Mission Outreach
(For letters from Adam and Juanita, and Brian and Janet Hayward in Cape Town please scroll down the page.)
ANNOUNCEMENT regarding Mission Outreaches in 2010…..
This year marks the 11th anniversary of our mission outreaches to North Africa. We are busy planning two outreaches for 2010: one to be led by Rob Penrith to Egypt from 3rd September and the other to be led by Lynne Axon to Sudan later in the month of September 2010. Here at St John's we really want to encourage people to minister according to their gifting's – God can use all of us!
The purpose of the North African outreaches is to sow into the lives of Christians and their ministries. Those who go are generally blessed out of their socks!
Should you feel called to be a letter of love to our brothers and sisters in these areas, please contact:
Lynne Axon (041) 583-4522 / lynnaxon@mweb.co.za
or Kirsten Roux (041) 365-0000
or Allan Anderson at the parish office (041) 581-2162.
For updates from Adam MacKenzie and from Brian and Janet Hayward scroll down to the bottom of the page…….
IN HIS FOOTSTEPS
What is Mission ? – The ministry of spreading the Christian Gospel throughout the world.
What is Commission? - The authority to perform the task.
The Great Commission of Jesus in Matt 28 vs19-20 tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us. The empowering grace of this Commission is found in Acts1 v 8b ‘and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem , and in all Judea and Samaria , and to the ends of the earth!!!
Notice how Jesus uses the words "will be" – it isn't a request it is a command!! There is no choice as to which area we can choose as He says Jerusalem AND all Judea AND Samaria AND to the ends of the earth!! He does not say OR anywhere in that command. We all know that we as individuals can't practically do all of that – God knew this so He formed Churches also known as the Body of Christ so that we could have different teams that would carry out His work here on earth.
At St John's we believe that through our Centre of Concern we are being witnesses in our town and the surrounding areas, these are our Jerusalem and Judea . We also support churches and mission outreaches in our province, our Samaria .
As far as the ENDS OF THE EARTH are concerned we have committed ourselves to ministry in Egypt and Sudan where we have been able to sow into the lives of the Christians and their ministries so that they would be effective in a very hostile environment.
OUTREACHES
We have taken a team on outreach to North Africa every year since 1999 and are planning two outreaches this year, one to Egypt and one to Sudan . While the purpose of these outreaches is to sow into the lives of Christians and their ministries, those who go are blessed in many ways. Should you feel called to be a letter of love to our brothers and sisters in these areas please contact:
Lynne Axon (041) 583-4522
lynnaxon@mweb.co.za
or Kirsten Roux (041) 365-0000
or Allan Anderson at the parish office (041) 581-2162.
INVESTING IN HIS KINGDOM
As we move forward in our involvement in the lives of the Christians in North Africa and the Middle East we are called to support them in various ways to make them more effective in spreading the Gospel. With this aim in mind St John's has introduced two initiatives to give the people of God in South Africa the opportunity to be involved.
ST JOHN 'S GIFT CERTIFICATES
The ideal gift for the person who has everything – the St John's gift voucher comes in four different denominations and colours together with an envelope. The words on the voucher will tell the recipient that you have donated money in their honour to one of the programmes we support, depending on the value of the voucher. The cost of the vouchers is R30, R50, R100 and R150 and can be obtained from the parish office Monday to Friday mornings only.
MONTHLY DEBIT ORDER
We have introduced a system so that people can make a donation on a monthly basis via debit order towards one or more of our programmes.
SCHOOL IN SUDAN
A team of Christians serve a refugee community outside Khartoum , where they run a church and a school, teaching about 400 children from junior to senior school level. The teachers aren't paid as the pupils' families cannot afford the required R10 per month per child. The children, some of whom learn in classrooms constructed of grass, say they dream of being teachers, doctors and lawyers. Your support will ensure that these eager and ambitious children will be given a fair chance in life. With a Christian education, they may also be instrumental in bringing peaceful solutions to this war-torn land.
Just R30 will pay for 1 child for 3 months or 3 children for a month .
CHURCH BUILDING IN SUDAN
There is a huge need to build churches in Sudan . Our persecuted friends persevere in building of churches in very dangerous and remote areas of Sudan – despite the threat of death. With your help, they can ensure that more and more people will have access to a church
NICKY BRAGG
Nicky Bragg has been involved in full-time missionary work for the past five years, working and studying at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base in Muizenberg, Cape Town . She has now completed the School of Biblical Studies and will be going to teach at YWAM bases in the rest of Africa , as well as other parts of the world. Part of her responsibilities in Cape Town involve reaching out to the people in areas like Khayelitsha and Guguletu She does not receive a salary and has to raise her own support, to cover all her expenses.
YWAM (YOUTH WITH A MISSION )
YWAM has an enormous ministry in Sudan and Egypt , which includes running Discipleship Training Schools and School of Biblical Studies ministries, as well as some local outreach programmes. YWAM's main objective, however, is to grow the Kingdom of God in those dark, harsh places by training local people to be beacons of light.
Your support will also ensure that the self-supporting leaders and their families in those countries can continue this vital ministry.
CHURCH SUPPORTED BY YWAM.
Should you feel called to be involved in this debit order facility or for more information please contact the parish office or:
Lynne Axon at lynnaxon@mweb.co.za
A Update letter from Adam Mackenzie and Juanita Kotze (10th June 2010)
Hello Everyone
So whats new in the life of Adam and Juanita?
Well Juanita broke her arm while man handling a cop who was arresting her for smuggling drugs at the bowling alley! I wish I could see some of your faces while you read that. Of course I am only joking. She was playing hockey and while fetching the ball which she had hit over the fence, she snapped the bone at the elbow while jumping over the fence. She was in denial on the way to the hospital and kept telling me it was only bruised even though she heard the crack as she came down. Anyway the Doctor operated on it the next day and the operation was successful. Because of the unique break the Dr suggested that they try something new. He put a pin in her arm and two wires so in essence he has fixed the bone which would normally take 6 weeks in a cast. So now she doesn't have a cast on and has got to try move it from day one. This is so she can have full movement once again in her arm. Everything went well and the results have been amazing.
We have been so busy with college work I am not sure whether I am coming or going. All our assignments had to be in and then we started exams on the 31st of last month. We wrote 5 exams in 2 weeks and has been a bit stressful but I know we did well because we were up to speed with our work. Someone once told me that 50% is a pass, 51% is a distinction and at 52% you are not spending enough time on the sports field. I have finished that Early Church History project on speaking in tongues. I really enjoyed it and have come to a solid conclusion that I am happy with. Juanita despite breaking her arm has been an absolute soldier. Instead of getting down she has gone hell for leather at her work.
One of the lectures here has agreed to take us for marriage counseling with his wife. We have been for one session and it really looks thorough and beneficial. We are both looking forward to it and how we can learn how to love each other more fully. We learn a lot at college about relationships and how God has taught us how to love each other. It does however really highlight your faults, and man do I have many!
I did mention that we were trying something new with our youth group at the Church. Well it is going great. We spend the first half of the service in my place having coffee and dough-nuts talking about last weeks sermon. We then go into the church for the last part to hear the sermon. It is great because it breaks the service up for the young guys and we get to discuss what we learned from last weeks sermon. It also encourages them to listen to the sermon so they can partake in the discussion the following week. It also gives the youth an opportunity to bring friends from school who don't want to go to church. This way they hear the sermon but don't have to go into the church building. Obviously we eventually want them to come to Church but its a great way to start. We have also planned some awesome adventure outreaches which I am so excited about. We are planning a river rafting trip down the Doring River. The youth in our group are going to invite friends with but if they want to join us they need to be part of the fund-raising efforts. Great way to get people involved with the Church.
We are on holiday from today. It felt great to lie in this morning, when I say lie in I mean until 7:40. Our plans are to stay here for a week, head back to PE for a week and then spend the remaining 2 weeks in Cape Town seeing the sights.
Anyway I look forward to hopefully seeing all of you.
Thanks again for all your prayers and for the anonymous donations we have received, they are such a huge help.
God bless, I actually learned what that saying means, which is great.
Adam and Juanita.
An update letter from Brian and Janet Hayward at YWAM Muizenberg,
Dear members of St John’s,
We have a lovely place to stay in Sunnydale, 14km from the base, belonging to a wonderfully generous couple from Valley Christian Centre. It's ideal for us as we just have to lock up and go and it's fully furnished.
We have had quite a busy time getting into the swing of things at the base. Brian has helped a bit in the maintenance dept and I have done some stints in the kitchen, in between staff training at Worcestor for a few days and again here for another couple of days. The staff training was led by Holger Schein-someone from the international dts centre, who is now resident here in CT. There are actually quite a few members of this centre here and they are quite involved in the base. The training was invaluable and served to answer many of the questions we had after our dts. We are also busy preparing for the April dts which starts on Easter Monday. We have 14 students from all over-Switzerland, Holland, Canada, Nigeria, Zim and SA. Our schedule is rather hectic. We have to be at the base from 7.30am to 9pm every day of the week, with weekends hopefully free. Our outreach will be in Gugulethu and the major part in Namaqualand -starting from the 25th June - 31 August. We have been asked to staff the July dts school as well, so might not go with the April dts on outreach.
We are also praying into starting up a Community Dev. school in January 2011 as a forerunner to a Crossroads dts with Com. Dev. as its focus. We are working with a man from Kona, Hawaii, who has had a lot to do with the Water for Life project globally. We have introduced to him the concept of Farming God's Way and we are looking at incorporating these two concepts into the Com. Dev course to make it as effective as possible. We would really appreciate it if you could pray with us for the birth of this school-specifically who to contact, how to promote it and as always the correct timing. If anyone has any Scriptures for us please don't hesitate to forward them. We are open to any correction or encouragement.
Thank you all for your prayers thus far.
Many blessings
Brian and Janet
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