Yesterday I drove to Nashville to spend five hours with Rolf Weichardt planning future visits to South Africa. Rolf is here in the states to speak at a worship conference in Ocala, Florida.

It is exciting to see God use our relationship to encourage and focus our eyes on the Lord. The staff conference in September and the training of teams next January will be focused on the theme “Family! Matters”.

Ministry teams which will be the future spearhead of YFC ministry in South Africa and will be a focus for my teaching. Returning to prayer, God’s Word and His family the church will be the desired outcomes of training. Rolf says, we want to return to biblical training, equiping, loving and leading our youth and staff.

I will be preparing bible studies that they can take with them on the field of ministry. I will be helping them to defend their faith and be effective in discipleship. This will require their trust in God’s Word to be enhanced and help them to know what they believe and why they believe it. Wow, what a task!

Pray with Cathy and I as we begin prayerfully planning these future visits. I can see God using Rolf to transform the Youth for Christ culture of Africa into a powerful ministry wave that is blessed of God. Serving on his mission field is making a big difference. Your support has provided safe relationships and Christ-centered mentoring that is catching the breath of God. Thank you.

The week has finally concluded. We have built some great relationships with many. Each meal we found ourselves with several students who would eat with us and discuss missions.

Ricki said to us, Thank you so much for the way you challenged us this week and befriended us! I had an incredible time at camp and God really stirred up our hearts to live passionately for Him and to reach out to ALL people with arms of love and compassion. Thank you!

Stephanie said, I definitely want to keep in touch and let you know what God is doing. We’ve done a lot of talking these past few days, and there are some really cool, but crazy stuff that we’ve talked about…. some of which I’m not even sure where to begin, and …yeah. We’ve got some stuff that we’re starting on right now, but in the future it would be absolutely wonderful if you could give us advice and just… keep in touch.
…That was a lot of words. Sorry.
I just wanted to thank you for that, and for ferrying us back and forth for meals. It was wonderful cramming 12 people in your car.

The the time with Rachel and Kiley Butler was great. They are local missionaries for Area One who I met through Bolton Campus Life. Kiley was in my club many years ago.

We are now starting the long drive home to Memphis. But we have many good memories and friends. When we arrived home over a half dozen young people had found us on Facebook. Wow.

This week has been powerful in the lives of several hundred young people in Missouri. Cathy and I find ourselves engaged with the hearts of many.

Rides in the car, with sixteen students packed in our Crown Victoria. Tables of kids wanting to know about missions at dinner and lunch.

Midnight talks about relationships. Confessions of mistakes made in life. Dreams of mission work in the future. Questions about love, boundaries, and how to know true love when you see it. Wow!

Worship with great energy and passion. Scriptural challenges that highlight the unstoppable faithful men and women in the Bible. Music from Altered that rocks the house and the heart.

Continually, leaders are coming up to us and thanking us for our attendance. One leader said this morning, “my young people have loved your teaching from God’s Word.”

Young people were deeply moved by the dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Comments seem to be endless.

Most importantly, the Holy Spirit has moved this week. We have been privileged to just be here. Thank you.

Danny and Cathy

Tonight I met with over forty students to discuss dating and relationships. The key question on the floor was; How do you know when you meet the right person for marriage? What a lively discussion.

The Girls shared what they were looking for in a guy and the guys shared what they were looking for in a girl. It was real fun. The discussion of love blew many of them away. They said things like, I have never heard anyone talk about love in such a clear and consice way. I referred them to the C.S. Lewis book on the Four Loves published in 1960. It is a classic christian treatment of love written after the death of his wife.

We also spent two hours together today discussing Migdol Eder (the hebrew name for a flock station outside Bethlehem) , the birthplace of Jesus. Never heard of it? Take a look in Micah 4.  Then look it up on the internet. You may be surprized. 

Today we got over 12 in our car riding riding from our cabins to the dinner hall at Windermere. We are building good relations with several students. What a joy meeting young eager hearts who are so in love with Jesus.

We left Monday from Memphis and drove to Roach, Missouri for the Area One Camp at Windermere. It is certainly a beautiful location. Several hundred students are here from various states.

We have begun a small group of over 40 students on Tuesday. We have looked closely at the Word of God and potential errors proposed by Jim Jones. It was a great discussion! Many students wondered what they would say about their faith if an atheist were to ask them. One student said,  I’ve been challenged by atheists before to truly know what I believe, but I’ve never been challenged by another Christian to truly dig into my faith like you challenged me today. I feel like God has some really big things in store for us, and I’m so excited to see how He’s going to use us. 

Each evening session I am in front of the crowd introducing missionaries and their stories to the young people. They are responding very well.  Pray for us as the week progresses

Since our return from Africa the time has been filled with securing partners for the future. We have been meeting with many in Memphis and many other locations I mentioned in May. What a joy to see some people that we have not seen in many years.

We are mentoring two missionary couples here in Memphis and look for Rick and Kim Beck to return from Honduras soon, hopefully June 20th.  We will work with them here in Memphis during their furlough.

Next week Cathy and I attend the Area One Camp of the Ozarks retreat to serve, speak (mostly to college students and graduated seniors) and share mission stories with hundreds of young people. Rachel and Kiley Butler are a couple we have been working with for some time. Pray for our time next week. We also plan to attend their conference in Florida during July. I will also be doing a complete assessment of the camp for Rachel and Kiley. Come see some details at http://areaone.org/camps/area1ozarks—missouri

I also find myself counseling and mentoring numerous individuals in the Memphis area. Wow. Things seem to never slow down. Thank you to Him for keeping us busy and focused on His goal.

God is continuing to guide us as the foundation is built and future ministry is being established. I talked with Rolf Weichardt last week in South Africa and we made plans for next January through March for a return visit. Amazing how many weeks are already established.

Germany for August could not fit the schedule for I-Themba and we are looking at Zambia during that time. Two missionaries are there and could use some attention.

Discussions are being had about a missionary get-away to Little Key island near Honduras. Several missionaries have shown interest and desire to be involved in a deeper still restoration event.

We are also looking to meet some missionaries in Nelspruit, South Africa who expressed an interest in mentoring. We have many options and need your prayers to choose wisely. During that same trip we would attend the YFC South Africa staff conference to meet even more missionaries from around Africa. That will hopefully be in September. We will update you next week from Missouri and the Area One Camp.