For two weeks in late May/early June, 19 individuals from our home churches in North Carolina (our church: Grace Community Church) and Atlanta (Will’s church: Atlanta Westside Presbyterian) experienced a taste of what life is like in Mamelodi, South Africa, in service alongside our brothers and sisters at the Powerhouse Church.
Simply put: the trip was incredible. Admittedly, we are still processing what it means to have had friends from home here, seeing and experiencing for themselves many of the wonderful aspects of what we’ve loved about this year, namely the celebratory joy, emboldened faith and genuine community that we daily find alive among our friends at the Powerhouse; but I think we can speak for the Vision Trip team and say that what they experienced was both encouraging and equally challenging to their (and our) understanding of living out the greatest commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor.
In short, among the highlights of the two weeks were an impromptu dance party the night the Powerhouse hosted a welcome dinner, a day devoted to refurbishing homes belonging to widowed gogos (grannies) in the township, participating in the church’s feeding ministry/home visits to various hurting families throughout the community, a field trip to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, an all-day children’s party for 200-some eager Sunday School children, worship at the Powerhouse with everyone dressed in traditional tribal attire, a day celebrating and blessing refugees from Zimbabwe, prayer on the mountain, sightseeing in the beautiful province of Mpumalanga, sightings of the Big Five in Kruger National Park and meeting just-born Baby Nyathi. For the AR team, the success of each day felt like the fruition of many conversations and much planning; and for our friends at the Powerhouse, hosting the team, which constituted the largest group to visit the Powerhouse to date, proved very exciting and meaningful. For me and Nate, the trip was an answer to a request we first expressed more than a year-and-a-half ago: that our church would forgo sending care packages and instead send people in an effort to love us once abroad.
So, having said that, we just want to say thank you. Thank you so much to Grace Community Church for sending a bit of home to us here. The fact that you love us enough to so willingly send a team, and for your concerted prayers during the two weeks the team was here, means a great deal to us. Also, we know many people put in a lot of hard work in recent months to get the team here, and we’re really appreciative. Thank you, too, for everyone’s generous financial support—it served as such an encouragement to everyone’s faith that every penny needed was not only provided but exceeded, and we praise Jesus for this. Thank you to everyone who donated clothing and shoes for Zim Day (the collection of donations was overwhelming!); your generosity blessed so many people in need. Lastly, thank you keeping us all in prayer. Your recent prayers were met as God’s provision, protection and love were continually felt as the team was here—with the exception of a few people feeling sick now and then, we had no incident of major illness, theft, harm, accident or any other attacks from the enemy. We praise and give glory to our Father for so many reasons!
For our readers, over the next few days, we intend to feature entries authored by a few of our friends on the Chapel Hill team. Stay tuned, as I’m sure their reflections will be well-crafted and thought-provoking. In the meantime, check out Will’s blog for guest posts from a few of the Atlanta folks.
Lastly, if you are interested in the Scriptures the team studied during their two weeks here, we designed a schedule of morning devotions to align with each activity, project or field trip of the day. Everyone had the morning to individually mediate on the passages from Scripture, and on most days, we met together as a group to collectively discuss and pray. We prayed that the Lord would continually soften our hearts, so that our hearts would be prepared and able to receive what God was showing us in whatever we did each day. Throughout the week, He taught us more about His heart for those in darkness, the purpose behind His church and His sovereignty over the world. We learned more about the depths of God’s love for the poor and brokenhearted; more about God’s commands for His church to walk with those who are on the margins or who are hurt by injustice; and more from the example of brothers and sisters here who ask for and allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen them with courage to love their neighbors well.
Our continued prayers is that everyone came away from these two weeks understanding better the Lord in His perfect kindness, justice and righteousness, and eager to grapple with what that looks like applied to life back home.