Saturday - Conference Conclusion

This week at the conference, we have had the opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters here in Polokwane at the Shepherd's Conference for the students at Christ Seminary and members of Christ Baptist Church. The primary goal is to assist in equipping pastors to futher meet the needs of their congregations and to continue the biblical training of these seminary students.
As we have served Christ by serving our brothers and sisters this week in humillity and out of gratitude to Christ, God has been glorfied. Carol's desire was that our service to the Lord would serve as an example to our brothers and sisters here in Polokwane so that they in turn would learn to serve one another in the same manner. These students are then in the field serving the Lord in villages and cities all over Africa.
To give you a bit of a background for the week, there is tension between the Afrikaaners and Africans and with specific key individuals. In addition, the conference has not had assistance in the past so the church members had to do all the tasks related to the conference, thus many pastor's wives did not get to attend the conference with their husbands.
What seemed like simple service done in humility as to the Lord to serve our brothers and sisters with the love of Christ, this attitude of service did not go unnoticed and for this many were very grateful. Simply preparing meals and teas, shining shoes and expressing interest in the ministry of the students has brought glory to God by providing a biblical example of service, alleviating the practical needs of the conference and thus allowing others to be fed by God's Word, and reducing the stress of those involved in the conference. In addition, service together as a team was fun!
It was exciting to hear the students talk with great excitement and passion about learning God's truth from his Word as well as sound doctrine in order to minister to their congregations with the Truth found in God's word.
Today (Saturday), it was a privilege to participate in serving the women through sessions designed for women by assisting in the tea service. It was a joy to serve the women and make them feel special as they were fed from God's Word about learning to trust the Lord in different arenas of life (ministry, worries, marriage, spiritual depression, and in the storms of life).

This morning Evan and Joel P departed early for Mozambique to set up camp. This camp will be used all summer to house the teams who will be ministering to the people in this village, Mbuzi.

Tomorrow, we are off early for Mozambique. To give you an idea of the travel, once we reach the border and cross into Mozambique, Mbuzi is I think about 5 kilometers away but it will take us 1 hour to reach the village from the border crossing. In addition, we will pass through Kruger Park with no way to know how long this segment will take due to the animals (elephants, lions, etc), who are free to roam.

Soli deo Gloria!
Holly