The end is just the beginning

Dear Friends and Family-Ashley and I write this, our final word from South Africa before heading stateside, with very bittersweet hearts.  This year has been amazing, challenging, inspiring, and depressing all at the same time.  On a scale of 1-10, it has been a 1-10.  We have had incredibly high highs, and phenomenally low lows.  We have seen many many people become Christians through trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and have seen many others grow tremendously in their faith and now leave knowing God could not have been any more gracious and wonderful to us.  In the highest highs and the lowest lows he was and is working for our good and we give him praise and thanks for that.  Although we are very excited to come home and see friends and family, leaving this place that is so very near and dear to our hearts has been quite difficult.  In saying our goodbyes to our students, staff team, friends, and church, many tears have been shed and many long lasting memories made.  This year as well as our previous 3 years with Campus Crusade could not have happened without you and your faithfulness to God and generosity towards our ministry.  We could not be more thankful for your love and support and prayers throughout this year and pray that you would continue to pray for us and support us as we transition back to GA Southern Cru to continue to win college students for Christ, build them up in their faith, and send them into the world as life long laborers for His kingdom.  Here are a couple cool highlights and pictures from the end of the year.

-Because of your faithfulness and generosity, every bit of our furniture was able to be donated to a single mom with Children who was previously homeless living in the streets.  Our church built her a home and then we were able to furnish her whole house.  She was so overwhelmed with joy and gratefulness to God that she openly wept for hours upon receiving a bed, couch, table and chairs, washing machine and refrigerator.  There is now a woman and her children who have what they have never had before, a proper home, in Molweni valley, because of you, is God not amazing!

-Our South African friend and colleague Anele Hlongwane said something that brought both Ashley and I to tears when we were saying goodbye to him. He said the one thought he had to sum up our time here in South Africa was "You made a difference".   Thank you for providing the ability for us to come over here and do whatever we could in the strength of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to make a difference in the lives of our students and friends.

Here are just a few pictures of some our students who will be eternally grateful to the difference that you have made in their lives. 

-This is Sinethemba.  He became a Christian earlier this year turning from tribal religion and witchcraft to Jesus.

-This is Mpumelelo, a freshmen that I met through an outreach after a friend of his trusted Jesus as his Lord and savior.  This guy grew so much in the short time that I knew him and he is going to do awesome things in his life for the Kingdom.

-This is Fabrice, Fabrice is actually from the Congo and Fabrice became a Christian when our summer project team was here in SA when he trusted in Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior.

-This is Ayabulela, Aya for short, and I at our end of year banquet.  Aya has been such a privilege for me to work with and to teach, and Aya will be leading our campus ministry at Westville campus next year.  

-Myself and Joel, who is also from the Congo who was one of my really solid guys this year who grew quite a lot in his relationship with The Lord and his understanding of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus.

-Ashley with a big group of her girls at the last weekly meeting at Howard Campus

-Ashley and Nyasha, one of her closest disciples who is from Zimbabwe who has been through a lot this year but thanks to Jesus she is stronger than ever in her faith

-Ashley with one of her close disciples Mthabs, a first year who is going to be helping lead the Howard ministry next year.

-Ashley and Trushka who was another one of Ashley's disciples at Howard.  Trushka is leading groups of girls next year and will be taking over Ashley's Bible studies, discipling students, and providing leadership for younger students.

-3 more of Ashley's girls, on the left is Nombuso, bottom right is Nondumiso, and top right is Petronella.

-And of course we had to add one picture of a sweet little child.  This is Anele who was orphaned by her two parents who both died of HIV/AIDS.  She is the sweetest and mot energetic little child, as you can tell we were pretty sweaty trying to keep up!

Once again we cannot thank you enough for your continuing support and prayers that make what we get to do possible.  We hope to see all of you and talk to you soon, God Bless and may Jesus be glorified in all of our lives as we celebrate his birth this month!

-Nick