Back from Holiday

The second semester has finally started! Students are back from their winter holiday and flocking back to Res halls, classrooms, and dining halls. We are looking forward to this semester...reconnecting with students, following up with those who came to the Joint Winter Conference, getting back into Res life, etc.

Haley recently invited girls she has been spending time with to the house for a chili and cornbread supper. This may not be significant to you, but chili isn't served anywhere in South Africa, so these girls have never tasted it before. They have only seen movie stars eat it in the movies! So they were really excited that they were going to try this 'famous' dish. Maggie even went home and told her mom that she had chili at an American's house! To the right is a picture of Haley, Cat, Maggie (back row), Claire, Lindi, and Ashley (front row). Maggie, Lindi, and Claire are South African students living in Jasmyn on the 3rd and 4th floors. Cat and Ashley are on the CCP and have greatly enhanced Haley's ministry. Haley has spent a lot of time with them. Haley and Claire are currently training for a 5k race in August and hope that Maggie and Lindi, as well as Zoe and Ternercia (not pictured) will run as well. The girls have also wanted to have a dessert night at our house where they will teach Haley how to make Afrikaans desserts they grew up eating, if she makes them homemade brownies. Of course Paul isn't complaining about taste testing! Haley plans to have a craft night with these girls as well. Please pray for Haley as she uses these times of training, cooking, and crafts to deepen her relationships with these girls and to share the gospel with them.

Paul is also busy with ministry in res and director responsibilities for the TUKS campus. He is continuing to disciple Philip, Pieter, and Tiisetso. It has been really exciting as these men are truly giving their lives away other men, whether on their res halls or in their classes. The men leaders recently had a poker night where they invited guys they have been ministering to and about 35 guys participated. Paul actually ended up winning the entire event! We now wish they had played for money and we could have cashed in big time!

We are trusting God that He will really move and shake things up this semester for His name and glory! We will keep you posted!

Finally!

Welcome to our new blog! We have been meaning to set this up for a while, but haven't had much time lately. We hope to keep everyone updated on our life and ministry here in Pretoria through this site.

We just got back from the JWC and we had a great time! Many new students came and at least 25 students from all 4 campuses said they came to Christ for the first time! There were about 80 students that came from TUKS and we enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. We are trusting that the intimate, spiritual conversations we had at the JWC will impact the kingdom and the campus. We got to give a seminar on dating, which we really enjoyed! We talked about the 'culture around us' and what it has to say about dating, then compared it to the 'new culture' that the Bible teaches. It is a radical difference and many students had questions about how to date in this new culture. We really enjoyed working together on this, which has brought us closer to the Lord and to each other. We also got to experience the Lord using us in men and women's lives, prayerfully impacting their dating relationships and ultimately their future marriages. To the right is a picture of the TUKS staff, students, and CCP at the Joint Winter Conference.

As for us, this month has been really busy! Now, we are enjoying a short, but much needed holiday. The entire UP staff team had the privledge of getting away for the night at resort in Pretoria North. We were excited when the rooms had heaters and cable TV! We head off to Johannesburg on Sunday to begin our staff training and fellowship time (about a week) before the students return from their winter break. The speaker will be Clint Watson, Director of CO Atlanta and was the speaker at the JWC. He will be speaking on health in all areas of life, physical, mental, spiritual, in ministry, etc. We are really looking forward to this time of teaching and fellowship!