Youth Week

This past week has been Youth Week at the Uniting Reformed Church in Khomasdal. They invited churches from all over the area to bring their youth groups and participate in the sessions each night of the week. Monday was kickoff night and I had been asked to speak on how much we value God. There were about 70-80 youth there, not bad for the opening night. We started off with a time of worship from a visiting worship team, a dance, and a drama. Then I spoke from Philippians 3:1-14 where Paul explains the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. He calls everything else "rubbish" for the sake of knowing Christ. I challenged the youth to value Christ above all other things in their lives.

They continued on all week with different speakers and I heard things were going well. I had also been asked to speak on Friday night for the last of their teaching sessions. By the end of the week, the group had doubled in size to over 150 people. The theme for the night was the Body of Christ, so I spoke from 1 Corinthians 12 about how the Church consists of many parts, but it's all one Body. We talked about 4 viruses we can catch that will destroy unity in the Body of Christ (inadequacy, irrelevance, envy, and pride). Then I challenged the youth to get involved in God's mission with whatever gifts He had given them. Overall, I thought the two nights I attended were very well planned and the youth were very attentive. I trust that God will use His Word in their lives for the purposes He has planned. As someone has said, "We're the sowers; He's the grower."

Volleyball Tournament

This past weekend I put together a team from NETS to participate in the annual Volleyball For All Tournament. Businesses, schools, families, or groups of friends all put together teams to play. There were 240 teams competing on 20 courts. It was said that this is the largest social volleyball tournament in southern Africa and perhaps the whole continent.

Many years ago NETS used to win this tournament, but much has changed since then. We had one team member who was a part of those championship teams, but now he's a lecturer rather than a student. Our team got off to a great start winning our Group in the pool round. In the first round of the knock-out stage, our match was tied at 17-17 as time expired. We played one last point to determine who would advance. We did our best, but our own mistakes undid us and we lost the point. However, all around it was a fun day and after 10 hours in the sun no one was too sad to be going home.