LXP Lesotho

During the first two weeks of August a team from Holland, Michigan, USA and our LXP family from Jeffreys Bay, South Africa joined us in Butha-Buthe, Lesotho for a Beat the Drum outreach. With our team of 70 volunteers we were able to share with 1,275 high school students God’s message of hope and purity in the face of HIV, abuse, neglect, and poverty. Beat the Drum’s message of purity beyond abstinence is conveyed by first showing the students the Hollywood movie “Beat the Drum”. This movie presents the complex issues surrounding HIV, immorality, and culture facing communities in Africa. Over the next four days we go in pairs into the classrooms and work through a discussion-based curriculum that presents the truth and encourages the students to commit to abstinence until marriage.

St. Phillips High School

In Butha-Buthe we went to two high schools, St. Phillips and St. Paul, and had an incredible time of connecting with the students and teachers. The first lesson of Beat the Drum invited the students to embrace the value of courage and to speak the truth about the challenges they are facing by writing “Dear Francis” letters. It was so heart breaking to read about the brokenness, pain, and suffering these youth are going through. They shared stories of abuse in their homes and schools, disease and pain from multiple sexual partners, struggling because they are orphaned or neglected, and hopelessness about the future because they don’t see any way to rise above the status quo. After sharing these stories on paper, many students wanted to speak to someone about their problems. In this way God opened the door for us to build deep relationships with them in a short time, and through those conversations and heart-connections we had the opportunity to speak the truth to them in love and pray for God to bring breakthrough in their lives.

St Paul High School

One of the big highlights of the week was the closing event where students from both schools gathered to celebrate what God had done in their lives. The hall was packed wall to wall with students as we worshipped together, shared testimonies of how God changed us, and shared our talents to bring praise to God. As we closed in prayer the Lord came and as our planned two-hour event changed into four hours as young men and women were set free from oppression and pain in the presence of God. It was an incredible time of experiencing the love and power of our Father.

Closing event where students shared testimonies and talent items.

By the end of our week together many students came to a point where they realized the need for change in their lifestyle. When we invited them to make a commitment to abstinence until marriage before their peers and the Lord, they were excited to take that step for the sake of their health, their heart, and their future. However, as much as they made the commitment with the intention to keep it, they acknowledged and voiced the many challenges they knew they would face in the days ahead. As teenagers in an environment where promiscuity is prevalent, peer pressure is high and the need to feel loved and accepted runs so deep, it is not easy to stay pure. That’s where the Abstinence Clubs come in. After the Beat the Drum team went home, our local team in Lesotho has continued meeting at the high schools with those who want to grow in their faith and stay strong in their choice to abstain. In these A-Clubs we meet weekly to grow in discipling relationship with the students, provide support and do bible studies. Our prayer is that as these students find healing and hope in Jesus they will be sources of change in their schools, communities and families as they carry the Truth and light of Christ.

In addition to our time in the high schools, the Beat the Drum volunteers also ministered in the village, at the school for children with disabilities, and at the LXP Base. We had a wonderful time visiting people in the community and praying together. One man accepted Jesus when the group visited him and his neighbors told the team they had been praying for him for many years to come to know the Lord. We rejoice over the salvation of his soul and for the faithfulness of God to answer the prayers of his neighbors and do a work in his heart. We look forward to continuing to meet with those who were visited during Beat the Drum and we pray more home church bible studies will be born out of that outreach.

Visiting people in Nkoeng Village during community outreach.

Those who visited the students at the school for children with disabilities did a wonderful job sharing the love of Christ and shared how blessed they were in return. Many of the children are unable to speak, so it was a challenge for the team to find ways to connect initially. However, they soon discovered how much the kids love music and how readily they respond to rhythm and sounds. The team sang, danced, and beat out different rhythms with some kids, while others were playing games with the ones who are mobile. We were so blessed to hear from the teachers that they’d never seen the children so happy and responsive; they really lit up and came alive with our team. We praise God for the connection and the way he enabled us to share his love with the children and their teachers.

At the LXP Base the volunteers did an incredible job helping with some of the construction projects. We completed digging the foundation for the dorm buildings and collected stones and sand to build a retaining wall along the back fence. The team worked so hard at these manual labor tasks and worked just as hard in prayer, preparation and facilitating Beat the Drum in the high schools. We were so blessed by the work ethic, joyful attitude, servant hood and unity among the team. God was able to work through us in powerful ways in the schools, in the community, and to minister to one another because of the selflessness and sacrificial attitude of each volunteer.

Digging the foundation for dorms at the LXP Lesotho Base.

The LXP Lesotho team and the people of our community were deeply blessed by the Beat the Drum outreach team. We are thankful that God brought them to do such a wonderful work among us, and we pray that the Holy Spirit carries to completion the good work that was begun in the lives of the students who committed to purity and those in the village who took steps forward in their journey with Christ.

Beat the Drum Lesotho Team