Eastern Cape

Hello Friends,

Here is the most recent update. Our Africa Jam team is back in Cape Town after our trip to the Eastern Cape. We had a team of 5 staff and about 30 youth from Khayelitsha in the small town of Willowvale. The first days were a bit slow and the weather was bad, but after that we had several effective days of kid's camps for the local youth there. One of the days out there was unbelievable however and was probably worth the whole trip.

Our whole team did some community outreach in the afternoons and was at a house helping to clear some soil for a garden to be planted. There were 15 people living in these 2 houses on this plot of land. After working in their garden, we all fit inside their living room and asked if they needed prayer for anything. An old woman, sitting in her chair with a blanket covering her lap, said she needed prayer for her health. She had lung problems and couldn't really walk (she just sat in that chair all day). So as our whole group began to pray for her and ask Jesus to heal her, she began to squirm in her chair a bit, then slowly push the blanket off her lap. We all kept praying and before we knew it, this old granny was up and running back and forth between her chair and her bedroom praising God! Her daughter was so overwhelmed that she started crying and said she was turning back to God and was going to start going back to church.

All of our group was overwhelmed and amazed, singing the whole way back to where we were staying. That night a couple of our staff explained to our youth from Khayelitsha (especially for those who do not have a relationship with Christ) what had happened earlier that day with the miracle and how Jesus can heal people and demonstrate that He is alive and real in various ways. So that evening 5 of the girls from Khayelitsha, having seen this miracle, decided to put their faith in Jesus and begin a relationship with Him. That day definitely made the whole trip.

As for you all that I'm writing to, I hope that you know me enough to know that I do not lie (often ;) or fabricate stories. These are things that I have seen with my own eyes and I have been completely amazed at the power and reality of Jesus Christ at work. Up unto about several months ago, I questioned if healing miracles happened at all. But I just want to encourage you as you read these updates that these are not things that are only in South Africa, or limited to certain peoples, or because of anything special that I or any of our Africa Jam team has done. To know Jesus personally, experience His love and hope, to see His power and be used for a purpose is something that is open and available to every single person. So as someone who deeply cares for each of you, I would urge you to consider and respond to the reality of Jesus just by looking to Him and inviting Him to be with you forever. Many of you knew my life before I came to know Jesus and I can testify that it was the best decision I ever made and would be the best decision you could ever make, the one thing that can radically change your life as it has mine. I hope you will at least consider what I am saying as someone who cares for you and as a sane person just testifying to what I've seen and experiened. I love you all.
Ryan