In partnership for Christ

The Team
Last week Monday (in the evening) the long-awaited Team arrived (all the way) from Cape Town, South Africa. This year, about 35 people (including families with children, the youngest being 9 months old), from various CESA (Church of England in South Africa) came up for the yearly week of ministry to local communities. Some have been coming regularly over the years and have the joy of seeing the same folk, year after year, growing up in years and in the Lord.
The Team represented many ministries: leadership training; women’s, youth and children’s ministry; prison ministry; outreach to local schools including daily outreach in the local school for blind and deaf; and a bit of time spent with AIDS orphans; and, of course, the much-valued cook for the Team.
Children’s ministry
The 6 people with whom I was involved presented the Gospel in assemblies at various schools, ran afternoon children’s Bible clubs, and did two workshops to train people to teach Sunday school.
The raising up of Sunday school teachers is very dear to my heart. If there is a Sunday school in a church, it usually simply means the children being spoken to for an hour whilst they sit and listen.
A bonus for our children has been the chance to spend time with a group of people who ‘think and do’ like their parents; to see that mission work and praying and praising Jesus in normal, not just something that only their family does. The children and I have not met any other missionaries here, though David has, in his travels to other areas, especially Angola. They have enjoyed playing with people on the Team and being involved in the gospel presentation held at Étienne’s old school. For us, it has been good to have fellowship with them.
Odibo
Last weekend I took the 6 of them to Odibo, up near the Angolan border. It is a Kwanyama mission station, founded in 1924, and has a school and hospital. It is rather out in the sticks and they enjoyed the experience of sleeping in a homestead with Owambo families (eating their food and using the long drop!). We had 10 women attend, representing 6 Anglican parishes, plus another 3 of David’s ladies, whom I picked up on the way (who sang Kwanyama songs all the way there in the car!). [Maybe we can get some men to come to the next workshop!] It was wonderful to see the ladies enjoying the novelty of action songs, fun memory verse presentation, and review games after an object lesson. We spoke on the importance of knowing your Bible, the place and focus of music, the need for tailoring the lesson at a child’s level, the pivotal role of prayer, etc. We taught all day Saturday and then for a while on Sunday morning before heading off to the big church there (see the photo of ‘Jesus’ and the view down the aisle).
40 baptisms were scheduled for that day so we knew it was going to be a loooooong service (actually ‘only’ 34 babies were brought so the service was not much over 4 hours!). We took all the children out into a hall (over 150 of ‘em) so that the children could hear the gospel presented by the ladies we had just been training! They taught the memory verse, songs and review games. It was wonderful to see them being able to put into practice what they had learned.
On Saturday, when seeking to elicit from the ladies what, in their minds, makes a great teacher by asking them to name a teacher they had enjoyed studying under, there was silence. Then one of the ladies said, ‘YOU are best teachers we have had. You have made the lessons fun and interesting. We have learnt a lot!’. Another lady said to the group on Monday, when they were doing the same workshop in Ondangwa, ‘For a long time I have believed God has been telling me to work with children. But, until today, I did not know how to do it. I did not know where to start. But now I know I CAN do it.’
The guys did a marvellous presentation - each using their God-given gifts to bless and teach the ladies who came to the workshop.
Prayer
Everyone was excited have a copy of the Sunday School manual. The printer in Cape Town only printed 50 so they will soon be gone (though we thank God for those 50). We will need to find a way to print them locally as there is no other resource available and one cannot tell people to teach if they have nothing to guide and help them. Do pray for them, that they would be inspired to teach the children.
And pray that this would be the beginning of more such workshops.
Thanks so much for your prayers for this time of ministry. David and two others have been sick but have persevered. There have been three lots of car problems, but nothing involving an accident. It takes them 3 days of driving (straight through would be just under 30 hours, I think) each way and the Lord has kept them safe on the roads.
Dancing
I took some of the Team with me to my traditional dancing ‘class’. They loved it (see photos) and tonight (as I type, it is Tuesday), they have invited Doris, the teacher, to come and teach the WHOLE team, before they headed back to Cape Town. We all had fun, except I could not hide on the back row (my usual place as I am not really very good at dancing!) as I was the only one who knew the dances!
Bible Club
I am not sure if I mentioned that I had some lovely Christian pencils sent to me by someone and am using them as rewards for the children when they memorise the books of the New Testament. Two have got their pencils already and 2 have chosen and put theirs on ‘lay-by’ as they are part of the way there. Many bring their newly-earned NTs with them so I endeavour to get them to read Bible verses from it.
Please pray that God would continue to works in the hearts of the many people who heard the Gospel during this time of intensive outreach. And we thank you for your prayers during this time, too.
We thank those on the Team, who sacrificed much to come, and those in Cape town who supported this outreach in so many ways!