Back in September of 2024, Melody Cato shared in one of my classes about her last twelve years leading and serving alongside orphan ministries in South Africa. A month later, six of us students sat in the prayer room of the DMC, asking the Lord to prepare our team and the ministries we would serve alongside in June.
Preparing to Go
Over the next few months, the team met to pray for Onthatile Children’s Ministry and Bethesda Outreach: Compassionate Care for African Orphans. We prayed for the missionaries to receive encouragement from the Lord’s Word, for opportunities to have conversations with the children, and that the Lord would continue to provide ways for the ministries to reach their communities. Our motto for the team was “Made for More,” based on Ephesians 2:10 and Romans 6:4. Our team’s desire was to share with the children about a perfect, loving Father who has made them as His image-bearers to worship Him and serve His Kingdom!
Onthatile Children’s Ministries
We began our first part of the mission trip in Johannesburg. Onthatile is an orphan care ministry that places foster children into Christian homes until they are adopted in a Christian home or reunited with their parents. Onthatile has a school of 24 children from kindergarten to seventh grade.
One of our days was spent with the children during the school day. In the morning, there was a time of worship. It was a beautiful glimpse of the day when people of all tribes, tongues, and nations will worship the Lord together for eternity! Another day, Nathi, a ministry team member, led us through Soweto, sharing the history and impact of sin in South Africa. The prosperity gospel has grown in many of the poor township areas. There are false teachers who ask members of the communities for money, claiming the people will receive wealth and prosperity if they give money to the pastor.
While there are false prophets everywhere, it was clear the truth of the Gospel is spreading across South Africa! On our first Sunday, the team worshipped with a Soweto church. After the service, a woman shared with me her joy about the ways she has seen the Lord’s faithfulness in her life! Her face lit up as we talked about the blessing it is to be adopted by the Lord and for the Lord to allow us to be His ambassadors for the Kingdom. It was a wonderful reminder to me of the gift it is to be a vessel for the Lord’s work and to give thanks to the Lord for His faithfulness in fulfilling what He has promised. We concluded our Sunday by passing out blessing baskets to a few families who attend a Bible study in the Zandsprit township. The team was able to pray and ask the Lord to continue to strengthen and comfort these community members by His Word and grace.
Bethesda Outreach: Compassionate Care for African Orphans
The second part of our missions trip was with Bethesda, an orphan ministry the Lord has faithfully been providing for for 25 years! There are four foster families on the property who have between nine and 11 children in their homes. The ministry also has a baby home, where Mama Joy cares for five foster babies. Additionally, Bethesda has a private school on property, providing a Christian education to about 250 children in the community.
During the day, our team spent time on maintenance projects and serving with nearby community ministries. One day, we worked alongside the maintenance crew to repaint a home for one of the foster families. We spent another day at Noah’s Arch, a Christian preschool center for children from 1 to 6 years old. It was beautiful to see the ways the teachers are salt and light in their community and for the children. In the afternoons, the team had the opportunity to build relationships with the foster children while playing soccer or making bracelets. In the evenings, we played games with a foster family on property and prayed with them.
The second week, the team led a holiday Bible club (vacation Bible school) for the children on the property. The team taught, sang, played games, and made crafts surrounding the seven C’s (creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, and consummation). One of our teammates was able to have an open conversation with a child who is wrestling through what idols he would need to give up to have a relationship with Christ. The Lord provided many children with curiosity about His Word and character. That Saturday, the team went on a hike with the teens. It was a great time to have one-on-one conversations. One teen in particular asked us to pray for boldness to be a witness to her classmates at the high school. She asked us to pray for her relationship with the Lord and for her to meet believing friends. On the ride back to the team center, the Lord provided an hourlong conversation with a teen who shared that he was not following Christ. He asked for his heart to change and to not be selfish or greedy with his time.
Please pray for these children to know that they are loved and cared for by a perfect heavenly Father! May they desire to know and receive Christ as their Lord and Savior! May the ministry workers, staff, and foster parents receive encouragement from the Lord’s Word and continue to depend on Him daily for strength. We concluded our time with the foster families around a bonfire, worshiping and sharing testimonies. The next day, we said our goodbyes and prayed for each of the homes.
Christ Is Our True Hope
During our time, the Lord was consistently reminding me that Christ is our true and perfect hope. Romans 8:22 says, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” All of creation longs for Christ, for the day He returns and brokenness is no more. Yet there are millions who do not have this hope because they do not know Christ’s defeat over sin and death for us! Spending time with the ministries challenged me to share wherever I am of my true hope, which is Christ, Lord and Savior of the world!
Major: Social Work
Class of 2026
Tags: #cedarville, #globaloutreach, #GO, #missions, #testimony
Posted in: Global Outreach, Testimony, Uncategorized