Farewell to the familiar

Praise be to God that 3 African village boys can now say "farewell to the familiar" Last fridaynight after a smallgroup that I led at the church, 3 boys approached me after asking constant questions in the small group itself and said "We want to get saved". Once I got over the overwhelming urge to just give them all a hug, I regained my bearings and called over a Youth pastor so that we could pray with the kids. I started off praying and then these 3 boys who probably had never prayed aloud before in their lives, just poured out there hearts to the Lord. No matter how much fun that I have had on my trip or will have for the duration of my stay here in Polokwane, nothing can surpass this. The salvation of these 3 boys has caused the angels in heaven to rejoice with us! May God be praised for continuing to use the leadership here in South Africa to expand the His Kingdom. I will be meeting with the 3 boys today to discuss dicipleship and give them encouraging passages to read. Please be praying for Petre, Kabelleo, and Bezseza. Their next few weeks of informing their friends and family that they have accepted Christ could lead to the hardest trials that they will ever go through. Pray that God softens the hearts of everyone surrounding these boys so that they could also make an impact. I tell you that nothing is more exciting than seeing God just work in the hearts and lives of those around you. Thank you so much for your prayers about the ministry going on down here in South Africa. Not a day goes boy that I do not thank the Lord for the support I have back home.

Nothing is important as what I just mentioned, but since I am living in a foriegn region and everthing is very fast moving, I have more updates. I leave for Jeffrey's Bay this Saturday to spend a week with the Ferreira family, which I am extremely excited about. One thing you can be praying for me about though, is the people back here at home. When you leave, for any amount of time, its very easy to be forced to take step back with these kids. Please pray that I could continue to minister here right where I leave off before I venture down to the Bay. I am excited to see Andre and his family. It has been at least 10 years since I have seen any of them and I am quite sure that they will not recognize me as I get off the plane, so I will probably have to inform them what I will be wearing on the plane that day. Nonetheless It should be a wonderful time with former LHEF family. I will them come back and continue seminary classes for about a month until we have Easter break which will actually be taken up by Camp. I will be leading worship and leading a group of boys at Christ Baptist Winter Camp, which should be a great time. Another little tidbit I thought I would mention is that Dez (the youth pastor) has informed me that I will be playing the song I wrote (that is posted in the blog above) at youth group this friday, so that will be exciting. I am not going to mention to the kids I wrote this song, I will intro it as "I guarentee you...none of you will know this song" hehe.

While being down here I am also preparing myself for my short term missions trip to Durban, South Africa later this summer. I am on a mission trip to a different region of South africa in July of this summer. The way that the short term missions team works is that in order to be on a missions team you MUST fly out and back with the team. Which is unfortunate, cause Durban is about a 10 hour drive from here and I could save Grace and the missions team alot of money by just staying here and then going to Durban myself. But that is there rules and there is no bending them, So I have to raise 2700 dollars to go to Durban which I will start trying to raise immediately. So just pray that I would be diligent in fundraising. My parents have graciously offered to help me back home send out letters, which is such a help to me and I am so thankful to them for that.

Overall I have given you much to pray about and to continue to be encouraged about by the way that God working in lives here in South Africa. I hope that everyone back home is experiencing the same Grace and blessings that we are here. If I can say one thing, that will stick with you it is this; Please just always remember that it is always going to be in Gods time, not matter how hard you fight it!

God Bless and Glory be to our great God!

Benjamin Pierce Coussens