Sunshine & Smiles Club

Since I have been home, I had the great blessing to be able to help start a new ministry through our Saturday Visitation Program at church.

This new ministry is called the 

SMILES & SUNSHINE MINISTRY

It consists of children ages 4- 12 yrs old.

While the adults & teens go out on door-to-door, follow-up, or bus visitation, 

we go out into the community or to one of our shut-in's homes.

Maybe I am really a kid at heart, 

but I greatly enjoy being a part of this ministry too.

Every week, we make encouraging cards for someone.

We practice our songs by the piano....

...or while Mr. Jim drives our bus to the next visit.

We talk....

...and we sing...

...until we get to the place we will visit.

We arrive at a shut-in's home with enthusiasm.

The children are excited to see someone that they have been praying for.

The group may sit around to fellowship for a while.

We share a little sunshine through song.

Many times we like to play a game.

This is a Bible character charades game.

We got alot of laughs from this one!

Sometimes we get to see the people's pets.

(The children love to see 'Cocky" a cockateil)

The purpose of the S&S Ministry is not only to bring sunshine & smiles to the people we visit by being an encouragement, but the other purpose is for the children to learn how to share thier testimonies & how to relate to others.

We were so glad to have the opportunity to visit Mrs. Berry, 

before she went home to be with the Lord.  

We went to be a blessing and we all left blessed.

The other side of our ministry is to go out into the community 

to share the Gospel.

We have been to the local park, nursing homes and the local police barricks.

On the way home, we talk about lessons we can earn from the day's ministry,  have a challenge from the Bible and share testimony of how we saw the Lord work in the ministry we took part in that day.

I will miss these children, but am thankful for the lives we were able to encourage, the Gospel we were able to share, 

and the memories we have made together.  

I am looking forward to hearing reports from their new leader 

on how the ministry will continue on while I am in Zambia.

Mission's Conferece - Fisher's of Men

    

Mission's Conference was always a highlight of the year for me.

It was mostly because God was bringing me to the place where I am now.

He placed that burden for souls upon me and led me to serve here in South Africa.

I never imagined that I would be part of a Mission's Conference on my mission field.

Not that people across the world should not be burdened for souls, 

but because I guess I never really thought about it.

It was so exciting, as we decorated the church in anticipation for the week ahead.

In our church library, Pastor Jeff had a bunch of Bibles in other languages.  

We placed them among flags from countries around the world to remind us to pray for those taking the Gospel around the world.

Even the Junior Church room was decorate for the theme: Fishers of Men.

(To see how the fish are made click here.)

Our Mission's Conference was Wed- Sun August 21-25th.

We met each night for a shared meal together 

and then preaching from Ron Bragg (BIMI Africa director) via Skype.

Children showing their international costumes to Bro. Bragg

We heard some great & challenging messages about sharing the Gospel

 and being involved in world wide missions.

FRIDAY NIGHT : International Dinner

Friday night, each family decorated a table for our international dinner.

We had tables representing-

Mexico,

Greece,

and

China.

We all brought food from these countries - YUM!!!

(my favorite food was from Greece!)

Mexico table

Greek Table

China table (sorry, no pics with people sitting here)
To see how I made the China Lady click here.

Mission's conference was so much fun!

We had a great time of fellowship and were fed physically, 

but the best part is the spiritual food we received!

SATURDAY: To Every Creature Visitation

This was a special Saturday visitation

and we had another church join us to take the Gospel to Hillcrest.

(To read more about this visitaion day click here.)

In the afternoon, just as we finished the last street in Hillcrest,

the whole group sat down for a meal together.

You know, we are Baptists and that is what we do!

It was a blessing to serve the Lord together 

and then to have some time of fellowship together before the group left for home.

SUNDAY: Faith Promise Sunday & Junior Church Sings

As Sunday rolled around, we understood the great need for our faith promise giving.

Envelopes were passed out and prayed over all week.

We are thankful that our people learned this important principle of giving.

~~~

While I was on deputation, I found that many churches that I went to that did not have faith promise giving, were not able to support new missionaries and were themselves struggling to support the ones they already committed to.

Faith Promise Giving is a sign of a growing church.

A church that follows this principle will be a church with people who grow in their own personal faith in God, while becoming more and more burdened for the lost around them.

So many churches that do not follow this Biblical principle

 are slowly dying in faith and in attendance.

I am thankful to be working with missionaries who are teaching others 

that the Great Commission is a command for ALL of us!

~~~

Our Faith Promise Giving this year will cover all of the missionaries we currently support,

as well as, helping a little in some "one time" gifts to others that the Lord sends our way.

Below are videos of the Junior Church singing their Mission's songs

for the congregation on Sunday morning.

"Fishers of Men" in English & Zulu

"Tell me what a Missionary is" in English

To Every Creature

"And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

Mark 16:15

This was our theme verse for our "To Every Creature" soulwinning program.

In April, we had a special banquet to kick-off our new program.

After all, soulwinning is something to celebrate!

(to see how to make some of the banquet decor click here.)

Pastor Jeff, Robbin, Peter, & I practicing out theme song for the banquet.

The church came together to partake of a delicious meal,...

... and then we were fed spirtually.

Pastor Jeff shared soul winning quotes to stir our hearts for the lost 

and then he gave us a challenge from the Word of God.

As the quotes flashed across the screen, my eyes began to well up with tears. 

 It again brought back that "missionary's" burden for lost souls.

"To Every Creature" had three parts :

1- Instruction

2- Preparation

3- Presentation

Every Sunday night we would come together for evening service

 and "instruction" on how to win souls to Christ.

As a missionary, I have been through tons of these 

class type sessions on soulwinning.  

I am so thankful for my church and how they invested in teaching me.  

Now it was exciting to be teaching others on the opposite side of the world. 

 What a blessing to see new believers begin to grasp Bible truth 

and to hear newly memorized soul winning verses pass their lips!

Every Saturday around 10am,

the church would be busy with the "preparation" part.

We made so many memories together by putting together packets 

to hand out door-to-door in Hillcrest.

Then came the "presentation" part.

Our first goal was to reach people in our "Jerusalem"/Hillcrest.

Witnessing to a gardener

We went house to house taking the gospel to "every creature".

While some went door-to-door,

...others stayed behind preparing more packets to be sent out.

Each packet included:

 a New Testament,

 tracts in Zulu, English, & Afrikans,

  a map and letter from our church.

South Africa is diffarent from America,

we cannot go up to each house and knock on the door.

No, each house has a fenced yard with a huge gate surrounding it.

We were however, able to hand deliver each gospel packet 

into the mail box at every home.

Can't do this in America, but praise God, we can do it here!

The children helped.

Us ladies worked.

Pastor Jeff delivering packets

It was exciting to go to church every week to see the number on the wall to know how many homes we were able to get the gospel into.

As we reached our "Jerusalem", 

another church from an hour away came to help us reach their "Samaria".

We would highlight the map every time we finished a new road,

making sure we covered all of Hillcrest.

The number started at 1,319 in July,

grew to 1,718,

then grew more to 2,480 in August,

and finished at over 4,200 homes by September.

We are still praying that the Lord would bring people to the saving knowledge of Christ and that they would be added to the church.

 Acts 2:47 "Praising God, and having favour with all the people.

 And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."