This is from Phil Humbert serving in South Africa.
Dear Friends and Family,
“For I am not ashmaed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for Salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ Romans 5:16-17
Greetings once again from South Africa! It’s good to finally find the time to send out another letter, and I hope that this letter finds you doing well. We’ve just recently returned from our week off in CapeTown, and what an unforgettable experience that was. It was a great week of relaxing and exploring some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Thank you for your prayers during this time! Our team really had a wonderful time during this week, but in the end I think we were all ready to get back HOME! Also, while we were in CapeTown we got the opportunity to visit a ministry which is in it’s beginning phases. The ministry is called ‘Monte Cristo’, and was funded and started by a fortune 500 buisness man from California. They own a tract of land that I believe is about 250,000 acres off the side of a mountain, which they will be converting into a camp, retreat, seminary, and conferece center. It was exciting to see their vision, and we got to spend a couple of day s with them before heading to CapeTown. We also had the opportunity to visit some local youth ministry outreaches. One of these outreaches was at a youth pastor’s barber shop. He converts his shop into a safe place for kids to come in off the streets on a friday night. There was a DJ, people were break dancing, group games were played, and there was a message shared from God’s word at the end. Let me say I have never experienced anything like that before, but it’s not something I will soon forget!!
We have just started our next learning posture, which is the ‘inviting’ posture. In this posture we are looking at what is God’s invitation for all people, and also how we can be inviting in our lives as Christ followers. During this time we are reading through and studying the book of Romans and the other Epistles, as well as reading a book entitled “A New Kind of Christian” by John McLaren. So for the next several weeks we will be diving into these things and exploring the idea/concept of what it means to live a ‘tasty’ (inviting) life.
Let me catch you up to date with my local ministry involvements! First, I must be honest in saying that I have not gotten involved in the children’s home/safehouse. I felt challenged by God and some of my leaders here to really invest my time and efforts into developing relationships with the local street kids/homeless. This is such a challenge for me, because it stretches me in ways I have never been stretched! I find it extremely difficult to relate and even communicate with these kids. There is a huge language barrier and obvious cultural differences. At this time I really feel called to just BE with them, to spend time with them, and make efforts to get to know them better and learn their stories. I’m still serving them meals once or twice a week in the evenings and setting up soccer games to play with them, but my biggest desire is really to just BE among them. Please pray with me that I would better understand these kids and that I would s omehow be able to relate to them.
I am still involved at the university here with one of my american team mates(Deric). We are currently going to the university on Wednesday afternoons and meet with a small group of students. This time has primarily been focused on sharing our stories and encouraging one another through fellowship and discussing challenging biblical topics and processing through them together! It’s been awesome to see some of the friendships and relationships that have developed as a result of this time. Also, Deric and I are still involved in the volleyball program as well, and have been able involve some of the guys from the team in our discipleship time!
Currently I am working on putting together a VBS type of event for the young kids in the local area here. I’ve still got a lot of work to do in preparing for this, but I am excited about it as I know this is something that God has placed on my heart since I have been here.
As always I would like to leave you with a couple of interesting South African facts:
1. They didn’t have Television in South Africa until 1978….The frist TV show that aired in South Africa was Dallas!
2. Our elevation here in Pretoria is roughly the same as Denver, almost a mile high!
3. Pretoria is the ANT capital of the world….At least I am convinced of this!
Please Pray For:
-Our team: Everyone has been getting sick lately- me being the most recent victim!
-My time with the street kids, developing relationships
-Our upcoming reflection weekend; June 10-12- Drakensburg Mountains.
-Thienus, a young guy that I just met…..He is really seeking the Lord right now, but just needs encouragement!
There is so much more that is happening here that I wish I could tell you about. Just know that God is doing some pretty amazing things in South Africa and I am so blessed to get to be a part of His work! Once again I just want to say how thankful I am to have such an amazing group of friends and family in my life! Your prayers, encouragement and support are such a huge part of who I am and what I do! Thank you!!
In His Hands
PHIL <>< Romans 15:5-6 106 Emily Hobhouse Ave, Pretoria North, South Africa 0182 012-546-9893
