A group of 29 inspired young Americans are bringing new hope to the deprived community of Mpeni near Elim, with their assistance in the erection of a church building for the community.

The children of this poverty-stricken community are excited about the presence of “these young Christian people from faraway” and adults are filled with new courage.

“The work these youngsters are accomplishing would have taken our community well on four years to complete,” remarked one of the villagers, who watched in amazement as the project is taking shape. The foundations are already in place and brickwork on the walls started this week.

The team from Atlanta, Georgia, in the USA, consists of 24 teenagers and five adult leaders of the Student to Student Ministry of the Church of the Apostles.

The leader of the team, full-time youth minister Jonathan Adams, says his church takes the youth teams on mission trips twice a year – in the spring to Romania and in the American summer to Africa. Last summer they went to Zimbabwe, where they assisted missionary Pierre de Jager. When the present situation in Zimbabwe made them decide not to return there this year, Pierre suggested that they come to his home town, Louis Trichardt.

Apart from their practical assistance in the church-building project, the team also does outreach work amongst the youth in Mpeni, Louis Trichardt and Tshikota, to share their faith.

“Most of these bright kids are from prep schools in Atlanta and want to make a difference in the world,” says Jonathan. They designed a special T-shirt for their Mpeni outreach with the slogan from James 1:27: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

Members of the team are responsible for their own travelling expense of well on US$3 500 (about R26 500) which they collected in their home country by washing cars, doing babysitting and other part-time odd jobs. They hope to “kickstart” the church-building project at Mpeni to such a degree that it will be within the reach of be local people to complete it soon. When the team returns to the USA next week, they will focus on fundraising there to assist the people of Mpeni to pay for the completion of the project.

Jonathan and his team arrived last week and are due to depart next Monday, July 28.

Pierre, who assisted in the arrangements for the team’s Louis Trichardt visit, expressed his thanks to Vonk Cordier of Deo Gloria Christian Centre for accommodating the entire team for the duration of their stay, Prima Butchery for excellent service and meat, Absolutely Water for the drinking water supply to the team and Nimrod Munonde of Rhema Transport Services for its punctual and reliable service in bringing the team from Johannesburg to Louis Trichardt and carting them around to Mpeni every day. He also thanked the various donors who helped with the necessary materials at the building project.