Besonderse mense is vir my tot 'n seën

SONDAG SE PLAASBEDIENING

Sondag is ons weer na die skooltjie tussen die plase langs die Bottelary pad. My pa en ma is ook daar en bring vir Anna en Jeanette saam. Hulle getuig van verlossing uit verslawing van drank, dagga en rowwe lewens.

Hier staan my ma en pa Anna met die wit kopdoek en Jeanette met die swart kopdoek. Hulle lyk baie ernstig hier, ons het seker oor 'n groot uitdaging gesels.

Die trane het geloop met hulle getuienis en ek glo dat dit 'n geweldige indruk moes maak op die mense. Jeanette het vertel hoe die Here die spirits so bitter gemaak het dat sy dit nie eers met koffie kon inkry nie en dit het haar lewe gered.

Die ander ding waarmee die Here met haar gepraat het is dat sy nie meer 'n ma vir haar kinders was nie. Hulle was baie keer honger en verwaarloos. Dan het albei 'n getuienis van 'n kragdadige bekering wat hulle lewens tot in die wese verander het. Hoe hulle ontdek het dat hulle nie kan nie, maar 'n Here dien wat deur Sy gees wonderwerke gedoen het. Genade onbeskryflik groot.

In die kar praat hulle oor baie seerkry in hulle lewens en hoe hulle nie daaroor kan kom nie. Ons praat van hoe mens vir die Here kan kwaad word en dat dit deel van ons verhouding met Hom is. Hoe eerliker ons is, hoe meer van ons hart kan ons met Hom deel en Hy wil deur die seerkry nader kom aan ons. Hy is nie veroordelend nie.

Ons besoek 'n huis van 'n jong man wat verslaaf is aan tik dagga en dra bende tattoeer merke. Hy wil graag bevry word daarvan, maar sy pa raak net kwaad vir hom en help hom nie. Ek sit in die sink huisie langs hom op die bed en bid vir hom en gesels eerlik soos net hulle kan doen. Hy kom agter ek is aan sy kant en ek dink dit is die grootste boodskap. Net soos ek aan sy kant is, is die Here ook aan sy kant. Hy deel die stryd met hom. Hy het die week vir die eerste keer reg gekry om nie saam met sy vriende se verslaafde partytjies toe te gaan nie, maar om by die huis te bly.

Handevat begin maar nou eers sy voete vind. Veral in die begin tyd, moet mens ure in vergaderings sit. Dit is baie bevrydend dat mens nou ook al meer met uitreike betrokke raak, want dit is daar waar ons as gemeentes iets kan ervaar van die nood rondom ons. Dit is onder andere daar waar ons leiers kan bystaan en die rimpelings van God se koninkryk kan sien beweeg.

DRC Presbytery Task group for "Fresh Expressions of Church" and involvement

I attended my first Presbytery meeting in South-Africa. The Presbytery talked about the recent General Synod meeting where a mission identity were decided to be a value for the DRC. "Dutch Reformed Church".
The presbytery talked about "Fresh expressions" of MSM and evaluated that we need to do something like that in Brackenfell. They elected representatives from the four congregations and asked this task group to start a Fresh Expression in Brackenfell. I were asked to help in this initiative.
After two meetings we start to form ideas on how this approach can help the community of Brackenfell. I am the only one in the group that did the training.
I still do not know how this initiative will develope, but I am enthusiastically part of it. I firmly believe that it is a step in the right direction.

New expressions of Church and involvement

"New expressions of Church" is an initiative of MSM (Mission shaped Ministries) from the UK. 

It is an initiative that created 80% of new growth of churches in the UK. The basis of this movement is missional. The church as it exists today, do not manage to get people back to the pews. Even if the church do their work, which they did up to now, very well, they have the potential to reach only a very small portion of the population. Most of the population will not sit in a pew again. Something else is necessary. In Brackenfell we know we have about 300 000 people and in all the christian churches together, there is a membership of about 12 000. Most people are not negative towards christianity, but will not sit on pews on Sundays.

New expressions of Church is giving the church training, not to get people in the Church building, but to go out and reach the people that will not come. It is possible to create an expression of church in the community that looks and functions differently, without giving away the biblical principles of being church. 

MSM worked out a course of 24 modules on subjects like: Prayer, Sacrements, Discipleship, Small groups, etc. I participated in them and found them very useful. I believe that this course will help many churches in South-Africa also. The DRC already included this course on the training of new Reverents. 

Read more about MSM at: http://www.missionshapedministry.org/

I were asked by the MSM South-African group to be part of in their planning and training group for 2014 and also present some of the modules. I believe that I can play a roll in a process to adapt this training for the South-African situation. I believe that this training will help many churches in South-Africa.
This year more than 50 leaders were trained and next year it looks as if more people will be trained.

Pomfret

 After 18 hours drive, I arrive in the much hotter and dryer Pomfret. It is a small town that were founded around a asbestos mine and was firstly built as an minetown with hospital, clubhouse, many residential homes and services. It is situated in the North-West Province near the border of Botswana. The government were forced to help them with free electricity and water for a few days in the week.

After the closure of the mines, the military took it over and build it out with more houses. Early in the 90’s the government used the base to locate the people from 32 bataljon here. They are Portuguese speaking people from Angola who could not be relocated in their own country because of the political situation.

Pomfret is situated within a farm community and because of the climate; farms are big and stretched out. Because of the problem of language and perceptions, the farmers did not employ them. There are no work opportunities and most of them live from disability and other governmental grants. Some of them were displaced to Mafekeng but all of them did not go. Some of the local Shwana speaking people stay in some of the houses. If I remember correctly, there are about 4000 people in the town from which 80% are Angolese and the rest Shwana speaking. Exept for the free electricity and water, there are nearly no services and the sentiment is that the government do not want them there and gave the opportunity to be placed in Mafikeng. There are a school in town from grade one to twelve. There are also 7 denominations in town and they know that they are losing the fight against social degeneration.

Other initiatives are the ECO organization that started a home for orphans where they look after about 14 children. Through them they started an initiative of cultivating vegetables in tunnels, with water from a borehole. This initiative needs still leadership development. They also run more than one feeding house to combat malnutrition in the area. One of their main aims is to expose children to God’s love, Biblical stories and the gospel, using the children themselves in this initiative. There are local women that are involved in preparing the food.

There are also an elderly couple that started with basic theological training using the Nehemiah course and are involved in pre-school training for children. They are supported by a DRC congregation from Bloemfontein and other supporters that visit them for outreaches.

There are also a lady that help with medical support by opening a clinic for treating people and do basic training.

There are not much of maintenance of houses and buildings like the hospital and clubhouse is falling apart. The police destroyed some of the houses in a effort to prevent people from staying there. The community is a problem for the government and the future of this little town and its people is looking bleak. People talk with sentiments about their family in Angola but cannot go back to Angola.

WHAT TO DO

I think that with some help the town can be helped. One of the needs is to have skills training with things like welding, putting up fences and other skills to serve the farms around there. Also training in own production through farming activities like planting and breeding animals.

The biggest need I think, is to work with worldview. If there are no hope for future and the understanding of our responsibility and ownership of own situation, many a project will not be successful. I think of getting involved in supporting the different churches to work together and give Biblical Worldview training and help to start practical consequences of this understanding of reality. There are a few partners that are positive about this and I believe have the potential of being part of a partnership that work with this approach.

My prayer is to know if I need to get involved in visiting about two times a year for about 10 days and facilitate biblical worldview discussions and practical consequences of this way of thinking.

With Annlin congregation in Mozambique (Mocuba and arround)

I arrived in Mocuba before them and could receive the team there. They are mostly from Annlin DRC congregation from Pretoria, but also some others who joined in.

We had a day of orientation that went very well and the attitude of the team became their great testimony. They decided to serve and learn while talking about christian practical issues. The team divided in two and I joined the one group going to Lugela. They played with the children, did skills with women braiding hair, sharing food and became really intimate. So much so that from both sides, greeting was with a bit of tears. With the leaders from the men women and youth, we talked about Stewardship. They shared with us a few stories through which God were experienced as real and part of their community. The story of Sara and here baby whose life's were saved not only by the previous intervention of the teams of South Africa but clearly because of the grace of God. The others story of a child with skin problems that were helped as well as the testimony of the team that were in the accident. They experienced this accident very emotionally up till today they share the loss with a lot of emotion. The big testimony is because the team did not stop to be involved in Mozambique, but is still visiting and still show love and service. These things opened the hearts of the community on a very special way. Every message is taken seriously. The translator also mentioned that it is the fist place where he see that the children did not take any of the coloring pencils or equipment for themselves. They brought back every pencil.

We applied stewardship on animals, nature, church and marriage. The discussions were very open and they were really exited to understand more of the way God intended life to be. God wants us to develop and wants the church to serve the community and bring truth and light to brokenness. God wants marriages to be honest, joyful, faithful and examples of how He loves the world. etc.

We went back to town for Sunday to wash clothes, church service in town and visiting the Bible school.

On Monday our group visited Mutucua, a new Prayer house in Maganja da Costa district. The road took us over a scary home made bridge deep into the bush. First we had to build relationships after the children fled at the sight of a white man approaching them. The work with youth changed the relationship totally. With the leaders we heard what make them happy and sad. Some of the challenges were the lack of funds for church premises and for building. With stewardship we focused on love as the basis of development. God's love for us reflected to other people. The understanding came that love, not power, humility not position, etc will bring people to the church. The pastor also asked us to talk about the understanding that there are a future. We asked: If we love the community and one another what will happen within a month. They guessed that there will be at least 2 more people in the church. What about 6 months, then a year, then 2 years and then 10 years. They believe that there will then be  many people in the prayer house. With so many people they will be able to buy the land and build the church? One of the consequences of love is development and that will happen with only the resources that God gave them. It depends on God and not on help from outside.

We again talked about marriages and some complained about lazy wives. At the end we agreed that to have a wife that will make you proud, we need to love and serve and that has a very good chance of developing your wife to be someone you are proud of. We also talked about faithfulness and other aspects of marriage relationships that are different than cultural thinking.

The Jesus film again was a hit.

The last day we spent at Magodane congregation. The program was delayed by rain. At the end our meetings there were accepted very well.

We went back to Mocuba and prepared for the next day to start our trip back. We had many experiences on the road, but it went very well. In Inhassoro we stayed for an extra day to talk about our vision for the future, our attitude in giving report to our congregations etc. It went well and we could sort out some practical things for the next outreach. We left there with some ideas to think about.

Bernadette drove down with me to Cape Town and it went well. We give her and her family in the hands of the Lord in the challenges facing them.