Hello

So much has been happening over here and the business of the ministry lifestyle has become my daily routine. It is crazy how many hours a week are spent at church ministering and in preparation for ministry. I was asked if this trip has been beneficial thus far and I must say it has been so much more than that! The practical experience and training I have received has been incredible, I think College can only do so much and has been so helpful, but nothing compares to practical experience.

I want to say a huge thank you for your prayer about my finances, I got a great response and God has truly provided for me. I am still about $250 short of the minimum I need for the rest of my time here, but am doing all right for now. It was great to see God come through for me and to see him work through people has been a huge blessing.

We have started up our Saturday church, with the purpose of moving the youth from our outreach on Friday nights into home cell groups and church on Sunday morning. Since so many of our students are unchurched we thought it would be valuable to have a go between church, so teaching is very simple and topical, dealing with basic issues of the faith. We have spoken about who God is and who we are the last 2 weeks. It has been a bit slow going, so please be praying that the youth would come through to Saturday church, but most of all through on Sundays and Home Cell.

We have also started a new home cell group on Thursdays that I am heading up. There was a need to have a group on another day, so please be praying that we get people into that group. It is always difficult starting a new group like this as accountability and trust need to be established and built upon.

Friday night youth has been going really well and the last two weeks we did The Amazing Race and Ultimate Uno. Both nights ran really well under the student leaders and Dave and I are now freer to build relationships and do ministry instead of focusing on the running of the ministry. Dave shared his testimony last week and please be praying for me as I share mine this week. A huge praise is that I am getting to know the youth a lot better and building some good relationships. I have also started meeting with two guys each week, Allan and Armandt and that has been going really well.

One of my main goals while I’m here is to re-establish relationships that have been broken or cut off in some way and obviously having been away for 3 years there are lots of these. It has been amazing how many people I have been able to see and some relationships restored. I don’t exactly what role God wants me to play in all of this, but I have had some really good opportunities to just get together with people and see where they are at. Dave and I have also committed to meeting with youth who have left the church, to challenge them to return to church and reestablish their walk with God. These are going to be difficult meetings so please pray for us and for all these relationships.

Thank you all for your prayers and support, none of this would have been possible without you and the love you extend to me (that sounded a lot like an Oscar speech). God has showed himself to be real in all that I have been doing so thank you for the important part you are playing in my life at this time.

Much Love

Eric

The Internet has been down at the church this last week, so that has made posting a bit of an issue. Friday night youth was the weakest link, so we had fun with that. Dave and I came up with some killer questions, some of my favorites were:

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me

What do women want? They don’t know or ask Mel Gibson both accepted

Who is more powerful, Chuck Norris or Oprah? Harpo or Oprah both accepted

Finish the song…Hey Hey – You you I don’t like your girlfriend.

So ya, it was basically a whole lot of fun! The kids got most of the questions wrong but it was still fun, especially voting each other off.

Saturday was competition day at the skatepark and other than some discipline issues we had to deal with it was a great success! We had about 30-40 riders and I helped out at the starting gate. We had one broken collarbone, but fun was had by all. Saturday night we all went to Dave and Michele’s place for pizza and some games. Charades is always fun, but especially with this group of people! I spoke in church this morning and played drums in worship. We continued our series of the Life of Jesus, I spoke on the birth of Christ, so John 1 and just going through the birth story. I ran out of time, but it went OK. I am really enjoying this series and am learning a lot.

In sports news, we won our soccer game 8-3 today and I got a hat-trick! Also South Africa is playing Australia in cricket, a huge rivalry and tomorrow is day 5 of the first test match (yes, they play for 5 days). If South Africa win they will set the record for the biggest comeback in Test History and I will be there to see it!!! I am very excited and hoping for the best!