God is faithful to ALL!

Wow God is so faithful! Last week was such an amazing experience and answer to all of our prayers. Beat the Drum was so powerful. It’s a one week program in which we go around showing a movie called “Beat the Drum” and then talk in the schools, clinics, and prisons about it. Its all about HIV/AIDS awareness and living a pure life. The government allowed us to speak in the schools so we weren’t technically allowed to talk about God, but we did haha. We all trained for 2 days in a small town called Summerset East. It’s about a 3 hour drive north from Jeffrey’s Bay. It had been arranged for myself and a friend named Siabonga, a South African, to stay with a single elderly woman named Rose Daniels for 2 nights at the beginning of the week. When I first walked in she said very sternly “I asked for no white people, you won’t think my house is good enough.” She was referring to me because Siabonga is black. I just smiled and said no it’s a great house and expressed my gratitude for her allowing me to stay in her house for free. Then she asked if we were Catholic and we both responded no. Her being born and raised catholic she didn’t seem too excited about us being there. By then I am a little nervous, but we kept faith that this is where we were supposed to be and just responded with love. After talking to her more she warmed us to us and asked if we wanted if we wanted tea or coffee. We sat and talked to her. After briefly introducing ourselves, she told us everything about her and the town. I swear she talked for 2 hours straight haha. There is definitely a lot of racism still, she referred to everyone she talked about by their race, whether they were white, black, or colored(mixed). I got very excited about ministering to her throughout our stay. We just kept talking about our ministries and our hearts towards it. She seemed very surprised and curious. God worked in her life throughout the next couple days opening her mind about races working together through me and a black working together. Every conversation with her was very interesting for sure. I left for 5 days then stayed with her one more night at the end of Beat the Drum week. I came back later in the week and talked about how Beat the Drum went for me and all that God did through that. She was amazed and said that she learned a lot from me and asked me to pray for her. That was really cool to see the change of heart in her. Grandma Rose was definitely a blessing. 

After the training I went with a smaller team of 12 to an even smaller town called Pearston. Its a farming town of about 1500 people. We prayed continuously for the spirit to move in the town and for the devil’s hold on their mindset to be broken so that the truth would set them free; and it sure did!

When we first arrived in Pearston we all prayer-walked the whole town and there was such a hopeless feeling around. The people were very welcoming and really interested in why were there though. We were the first missionaries to go to that town and the first Americans they had ever seen too. It was a huge honor and blessing to be God’s hands and feet! It was also amazing to have a like-minded team to work with. My teammates were all so helpful and we all worked with the guidance of the spirit and with the authority of the spirit. The first night we showed the movie beat the drum in the town hall for anyone to come and watch. We had about 200-250 people come and the room was packed out. We all explained why we were there and how we wanted to share some truth with them throughout the week. They all responded with great appreciation and interest. 

The next couple days we showed the movie in the middle and high school. We introduced ourselves and gave an intro of what we were going to be speaking about. The students were very excited to hear what we had to say but they were very opinionated in how they saw love and sex. They all thought there was no way to show a girl or boy you loved them without having sex with them. When we separated the guys and girls, we asked the guys what makes a man a real man. A lot of them answered saying “it depends on how many girls you sleep with.” It’s the same way in the states in a sense of impressing the other guys, but in South Africa that’s really what makes a man “a man.” It was heart breaking but also hopeful because we could see God working in their hearts as He spoke through us. We spoke about respect, true love, lust vs. attraction, masturbation, and selfish desires. When we spoke to them, we really didn’t have what we were going to speak about planned. God really spoke through us and we were able to present some truths that they needed to hear. We didn’t know exactly what they didn’t know and what they needed to know so we just let God speak through us. Which is what needs to happen in all instances of our lives. God always knows what people need to hear. We just have to be his shining light, and what an honor that is! 

We played an HIV/AIDS video in the clinic and police station and God moved through that too. People were motivated and scared of the facts about how the HIV disease is passed on. We encouraged them all to get tested. We weren’t able to have a testing time set up for the town, but our team in the nearby town had a testing station where hundreds showed up. Many people found freedom in knowing their status and committed to abstain from then on!

The last night in Pearston we had a big youth rally. About 250-300 kids from ages 10-19 showed up. I led worship for them and that was a really passionate time for them to express their thankfulness to God for bringing truth into their lives that week. After that we split up all the guys and girls again. A few of us shared testimonies and spoke. After that we drew a line in the dirt and asked them to cross the line representing them coming home to Jesus. As they stepped on the line they had to confess their sins before all the guys they live with in the town. We wanted them to do this so they could practice courage. They all crossed the line! It was so intense! So many guys promising the other guys they wouldn’t be seen at the tavern anymore drinking and sleeping around. One boy in particular stood there and pointed out his friend. As he pointed at his friend, another boy got in the way. He boldly said “no, that one. I will never drink with you anymore and will not sleep around with girls for money. God has changed me and I’m going home!” He turned around and gave me a hug and we prayed with all the guys who made commitments to follow God and live out the truth that was presented that week. The truth truly set them free! 

The final morning, 8 people from our team left and 4 of us stayed. We prayer walked the town one last time and planted a seed in front of the school symbolizing the seeds that God had planted in their hearts and the growth that the spirit would feed into them. We prayed over that too. One thing that just brought tears to my eyes was when a boy that was at the youth rally the night before yelled at us from a distance and started running down this dirt road to me.  He slowed down as he approached me and took off his torn up hat. He already had tears in his eyes as he started speaking to me. He said ” thank you for telling us the truth, please don’t stop what you are doing and don’ get tired.” That blew me away for him to have the courage to run up to us and that he encouraged us to keep doing this. That was such a strong motivation and answer to prayer that God would work in Pearston that week. God was truly faithful to that town and to our prayers. Thank you for praying with me this past week. I love you all. Please continue to pray that God would keep speaking to them after we left and that the students would keep courage to live out the commitments they made to each other. They can change their community and start a revolution. We gave them material to study and we hope that they will hold on to that and live that out. 

I will update again next week. I will talk more about what God has been teaching me and what all is happening at the Ithemba family support center! I love you all. 

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Peace and Love with Christ,

Ryan Carmichael