Kheswa Updates: A jaunt through January

It's already the second week in February. Wow, what a whirlwind January was! Here's a little taste of what the Kheswas have been up to.

New trainees
The Lord has given us a great bunch of 14 young people to invest into this year. We have already worked through half of our first training intensive and we can see God at work in their lives. Here's what a few of them have to say about the experience so far.

2015 Trainees

Enoch is from Heidelberg, Gauteng:
This has been a good experience for me. I've really enjoyed connecting with people from different cultures and having new people around me.
I think I learned and benefitted most from the schools ministry training with Diane from Scripture Union and I'm excited about getting involved with youth.

Dana is from North Carolina, USA:
I've really enjoyed this whole experience. The training is effective and it's great that we've been able to practise some of what we've learned already.
What I love about South Africa is what I call down to earth living as compared with life in the USA.

Mvuyisi from Margate, KZN:
I've been stretched during my time at Camp Eden. I've learned the real purpose of ministry - where you should be going and taking people and why. And that relationships is the key focus of ministry.
I've also learned what real community is. I've stayed off my phone and spent time with people instead.

In addition to the busyness the new year usually brings, we also had a BIG camp during the first week of the new school year. The Waterstone College Grade 9s spent three days with us for their annual Community upliftment camp. Bhuti and I (together with other J-Life staff) each had a group of kids to work with for two days in the Ratanda and Siyathemba communities. They learned a lot about appreciating what they have and how small things you do for others can make a huge difference. We pray that the lessons they learned will stay with them and influence them for the rest of their lives.

At the bottom is my group, painting the container at ACTS Family Church Ext 23

I (Jann) had a Leadership training day at Marist Brothers in Linmeyer. I was able to pull together a great team to help facilitate the day with 80 Grade 7s. We all had a lot of fun together learning about the character traits of good leaders, teamwork and communication.

Building a tower

Learning about team work

On the home front, Ndumiso started walking! Before becoming a parent I couldn't understand why parents always spoke about every little thing their kid did. Now I'm more sympathetic to their cause:) Observing just normal things is eye opening, exciting and a great blessing. Now we'll have to seriously start considering that harness...

Things on the horizon for this month of February

Wedding anniversary
This year we'll be married for 4 years. It seems like just the other day and forever (in a good way) at the same time. We are grateful to the Lord, our families and the community around us for all their love and support. Here's to 44 and more years together.

Sending off trainees
The trainees will be heading into different communities before the end of February. We have two coaching teams this year, with the rest returning to their home church communities.

Vision 2020

A group of J-Life staff from across the continent will be meeting together to start discerning where God is taking us for the next five years. Please join us in prayer as we listen and start to process this. If you would like to pray more specifically for this time please drop me an email and I can send you some more info.

We are recruiting a team of pray-ers as part of our support team. If this is a ministry that you have a passion and gifting for (or know someone who does) please do contact me for more details.

More pics...

From our holiday during December