6-10-15

Update.

Hello again from Joburg, the winter has kicked in here and while the cold is bearable, it is for me unexpected! As far as wondrous adventures and excitements, there has not been much happening in that department in the last few weeks, no stories of lions (except for the American girl mauled by a lion at a nearby lion park last week; she had the windows down and was trying to get a close-up picture in an area clearly labeled as dangerous). What has been going on though is much reading and writing on my part on papers for school. I have been listening to conversations to better understand the culture and issues of the people we are with and to better understand their personal religious views.

Ramadan is quickly approaching, I think it starts on the 19^th of this month and goes through the 17^th or 18^th of July… sadly just two days after we fly home! Ramadan is the month of fasting and prayer, there are five times of prayer throughout the day and after sunset there are daily feasts at people’s houses. At the end of Ramadan is a three day festival called Eid. To the people that I have talked to, they consider Eid to be their equalivent to our Christmas. The time of Ramadan is a time of open doors and widespread kindness in the community we are in.

It is our goal to have a time set apart for intercession for these people that coincides with their official pr@yer times. We will be pr@ying for dreams and visions, uneasiness with their current situation, and a massive movement of turning towards the true faith. Also, the work here is expanding and there are more people wanting to be taught than we can currently handle. If there were some long term partners with this work then perhaps the classroom could be moved to a larger room in which more people could be taught. With incoming workers in the fall opportunities may arise to start an evening class, if this were to happen I was told today that a group of 60 young men all from the same ethnic background would gladly come. And these men are all from the same apartment building in Mayfair.  A whole outreach with more students than I can think of from a single building! We are praying for opportunities like this to open up and for the needs that come with these opportunities to be met.

When I know the times for intercession I hope to post them so we all can join in this together.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and to think over the work here, all of the pr@yers are beneficial for the growth and development of the Kingdom, and to combat the ongoing Sp. Warfare.

Ethan.