Hello! We are Pete, Sumari, and Arielle Witt, and we felt the Lord leading us to move from San Diego, California to Cape Town, South Africa as missionaries in July 2018.
While South Africa is beautiful in many ways, it is also home to some of the most dangerous and violent cities in the world. The effects of 40+ years of segregation from apartheid still remain clearly visible throughout the country as it is divided by poverty, crime, murder, alcoholism, drug addiction, racism, and prostitution.
We saw the Lord do incredible things in our first four years in Cape Town as we helped lead a discipleship school and served on the eldership team of a local South African church. But in 2022, we felt the Lord asking us to move our family and our lives once again – this time to Johannesburg, South Africa.
We felt the Lord wanted to do a new thing in Johannesburg and birth a new discipleship program there, and we felt that He wanted us to move and lead this new program. So in February 2023 we launched ROOTED, a program focused on raising up passionately devoted lover and followers of Jesus.
The Lord revealed to us in prayer that He wanted us to focus first and foremost on intimacy with Him – prioritizing time with Him around the Word of God listening and responding to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Everything that we do for the Lord must flow out of this place of truly knowing Him and being rooted in Him as He leads and empowers us.
The Lord has also connected us to an incredible children’s village that provides care for orphans and vulnerable children in the community that are often rescued from horrific situations. These children need to feel and experience the love of Jesus, and our discipleship program students will spend time most afternoons being the hands and feet of Jesus to these children in very practical ways.
We are also part of a partnership of churches across the globe working together toward the goal of the church becoming more and more like the pure and spotless bride Jesus is returning for. This has provided opportunities for us to travel across South Africa and the nations equipping leaders and churches as Jesus builds up His church.
Because of this partnership, we have students coming to our discipleship school from countries across the world to be equipped and then being sent back to their home nations to make disciples and shine the light of Christ. Our students have also been actively involved in 4 different church plants during these last two years as we continue to reach more people with the good news of the gospel.
Our work has only been made possible through the continued generosity of individuals, families, churches, ministries, and businesses who have felt led to financially partner with us through their giving.
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God bless you!