Defining Church

“The most exciting part for me has been getting to invest in the lives of the kids and hearing the stories of the missionaries at the Dream Center.” -Alyssa 

Experiencing church in South Africa has been nothing but life changing. I have learned a valuable lesson about the definition of church. Church isn’t a building. Church is when unified believers gather to worship God together. Church is meeting in a building to worship God with no shame and being convicted by the message that follows. I’ve also seen the church gathering in new ways through packing meals and having deep and rich spiritual conversations with those you are serving with. The kind of church I experienced this week was spending time with children who have been created in the image of God. My team served at The Dream Center this week, which is an after-school program for children in extreme situations. We had the opportunity to lead children through devotions and help them with their homework. 

Another great privilege we had was being able to play with the kids and create connections through soccer, football and other sports. Some of us connected with specific children and it was interesting to see who connected with the different children. I was amazed by some of the children who asked extremely deep theological questions. Going in, I thought that we would be the ones impacting the kids, but they were the ones who ended up impacting us. The children were so happy, and the joy of God was evident in each of them. It was amazing to see how welcoming they were, because most of them are in very hard circumstances.  

As a team, we asked the question, “Why don’t we have joy like these children, when we have the gift of salvation from God?” I was moved in many ways through this experience, but seeing the joy in these kids changed my perspective completely.  

A lesson I believe everyone can learn is that we need to be joyful for the incredible gift that we have in Jesus.  

Levi Shults
Class XIX Fellow