Team at Pilanesberg

From left to right, Wilfred, Bill, Julius, Wanda, Mitch, Meredith, David, Trish and John.

Hippos at Pilanesberg

After a busy schedule of missions activity, yesterday we enjoyed an outing to Pilanesberg National Park and Game Reserve with the leadership team of Hope Baptist Church. We saw a great variety of wildlife, including this family of hippos. We worshipped God's beautiful creation and wondered aloud what He was thinking when creating the wildebeest and warthogs!

Certificate Ceremony

Here is one of the members of Hope Baptist Church receiving her certificate of attendance from Pastor Julius at Saturday's Family Life Conference.

African Attire

Bill and Wanda also enjoyed dressing for the occasion on Africa Day.

Fellowship Center

The campus where Hope Baptist Church is housed has a very large Fellowship Center. Shown are members attending the church fellowship on African Day.

Africa Loves Food Fellowship Too

Just like home, the members of Hope Baptist Church enjoyed a church wide potluck lunch. John was the only one brave enough to try the worms and fried cowhide!

Praise And Worship

Meredith participated with the praise team in leading music for the African Day Worship service. She is shown here with one of the praise team members, Christine, who gave Meredith the beautiful dress she is wearing. This demonstrates the generous hearts of the members of Hope Baptist Church.

Sunday Worship

Mitch delivered keynote messages at the Wednesday Teen Conference, the Friday Evangelism night and the Sunday morning worship service. Several people prayed to accept Christ as their Savior again today, following the eight that did so on Friday night. Seated on the front row in their beautiful blue native dress are Pastor Julius and Cintia.

Sunday African Day Worship

Praise God that over 140 people were in attendance this morning to celebrate Jesus and have fellowship. This was declared African Day where members and the 20 or so first time visitors wore clothing from their native countries. Countries represented included South Africa, Swaziland, Cameroon, Nigeria, Congo, Malawi and Burundi. Mitch delivered a powerful sermon regarding the fields being ripe for the Harvest and our need to see people as God sees them.

Family Life Conference Certificates

Wanda is shown here signing certificates of attendance for the Hope Baptist Church Family Life Conference. Over 70 participants were very excited to receive these certificates, each having their names called out as in a graduation ceremony.

Trish Working with Children

During the Family Life Conference, Trish and Meredith led the children in crafts and a story of Joseph in Egypt. About 15 children were there while their parents participated in sessions on The Five Love Languages and Honoring God in All our Relationships. John and Mitch provided excellent help with the children while Bill and Wanda were in presentations.

Single Women Discussion Group

Meredith and the single women had a breakout group on Saturday discussing honoring God in their relationships. Over 70 people attended the Family Life Conference.

Single Men Discussion Group

At the Family Life Conference on Saturday, John led a discussion group of single men on the topic of sexual purity.

Thursday Night Prayer Service

Praise God that over 65 people attended the Thursday night prayer service, including 7 first time visitors. We shared an evening of singing, Bible teaching and prayer. Pastor Julius shared a message on the Harvest is Plentiful and that during the month of November, there will be great emphasis on seeing a miraculous harvest in Sunnyside! We ended with individual prayers for members of the church who have special needs. Today we will continue prayer walking and prepare for our evangelistic service tonight. Thank you for your notes of encouragement and prayers.

Streets Lined with Jacaranda

Pretoria is known for its boulevards of Jacaranda. This is one the streets behind Hope Baptist Church. The color is dazzling and hard to imagine.

Prayer Walking in Sunnyside

Pastor Julius and team spent Thursday morning passing out flyers and inviting people to our weekend activities. It is apparent that many false religions are spreading rapidly in South Africa and it is critical that we proclaim the true Gospel to the lost. We are looking forward to joint prayer sessions this evening as the cell groups combine once a month.

Bill

Celebrating God

Wonderful celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ in Sunnyside!

Teen Rally On Wed Afternoon

Some of the young college students with Meredith and Wanda prior to start of Teen Rally! Pray that God will move among the many in attendance.

An Ideal Facility and Location

Photo of the local church where Hope Baptist Church shares space. This is an ideal location at head of main thoroughfare Sunnyside. We prayer walked this morning and handed out flyers for the week's activities.

Greetings from Pretoria

After a long but successful day of traveling, we have made it to Pretoria. Praise God that all of us plus luggage made it safely. After arriving and checking through customs, we were excited to be met by Julius and two other leaders of Hope Baptist Church. The sun had gone done by the time we rented our passenger van and drove the 45 minutes from Johannesburg to Pretoria. We checked in our rooms and were blessed by Cintia with a wonderful salad and refreshments. The team has already spent an hour discussing our strategy for the week, with special focus on the teenage rally planned for tomorrow afternoon. We will be prayer walking tomorrow morning prior to the youth rally that will take place from 3-5 pm. Thanks again for lifting us up in prayers.

Team in Atlanta

Sharing Happy Birthday cookies with Mitch!

Team At Sky Harbor

John, Trish, Meredith, Wanda and Bill

Made it to Atlanta

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,
We made it to Atlanta right on time and have already met up with Mitch. Getting ready to board our 15 hour flight to South Africa. Thanks to Pastor, Nancy, Keith, Dave, Mona and Kathi for seeing us off this morning. Looking forward to seeing God move in a mighty way this week!

Our Team from FSBCS Scottsdale, AZ

Team members are John Herr, Mitch McDonald, Bill Bagwell,

Trish Herr, Wanda Bagwell, and Meredith Bagwell

October 2012

Packed and Ready

Our team has had an exciting day preparing for our trip to South Africa.  At our Sunday morning worship service, we were blessed by a wonderful commissioning ceremony.  It was a very emotional and Spirit-filled time for us.

After much prayer and preparation, we will be meeting at the Delta ticket counter Monday morning at 7:45.  Our flights will take us to Atlanta and then Johannesburg, where we arrive Tuesday evening following a 15 hour flight.  

We ask for your prayers for safe travels and rest during our lengthy trip.  Mitch will be joining us in Atlanta following a weeklong mission in Dominica.  Please pray that all our connections and coordination with Mitch goes well.  Also pray that our suitcases with supplies for the Family Life Conference arrive safely.

We look forward to an exciting week of prayer walking in Sunnyside and working at a youth rally on Wednesday evening, a prayer meeting on Thursday evening, an evangelistic service on Friday evening, followed by a Family Life Conference on Saturday morning.  Finally we will enjoy worshiping with the Congregation of Hope Baptist Church on Sunday, with a special emphasis called African Day! 

If time permits, we will send an update tomorrow evening.

May God bless you, our team and our friends at Hope Baptist Church.