CCP Update 2

Wow, what a WEEK. Today has been so awesome, just because I think many of us feel drained in so many good ways.

Monday was the first day of ministry in the dorms at the University of Witswatersrand (pronounced Vits-vaters-rand).  Jessica and I have been placed in the women’s dorm, Sunnyside, and next week we will begin splitting our time between Sunnyside and another dorm off campus.  I literally don’t think we could have asked for a greater start to ministry.  We only made it to one room on the first night; the first door we knocked on we met five first-year students, and they welcomed us in right away and we spent the next four hours talking to them and getting to know them.  Jess and I took them out for ice cream and then to watch the guys play soccer, and it was so cool to learn things about their lives and culture.  We got to speak to them about what church was like in South Africa and their beliefs, but we were not led to a gospel conversation our first night.

Tuesday night, we met another sweet girl who introduced us to some of her friends, and we again took them out for ice cream and had a really long conversation with them.  It was cool to see the Lord lead our conversation in a direction that provided us with a window to share with them, and that night we shared the gospel for the first time.  The girls were really open about what they believed and even talked about the ancestral worship that takes place here pretty frequently.  Wednesday night, we had a similar experience, and again were able to share the gospel with four girls.  Total, I would say Jessica and I met around twelve different first year girls this week and we spent a significant amount of time with each of them.  I think Jessica and I walked away each night feeling really drained from the intensity of our conversations, but incredibly fulfilled and excited to see that God had gone before us to prepare their hearts to hear from us.

Thursday night, we had our first “weekly meeting,” on campus, where the staff worker here, Tim Byrd, spoke on making Christ famous.  The room was pretty full and Tim really was a blessing to those of us there.  I was able to talk a little bit to a guy sitting beside me who had never been before, and he seemed really interested in what Tim was saying.

Last night was probably the biggest thing we have done since we have been here with the students.  We hosted a braai at our house, (a barbeque), and had about 120 people show up; we had been recruiting and inviting students to come all week and they all seemed really excited to meet the rest of our team and meet new people.

By the way, ginger beer seems really big here.  There’s no alcohol in it, but it tastes kind of funny. 

Sorry this is a short post, internet is weird and we only get on once a week.