One of the most encouraging parts of starting Agape Year is that we are being sent as SAMS missionaries. SAMS is the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders. There is so much to unpack here, but it is an awesome thing to be part of a team that understands the roles of both the sent, and the sender. We’d love to chat with you more about what it means to send and how we can partner in God’s work.
As we plan for the International Anglicans Ablaze Conference in October, we are having seminars and consultations that deal with several topics that the conference will cover. One such topic is the scourge of substance abuse, and Wayne and I had the pleasure to attend and help host the consultation on substance abuse that Dr. Graham Bressick’s led on Saturday.
If you live in South Africa, no doubt you are aware of how drug abuse is affecting our communities. There are probably few of us who have not been affected in some way. In Cape Town, drug dealing and gangsterism go hand-in-hand. Sometimes the violence is so bad that schools and hospitals have to close down due to gang violence. Last week in Plumstead, a couple of young men were arrested for selling drugs to primary school children who attend school just off the Main Road. Driving at night through Wynberg one can often see the exchange of drugs. Last year, just outside my office window, I saw a woman doing drugs in her car. Many of the youth with whom we work have parents who are addicts. It is all around us.
I think it’s great that we as the Anglican Church are finally addressing this tough issue. So many families are affected, and they don’t know how to cope. We who are their friends feel powerless to help them.
The major takeaway I took from Saturday’s seminar was what Dr. Bressick’s called the 
eight strengths of churches. Summarizing from an American minister’s book (unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of the book or author), Dr. Bressick said that churches provide these strengths for people:
Of course, this is the ideal church, the Church at its best, where the addict is welcomed. But I wonder how much our numbers would swell in our individual parishes if we did just that. I wonder how many people—members or newcomers or passersby—actually feel safe in their church. If our churches were truly a safe place where young and old, rich and poor, addict and sober could feel loved and accepted, be offered prayer, feel truly connected and a sense of companionship with friends to endure, I wonder how much that we as the Church could be changing lives and the world.
–Art credit: hyena reality, freedigitalphotos.net
There is a saying in Cape Town, “local is lekker;” meaning, local is good. Friday night, Wayne and I had the privilege to visit three youth groups. All of these churches are situated on the Cape Flats in communities that are riddled with gang violence, drugs and economic hardship. Since we serve on the provincial level, we oftentimes don’t get to spend quality time with local youth groups unless we are doing a training or an event; so it was great to spend time with these young people, sharing with them about the upcoming Anglicans Ablaze Conference and just being with them.
For our American friends, did you know that most of our youth groups meet on a Friday evening instead of a Sunday afternoon? The youth groups we attended were located in Bonteheuwel, Manenberg and Heideveld. If you want to find out more about the Cape Flats, check out “Overview of the Cape Flats,” which gives a decent account.
Our family is back together in Ohio again after spending the first half of April on the road. Our first stop was All Saints REC IN Raleigh, where we were graciously hosted by Fr Ian MacGregor. He also took me on a visit to St Andrew’s mission about 90 minutes away in nearby Asheboro. From there, our family headed to Asheville for the SAMS retreat and 40th anniversary celebration at the Ridgecrest Conference Center and the ensuing New Wineskins for Global Mission conference.
We were blessed by the small group meetings at the SAMS retreat, where I benefited from the prayers and advice of Philip Mounstephen, the director of the Church Mission Society in the Church of England, and was able to give care and prayer to other missionaries in turn.
Matt with CMS director Philip Mounstephen
The main prayer request I shared with the group was my concern to do a good job of learning Bahasa Indonesia, a language that will be critical to the success of my work in Bandung.
The very next day, Sora and I had a meeting with Singapore’s Bishop for the mission deaneries, the Rt. Rev. Kuan Kim Seng and the Dean of Indonesia, the Rev. Timothy Chong. It was an immediate answer to my prayers when Bp. Kuan told us that we would have at least a year to work on language learning. Praise God!
It was a pleasure to spend time with the Singapore clergy at New Wineskins. Bp. Rennis Ponniah also prayed for us and gave us the right hand of fellowship.
From left: Assistant Bp. Kuan Kim Seng, Dean of Indonesia Timothy Chong, our family, and Bp. of Singapore Rennis Ponniah
The biggest news coming out of the New Wineskins conference is that we have a planned departure date now…and we have purchased one-way airplane tickets for us to arrive in Singapore on June 27. (From there, we’ll head to Bandung in early July.)
At New Wineskins, Sora and I enjoyed talks by Bp. Felix Orji of CANA West (ACNA) and by Bp. Rennis Ponniah of Singapore. It was also good to enjoy fellowship with other missionaries from SAMS, and to see friends from the REC and other Anglican churches.
On the last day of the New Wineskins conference, Sora and I participated in workshops with Stewart Wicker, the director of SAMS-USA, discussing how we were called to go to the Philippines and then to Indonesia.
We were blessed by our time in NC, and we left feeling encouraged and eager to go to the mission field again soon. Thank you, SAMS, and especially Nita Dempsey, for arranging for our participation in these two conferences.
Three years ago, Erika and I attended the New Wineskins conference as a very newlywed couple…2 months newlywed! We were challenged and encouraged, and as we walked the conference grounds, we wondered how God was going to use us as we desired so strongly to be used, and to serve His kingdom in missions. And now here we are again, with a 2 year old, launching Agape Year. Please pray for our time here as we chat with folks about Agape Year, seek new financial and prayer partners, and recruit for our pilot year.
we’re thankful to have you on this journey. we hope to use this site to share with you God’s unfolding story in our lives. most recently, we’ve been thrilled to see Him answer our prayer to serve in a missional setting together… enter AGAPE YEAR!
here’s a brief description of how we got here and where we are going, God willing. we hope you come along as well:
God doesn’t always take the most direct route. The past three years have proven this fact to our family. Shortly after meeting, we both shared our desire to partner with God’s mission in reaching every tribe, nation, and tongue. We hoped God would lead us to do this together, but we weren’t sure what it would look like. We’re two different people with different gifts. How could God use us together to do infinitely more than we could ask for or imagine? God took an interesting route in bringing us to this next step we’d like to share with you. Through seminary, unemployment, a gnarly job search, rewarding work found, God led the way. It was hard at times to trust He had us in His good hands. And, then His hand led us even further along, further into that vision He gave us early on and has been our heart’s prayer.
This past November, after much prayer and discernment, we accepted the call to be Directors of an Anglican Gap Year Program for recent high-school graduates. We couldn’t have expected our prayer to be answered in such profound and challenging way. Both Nate’s experience with business and entrepreneurship and my experience in teaching, ministry, and mentoring will be used together to build the Kingdom is this unique way.
