to the story of Joseph. The kids really enjoyed the puppets and were so attentive! It amazes me how well they listen and remember the answers from the story.
It was a long, but good day with kids!
Submitted by Jenn Roberts
Today our team had the opportunity to worship along side a national church in Interbawze. After a breakfast, we headed into Interbawze to invite the families we have been visiting with. Our group was able to find every home we had visited and invited them to church. Church started at 11 with praise songs in both Soestho and English. There was greeting and welcoming with hugs and dancing. After an hour of praise songs there was and offering, choir number and testimony time. The message was from Ephesians on being God’s chosen people. The message was in English with translation in Soestho. There was then more singing and praying. The whole service lasted more then 2.5 hours and was very high energy. At 1:30 we headed back to base for some lunch then a hike up Mount Everest. It was a guided hike with over 1,000 ft of elevation. There was some great views from the top and the team had a great time.
God is doing amazing things in South Africa! Thrive Africa is a very professionally run organization with people who are excited to share the love of God with the people in the surrounding villages. We are becoming so comfortable with the South African people as well as the ministry staff. We have had many opportunities to share scripture and talk with people about Jesus. It’s amazing how open people are to hearing the love of Christ! We are every day surprised by the willingness of the people to share and hear from these ‘white-people.’ The people here are hungry for the truth and we are so excited to share with them!
Weekends are a time of unrest and funerals in the villages and so today we did not go into Intabazwe for ministry. Our much needed day off was spent at the Lion Park. We arrived at the lion den and got to hold lion cubs! They were so cute, although definitely lions because they were eating a deer carcass! We also traveled on a safari jeep and got to see other wildlife. It was fun to ride in the open vehicle and see all kinds of animals that we do not have at home. We saw lions, tigers, and wild dogs (in cages…thank goodness!) as well as a few zebra and more ‘deer-like’ animals. We ate lunch at the restaurant. After a busy and fun day of experiencing more of God’s beautiful creation we went home.