Amazing Ministry in South Africa!

Wow! Has God knocked my socks off already or what!!

In just our first week here God has bombarded us with favor, blessing and incredible open doors! It started with an invitation to Leeukop Prison for a special service arranged by the chaplain in the maximum security block. In recent weeks there has been an inmate suicide, a member (corrections officer) who shot his wife and himself, and the sudden heart attack death of a young athletic member. The members asked for chaplains and spiritual workers who volunteer in the prison to have a prayer service for them!!

What an incredible service! The service was held in the gym inside the maximum security part of the prison. Over 60 members came and their were 6 pastors. After a time of praise and worship, prayer, and a brief sermon, one of the pastors led the members in spiritual warfare to come against the spirits of death, despair, anger, hopelessness, frustration, etc. that were running rampant in the prison. We prayed for the Christian members to be His light in the prison and to walk in the spiritual authority that God had given them as Christians with the authority as members in the corrections center.

To close the service a call was made for any members who had not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and 13 members came forward! Praise the Lord! After that the members asked the six of us pastors and the chaplain to anoint them with oil and pray for specific requests that they had. More than 3/5 of the members present came forward for this anointing prayer! What an amazing blessing it was for me as tears streamed down my face at the realization of how God is moving in the prisons in South Africa.

Oh and I forgot to mention...before the service started, on our way to the gym, the member who was in charge of solitary confinement where the suicide happened asked us to come into the cell where the suicide occured. He had not assigned anyone else to this cell as he was waiting for pastors to come to pray inside the cell and anoint it. On our way out of the cell I was asked by his supervisor to pray for and anoint the member's work station in the solitary block!

That was just the beginning! The next invitation was from Krugersdorp Prison to attend a two day training workshop on Restorative Justice. This was put on by the head of Prison Fellowship (Chuck Colson's ministry) for South Africa. It is an incredible program which has been officially endorsed by the government of South Africa. One aspect of the Restorative Justice initiative is the Sycamore Tree Project. This is an 8 week program to bring healing and restoration to offenders and victims based on Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus in Luke 19. I have been trained and given the resources to lead this program in prisons and churches and I believe it will be a great fit with what we are already doing in 'Etsah Ministries.

The two day training was also a time in which God opened the doors wide as the executive director of Prison Fellowship for all of South Africa and his regional head in the Durban area both asked how to implement the Addict to Disciple discipleship program into prisons where Prison Fellowship is already working. I ask for your prayers as we will be meeting in the coming few weeks to seek God's plan to move forward with this.

Last night was the Tuesday night From Addict to Disciple meeting at Acts Christian Church in Midrand. Eleven men attended as Rod Shiers opened with prayer, the song East to West by Casting Crowns and then led them through part of chapter 2. The men were open and honest as they shared their struggles, encouraged each other and shared how far God had brought them in such a short time.

Today it was back to Krugersdorp Prison for the weekly From Addict to Disciple group. 18 men attended and, after I opened in prayer, I was truly blessed as one inmate sang a praise song about how God changes lives. Then almost all of them shared a testimony of how God had touched their heart with hope and the beginnings of change since they started the book three weeks ago. What a neat experience to watch what God is doing through Rod Shiers leading the group in English part of the time and Afrikaans another part of the time...and the whole while everything is being translated into Zulu by another inmate!

After the group was over the men handed me handwritten thank you letters to the men and women who had been recently incarcerated in Lancaster County Prison, Pennsylvania who purchased the books for their brothers in South Africa. (Please check back in a few days as I will have excerpts from these letters added to the testimonial section of our website) Then the translator shared with me that he functions as an inmate evangelist throughout the various blocks of the prison and that he is using the things he has learned in From Addict to Disciple to minister to and encourage many other inmates throughout Krugersdorp Prison.

I ask for your prayers for each of these areas of ministry as well as what God has in store in the coming weeks and beyond. Also several of the men at Krugersdorp included their full mailing address so if you're interested in corresponding with them please send me an email and let me know. Thanks, Dave