This has been our first “real” week here in Pretoria, South Africa! Since we arrived last Monday, I have been immersed into a new culture and surrounded by all different kinds of people. South Africa has 11 official languages, which means that their culture is really diverse and rich. As we walk through the Resident Halls (“the Res”), it’s amazing to hear people communicate using all different languages, oftentimes combining several at a time.
My ministry group is made up of Anna Hensley, Erin Evans, and myself, and we will be spending our summer in Inca, a 12-story all girl Res Hall. God has blessed the ministry work that the CO staff has already done in that particular Res. We met at least 10 girls on our very first day on campus, which was huge because we now have connections to introduce us to the other girls on their hall! Our main goal this week is to further our relationships with them and invite them to Hashtag, our weekly CO meetings. The girls that have been the most interested in “the Americans” are Tobogo (Left) and Nomsa (Right).
We are praying that these girls are interested in the gospel and will want to meet with us on a weekly basis to talk about the Lord.
On the weekends we take a break from ministry and enjoy South Africa! Last weekend we drove 45 minutes to Johannesburg and went to an Apartheid Museum. Apartheid was a period of time when segregation was an extreme problem, where black people were kicked out of their towns, transported to areas that weren’t even on the map, and sometimes killed. It was really hard to read about everything that happened and the torment that people were forced to go through. However, in the last 20 years since Apartheid ended, South Africa has begun to restore itself and move towards racial equality.
Afterwards we went to Soweto, which is the largest township in South Africa (a township is equivalent to a county in the States). Everywhere you looked you saw streets with houses piled on top of each other. It wasn’t a very nice part of town, but the people were really nice and excited to see us! As we waited for our food at a local restaurant (which was just a house that sold food), little kids would run by and blow kisses at us!
I’m excited to see all that God has in store for us this summer! We went to a professional Rugby game yesterday and had about 16 students come from the University! The purpose of events like this is to create shared experiences with the students and build strong relationships with them!
This next week we will meet up with them individually and see where they are spiritually. Please pray that God will continue to open up doors… literally…. And that we will be able to spread his Gospel through out this campus!
- Anna Schuler
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