Bleich Missionary Family: Reach the Youth

We are currently working with a team of missionaries in reaching all the high schools in the growing township of Diepsloot.

High schools are a relatively new feature in this once informal settlement of northern Johannesburg. Population estimates put this township at around 200,000, in an area of roughly 12 sq. km. While 73% of the population is of employable age and 55% are young adults only some 47% of them are employed, lending to high crime rate, drugs and alcohol abuse and young teenage pregnancies among other problems.

With the future of many of these high school students bleak, we believe that establishing a relationship with Jesus and teaching love and respect for God and fellow man can go a long way to help the future Diepsloot look brighter.

We have been teaching these children on a weekly basis holding assemblies and student Christian meetings. The School where I currently visit has given us the use of a classroom for our meetings, where we have anywhere between 50-70 students attend voluntarily.

In the beginning it became evident that most of these kids, while they knew about God, had little knowledge of the life and story of Jesus. We decided it would be most beneficial to show them the movie of Jesus to establish a foundation and reference point

for further teaching. One of the highlights of this showing was every time the kids saw Jesus perform a miracle they would erupt into spontaneous cheering and applause. These kids were seeing and hearing the story of Jesus for the first time in its entirety and their reaction was that of a new-born Christian, awe and wonderment at the power of the gospel.

One of my favorite moments was during a class on the kingdom of heaven when we decided to demonstrate the power of Jesus available to us through the Holy Spirit. We had all the kids in the class who were ill come forward to receive healing, only instead of us praying for them we asked these kids, most of them new Christians, to lay hands on each other. The result was powerful and each kid that asked for prayer was healed instantly and finally when the teacher herself came forward to receive healing for a persistent stomach pain which had been hurting her for 2 weeks straight, she was healed as she walked to the front of the room for healing. When she explained to the students what had just happened they were ecstatic as they began to realize that this gospel is for everyone and the power of the Holy Spirit is for every believer.

Imagine their neighborhood or whole settlement impacted by young kids eager to spread the light of the gospel with signs and wonders following! We are praying for and building on that vision!

We recently hosted an event for all participants of our ministry across the 4 schools we reach, we had guest speakers, local musicians and fun activities as well as a visit from a local youth pastor with books sponsored for the children by their church.

Food was served at the end of the event and kids got to meet their peers from the different high schools we are active in. It was a great start to something we pray will continue to gain momentum and have far reaching impact, enabling them to become a force for good in their communities.

The classroom

The children asked us to get them a broom and dustpan so they can clean the room before we begin. They do this every time we come as well as arrange the chairs.

Dancing

Dance is not just an activity for African children it’s a very important form of expression. King David danced before the Lord and all of Israel and we did our own interpretation of it here.