The beginning of our ministry

The first week of ministry began Monday, July 20th; which was a week earlier than Cedric was expecting. To say the least we dived right in. Typically the students meet every night for about 30 minutes for fellowship and songs. We are not there all nights, but are there most nights. Wednesday is the main night that Cedric preaches. Thursday is a night of prayer. Friday is one of three things: a time to answer questions on the weeks teaching, a time of games, or a movie night. It rotates weekly. Saturday is free unless they have an event during the day like a soccer game or an outreach to the local orphanage and then Sunday is an evening service for the students.
For our first week with the students we offered up our home for a braai or as we call it a “barbeque”. Most homes have a built-in braai that looks like a big chimney attached to the home. It’s very common to braai here and is seen as a social time. Also, once the meat is cooked it is traditional to eat it with your hands. See the picture below to see our braai.


Our braai





The night of our braai last Friday about 20 or so students came and it was a real time of fun and fellowship. We enjoyed a nice meal and played a name game to help us with the pronunciation of their names….to say the least we struggled. They loved it and we loved it. That night our house could be heard around the block for all the laughing and carrying on that we did! It was a great introduction to us getting to know them and vice-versa. See pictures below of our fun night.


Dinner with everyone


This is Muedanyi one of our student leaders.


The girls doing dishes to get out of playing games. The girl on the left is Mpumi. She is also one of our student leaders.


Zeni having a great time.


Stephen explaining the name game.


Two more of our leaders. On the left is Vuyo and on the right Nordeen.

We plan to do many more events in our new home and we just want to thank you for your amazing support to allow us to do so. The students within the ministry do not have means of transportation; so they very rarely are able to leave campus. Therefore it was a real treat for them. We’re praying that the Lord will use our home as a place of refreshment, fun, and as a safe haven. We even bought a dart board which is essentially a new concept to them. To give you an idea of these students transportation situation we were talking with a few girls the other night and they were telling us that their home towns are very close to the beach and that they miss the beach. I asked them how they could possibly miss the beach when there is a beach not even 20 minutes from campus. They said that it was because they have never been able to visit the beach here because they do not have a means of transportation to get there. We hope to change this for some of the students if not all of them!