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| A panoramic picture of part of the city of Pretoria from the Union Buildings on the hillside |
We began the day with a trip to the Union Buildings, which
is where the President of South Africa and his government officials work. It is
a beautiful set of buildings overlooking the whole city. 2nd only to Washington
D.C., Pretoria hosts the most embassies in all the world. Pastor Julius sees it
as a strategic launching place for the Gospel to be spread and then taken back
to all nations. We had a time of prayer for the city and what God was going to
do today.
After prayer (and pictures with the huge Nelson Mandela
statue, which was just erected here this past December after his death) we
headed to the church where we teamed up with several church member volunteers to give out
1,500 cards inviting people to Hope Baptist Church to come in the afternoon for
free glasses. We separated into groups
of 2 or 3 and walked up and down the main street of Sunnyside, Pretoria, which
was a bustling hub of activity with people everywhere. Pastor Julius suggested we visit the “salons”
and we wondered how few of those there might be in a half mile stretch of
road. Well, we learned that there are a
LOT of hair salons in Sunnyside and virtually all of them had business in full
swing on a Monday around noon! It was strange
for us, but neither the salon workers or the customers seemed to mind that we
walked right in and started talking to them about the event! Most people were quite interested and asked
us many times if the glasses we were speaking of were really free and many said
they would come. In addition to the
salons we talked to several people on the street and outside the shops and we
handed out most all of the cards, telling them to come to the end of the street
where the church building is situated, starting at 2pm.
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| The picture on the left shows people selecting a free pair of glasses at the beginning of the day and the right is toward the end of the day after most of the day's allotment was exhausted. |
After we found some lunch, we got back to the church where a
large blue and white tent was setup with music playing, and the people began to
come for their free glasses. Before they
were able to choose a pair of free glasses (sunglasses, prescription or
readers) they were asked to meet one-on-one with one of our team members or the volunteers
from the church. We introduced ourselves and gathered some information for Hope
Baptist to followup later, but we (your FSBCS team and the volunteer church
members from Hope Baptist) shared the Gospel today with approximately 200-300
people. We began many relationships and shared the best news they will ever
hear! God allowed many divine appointments and we were able to ask them how we
could pray for them and we prayed with them on the spot.
There is one story of God's miraculous working that we must
tell you. A lady came who spoke an obscure dialect. She sat with Mel Anderson
first, but they couldn't understand each other. Three team members from the church
came over at separate times to see if they could help translate but none of
them understood her either. Finally, the lady looked over at Mel again and said
"You help." They were then able to understand each other and Mel
proceeded to go through the information form we were following to communicate
with the lady. The other three church volunteers didn't know how they were
understanding each other. Mel said it was God at work!
We will continue the distribution of more glasses on Tuesday
and look forward to many more opportunities to meet and pray with people and
share the love of Jesus with them.
Stay tuned for what God will do tomorrow...
Here are a few more pictures from today (click once on the pictures to enlarge):
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| While at the Union Buildings, Pastor Julius had a run-in with some of the security staff -- they were asking for prayer!; and we all shared a time of prayer with these 3 and greeted and hugged them in the name of the Lord. |
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| Keith praying with one of the visitors |
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| After the first day of distribution, Kevin was asked to share a closing prayer with the volunteers from Hope Baptist |
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