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First EM Trip to South Africa!

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At the end of December, a mission team from The Annex college ministry in Boulder, Colorado, came on EM's first mission trip to South Africa. Once there, they were connected to a church led by a women named Impau. In the words of team member Claire Griffin, "Impau is an exceptionally amazing woman considering how prominent male superiority is in South Africa and the accomplishments of her churches ministry. Her church ministered to a community of 80 severely abused children living in an orphanage which is run by a women named Catherine and her staff of 4 other people, as well as a Namibian tin home refugee camp with a population of over 3,000 people; 99% of whom are HIV positive. The church also runs an HIV/AIDS hospice called the Mortele Sunrise Hospice." Their team was able to work in all three of these communities over their two weeks in Hammanskraal.

Claire said, "Out of our entire team there was only one person who had an idea of what Africa was going to be like, whom the people were, what their songs sounded like, and what their love for one another looked like. I think it was a shock to us all when the "wild" land and animals of Africa weren't what put us into states of wonder and amazement, but rather it was the people who did, and the truth of just how present God was in their lives."

Over half of the children in this community are wandering orphans who have lost their parents to disease, and all the children at that orphanage have been brutally abused at one time or another. "Every time we left one of these communities," Claire wrote, "I would spend the rest of the night asking myself how these people who have suffered so much, could be so alive? ...after I found out what they lived with, I looked at the joy within them and the light and hope that they held in their eyes and my jaw dropped in awe. I used to think in a place like Africa if you weren't with God, then you were alone, completely and utterly alone. But after almost 3 weeks of being there, it dawned one me that we are never alone, and nothing will ever separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35). The true personality of Jesus shines through the darkness of Africa."


Our hope is that many more teams would get a chance to serve and love the people of South Africa and other African countries as our relationships in that area continue to grow. We hope you consider taking an EM trip to South Africa or being a part of our first 3-Month Immersion Program to South Africa in September of this year!

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