An IMPACTful Final Month!

     This month we have been serving with Impact Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa! This is our last month of the Race and it has been such an incredible ministry to wrap up this adventure with. Impact Africa has 5 branches of their ministry: missions, kids, students, outreach and baby rescue. We have had the incredible opportunity of helping and serving in each of these areas!

IMPACT KIDS:
    Each Friday Impact Kids hosts a VBS like program for kids in the communities and squatter camps in two different locations across the city. We invite and gather kids around the community, dance with them, play games and teach them Bible stories and memory verses. The kids get so excited every week and it is so much fun and so encouraging watching their faith grow and their love for the Lord.

IMPACT STUDENTS:
     Twice a week we wake up at 5 am and leave for ministry at 6:15am to lead assemblies in the local schools. We dance with the kids, teach them the gospel and talk about real subjects such as bullying, anger, addiction and suicide. At our first assembly we participated in over 1,800 students attended. Last week several hundred students gave their lives to the Lord after hearing the gospel message and it was awesome watching God touch their hearts and move in their lives and their school.
    Impact has two preschools as well where they educate and care for students. Their interns spend time weekly in the schools teaching and assisting.

OUTREACH:
     Several days of the week we go into the local communities and squatter camps doing evangelism and going to people’s homes sharing the gospel, praying for them and encouraging people in their faith while also serving them with any practical needs that we can such as laundry and cleaning. We spend several hours talking with people, learning their stories and sharing our faith with them.

IMPACT BABY RESCUE:
   One of my favorite ministries is Impact Baby Rescue. This branch of the ministry was started about 10 years ago and they now have 2 baby homes, 3 baby safes (anonymous places where people can place their infant and a staff member will pick up the child and take them to a clinic for medical attention and then a baby home), provide free parenting and crisis pregnancy counseling and support families and their children in the communities. Impact Baby Recue was created to save infants which are aborted or abandoned in the communities. On average 3 babies are dumped in Johannesburg each day and are dumped in garbage bins, toilets, rivers or on the side of the road where animals get to them. This tragedy occurs oftentimes due to poverty, families being unable to care for their child or unwanted pregnancies. There is a spike in frequency of abandoned infants end of November and through December because Johannesburg is a transient community and the majority of people return to their home countries throughout Africa in the month of December.
     Our ministry this month with Impact Baby Rescue has consisted of us building awareness of the program through handing out flyers and having conversations with people in the communities and at medical centers. Each day we hand out hundreds of flyers and share about important alternatives which will save many infants’ lives. Last week two hours after we had given a presentation at a local clinic a newborn was dropped off at the new baby safe. Since the start of this program over a 100 infants have been rescued from abandonment!

     I have loved serving in ministry here this month. Impact Africa does ministry in such a beautiful, honoring and sustainable way. We serve daily with their large national team and interns and it has been such a wonderful community and season of serving!

     In other news, I come home in less than 2 weeks! This year has both flown by and yet feels like it’s been filled with several lifetimes  at the same time as I’ve lived and served in 10 different countries this year. Tomorrow is our last official ministry day with the Race and then we have a couple days in Cape Town to adventure and celebrate as a squad and finally we travel back to the states for debrief in Georgia. I am so excited to be back home with my friends, family, church and community and at the same time I’m sad to be ending this season and saying goodbye to my squad. I love them! They are truly some of the most incredible people I have ever met and it has been such an honor and joy to serve with them this year.
     As always, thank you so very much for supporting me and partnering with me on this journey! Please be praying for God’s blessing on our final day of ministry, our time in Cape Town, Debrief and all the traveling that comes with it. Pray also for the emotional and mental health of everyone on our squad and the transition we will be going through coming back home. Thank you!