Where South Africa Left an Impact on My Heart

This is part of a series of 7 Answers About My South Africa Advocacy Trip. Yesterday I answered Why Did I Decide to Go On the Trip and What is an Advocacy Trip?

3. What impacted you the most?

The authenticity of the people serving God in South Africa was quite an impact on me. One young mom has left a high salary job to find ways to help these poor communities. She gave up everything career based and continues to give up her career as companies continue to beg her to come back and work for them. But she sees a need and she has a passion for it so she goes with it!

Another young dad, knew nothing about agriculture three years ago. Nothing. He started learning as much as he could, and planted 50 spinach plants in his own back yard. Why? Because he saw it as a way to use the gospel to reach people for Christ.

He is now training dozens of people in various communities, so they can grow their own crops, harvest them, save the seeds, and plant more seeds. They can then make more money selling the produce to the local community than if they would be a house servant or gardener in the city.

As he trains them in agriculture he disciples them and challenges them with quotes like,

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“If we are faithful with the land, God is faithful in producing a crop. Now that we are doing agriculture God’s way, what if we do marriage God’s way?”[/perfectpullquote]

4. What child impacted you the most?

Well let’s see, there was Terry, one of the 22 adopted sons of the African pastor we met. When we asked Terry what his vision for his life is, his response was that he wants to transform people. He didn’t mention anything about wanting to live in a big house, or make a name for himself, or pursue a career . . . these are answers I’d expect to hear.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”What I want to do with my life is to TRANSFORM PEOPLE,” he said.[/perfectpullquote]

Then there was the little girl who I gave a lunch to on Monday. I later found out no one knew her name or who she was. She was about 4 years old probably (although to me she looked more like the size of my 2 year old), and had just shown up on their doorstep that morning. They decided to let her join the small class of students for the day.

And then there was the first time we entered through the gates of the children’s church. About 400 students came running our direction and wanted hug after hug after hug. We hugged them with all we had and the first child hugged me so hard I almost fell over. I thought she was never going to let go, and I was overcome with emotion.

Obviously I can’t pick just one! 🙂

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We were very blessed to have Kyle Shultz, a professional photographer, as part of our South Africa Advocacy Team. A special thanks to him for many of these photos! Please visit his online photo school where he teaches parents to take photos that leave a legacy.

Tomorrow I’ll answer the last questions—how do they do church differently, what did you learn about prayer, and what was the hardest thing for you to understand?

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