South Africa

I can't believe it's Friday and today I'll be leaving for South Africa! l am requesting your prayers for the next 40 days while l work there. My trip is fully funded, my schedule is set, but there are still so many uncertainties... My dream to serve in Africa predates my first mission trip to Nepal when I was eleven. I will be going with a group of seven people through the ministry Innerchange to Soshanguve, South Africa. We will be spending 40 days in South Africa ministering to the locals through relationships, service, and helping local churches in their work.

One of our main purposes is to help heal racial relations, and since I am white, I am excited to be part of the first group of Americans from any organization to live within the context of the township, where it used to be illegal for white people to live under the oppressive segregationist laws of Apartheid. Even if the laws of Apartheid are gone, much of the cultural segregation that were stimulated under it are still alive and well. In many cases, the church is no exception, often times divided as well between racial and even tribal lines. I pray as God ministers His love to the people of South Africa through my team and I, He will break the hatred ingrained through Apartheid and replace it with the love of Jesus Christ in the lives of many. The church in South Africa cannot stand if this hatred is incessantly pulling it down.

I will be living in a rather poor black area, and developing relationships with my neighbors as well as working through church programs. Some of this may be through sports, possibly including soccer, rugby, and maybe even boxing, three sports loved by this nation. My group will help evaluate whether Innerchange can establish a longstanding Innerchange presence in Soshanguve in the future. To learn more about the ministry, you can check them out at www.innerchange.org

The most important thing I need is a lot of prayer for God to work. The power, importance, and ultimate necessity of prayer, is far too often under-emphasized in much of our world. Please don't forget me in prayer during the summer, realizing that nothing even close to God's great plan for Soshanguve will occur unless He's preparing the way and working immensely. Thank you so much for your continued friendship and prayer! Adam Garrett