CAPE TOWN, South Africa–Greetings in Jesus’ name! My name is Palmer Holt, and I will be reporting October 16th – 25th from Cape Town on the Third Lausanne Congress. I am honored to bring you up-to-the minute reports from a world missions point of view. You can expect three to four print, video and audio [...]
In 1974, the Swiss Alps welcomed 2,700 Christians from more than 150 countries who gathered to discuss world evangelization.
The Lausanne [lō-ˈzän] Congress for World Evangelization – held in Lausanne, Switzerland – came into being because of Rev. Billy Graham’s vision for evangelicals to unite to reach the world with the Gospel.
The first congress brought into being the Lausanne Covenant, a detailing of Christian principles and missions.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, students protested in Tiananmen Square and Christian leaders met in Manila, Philippines, for The Second Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization.
Welcome to the digital age.
The 1974 and 1989 Lausanne Congresses on World Evangelization took place before the world united under three W’s and URL addresses.
This year, more than 4,000 Christian leaders representing 200 countries will converge in Cape Town, South Africa for the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization—the first congress in the digital age.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – “The World Cup is over, but South Africa is still here,” said a missionary with the International Mission Board (IMB) serving in Johannesburg.
The prayer of IMB urban missionaries in South Africa is that God would use the soccer World Cup to draw attention to the lost people of the nation’s cities.
IMB missionaries minister in five cities that were hosts of the 2010 World Cup: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
Wade Coker, the lead IMB strategist for southern Africa, said the Gospel was shared with thousands of people across South Africa, and hundreds made decisions to follow Christ. In Cape Town alone, Coker cited 287 people receiving Christ.
“To me the most critical work and sometimes the most difficult work in these types of events is going to take place now in the coming month or two,” Coker said, “and that is following up the decisions and … gathering the people together in Bible studies and in new outreach groups.”
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Bruce and Sheri Erickson were missionary kids who met in boarding school in Kenya. After college, they married, had two children and were public school teachers in California.
Almost five years ago, the Ericksons felt God leading them to work with foster children. One family in their church had just taken in a foster baby girl, Madison, whom Bruce and Sheri began spending time with.
Unsure of God’s purpose for them in the three-month-old baby’s life, Bruce and Sheri prayed how they could be obedient to what God might be leading them to do.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — He was a missionary kid from Ethiopia and Kenya. She was also a missionary kid from Kenya. Now, Bruce and Sheri Erickson are missionaries ministering to young people with their three kids in Cape Town, South Africa.
Bruce was born in Ethiopia and lived there until he was 10, when he and his family returned to the United States for a time due to unstable political situations in the country. After two years, they returned to the mission field to serve in Kenya, where Bruce met his future wife in boarding school.
Sheri was just a teenager when her family left the U.S. for Kenya to serve in medical missions.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Shagmie Levenvall’s life has changed dramatically in the last five years. He grew up in a Muslim home, used drugs as a teenager and was a member of a gang.
Today, Levenvall is a living testimony of how Jesus Christ can change anyone’s heart and the direction of one’s life.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — When he was just a 3-year-old toddler, Raldo was standing too close to a fire his uncle built. Not realizing his small nephew was nearby, the uncle turned around and doused the fire with paraffin.
“The fire came at me,” Raldo said.
Now 9 years old, Raldo is severely scarred on his face, arms and hands from the blaze. But that does not stop this youngster from living a life like any kid his age.
Raldo is just one of hundreds of children in the Capricorn township who received a new pair of shoes thanks to Samaritan’s Feet South Africa, a Christian non-profit organization that works through volunteers to share Bible stories and distribute shoes to children in need.
Forest Hills Baptist Volunteers in Cape Town from Africa Stories on Vimeo.
Volunteers from Forest Hills Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, share experiences from their mission trip to Cape Town, South Africa.
During the World Cup, members of Forest Hills Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, are hosting a Life Champs Day Camp at a school in Cape Town.
In these video clips, they worship with children in the local language, Xhosa, and share prayer requests from camp.
