South Africa

Michael and I are headed out on Thursday at 1pm for South Africa! We'll fly to DC first and then head over. It's going to be a LONG flight! The boys will be with both sets of Grandparents while we're gone. We're so thankful to have 2 sets of amazing parents that are willing to take care of our children for that long and that respect our wishes on how to care for them...very unusual and an extreme blessing!!! I don't think they'll miss us much at all because they are going to have a blast.
I'm really looking forward to our time there together, too. A team from our Atlanta region is there for 2 months and there is a Campus Outreach team in Johannesburg that we will partner with. Michael and I are staying with one of the families down there, The Kettermans.
The GT staff girl there this summer, Courtney, just sent this on her blog about what they've been doing and what they will be doing. We'll be with them the whole time we're there, so he's a sneak peek of our time there.

I can't believe we are 17 days in!

It feels like we've been here for months.

We now have a full week on campus under our belts and our learning curve has shot through the roof.

Last week was our first "typical" week on CCP.

Here's a look at our weekly schedule:

:: Monday - Theme Training, Campus
:: Tuesday - Small Groups, Campus
:: Wednesday - Theology Training, Campus
:: Thursday - Grocery Shopping, Campus
:: Friday - Ministry Training, Campus
:: Saturay - Cultural Excursion
:: Sunday - Sabbath

Our theme for the CCP is "All Things New", which comes from Revelation 21:5 were Jesus says, "Behold, I am making all things new."

So, each Monday we look at specific areas of life that Christ is making new. Last week was "New Creation" - 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, referring specifically to what happens when God makes a person new in Christ. Today was "New Leadership" - Mark 10:42-45. We addressed how Christ-centered leadership looks different than the leadership of the world. In the coming weeks we'll look at "New Bodies" - 1 Corinthians 15, "New Prayer" - Hebrews 10:19-22, and "New Mission" - 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

Theology training unpacks different systematic Biblical topics, helping us to understand more of who God is and how He works out His purposes in the world.

Ministry training is led by the Campus Outreach Johannesburg (COJ) staff and is a time to equip our team in how to minister to others and address the question of why we should give our lives to making Christ known.

Last week we were on campus each day from 3:00 to 10:00, meeting students and spending time with the COJ student leaders. Each student on our team has a partner and has been assigned to a specific res (dorm). The COJ staff have a game plan for each pair, either building on relationships they already have or meeting new students.

This week we're trying to go deeper with the students we met last week, praying that God will give us opportunities to get into spiritual conversations and share the Gospel.

Please pray God makes a door for us to share the Gospel clearly with these students and that He would save many while we're here.

This past weekend we went to a lion and rhino park and got to play with baby lions! We followed that with an awesome dinner at Carnivore... an all-you-can-eat domestic and game meat restaurant. We ate impala, eland (big antelope), wildebeast, and crocodile... plus all the normal fare. It was SO good!

This coming weekend we'll go to Soweto and check out homes where two of the COJ students grew up, then head to Pretoria for a CCP Vision Night with the other CCPs here.

Well, thank you so much for your prayers, please continue asking God to move in us and through us as we seek to share Jesus with these awesome students.