(From Michelle, Chris, Mike, and Stefanie)

• While walking down a side street, I noticed a young man sitting alone, looking rather downcast. As I got closer, I noticed a few “rough character” signs. But, there I was and there he was, so Lord help me I was going to give him a witness, ha! As we talked, I learned that he was actually from Cape Town as well, and had been battling with a drug addiction for some time. He had even sought out help from a church but sadly had felt rejected and ostracized. In the end, he decided the best chance he had was to get away from his old friends and surroundings, and move to Oudtshoorn. As of then, he’d been clean 3 week and a day. There’s more though! He told me that as he’d been walking earlier, he had passed a house with an open window, and his old temptations to go in and steal something to sell etc had come back in. But, by God’s Grace, he resisted! Just shortly after, we met each other. By and by, he agreed to accept Jesus into his life, and begin on the road to lasting change! Hallelujah! I was able to leave him with a sponsored Bible and my number, and we will remain in touch.

• Through a series of unexpected events, Stefanie & I ended up chatting with C, one of the “trendy” organizers of the festival. He told me that he believed in a higher power, but felt that Jesus being the the only way was overrated. I, chuckling, assured him from personal experience that Jesus is most often UNDERRATED, and more than capable of proving Himself. We chatted about faith, life, and other topics for a bit, and suddenly he interjected “ I’m getting goosebumps! I can see you’re pretty genuine.” Before parting I left him my number and said “let me know how your journey goes.” Now I’m praying for the Lord to work in his life and heart.

• Stefanie and I met Maize ( a soldier ) while evening witnessing. He confessed feelings of guilt because of some actions he had taken in the line of duty. We encouraged Him that Jesus is ready and willing to forgive, and remove our sins as far from us as the east is from the west! He said he’d have to think about it before deciding to accept salvation. The next day, I was walking down one of the main streets when I met him again, and joyfully he revealed that he had found peace & accepted Christ during the night! What an inspiration! I left him feeding material and continued on with renewed faith for the workings of the Holy Spirit!

• I approached a man and his little son walking by the river on the way to the other part of town. I asked the dad, “have you accepted Jesus in his heart?”. He said, “I have not”, but looked keen, he said, “I cannot accept Jesus”. He then explained, “I cannot because I do ancestor worship.”. I then asked, “has your son accepted Jesus?”. The father said, “he goes to Sunday school, but I’m not sure if he has accepted Jesus.”. So, with the man’s permission I started speaking with the son and it turned out that he had accepted Jesus at Sunday School. He said, that his name is Thando. So as we were talking I asked him, “Thando, means love doesn’t it? You know the Bible talks about love. It says, “God is love! So if you think about love that is what God is like.”. I gave him a Gospel of John and told him, “This is the best book of the Bible. Daddy can help you read it, and if you have any questions daddy can help you write.” The dad was listening intently and very interested. Thando was glad to have his own little part of the Bible. We said, good bye and a few meters away I stopped to get a new Gospel of John from my bag. It was then that I noticed the father still looking my way and it looked like he was still processing all that we discussed and had never looked at God that way. Thank you Jesus, for His little open doors.

• “I’m a realist! I only believe in the physical things I can see! If I can’t see it, I don’t believe it!”
  I was stumped. I didn’t know what to say or how to reply. Now normally I’d open my Bible and explain the point from there. Somehow though, it seemed that this time that just wasn’t going to cut it. I needed something new. Something fresh, inspired, and personalized. As the conversation continued, I, in my mind, desperately shot up a quick prayer, asking Jesus for an answer. As the man in front of me carried on, suddenly the Lord gave me the perfect answer to his previous statement, through the gentleman’s own words! This is what he said to me: (Note: we were talking outside in a park with a small brown stream nearby)
  “Look at this water! You see this water? Now, if I drink, maybe, a cup from this water, I won’t die. Nothing will happen to me. But if I drink it every day, say, for two weeks or maybe a month or for a long time, there’s stuff in the water that’ll make me sick, and maybe even kill me! Now I can’t see it, but I know that water is bad, and I know I have to filter and drink clean water. I don’t want to get sick. I don’t want to die. I can’t see the bacteria, but I can see that the water is dirty. No no, I only want the clean water! But you’re telling me to believe in something I can’t even see!”
  I replied: “You know, just like drinking water, you might be fine feeding your soul something that you think is going to be okay, and it might even feel alright for a long time. But a lot of times, that water isn’t 100% pure. There’s something in there that’s harmful to your soul, and it’s killing you. You won’t even realize it, but you’re poisoning yourself a little bit every day. And one day you’ll be dead inside. Now, if you want to live, you also need good, pure, water. You need to find a source that will give you the strength you need to take you from day to day. And Jesus is that source!
  We continued speaking for some time after that about wars, and an all-loving God with human suffering, wars, and the difference between faith and religion. Again he posed some very tough questions to answer. Again I asked the Lord. And again He gave me the answer through the man’s own words:
  “So, let’s say I am walking on a sidewalk, and there’s a brick wall next to me. Now if I hear a voice on the other side of the wall, I might think there’s a person on that side, but I don’t know. I don’t know for sure. Maybe I try to find out and punch the wall but I break my hand and my wrist!
  “You’re absolutely right! We walk on this sidewalk called life. And next to us is a massive wall. On the other side is the spirit. We can’t see it, but if you hear a voice, you can be almost sure there’s someone on that side! Right now, you’re pretty comfortable staying on this side of the wall and only thinking that you hear a voice. But one day, at some point in your life, it’s going to become so important to you to find out what’s on the other side of that wall, you’ll do anything to find out. You may even end up breaking your hand and your wrist! But it’ll kill you not to know! And until you make that decision, you’ll always be stuck, staying on this side and never knowing. But I can tell you that know Someone on that side! His name is Jesus. He called me from over that wall, and I’ve been listening to Him ever since!
  He took a pamphlet with a Salvation prayer and my number, telling me I gave him a lot to think about, and promising me that he would let me know when he made his decision. Thank you Jesus for planting the seed in the heart of a previously cold skeptic!

• The first evening that we were at the festival I met Shakes. He said that he had accepted Jesus in his heart, but had a question. He explained that he had been robbed a few times and had a scar on his face, he wondered if God was punishing him in this way. I told him that the Bible says that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ and that we are meant to use our mistakes as stepping stones to do better the next time. We prayed together for him to make positive changes in his life and for his protection. We claimed Psalms 91 for his safety. He felt much better after way prayed and said an earnest “thank you!”

• Siya & Syasang: As I approached them the one drifted a distance in order to skip being part of the conversation, yet he was close enough to hear what I had to say. As soon as he heard me ask if him and is friend had accepted Jesus. He started talking, and leaped over into the conversation. He said, “I am sure I’m not going to Heaven but would like to!”. I explained, “Jesus did the very hardest part by dying on the cross for us. He paid for our ticket to Heaven. All we have to do is accept His love and begin to follow what He says!” They readily closed their eyes right there and prayed. We then discussed more of what this means for them. That although Salvation is a free gift and we can never lose this gift He has given us, if we love Him we may not be perfect, but will try our best to please Him and make the right decisions in their lives. And if they make a new friend they will take time to get to know them and it is the same with Jesus. We get to know Him by spending time with him, talking with Him and thanking Him. I then was wondering if we could give them both a Bible as we only had so many to give away during the festival. I shot a little prayer up and felt very definitely that even though they shared the same apartment, it is very important to have one’s own Bible. So I gave them their own and they looked so happy to have their very own. I then helped them to each look up John 3:16 as they didn’t even know how to find the book of John. The both simultaneously read it out loud and we bookmarked it for later. I asked them if they have whatsapp or e-mail. It turned out that they didn’t have either. We chatted a little while and Siya exclaimed, “What will we do now? We are from KZN and we might not understand our Bibles.” So I offered them a Correspondence Bible Study. They were so thankful and gave their street address. Thank you Lord for leading us to hungry hearts.

Other reactions:

-As I was handing out tracts on the bridge a man said, “I got one of these before from you! It is the same one. It is a good thing, I wanted to see you, because it spoke to me a lot!”

-When passing out Gospel tracts on the street and saying, “Jesus loves you!” a man genuinely called out in a foreign voice, “It’s a good thing, because I really needed someone to love me today!”

-Three friends turned around after looking over their tracts and raised a “thumbs up” high into the air.

– Speaking to a lady that I met several years ago at the festival, she thanked us for our commitment to saving souls, even in the face of rejection.

-“I think that the conversation you had with my friend and I last year was probably one of the most interesting conversations I’ve had in a really long time. I know I wouldn’t be in the spiritual state I am in today if it wasn’t for you.’

-“You really think Jesus loves ME? Thank you so much!”

-“Thank God you people came from all over to minister and tell other people about Jesus! We need more people like you!”

-“It’s so nice to see young people in the ministry and talking about Jesus!”

-“It’s a special calling, you know. Not everyone can do it! I imagine you must receive a lot of rejection. Keep up the good work you are doing!”

-“Thank you for the word, brother. Keep it up!”

-“Hey look, it’s the Jesus people!”