Missions, Volunteering & Holidays in Africa
Transform 122, one of ACTS ministry partners, is a Collegiate Missions initiative sponsored by North Carolina Baptist Men and Baptist Campus Ministry.
View the below video for more information about their ministry and partnership with Living Hope in Cape Town, South Africa.
We asked our Southern Africa Director a couple of questions….
I didn’t want to go to Africa. I’ve been there before. I liked it, but I didn’t need to go back. So when the opportunity came to accompany my husband on a 2-week business trip to South Africa, I wasn’t too excited. I didn’t want to leave the girls with other families for that length of time. I had deadlines and commitments to meet. There was just too much to do.
“This trip, from the beginning, was promising to be one of the most challenging volunteer projects we have attempted! And it proved to be true! Thankfully, it all went very smoothly.
After spending a night in Nairobi, the medical missions team got settled in on the huge overland truck and we made our way out of Nairobi towards Samburuland. Despite the recent rains leaving many parts of the road in bad condition, we remarkably arrived in Maralal after just 10½ hours (even before dark)! We spent the night on the compound where our IMB missionaries, Charlie and Sandra Daniels and son Joseph, live, and after a team meeting and bath, we finally put our battered bodies to bed.
This year, the ACTS South Central office was privileged to facilitate the IMB Missionary Getaway conference hosted by Corryton Church from the 31st of August to the 3rd of September. This event was a chance for IMB missionaries throughout the region to gather at the magnificent Elephants Hills Resort in Victoria Falls for three days of pampering, fellowship and learning!
Our year of travel and adventure hit a high note when we arrived at the Nxebaga Safari camp in Botswana. My two children aged 12 and 13 and our tutor had been traveling for the last seven months, learning about much more than just Math and English. We had asked many friends and family who knew Africa well where they would go if they could only do one safari and the answer was unanimously Botswana. I mistakenly thought the Okavango Delta would be a place of water birds, crocodiles and hippos, but it was so much more. We had a wish list that included elephants, zebra, giraffe, hyena, lions, leopard, antelopes and fish eagles to name a few. Each day we would say to our trusty guide, “Moffat, find us a _____”
We are proud to say that the Living Hope Summer Project has started with a bang. The group of 7 volunteers are an amazing bunch and you can just see the eagerness and the Christ-like love that they bring to the ministry. We are all really excited to see what happens and how God not only uses them to serve, but touches them while they serve Him and His people here in Cape Town.
For years, some members of the missions community in Zimbabwe have been highlighting the need for the gospel to be taken to the largely unreached and extremely remote Tonga speaking people of Zimbabwe. Even the few roads which skirt their home area are only drivable (with a good 4X4) for a portion of the year. We’ve looked at it before, explored the idea of using boats and other means, but nothing has previously materialized.
I recently returned back to the United States from my ACTS volunteer trip in Kenya and am still nostalgic for the beautiful country, the faithful people, and the dedication of acts to its specific projects.
It doesn’t do much good to give a disabled child a wheelchair if it doesn’t work well for them. The Wheels team at LeTourneau University did their part to make sure that this was not the case for the Children at Joy Town Special Primary School in Thika, Kenya.
