Moving Parts

South Africa was amazing! 

This past month has been our gender month, which means all of our girls are together in South Africa working with a mainly women’s ministry, Lydia’s Mission. While our boys are serving in Lesotho hiking into unreached mountain villages to share the gospel. 

 Lydia’s Mission began ten years ago by a 23 year old missionary from Ohio, Claire. Over the past ten years the Lord has blessed this ministry beyond Claire’s wildest dreams. Claire is now married and runs Lydia’s Mission full time in eManzana, South Africa. Lydia’s Mission works with the children and Gogos (grandmothers) of  eManzana to provide support and spiritual direction. 

This ministry has lots of moving parts that the Lord has blessed abundantly with resources and a ripe harvest. Throughout the community there are about eight Hope Centers, where children and Gogos come every day of the week to receive a meal and hear the gospel. My team and I have been able to teach at these centers which has been such a blessing to grow in this area of ministry and see my teammates grow in this area as well. 

The ministry also partners with a local church and offers discipleship to the youth group of that church. The students of this ministry are just absolutely amazing, ranging from ages 13 to 19 there is never a dull moment with them, and all of them are incredibly wise beyond their years. This church is certainly hosting a group of about thirty world changers. I have been incredibly blessed to be able to teach these teens, but also I have been blessed to be taught by these teens. They are a fearless group of kids who are not afraid to ask the deep questions. I won’t lie they have given this group of missionaries a run for our money. I am excited to continue teaching these kids and spending time with them before they leave for their yearly youth camp. 

The base of the mission is a large farm that produces lots of eggs and fresh produce that is sold or given to the people of the community. The farmers that work these fields are locals that are paid by the ministry and do an incredible job of keeping the gardens and making sure there is always enough food to be distributed throughout the community 

Another part of this ministry is its sewing project. This is one of the sources of income for the ministry where local ladies will hand make stuffed animals that will be sold. This project not only helps to support the salary of these ladies, but also gives them a sense of purpose in their older age. The majority of my time is spent with these ladies in the sewing room helping them with their stuffed animals. 

One of my favorite parts of this ministry is church at the dump. Every Wednesday Claire and her translator go to the local dump and preach under the tree at the center of the dump. The church is made up of about 20 women who work at the dump everyday, all day looking for things that can be sold, things like cans or plastic that can be sold back to the government to be recycled. Every Wednesday the women stop their work and gather together under the tree sitting on old buckets or crates to sing praises to the Lord and hear a sermon from Claire.

Lydia’s Mission has many moving parts to it, but one thing that I have really learned during my time here is that nothing happens without the Lord. Claire will be the first one to tell you that if God is not in the center of this ministry then nothing happens, it all falls apart, and there would be no ministry. A ministry like this shows a young missionary, like me, that the only way something like Lydia’s Mission happens is if the Lord is the one in the center keeping it together. The biggest lesson that Claire has taught me is that a ministry this big does not stay running because of Claire and her staff, as hard as they work, on their own they could never do it. It is only through the grace, love, and strength of God that this mission functions the way it does and is able to provide the services to its community the way it does.