Pictures: At the lighthouse looking towards Durban's port/central...Glenn Barnett and Robert, Jason and I, a poster/ad for The Community Connection (Bobby Hile preaching), Steve and Julie Thompson and family)Our first day in Durban we spent with several missionaries. Glenn and Ame Barnett have been serving there for 3 years. They are presently serving with Fellowship Baptist Church and are involved in compassion ministry, especially HIV/AIDS hospice ministry. They've been planning and working towards providing a hospice care facility. Plans from last year to this year seemed to be coming to fruition in a leased facility and they were preparing to open the ministry recently. Just before the opening date they received word that the owner needed to live in that house, which meant the Barnetts would not be able to open that hospice after all. Needless to say it was hard to hear and since the Barnetts were living in that house, they are now looking for a new place to live. In spite of that they seemed to have a very positive outlook and are actively pursuing another home to rent a facility to provide the hospice ministry in. Please pray the Lord will provide a place for them that suits their family and ministry needs. Ame was unable to visit with us due to sick children and children in school, but Glenn took us to breakfast and we talked about South Africa and Durban and got reacquainted. We had spent time with the Barnetts in summer 2008 when we were all at a conference in Harrisburg, PA. Glenn took us on a walk along the northern Durban coast to the lighthouse. It was an extremely windy day as you can see in the picture. That slicked back hair look on my head is not from gel, it's because the wind was blowing so hard.
Following our time with Glenn we went to Ballito, which is north of Durban about an hour and a half. There we had lunch with Steve and Julie Thompson and got acquainted with their 4 wonderful children. Everyone lives in complexes with lots of security and in gated communities, due to the high level of crime. Ballito is no different even though it sits north of Durban. Following a great time of conversation over lunch, Steve took us to their church plant in downtown Ballito. It is called "The Community Connection" and they rent a former theater facility on the second floor of a store complex. This facility had two movie theaters and several office rooms. It is well situated to be called the Community Connection, because there is lots of community activity in the area, both positive and negative. On the positive side, the beach front and town center is nearby and they have a visible location. In the negative, though it might also be a positive, their facility is surrounded by 3 bars. Lots of activity there too. Steve and Julie work with Bobby and Sara Hile on this church plant with lots of ministry geared toward building bridges to the community to share the good news of salvation through Christ and to meet the needs of people. Pray for them as they work to plant this church body. We then went to spend time and have dinner with the Hiles. They had just returned to Durban within the last couple of weeks. We enjoyed getting to know each other over dinner and then we had the privilege of attending a growth group of the church. The Hiles shared about their recent home assignment in the US with the members of this Bible study group and we spent time in prayer and in the Word. The children were with us in the beginning and through our time of prayer and then they went across the street to the Hile's home. Jason just fit right in because he spent his whole life as a missionary kid. I was especially encouraged by the South Africans in the growth group because of their great concern for sharing Christ with the people they know in their community or at work.
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