Nearing the End in South Africa.

A lot has been going on since the last time I was able to update you! South Africa is still going great and I am having a blast.


Things on campus have been slowing down as exams are going on and students are beginning to go home for their break. We have had some rough days, but overall Paige and I have still been able to get some good quality time with girls to study the Bible with them, take them to our weekly meeting, and just continue to love and serve them. As a team, we have had 11 students come to Christ over the past 3 weeks, so it has just been awesome. God is moving in big ways on UJ-Bunting’s campus. If we leave South Africa and nothing else “good” happens while we‘re here, those salvations have made it worth everything for us to come.
Last Saturday we had a great excursion day. First, we went to an orphanage here in Jo-burg. We got to play with the kids while we were there and they were precious. It brought me to tears thinking about how these children don’t have earthly parents who love and care for them, but I was quickly reminded that what they do have is a perfect heavenly Father who loves them more deeply than any earthly father ever could. It was really hard to leave the children and I definitely would have taken one home with me if I could have! After the orphanage we visited Soweto, which is a township outside of Johannesburg. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Everyone is outside, there are kids running around everywhere, and everybody knows everybody. We definitely looked like a big group of tourists while we were walking around, but we did have a student with us who had grown up there, so that made it much better for us. It was a great cultural experience, and it was nice to be able to get out of the big city. That night, we went to a professional rugby game. It was the first rugby game I had ever watched and I really enjoyed it. Those of you who know me know that I love contact sports, so it was very entertaining for me to see them tackling each other with no padding or protection! J


This past weekend we had an another amazing excursion. We went to Swaziland in order to go to the wedding of an African couple who was involved with Campus Outreach when they were in college. (Swaziland is surrounded by South Africa, but is actually a different country. Another passport stamp- yeah!) We got there Friday afternoon and went to a market and a restaurant with home-cooked Swazi food. It was so much fun. Saturday morning we were able to visit a nature reserve where we saw a waterfall, a traditional Swazi village, and people performing traditional Swazi dances and songs. It was great to get a taste of their culture. The wedding was that afternoon, which was another great cultural experience. Swaziland is definitely the most beautiful land I’ve ever been in. It is covered with mountain ranges and open land that is gorgeous. I can’t describe it. I’ll have pictures up as soon as I can J


That’s all I have time for now! This is most likely the last time that I’ll have internet access until I get back to America. This coming weekend we have the JWC camp with the students, and then our team will be staying there at the camp additional days through Wednesday. We’ll be helping build houses in the township and hosting vacation Bible school for the children who live there. After we leave the camp, we will head to Krueger National Park for a safari. I can’t wait! I’m so looking forward to all of these awesome things that we are going to be doing. It’s hard to believe that exactly 2 weeks from today I will be on the plane heading home. Our time here has gone by so fast! Please just continue to keep us in your prayers as we finish out this awesome time in South Africa. Continue to pray for the students we’re reaching out to and for UJ-Bunting’s campus. The Lord has been so good to us while we’ve been here. For those of you whom I will see when I get back home, I so look forward to explaining my trip to you in more detail and sharing with you more of the great things that have happened! I love you all so much, I miss you, and you’ll be hearing from me again when I’m back in America! J

Love always,
Kim

A Little Glimpse of South Africa.

Pushing through in South Africa.

Hey everybody!
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated you all. We’ve been super busy here in South Africa and have had very limited internet access since we’ve arrived. I’ll try to update you on all the things that have been happening over the past couple of weeks!

• Things on UJ-Bunting’s campus have been still been going great. Over the past 2 weeks, we have had 6 students accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. God has blessed us far more than we deserve! The names of the students are: Melinda, Touch, Sné , Confidence, Patience, and Nicole. Please pray for them, that they would be bold in the decision that they’ve made and that they would be plugged in to a local body of believers.
• Pray for us this week as we close in on recruiting students for the JWC (Joint Winter Conference) that we have June 24-26. This is a conference that CO-Johannesburg puts on for students who desire to know more about who Jesus is and also for those who want to grow in their relationship with Christ. Pray that the barriers that students have would be removed and that they would have the desire to know Christ more.
• This past weekend was an awesome weekend for our team. On Saturday, we went to the Lion Park. We drove around the different “lion camps” and got to see lions, zebras, cheetahs, antelope, ostriches, and a giraffe. We also got to pet lion cubs and feed the giraffe. It was so much fun! For dinner, we had reservations at a restaurant called Carnivore. As you can tell by the name, this restaurant is famous for the meats they serve. The waiters come around to each person and give you pieces of all the different kinds of meat on the menu. They had around 10 different meats and it’s all-you-can-eat. Some of the meats we had were: impala, antelope, wildebeest, crocodile, lamb, buffalo, pork, chicken, and beef. I never thought I would try all of these wild animals, but I did! It was such a cool experience.
• For those of you who didn’t know, our van actually got stolen from in front of our house last Saturday, in the middle of the afternoon. We were also all at home when it happened. This was scary to us because it most likely means that someone had been watching us and scoping out our house. We were without a car for a couple of days, but thankfully we were able to get a replacement. The bad part is that we have to pay for what the insurance didn’t cover, which is around $3,000. Pray that we would be able to raise the funds that we need to cover that cost. If you want to give in any way, please let me know.
• Here are the names of the girls that Paige and I are really focusing on and ministering to: Lucia, Aphiwe, Linkie, Patience, Lerado, Londeka, Kamota, Neo, Toby, and Promise. It would be great if you could pray for them with me. Pray that they would feel loved by us and that we would be able to live out the gospel before them. Pray that God would draw them to Himself and that they would see that He is worth giving their lives to.
• Continue to pray for our team’s safety and health. A couple of our team members haven’t been feeling well, so pray that they would heal quickly and that the sickness wouldn’t spread.
　

That’s all I have time to write for now! I miss and love you all, and hope that I will be able to update you again much quicker than I have been able to. It’s hard to believe that I will be on the plane to come back home in just 27 short days. Our time here is going by very fast, so pray that we will make the most of the time we have left here.
Soak up some sun for me back in the States! J

Love always,
Kim