Job at Thrive: Creative Department Video Editor

Hometown: Royal Oak, MI 

What’s your favorite part of living in Africa?
What I love most about living in Africa is the people and the variety of culture here.

Tell us the best part about your job.
The best part about my job is that I am constantly in the villages working with the beautiful people here.

If you have a few hours free on a Saturday, what will we find you doing?
Hiking or climbing one of our mountains here on the base.

What’s your favorite African animal?
Zebra

Share one of the most impactful moments you’ve had in South Africa.
Last year’s Thrive Trip team lead a 60 year old man to Christ. He was sick and could only walk a few steps at a time. They prayed for healing and the next day when they returned he was walking and his sickness had left him. He was completely healed and God was the only answer to that amazing miracle.

What do you miss most from home?
Starbucks Coffee

What’s playing on your iPod these days?
90’s one hit wonders. All the classics.

What’s a movie you can watch over and over?
The Green Mile

“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

During a weekly excursion to Qwa Qwa for Leadership Summit, we encountered an unlikely event. While driving we noted a large black mass coming towards us down the mountain highway. As we continued to get ever closer we could discern that the mass was in actuality a herd of fleeing black cattle. These cattle were running at breakneck speed towards us while taking up almost the entire highway!

Cautiously we slowed the vehicle down and with a lot of horn honking and laughing we made it safely past the runaway herd. Just another awesome example of how BIG God is as He protects us from the unexpected that occurs with missionary life!

As strange as it may seem Superbowl Monday is correct for us here in South Africa. Although we could have watched the game in the wee hours of the morning (1:30 am) we opted to record the game and enjoy it after work on Monday evening.

Interns and staff alike squeezed into one of our houses to cheer their team on, enjoy party trimmings and eat all kinds of sweets. Even those not crazy about the game (can you imagine such a thing?!) joined in. It was an amazing and relaxing time, even for the unfortunate Cardinal fans!! Our Thrive Africa Superbowl Monday tradition continues.

Even those of us who didn’t participate in the horribly filthy action enjoyed watching everybody else have fun in the mud on Thanksgiving. I think we possibly started a new Thrive tradition with this one…

Be sure to check out all the pictures…

We love the sense of family we have with our staff and interns, and Thanksgiving is always a fun holiday for us, even though we’re all far from loved ones back home. We know how to do it up right — with a feast of all the traditional trimmings. It takes some serious advance planning to get stuffing and pumpkin pie cans brought over from the USA in time for the holiday, but it’s definitely worth all the effort.

One of our Thrive family traditions is the wall of thanks. Using post-it notes and markers, everyone adds things they’re thankful for all throughout the day. This year’s was especially fun and interactive, and provided lots of laughter.

Check out the Thrive Thanksgiving family pictures >

I’m thankful for my Thrive family. What are you thankful for?

We have an expression here. “T.I.A. – This is Africa.” It helps us make light of things that would otherwise frustrate us.

We’ve been having a T.I.A. week here at Thrive. Our internet’s been down for almost 4 days, making us feel cut off from friends, family, and partners. We are back online today and while all the glitches aren’t fully worked out yet, we’re praising God for the wonder that is the internet.

Remember our prayer request board? At this morning’s prayer meeting, “internet” made it onto the list! I’m so glad God cares about us that much!

This is our tenth year of ministry at Thrive Africa. We wanted to treat our staff to a few days away at a lake resort as a way to express our appreciation to them. From Abram, who’s been with us the longest, to Aimee, our most recent staff addition, all of our staff has played a vital role to our growth and success as a ministry. Our success isn’t gauged by anything other than lives changed — and our staff have changed a lot of lives!

It was overcast almost the entire time we were at the lake. It was windy, rainy, and freezing cold. Of course that didn’t stop the staff from riding the wave runner or having some fun on the tube. We played games together (and some of us had sore muscles to prove it) and enjoyed the break from “work”. Everyone seemed to really have a great time.

On our last night away, the staff presented Niel and I with a gift. Months ago our DVD player broke, so they all chipped in to buy us a new one. They also pooled together a wad of cash for us to use as spend money on our upcoming vacation. We were overwhelmed by their generous gesture and their encouraging words scribbled in a card. We really have a great staff team!

Thanks, guys, not just for the way you blessed us with these wonderful gifts but for all the sacrifices you continually make as you give your lives away to raise up Godly leaders in Africa. We love and appreciate you!

One of our staff members, Brittany White, has headed back to the States for a few months on a furlough trip. The rest of our team of staff and interns miss her a lot already. Please join us in praying for Brittany’s time at home to be refreshing and fruitful, and for all of her needs to be met.

Africa misses you, Brittany!