Four Funerals and a Wedding

Four Funerals and a Wedding

by | Jan 15, 2018 | South Africa

“Johann, you cannot plan anything for
December or January. Seriously, the country closes down during that period.”
Sage advice as this is exactly what happened…even some churches in southern
Namibia shut their doors as people flocked to the coast to get away from the
heat!
My aunt had died early December…she was the
last of that generation…and I was asked to participate in her funeral. It was
an interesting funeral as three denominations led the service, Roman Catholic,
Lutheran, and Anglican! A rather petite nun stole the “show” with her rendition
of Psalm 23…she was so precious we nearly stole her! There were so many folks
present that we have not seen since 1996…some were mere babes in arms back
then! So it was a good time to catch up as well…
Then, as many members of my family are not
churchgoers per se, it turned out that the ashes of three dear family friends
(also related to us by marriage) had not yet been scattered…so we scattered
them on the beach in front of their old home using the short Prayer Book
service. It was a special and memorable time. So, four funerals…
During this time we heard that my cousin’s
daughter is getting married in June…and they asked if I would preside over
their wedding service. This is a great honour indeed! It is scheduled to take
place at the Kalahari Anib Lodge in Namibia, the first week in June. So, one
wedding…
Today we had a meeting to discuss our 2018
schedule…it turns out we are tentatively booked solid until the end of October
already! We are trying to space our training sessions a little better than we
did in 2017 as we pretty much ran ourselves into the ground by the end of the
year. Not good, but this is a HUGE Province and there are still so many areas
we have not been able to access yet…like Lesotho, Angola, Namibia, and Northern
Mozambique…not to mention St Helena Island!
We are hoping to do some training in
Namibia around the same time as the wedding and Northern Mozambique following
that. But we really need a reliable and suitable vehicle in order to get
there…the roads, especially in Angola and Mozambique, leave much to be desired.
Please pray that we will be able to raise the necessary finances for such a
vehicle soon! We intend to visit these areas in winter (May, June, July, August
here), as the heat is simply too much to handle!
Dear friends from Addis Ababa, The Very Rev
Roger and Dr Lynn Kay, will be stopping with us in January. In February we are
training in Zululand, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Polokwane, and Johannesburg (we will be
teaching Foundations in Johannesburg this time – the second of the four modules
– yay!). In March we will be training in the Diocese of Cape Town (Youth) and then
later in Klerksdorp. We are then hoping to visit the US in March and April. We
haven’t yet met two of our five grandchildren, so we will spend time with them,
as well as with many supporters. Heyns and Hanna have planned to have their son
baptised while we are there, for which we are grateful. Please pray for
speaking opportunities and for new contacts as well. Our support is still not
quite up to snuff.
In May, June, and July we plan to be in
Namibia and Mozambique. We have made some great contacts in Mozambique and hope
to be travelling up with two short termers who know the lay of the land. They
will also be our Portuguese sparring partners here…so maybe we will finally
learn more than just hello, how are you, thank you, and goodbye! August and September
will be spent preparing for the biannual Anglicans Ablaze Conference in October
…they are expecting more than 3000 participants this year! We have never done
this before, but those who have say it is absolutely exhausting, but totally
worth it. We will let y’all know once we are through our first one!
And then it will be November…but we haven’t
planned that far yet.
So, it looks like we have our work cut out
for us! Thank you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your on-going
support. I know I sound like a defective CD (stuck record doesn’t cut it
anymore!), but we really can’t do this ministry without you! So, thank you,
thank you, thank you…
I hope you are as excited about this year
as we are…so many yet to train that will be enabled to train others! Come along
with us on this thrilling adventure!

Johann and Louise

Wishes from afar….

by | Dec 23, 2017 | Health, South Africa

Can you believe it? Another year come and
gone! So many things have happened that one’s mind reels…and yet, so much is
yet to be done. Millions have never heard of the Babe of Bethlehem…of the Child
born to die so that all may live.
As we look over the past year, we are
grateful that we could have trained so many trainers…that we could have
multiplied so many multipliers. There is an excitement growing in the Anglican
Province of Southern Africa as clergy and lay folk alike rediscover the simple
method of making disciples who are equipped to make disciples. Even though we
have reached into 13 of the 28 Dioceses in the Province, there are 15 more that
have not been introduced to the first module of the LEAD training. The words of
Jesus echo in our ears: The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.
We are also grateful for every partner in
this ministry…those who have faithfully supported us, prayed for us, encouraged
us, laboured with us, and simply been there for us. Everything we do is dependent
on teamwork…we simply couldn’t do this without you. You are very much
appreciated.

So, across the miles…the oceans and
borders…Louise and I want to wish you the happiest of Christmases and pray for
the Lord best blessings for the new year.

As clear as…

As clear as…

by | Dec 6, 2017 | Health, South Africa

As we have received a number of questions regarding the LEAD Program from
various partners in the Gospel, we thought it might be of value to us all to
answer them collectively.
One part of the LEAD Program is called Strategy. This is the first of
four modules which we are teaching to individuals selected from both clergy and
laity in each of the 28 Dioceses in the Anglican Province of Southern Africa. Strategy
explores the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels as a model for disciple-making
and tracks an individual’s growth from unbelief or immaturity to maturity in
Christ. This is best illustrated using the diagram below.
There are four major sections all starting with the letter ‘p’.
1.     Passion – we examine
the Great Commandment to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbours
as ourselves. Without this love, the motive for making disciples will be faulty
and, barring the gracious intervention of the Lord, will end in failure.
2.     Purpose – we examine
the Great Commission to show that the reason the church exists on earth is for
us to make disciples. Jesus’ final command to His followers was for them to
make disciples of all nations…disciples who would make disciples who would make
disciples. Jesus said that those who believe in Him would do what He did and
even greater things than He did – as Jesus’ main focus was on training 12 men
and a group of women to do what He did, we believe that this ought to be the
focus of the Church as well.
3.     Process – we examine
the general progression of an individual from unbelief or immaturity to
maturity. This loosely follows the 4 chair Discipling model of Dann Spader (see
here: http://4chairdiscipling.com/).
We discuss how one wins the lost, builds the believer, equips the worker, and
multiplies disciplemakers.
4.     Product – we examine
the qualities of a fully discipled person so that we have a clear picture of
what we are aiming at when walking with a person to bring them to the point of
maturity in Christ. This is important as if we have no measure or nothing to
aim at we will not know when we have reached our goal and when it is time for
us to leave our disciple to make another disciple. If too soon, our disciple
may not imitate us in making other disciples. The idea is based on 2 Timothy
2:2 where Paul encourages Timothy to entrust what he had learned from Paul to
faithful followers who will be able to teach others also.
Strategy includes a 60 Day Chronological Study of the Life of Jesus which
helps put more meat on the bones of the initial training. This is followed-up
with various articles, studies, and other helpful tools and resources on disciple-making.
We stay in touch with all trainees via email and telephone calls. Each trainee
also receives a link to the Dann Spader videos which are freely available in
his website (see link above). We also encourage trainees to obtain a copy of
Dann Spader’s book 4 Chair Discipling which is available for a minimal fee…at
least one copy for each Diocese if individuals cannot afford their own personal
copy.
The other three modules will be taught once we have taught Strategy in
all 28 Dioceses. Foundations indentifies six key priorities based on Jesus’
dsiciple-making ministry. Vision focusses on helping leaders define their
calling, grow in godly character traits, and develop their unique competencies
as leaders. Multiplication identifies different stages of Jesus’ ministry and
how He grew an effective movement of disciple-making that ultimately changed
the world.
For many, this training is a huge paradigm shift from an attractional or
program-based focus to an external, other-person-centred focus. It is also a
shift from a clergy-centred model to a every follower model and the goal is to
have churches filled with active and mature disciple-makers rather than passive
receivers.
There are four steps for training in each Diocese. The first step is us
training folks we call “faculty” – trainers of trainers. The next step is to
assist these faculty members in training Diocesan teams. The third step is to
have the Diocesan team members train parish teams. The final step is to have
parish teams train every parishioner in cell/small/Bible Study groups and/or
Sunday School classes.
So far we have managed to train individuals in 13 of the 28 Dioceses. Not
all trainees have access to the internet, especially those in rural areas, but
for the most part that is, at present, more the exception than the rule. Once
we begin to make inroads into Dioceses such as Namibia, Angola, and Niassa
(northern Mozambique) this may change. Follow-up from a distance is difficult
enough but not having email access makes it even more difficult, but hopefully
each Diocese will eventually have their own select individuals who would be
able to do that part of our work on the ground, so to speak.
The plan is to train in every Diocese at least by the end of next year.
Right now, distance and lack of proper funding makes this problematic, but not
impossible. We are praying about the possibility of purchasing our own vehicle
so that we can travel to more remote areas without having to rent a suitable
vehicle at great cost. Louise and I are used to “roughing it” and we have our
own tent and camping equipment, so accommodation is generally not an issue.
Each Diocese has a coordinator who helps us organise the training as they
are present and can arrange the more practical side of things such as
accommodation, transport, and meals. They are appointed by the Bishop of the
Diocese and report to them. We have an annual coordinators meeting where we
encourage them to give us feedback so that we might work out a way to help them
better in the future. The last coordinator’s meeting was overwhelmingly positive
for which we are grateful. The coordinators are beginning to see the value of
disciple-making and folks are excited and filled with anticipation for what lies
ahead.
In the past we have held two training sessions back to back so to
accommodate those who, for various reasons, could not make the Friday
(working laity) or Sunday (clergy or lay ministers) sessions. This is tricky as
there are only two of us and separating laity from clergy is not always the
best thing to do, so we try to persuade employed folks to take a day off or for
clergy to arrange for someone else to take their services.
The education level of trainees differs from Diocese to Diocese.
Generally speaking the folks from poorer and/or rural Dioceses tend to have a
lower level of education than those who live in cities. For the time being, our
training is limited to the Province of Southern Africa, although we are not
opposed to training in other Provinces. We would love to train our Ethiopian
brethren some day and perhaps we could do that when we go to the graduation in
June 2018.
We hope this helps you understand more about what we are doing here!
Thank you once again for your participation in the Gospel! We simply cannot do
this without you.
Blessings.
Johann and Louise

End of the Year

by | Dec 5, 2017 | Health, South Africa

Since our last letter, Louise and have done the LEAD (Leadership for Evangelism And Disciple-Making) training in eleven additional Dioceses, namely Cape Town, False Bay and Saldana (August 4-6: 16 participants), Arniston/False Bay (August 11-13: 17 participants), Christ the King (August 25-27: 19 participants), Swaziland along with Thokozani (September 1-3: 16 participants), East London/Grahamstown (September 19-20: 23 participants), Polokwane/St Mark the Evangelist (October 2-3: 7 participants), Johannesburg (October 6-7: 21 participants), Lebombo (October 24-29: 50 participants), Kimberley and Kuruman (November 3-4: 18 participants), and in George (December 1-3: 20 participants).
Altogether, 13 Dioceses out of 28 Dioceses in the Province of Southern Africa.
We also attended J-Life Foundations (the second of four modules) Training along with our friend and protégée, Thokozani Hslatswayo, on August 9-10 in False Bay, Cape Town, the Global Leadership Summit on October 18-20, and the J-Life Summit on November 24-25.
We also promoted the LEAD project at a Mother’s Union/Anglican Women’s Fellowship Breakfast in Cape Town on July 15, at a gathering of COTT Students in Cape Town on July 21, at gatherings in Pretoria, Klerksdorp, Kuruman, Kimberley, Welkom respectively from September 4 through 13, at the Provincial Standing Committee Meeting on September 27-30, at the Rondebosch Archdeaconry Meeting on November 16, and the Gugulethu Archdeaconry Meeting on November 22.
Johann attended the GtC Coordinator’s Meeting on November 26-29. Our Director, Trevor Pearce, as well as the Growing the Church Board, said that compared with the meeting last year, this was overwhelmingly positive. 
We received reports from several coordinators about individuals and churches making disciples or teaching Strategy to a friend and/or a group. Swaziland and St Andrew’s, Pimville have made attempts at broadening the training. Many have gone through the 60 Chronological Study on the Life of Christ. Others have started small groups and Bible Studies. We know that our dear friend, protégée, and passionate co-worker, Thokozani Hlatshwayo has been training others in Highveld.
After each training, we send all participants with emails various resources such as a link to Dann Spader’s Videos, a chronological Bible Study method, various disciple-making articles, and other helpful tools. We also try to do long-distance coaching, but, like long-distance relationships, this has its limitations. Louise has created a database of all participants listed under their Diocese in MyAnglican to make further email correspondence easier…however, we were not always able to read the handwriting of some participants, so they are falling through the cracks because we don’t have their emails.
In an ideal world, there ought to be at least one solid, sold-out, passionate LEAD Faculty member in each Diocese who will be able to encourage, coach, and hold other participants accountable.
On a personal note, Louise and I are planning to come to the US at the end of March and to stay through April. This visit will be to spend time with our children and grandchildren, to meet two of our grandchildren, Constance and Everett (yet to be born!) for the first time, and to visit as many of our supporters as possible. We are still in need of more support and hope to meet with new partners as well.
Louise’s mum, Annie, affectionately known as the Queen, is becoming more frail and Louise spends as much time with her as possible. With our current schedule, we are hardly home, so visits are few and far between, which is a pity. 
Thank you for your love, encouragement, and unfailing support! You are deeply appreciated. Thank you for your partnership in the Gospel…without you, we would not be able to do what we do.
We wish you a blessed Advent and a very Merry Christmas! May our sovereign Lord grant you your hearts desire.
Many blessings.
Johann and Louise