Guess who just landed...an illusionist...oh no he just disappeared

This way please

Show-day!!! I would say that some of us come with reservations of how the show would pan out and how direct and clear the message would be when Adrian performs on stage but at the word GO, having lunch with him, Gary and Janet, it became straightly apparent that this man is a Jesus Freak...well so to say. Organising an illusionist show, there are numerous cultural objections that one has but learning initially that these are all illusions changes one's perception on the ART of illusion. "...all the acts that you see on stage are merely achieved through natural  means, nothing of the supernatural..." says Adrian.

Watching the show, he came across as being very articulate in his Gospel presentation, linking the illusions/arts he does on stage to how they relate firstly to the Gospel, salvation and his testimony. Across the world there are numerous 'beliefs' which he has to kinda explain and for South Africa one topic, which is so culturally relavant especially as he performs in high schools is ancestral worship, how power and fear obstructs people to accept Christ. I am still writing my class report on him so the more shows to come, the more I can share on some of the aspects he touches on.

As Adrian prepares for the show

The show was well received by the adience and like I said, this man is a great communicater and very very articulate in his message

Adrian sitting with some of the kids from Ntuzuma, Ukukhanya

Penny Dugan (Founder of Ukukhanya Life Care Centre) just landed on Thursday from Ah-May-Ri-Kah and I invited her to come along for the show and bring some of the kids from the centre

His scheduled to perform on our campuses on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately we had to cancel some of his shows specifically one on PMB campus because he is still on recovery from a skin reaction he had on his hand, apparently he was exposed to a chemical that causes that and he hasn't had a day rest for a week, performing everyday, up to 3 shows per day in Pretoria

Illusions of an Illusionist

Today, Anele and I , have been running around with our Ministry Leader i.o.w. our boss - organizing Adrian van Vactor's performances on our campuses. A little bit of history on him is that Adrian is a staff member on Campus Crusade for Christ, an international award winning missionary illusionist (I just had to put in the missionary part) from Arizona, USA. He started his illusions after watching David Copperfield live (so we get the idea thats his role model) anyway, Im sure that performance stunned him hence he decided, at the age of 9, that he wanted to study the art of illusion (it is an art ofter all ... no supernatural meaning behind his performances). Well he has a track record of great performances and top awards recognising him in his art but one thing that stands out from his performances is that he uses his art/talent to share the Gospel - the FULL GOSPEL! He has used his talent to challenge many critics using that to share his faith...long story short. In celebration of 40 years, Campus Crusade for Christ invited him to perform right through South Africa and will be landing in Durban this Sunday. So we have been organising for our campus students mini-outreaches to share the Gospel so today we managed to finalize all the bookings. He will be performing at Sibaya Casino Sunday (for booking information, visit this link ). See you there!

Gary and Anele 

First poster we set up on the Pietermaritzburg Campus for Tuesday

The Pietermariztburg Campus venue where Adrian is booked for

Bafana

Pretoria Training

The 'new-bees' of CCC-SA (Students and Interns from UP, UWC, UJ)

These past 2 weeks have been intense in that my team and I headed to Pretoria for staff training. The excitement, thrill and joy I came with was soon over come by trying to keep up in note taking, absorbing all that was taught in our seminars. For a second there I felt like a newspaper journalist covering one of the biggest  international stories. By the first week done with some of the basics such as confidently sharing your faith, other training sessions involved developing a relationship with God, biblical call to making disciples, learning to pray, one of my favourite - being life-long learners, Kingdom vision, being spirit filed and the list goes on. That Saturday we went out with The Jesus Film Team over to Nulmapiers, which is a short distance from Mamelodi, Pretoria to show the Jesus Film (The Gospel according to Luke) in...wait for it...SETSWANA language. It was the first time ever watching the Jesus Film I confess furthermore in an official South African language hyped me up a bit - no limitations to how the Gospel is shared so that.

One of the last few machines used for showing Jesus Film

Going out to share our faith with my team in the community was extremely different and to a certain degree difficult, compared to university students. I met 3 boys during the outreach. After sharing with them and praying for them, I took time to listen to their stories, who they are, where they from. What I discerned, ,besides what they told me, was how they are far from God. I felt a strong urge to take their contacts and I did but I did not follow-up on them - learning during the week to understand that “Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God” I would normally try to take control over the situation but I was rebuked by the Holy Spirit on that. I most probably will never meet these guys again but one assurance I have is that the Holy Spirit was working in them and I was a vehicle used to planting that seed - now is the Lords responsibility to water in. Though I am over 600 km's away from them, I pray over their lives, standing in agreement.

Some of the young guys who accepted Christ during the outreach

The Jesus Film in Setswana - we showed it at an open sports ground

4 of the ladies from the training team praying before the outreach

Some of the new interns from University of Pretoria and Johannesburg...learnt alot from the testimonies
of these 3 amazing young friends of mine

Bafana