Our AIDS Prevention Program, Leadership Summit, hosts a quarterly one-day leadership seminar called IMPACT. On May 2oth we had nearly 200 students from 17 public schools in Qwa Qwa spend the day being challenged to impact their respective communities and schools.

At this IMPACT- we wrapped up and reviewed our past teachings on leadership- and then we called the kids to action. We broke up into small-groups by school, facilitated by a Thrive staff member or intern, and each group was given the task of addressing a problem in their school. These were the instructions: identify problems in your school, narrow it down to one you think is most important and then decide what you will do about it.

We know these kids are amazing. But, we were blown away by these 7^th, 8^th & 9^th graders.

By the next IMPACT on September 14^th, the kids are going to do things like: launch a campaign to increase school safety, get electricity in their school (sadly, some schools still don’t have reliable electricity), and start a peer counseling service for other students.

By the end of IMPACT, the students were charged up! They left excited about their projects and feeling equipped to change their schools. Little do they know that as a Thrive Africa family, we left the day so encouraged by what God is doing through them-that we can’t wait to hear what they report back in September.

Check out pictures from IMPACT here.

Our coaches do an amazing job of pouring into nearly 4000 students every month in Leadership Summit. And we take every chance we can get to pour back into and disciple these Basotho young adults! During the recent two-week school break, we took full advantage of extra time with the coaches. We spent two days focusing entirely on their spiritual development.

As a group they were able to delve into what it means to glorify God by giving Him our best. Some of our interns and staff members challenged the coaches with topics like: what it looks like to glorify God with our time, giving Him our best energy, how to use our talents to further His kingdom, what it looks like to give Him our first-fruits and steward our money well, and how we can give God our best love.

The coaches left the two-day retreat encouraged, challenged and refreshed. We can’t wait to see what God has in store for the rest of the term!

After a three-week break from LaunchPad, the interns were anxious to jump back into teaching classes. This week was devoted to reviewing what the students had learned so far this term. With a few minutes at the end of her class, Samantha opened up the floor for questions. She told the students to ask anything.

And they did. Topics ranged from friends to what God thinks about homosexuality. It was a safe environment for the students to ask challenging questions about topics they’re dealing with in their daily lives, but aren’t being talked about at home. Even though there were some tough questions, Samantha did a great job of fielding questions and instilling truth into the kids in her class.

It’s exciting to see how, as they pour into others, our interns are being stretched and are growing through teaching.

Our Leadership Summit students have been learning how popular culture impacts their daily lives. Many students are realizing for the first time that the media promotes ways of thinking and behaving that are often contrary to the lifestyle example we see in Jesus.

Anna (LS coach) describes one of her class’ reactions, “The learners enjoyed the lesson very much because they didn’t realize before how much media has an influence on their life and they said they want to change that, they want to start having a relationship with God instead of always watching T.V.”

Our students have realized that by limiting their exposure to negative media sources, they can create more opportunities for God to lead and influence them instead. Our Leadership Summit coaches have expressed excitement about watching the students embrace the truth in these lessons. Busisiwe (LS coach) said, “I thank God because they [students] realized the truth about media and what God’s Word says about the media.  They now agree with me and know that everything they do must glorify God.”

“I want to be in class!” exclaimed a student in Mapuleng’s Leadership Summit (LS) class.  Many of the students have other after school activities like sports and choir, but several have decided that they can give those up in order to learn what God has to say about the life-topics they face everyday.  “They just told their captains that they wanted to be in Leadership Summit class.  I thank God for that,” commented Mapuleng.  The students know there is something different about our classes.  They are finding out that the difference between their academic classes and Leadership Summit is that they are learning the Truth of God. In a recent LS class, Busisiwe explained how God can be on our side to fight sin if we ask Him and 27 students ended up receiving Christ that day! The Spirit of God is upon the coaches and lives are being changed because of it. ~ Cassie Phillips, Leadership Summit Coach Development Manager

Our first-term attendance numbers for Leadership Summit have been calculated:  We have 3,567 youth attending our weekly classes. That means 3,567 kids are being impacted by the truth of God’s word and are learning about how to grow as leaders in Him.

God is amazing!  He knows just where we need to be to make the greatest impact.  Thanks to all of you for your prayers, it is obvious they are blazing the path of ministry for us!

~ Amanda Radebe, Leadership Summit Assistant

BTS, better known as “behind the scenes” started last month for the Interns.  Based on skill sets, preferences, and the interviewing process each intern is assigned to a department within the ministry. This opportunity allows them to experience the “work” behind ministry as they file, input data, run errands, and perform all the “not so glamorous” but necessary activities.

Approximately 25% of their week is focused on BTS while the remainder of time is devoted to studies and hands on, frontline ministry. The interns are so excited about this avenue of ministry and service!

As 2008 came to a close, so did our commemoration of Thrive Africa’s 10-year anniversary. To celebrate just how far we’ve come, we put together Rearview Mirror, a booklet that looks back at the last decade of ministry. Sometimes we can’t believe just how far God has brought this ministry.

Want us to send you the actual booklet? Email us your address and we’ll mail you one right away.

Our staff has been praying for rain as our dams have been low and we were experiencing a “green drought”.  God responded quickly with an amazing 2.5 inches of rain in 2 hours - mixed with hail.

Yes, I did say HAIL! It covered much of our grounds for the remainder of the day. The rain was such a blessing as it provided the water we desperately needed.

On the downside, because there was so much rain one of the staff houses did suffer a bit of flooding. No worries, God is still good!

The year is running by and time is already getting away from us. Our internet has been down for several weeks so we apologize for not being able to update our site regularly, but don’t worry, we are up and running now…. in more ways than one!

Our 8 new interns have arrived, who you will “meet” shortly, our Leadership Summit program is setting up schedules to do our AIDS prevention program in the Qwa Qwa public schools, and Launch Pad is setting up assemblies to share how the youth can go to discipleship classes that we will be teaching throughout the village.

We are ready to run this race and we know that you will be right there with us. “… and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”  Hebrews 12:1