Sawubona

Sawubona from South Africa!  Ashley and I are getting settled in to life here after a couple weeks of living in South Africa.  We have been spending a lot of time learning, even though we have been here before we are much more intertwined with the culture here now that it is just us Americans spending most of our time with South Africans.  We have learned a lot about the culture in general, the religious culture, what ministry will look like here, and what we will be doing.  God has definitely been humbling us and showing us how much we have to learn and how much he wants to teach us. Here are a few things we have learned:

-South Africans are incredibly accommodating, and the culture here is pretty awesome in helping others and finding ways to make people feel welcome.  We have felt very welcome by all groups of people, Zulu's, Indians, and white people alike.

-The largest religion in our province is a religion called Shembe, which is a very odd religion in that they believe that since Jesus or the apostles didn't make their way to South Africa, that he didn't die for South Africans.  It is almost exclusive to our province; even throughout the rest of the country you don't find many people who practice it but 3 million people practice it here in Kwazulu-Natal. 

-We knew this coming in but ancestor worship is also a large part of the culture here.  Even people who consider themselves Christian struggle with the idea of their ancestors being viewed as mediators between them and God instead of Jesus

-It can get VERY HOT AND HUMID HERE!!!!!!!  And air conditioning is not very common, so we have learned that sweating sitting around in our flat is very normal during summer months, still adjusting to that!

The picture below is of Ashley and the two other girls who will be on our team, Thandeka and Noscelo, at Howard college.  Howard is one of the campuses we will be working on.  Ashley and I will split our time between 2 campuses doing evangelism and discipleship on both Howard College and Westville college (2 campuses of the University of Kwazulu-Natal) as well as spending time partnering with Churches to do community outreach.  Right now we are spending time getting to know student leaders who are in town (school doesn't officially start until February 4th) and planning outreaches and events with our team.  We are so excited for school to start back up in February as planning everything has gotten us excited about really diving into ministry here!  Thank you so much for everything you do in helping our ministry, we are so thankful that each and every one of you is directly a part of what God is doing in South Africa and that because of God and because of you, people in South Africa will come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord! Be praying that we will cross paths with many different types of students this year who are yearning for and seeking truth. Thank you so much!

Prayer requests
-Pray for our planning times, that we would plan effective outreaches and be able to cast vision to our student leaders in making disciples of other students
-Pray for Ashley and I as we figure out what challenges we will face being over here, that we would be humble and completely dependent on God
-Pray that God would give us many opportunities during the first week to share the Gospel with non-Christians and people of all different religions
-Continue to pray for us as we figure out details on living here, we found an apartment and a car (huge praise!!) but the details never seem to end!
-Pray that Ashley and I would find a Church to be involved with and that we would be able to find community there
-Please pray for our other team members as they continue to raise funds for the year (Anele, Thandeka, and Nosci) Pray for new contacts for them and that they would trust the Lord to provide. It's extremely difficult for them to raise support here as you can imagine so pray the Lord's favor towards them in their support journey!

Many more updates to come especially as we really dive into ministry in February!  Thanks again for making this possible!
-Nick and Ashley

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to everyone!  Ashley and I are so excited that we will spend this new year serving God and expanding the beautiful kingdom of Jesus overseas in South Africa.  We have so much to be thankful for as we start this new year, and one of them is you.  We leave in approximately 10 days and that is because of God because of you!  Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers for Ashley and I and what God has called us to do both at Georgia Southern and now in South Africa.  God has changed so many lives over the last few years, ours included, and none of that happens without all of our amazing support team.  Here is another video, this time it is one of  Ashley's girls who God has done amazing things in and through over the last 2 years.  Hope yall enjoy and once again thank you for everything you make possible!

Christmas outreach, our students taking gifts to the local government housing community in Statesboro

The picture above is of our students and us providing Christmas gifts to the kids in the government housing community in Statesboro.  Through our students and their amazing hard work and generosity, we were able to provide Christmas gifts to every child in the government housing in Statesboro!  It was awesome to see our students being the hands and feet of Jesus and using good deeds to share the good news of Jesus.  

Prayer requests-

-Many of our students at GSU are headed to passion January 1-4th.  Pray for safe travels and that our students would experience God in amazing ways and carry that back to trying to reach GSU for the Gospel.

-For Ashley and I as we prepare to get on the plane January 10th, that all of our final details would be worked out and that we wouldn't stress out about anything

-Pray that once we get to South Africa on the 11th we would be able to figure out details there quickly.  We will need to find a place to live, get furniture, a car, etc within the first 2 weeks or so, pray that God would open doors to find those things.  

Because of God, because of you,

-Nick and Ashley

Winding down at GSU

Fall Retreat Worship

Hello Team!  I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and was able to relax a little bit!  We have been winding down our time down here at GSU for the fall semester.  Much of our time recently has been spend meeting with our leaders and really challenging them to step up and take ownership of the ministries that God has entrusted to them.  It has been amazing to see the response of so many of our leaders who have been excited to see what this next year will look like for them as they take steps of faith and trust God to work through them.  God truly is amazing and seeing men and women go from not being Christians and not wanting anything to do with God to leading other people to Christ and leading others in their faith through Bible studies and discipleship reminds me of just how big and just how great our God truly is. Also check out some pictures below!

We wanted to take a couple of weeks and send a few videos out of some stories of how God has worked in some of our students lives.  We are going to post a couple videos a week to our blog with some of our students talking about what God has done in and through them.  Below is a video of Shaun Scruggs, one of my guys who has seen incredible life change through Jesus, check out the video, because of God, because of you!

Exciting Praises
-Jay and I were combined able to share the Gospel with every pledge in the Greek system this fall through pledge talks and Bible studies.
 -Ashley has been really encouraged about students being really open to where they are at, confessing their sins in small groups and seeing their need for Jesus in their lives.
-We recently looked at some numbers and realities of our ministries and saw that we now have almost 300 people involved in Bible studies.  It is so cool to see what God has done in just a few short years!

Prayer requests
-Our transition to South Africa would go smoothly, that our final preparations over the next month would go well, and that we would finish well at GSU
-For our leaders, as they step up that they would take steps of faith and trust God for steps they are taking.
-That all the freshmen pledges that I have met with that they would get plugged in to their fraternity Bible study and that they would live for Jesus even in a difficult place to do so
-Pray for our planning as our GSU team plans for next semester and which Bible studies we will do and our talk series
-Pray for Ashley and I as we communicate with our South Africa team and do some pre-planning with them before we head over

Thanks so much for partnering with us to reach the nations for the gospel and for making all of this possible!  Because of God, because of you!

-Nick and Ashley

Greek Bible study explaining the passage before we break up into groups

We started a flag football team as an outreach to people, us praying before the game