A spiritual revival is taking place in South Africa as Christian men across the country humble themselves before God and commit to raising godly families.

It's been a pleasure to minister in that country over the last couple of years, and I thought you'd enjoy an encouraging testimony from the recently completed Passing the Baton DVD Training Course at the United Methodist Church in Walmer, a suburb of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Maybe you'll pick up some ideas you can use in your own church!

From Barbie Perks:

It has been a privilege to lead this group of 20 or so these couple of weeks and I am excited at where this will eventually lead. I quote from an email I received after the last session from one of the participants:
 
'Thanks Barbie--I really enjoyed last night's session. We have been having some difficult conversations with a young man who is at present trying to get his life back on track after some really bad life choices and setbacks and so am really grateful for this opportunity at gaining some wisdom.... In fact our last conversation on Friday was about challenging authority and this morning he was back in my office wanting to chat about it and I was able to feel a bit more confident in chatting about it after last night--awesome!"

Our high schools pastor did the course as well, and she is instigating a formal young ladies mentoring programme next term--placing young girls/students with older women for a specific period of time with a specific programme (1 hour x 5 weeks) with an option of continuing or changing mentors the following term. We will begin this with a dinner where people can meet and interact and be introduced to each other.

One older gentleman who was in the PTB group shared with me that since he had a stroke, his speech has been affected and he feels that people think his mind has been affected so he feels he cannot really be of use to share with anyone. I encouraged him to write his 'mentoring thoughts' down and communicate through letters or emails, especially with his sons and grandsons and to open those lines of communication--which he seemed to think he could do more easily than speaking.

Once again, thanks for putting the info onto dvd. It has been great to share your vision in this way.