Liz's Birthday!

Hi Everyone!

Brian and I had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating my birthday. I can't believe we get to live in such a beautiful place right now and was so blessed to celebrate my birthday here. Brian took me down to a place called Simon's Town (a popular tourist place where hundreds of penguins live). We sat on the rocks in the sun and watched the penguins go about their day then walked through the town and had lunch at a wonderful seafood restaurant right on the beach.

I have the day off today and then will head back into the townships where my team is living and ministering. I taught in a seminar last week at one of the churches in the surrounding areas. We walked them through a week long study of an overview of the bible. The church members were so excited to learn things about the bible that they had never known to even exist! We ended the seminar on Saturday with a big Braai (South African bbq) with all the church members and our team. We have had such wonderful people to work with in all the churches we've visited and really feel like family to so many of them already!

Brian and I are doing pretty well balancing our two different trainings right now. I have been able to come back to Muizenberg quite often to see him and take part in his DTS. His school baked me a cake and had a little party with me yesterday, which was incredibly nice of them. I feel like i've really been able to bond with them even with me traveling back and forth so often, which will benefit us very much when we go on outreach together to Thailand in a month. I think we've had a lot of grace with trying to balance being in 2 places at once and it hasn't seemed overwhelming or too difficult on either of us, thank God.

We appreciate all of your support and prayers for us during this time! Thank you all for your notes and emails on my birthday! It helped make my day really special. We love you!

Relocating

Hello All! My team is here at the base in Muizenberg getting laundry done and repacking to go on to our next leg of outreach. We have just finished our 2 weeks of teaching at the first township called Zola and now we are getting ready to move into our new home for the next 6 weeks in a township called Philippi. We had a great experience during our first part of the outreach and saw a great response from all the people in the churches there. We are excited to see what this next part holds for our team and for the people of Philippi!

Each of our team members got many chances to teach and preach in the churches in Zola. We taught Bible Overview every evening during the first week and then my team taught the book of Colossians during the second week. We taught them how to study the bible for themselves as well and encouraged them not to stop here with the book of Colossians but to continue to study the other 65 books of the bible as well!

We had a wonderful lunch with the pastors and leaders yesterday to say good-bye and then many of the church members came over and washed our cars to bless us and say thank you. We were once again humbled by these people and feeling so blessed that this is what God has called us to!

Please continue to keep our team in your prayers as many of us are fighting a flu like bug and it makes it challenging when teaching and interacting with so many people to get the rest we need. We have been able to push through so far, so please pray for continued strength and healing on each of our team members. Thank you!

Liz

Asanta Village outreach (Liz)

Hello All! Greetings from South Africa. My team and I are living in a township here about an hour outside of Cape Town. We have been here for 10 days now and feel very at home. The people here are shocked to see foreigners living among them, as this has never happened before. We received many strange looks the first few days, as the people weren't sure why 'white people' were living among them. But, now they are becoming more comfortable with us and even greet us as we walk through the streets every day.

I preached at one of the churches here in the township last Sunday and my message was received very well. The church was packed, with people crowding in the door ways and windows! My team also taught Bible Overview every evening from Tuesday through Friday at two different churches. It was incredible to see how excited everyone was as they learned about the history of the bible and as they heard for the first time the plan of redemption that God had from the very beginning of time! We heard many different times that they had never heard teaching like this (even the pastor, who is in his 3rd year at Bible college here)! Praise God for the revelations to these people! The Pastor of the church was so challenged by our teaching, that he and the elders are beginning to change their church mission statement! I believe that God is planting seeds here that will continue to bear fruit for years to come!

On Saturday we had the people go into their community for a time of evangelism. The plan was to teach others all that they had just learned during the week, so that this was not just information for them, but to be shared with others. On Sunday 10 people came to church because of the day of Evangelism! How exciting! We have the day off today, and then will begin teaching tomorrow through Saturday, on how to study the bible inductively. I am truly excited to see what God does this week through our teachings. Thank you all for your prayers!
We love you and miss you all!
Liz