Updates From Africa | Mount Pleasant Baptist Church

From September 23 to October 2, a team of eight from Mount Pleasant will embark on a vision trip to Johannesburg, South Africa. As this is a Vision Trip with the specific purpose of seeking new partnerships, this opportunity was limited to a certain number of people who have experienced similar trips.

Monday, September 30

Today was our last full day in Joburg. We spent the day in the highest Muslim community in Joburg. Our hope was to continue to search for “people of peace,” who would be willing to at least be willing for gospel conversations to take place. In doing so, we prayer walked and chatted with people about praying for Joburg as the Lord lead. It was a great final day as the Lord has moved in great ways this week.

Some of our final prayer requests are:

Pray for Joris, pictured below, as he still doesn’t feel week.
Pray for Maxwell and his friend as they continue to have weekly Bible studies in this Muslim community.
Pray that gang violence would stop in these communities as more gospel light appears.
Pray for Any & Mallory as they head to Kenya tomorrow morning.
Pray for Andy, Marsha, Tom, Kelley, Joe, & Alison as they begin their 36-hour journey back tomorrow and that they’ll be safe.

We hope to share more in the coming weeks. We’re thankful for your prayers and support.

Sunday, September 29th

Today, our team was able to worship at Bellevue Baptist Church in Yeoville as they celebrated Heritage Day. Heritage Day is in South Africa to give you a chance to celebrate the heritage you came from. This church alone has 15+ countries represented in their congregation.

Congregants wore clothing of where they came from, and the youth did some African tribal songs and dance. Pastor Joe was able to preach, and Tom shared his testimony in the service. Afterwards, we had lunch with the church, eating dishes from the different heritages.

One continued encouragement is Medi (pictured below). Medi, who was a teenage boy we met on the streets 2 days, continues to show up. It was not easy saying goodbye to him, but we know the Lord is going to use him. He promised us he’d continue in church.

Lastly, we got to spend some time with our missionaries (Jon & Ashley) as they hosted our team at their house for dinner. The food was excellent.

Prayer request moving forward:

Pray for the team as we evangelize in a Muslim community.
Pray for Joris, a huge helper this week, as he’s not been feeling well the last couple days.
Pray for an abundance amount of energy as we’re all pretty exhausted.
Pray we will finish strong and see some people come to know Christ.
Pray for Medi, that he’ll stay strong in his faith.

Saturday, September 28

Today has been another great day with the people of Bellevue Baptist Church in Yoeville. We began with 3 circles training for the youth so they would be equipped to share the gospel in the neighborhood. Then we went out in groups to encourage students to share the gospel.

We had good, bad, and indifferent encounters. One of the first encounters, Medi who we met yesterday, was able to share the 3 circles presentation with someone. They weren’t ready to receive the Lord but what a beautiful sight to see our efforts from yesterday, sharing the gospel today .

Andy and Marsha had a great encounter with a man (Teddy) and a woman who with a Muslim background who came back to the church for the evangelism training. This was a huge encouragement and we’re hoping they come back tomorrow morning.

We also had some not so good encounters. Jon & Joe talked with some drunk people on the street who were upset that our group didn’t ask to pray for them. Even in that more conflicting conversation, a person of peace in their family came by and helped us navigate their anger.

In the afternoon, we had lunch with the teenagers and more missions training. Overall, it was another rewarding day.

Here are some prayer requests for tomorrow:

Pray for Joe as he preaches at Bellevue Baptist in the morning.
Pray for Tom as he shares his testimony in the worship service.
Pray that our whole team would enjoy and participate in a different style of worship.
Pray that Teddy, Medi, & the lady who is married to a Muslim will be at church tomorrow.
Pray for a sweet time of fellowship after church between us and the Bellevue people.

One extra note, in our missions training, the students mentioned all the different nationalities they knew that lived in Joburg. They came up with 56!!!! That was only about 20 people. The nations are here, and we can help reach the nations by reaching Joburg.

Friday, September 27

Today our ministry was centered around the neighborhood of Yeoville where Bellevue Baptist Church is located. We began the first part of the morning sitting in the training with the youth of Bellvue on prayer walking and how to use your 15 second testimony alongside of the 3 circles.

After training, we paired up with the students and went into the neighborhood to prayer walk and do street evangelism. Although there wasn’t much success, we did have some great conversations especially with a teenage boy named Medi.

Medi came back to church at 4:00 for a Bible Study and we were extremely encouraged. Tomorrow, we will be back at Bellevue and do some more training with the students and putting it into action.

Here are some prayer requests:

Pray that our team will continue to get a clearer picture of what our partnership looks like.
Pray that the team will have some fruitful conversations in the street tomorrow.
Pray for Medi that he’ll follow the Lord in baptism soon.
Pray for Pastor Raphael as he casts vision for the youth to be trained in evangelism so they can use it in the neighborhood.
Pray for Bellevue Baptist Church that they’ll be able to penetrate the darkness of Yeoville.
Pray that our team will continue with energy as we enter the 2^nd half of our trip.

Thursday, September 26

Today was our first full day of ministry, evangelism, and prayer walking. Our team first started the day at O1N Ethiopian Coffee Shop where the owner Solomon is a believer. The name O1N comes from Luke 10:42 where Jesus said one thing is necessary. At O1N, we met Joris and Michael who were both African brothers who are believers. Jon (our missionary) and Joris showed us how they do Bible Studies by walk us through Mark 1 and asking 4 questions:

What does the text say about God?
What does the text say about humans?
How can we obey?
Who can I share this story with?

After Bible Study, we went out into the streets to evangelize, pray with, and invite people to our Bible Study. Although we had many fruitful conversations, 1 person did show up for our Bible Study. Billy, who showed up for our Bible Study, is a young man who really wants to grow in the Lord. We walked through the latter part of Mark 1 with him and he’s hoping to come back to a regular bible study every Monday.

Out of the 22 people that we got contact information from today to possibly join a Bible Study every Monday at 10:00, they came from 12 different people groups. That shows the diversity of this city.

Lastly, we spent the evening praying over the city as we overlooked it from Ponte Square (picture attached). We prayed over 5 neighborhoods (Bertrams, Yeovulle/Bellevue, Westby, Jepthe, & Lenasia South). Tonight gave us a clearer picture of the enormous work ahead of the missionaries who are trying to plant churches, start bible studies, and find people of peace.

Things you can continue to pray for:

Pray for Solomon, owner of O1N Coffee Shop that he continues to be a light in a dark world.
Pray that a church would be planted in O1N over the next year and that people would show up to their weekly bible study.
Pray for Billy (27) in our picture below and his sister (21) as they desire to grow in their faith.
Pray that people groups would be reached through reaching the people in Joburg.
Pray that our evangelistic conversations and prayer opportunities would open doors for our missionaries.
Pray for Pastor Ash as one of his members lost an 8-month-old recently due to gang (gun) violence.
Pray for Michael, a believer we worked with today, as his son got arrested last night.

Thank you for the continued prayers as the Lord moves in Joburg, South Africa.

Wednesday, September 25

Today was our teams first full day. Our primary goal today was to get a better understanding the culture in Joburg.

We saw some wildlife here in South Africa and we went to the Apartheid Museum to learn about the oppression that took place and the leadership of Nelson Mandel. It gave us a better understanding of the history of whites and non-whites in this area.

We also are seeing how culturally diverse Joburg is, even within those who have been raise here. There have been different people from different tribes and/or neighborhood that we have met that have different belief systems. Tomorrow we will begin specific ministry to different people groups.

Here are some current prayer requests:

That our team will have energy as we experience jet lag.
Pray for Erasmus who was our driver today as Tom planted a seed of the gospel with him (see picture below).
Pray for Shelden’s brother, who was our waiter tonight, who he feels is having some struggles.
Pray for Clinton, with us in the picture below, as he goes back to Cape Town and continues his ministry to plant churches.
Pray for our team to have gospel conversations tomorrow as we go through different
neighborhoods.
Pray we’ll stay healthy as we may need to eat something out of comfort zone.
Pray we’ll have discernment on who to partner with MPBC moving forward.

Thank you for being our prayer partners and lifting us up.

Tuesday, September 24

Our South Africa team arrived in Johannesburg late Tuesday night and had a good night’s rest. We are ready for our first full day in Johannesburg.

Things you all can be praying for:

For Gospel centered conversations as we go into the city.
Get to know Clinton, who is a missionary in Capetown and is part a ministry from Summit Church in Raleigh.
That all the team members will stay healthy and be able to adjust to the time change.
That we will begin to understand the culture in South Africa so we can share the gospel effectively.
That a partnership somewhere would begin to emerge.

Thank you to everyone who is praying for this team. May the Lord be honored.