April 29, 2024 by Brannon and Kat Winter
In our last update, I invited you to partner in prayer with us for humble hearts and bold hands. The truth is that pride so often gets in my way of obeying Jesus. You didn't know you were praying specifically for me, did you!? I was confronted with this pride when we joined our local contact, Zola, to train evangelism. Evangelism isn't new to me, for goodness sake, I have trained hundreds of people with simple tools to share the gospel. But as the Cape Town train sped down the tracks all of my insecurities began to rise. What if I look stupid when I try to share the gospel with someone? What if they don't speak English? What if they get angry with me?
All of these scenarios are possible. Some are even likely. But as I prayed, at the root of them I could only find my pride. I was setting up my expectation for how train evangelism will go AGAINST God's expectations. I thought I knew best. I was wrong.
Even in my pride and unbelief, God still moved. I was sitting with Kat, talking to these Muslim mamas. They looked quite devout at first glance, considering their Hijabs and baggy dresses. But their hearts were so open for connection. We spoke to them about faith, and how some of them went on the Haj and would likely go again. That's right when God reminded me of a verse in the Quran I once read. Al Baqarah 256 says, "Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood."
I asked them if they had read this verse. They hadn't. But they were amazed at how I knew the Quran and asked me to teach them what this verse meant. So I explained the simple meaning; Mohammed taught that no one should compel anyone to follow Islam or prohibit them from leaving it. But we know that is so often not the case.
As the train was arriving at the final destination, I worried that I hadn't said enough. I needed to make sure I said all five points of the Romans Road to make sure they knew the path to Jesus. I needed to do more!
PRIDE
As the train stopped, all 4 of these women, likely in their 60s, came up to Kat and me and simply said, "God sent you as messengers to us today." At that point, I knew that God planted something deeper than I can imagine, right into their hearts.
In John 4, Jesus explains to the disciples that there is a harvest today because someone else sowed the seed. Who will reap the seed I sowed?
Another amazing thing happened in mfuleni, the township that we visited every Thursday. We often did house visits and sought opportunities to share the love of Jesus with the people there. We found several examples of suffering; some of the people were paraplegic, lacked special needs education, and pervasive joblessness.
One day God directed us to do bible studies to respond to the underlying beliefs that inhibit community development. That's when we met Bongie! Bongie lives in a 500 sq. ft. shack made out of corrugated tin. She invited us into her home, but when I mentioned the name of Jesus, she began to weep uncontrollably. Kat and I were in shock! What in the world did I do? It's not what I did, but what Jesus did.
Bongie said she loved Jesus so much! That's why she was crying. The mere mention of his name brought so much emotion to her heart. She had a beautiful bible and went to a church, but could she teach others to love Jesus like she did? When we returned 2 weeks later, we brought her everything she needed to start discipling others; we gave her a brand new bible to share, showed her the Discovery Bible Study verses, and did a DBS with her! She loved it and committed to teaching others how to read the Bible so they can love Jesus as she does.
Click here for Kat's special testimony posted on YWAM Pisa's Instagram!
There is so much more that God did in this time. As a team we witnessed 10 salvations, 7 miraculous healings, and distributed 50 bibles. Our team found, through much storming and forming, a team identity of compassion and hospitality!
During this time, God also encountered our marriage, bringing us through some vulnerable times. We found so much support for our marriage in the counselors in YWAM Muizemberg and in our amazing outreach staff!
Kat's health is a daily battleground. It is better than it was in December, but not where we need it to be. While it takes both of us to fight autoimmune, she is left bearing the consequences alone.
God provided abundantly for our DTS. And we could not have done it without the generosity of you! We're still standing in faith for some of the finances, but more on that soon!
Maybe you understand... life starts happening and it's been 4 months! Hopefully these next 4 emails will fill in the gaps. We don't want you to miss out. See you tomorrow! Til then...
South Africa, thank you
You have our hearts