“This wasn’t like any other SCA gathering; the kids were really hungry for the presence of God. A lot of them were on their knees and crying during worship. They weren’t there to socialise, they were there for Jesus.”
14-year-old girl commenting on a recent joint-schools worship night at a high school in East London.
According to Statista.com, in 2022 South Africa registered a population of approximately 60.6 million people: of these about 22.12 million are below the age of 19.
What would happen if Jesus started encountering children and teenagers across our country, in high school gatherings, in their homes and churches? What could the destiny of our nation look like if a generation, healed and restored and set apart for Christ, were to step into positions of leadership and authority?
Pastor Jade and Chanté Narainasamy from Faith Church in East London head-up a ministry called NXT, which targets 14 to 30 year olds, and have been actively working in schools in the city and outskirts of East London since before Covid.
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Jade told me of a recent SCA meeting at a school in the city centre where 189 high school pupils showed up during the 20 minute break session. He challenged them to recognise that serving Jesus came with a cost, and would they be willing to answer the call to be bold and unashamed?
“That meeting sparked something.” he said. “This school is truly in revival.”
More and more East London teens are encountering God through the witness of their friends. A matric boy has been laying hands on sick peers, and seeing them healed; perhaps even more significant is the breakthrough and healings that are happening in children suffering from depression which is the real pandemic in our schools.
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This focus on depression aroused my interest: it seems to be a common theme in testimonies in several schools in East London where Jesus is healing kids of chronic anxiety and intervening in suicide attempts.
Overdose interrupted
Jade told me a story of a boy in another city school who had gone home one Friday afternoon with the intention of taking an overdose. Just as he was about to swallow the pills he saw a flyer that he had been handed out at school inviting kids to an NXT event in the evening. He decided to go.
During the meeting the man who was ministering called out a word of knowledge for someone who had been thinking: “I should rather not live; I should die.” The boy leapt up, shouting that it was him! He was completely delivered and set free that night. The principal of this particular school has since told the team that he can see the difference their presence is making, and the doors are open to continued ministry.
Teen-led ministry
In other schools, God is moving among the teenagers themselves with seemingly little input from adults. Two recent worship events, hosted at two different high schools, have attracted hundreds of teens throughout the city and have been led almost entirely by teen leaders in the various SCAs.
I chatted to a friend who was present and he described the “sincere hunger for the Lord; they were engaged, not distracted, not trying to act cool”.
At both SCA events, the key moment seems to have been an open mic where people spontaneously got up to testify of their God encounters, and then challenged their peers to “say yes to Jesus”. After one such call, about 70 learners responded. “People were kneeling, people were crying, people were hungry,” said my friend.
A teacher at one of the high schools told me he’s been walking the corridors for years, before anyone else arrives, praying for revival in his school. “And now?” I asked, and he shrugged and laughed: “I don’t know.” He recognises that this is all God, and it can’t be about us.
“God will do it unusually, it shall happen in His time,”Pastor Jade told me on the phone. “You’ll never have what you’re not hungry for; God is looking to fill the hungry. He’s looking for those who will sit at His feet.”
As we are witnessing in places like Asbury and colleges around the United States, God is showing up in unusual places and we can’t judge a thing based on prior experience or by what we think we know or understand about revivals. Our response should simply be to partner with His Spirit in our collective cry, “Come Lord Jesus!”
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Thank you Lord JESUS. The time described by the prophet Joel is on our doorstep. We pray that these GOD-given miracles will explode in South Africa. We desperately need a revival; to happen.