Ministry Updates, July

Home Front

June was busy month for the Kheswas. Bhuti took on his fifth Comrades Marathon this year and finished in a time of 10h17m. If you are not familiar with the Comrades, it's an ultra marathon between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. This year the course distance was 90km (56 miles). Bhuti had an injury in the last 6 weeks leading up to the race but was able to recover from that and participate. He and his brother enjoyed spending the time together as they travelled down and spent the weekend there.

Unfortunately, with the cold weather comes colds and flu. I (Jann) had a bout of bronchitis and was booked off for about 10 days. I have fully recovered now for which I am grateful. Ndumiso has had his share of sniffing but nothing serious. Towards the end of the school term we were invited to visit with his teachers to see the progress he's made. Most of them said "He's a busy boy" but very eager to learn and really enjoying the environment. We are very grateful for the privilege of having him attend the Silveroaks Montessori and the excellent foundation it is giving him.

Ministry Front

Our Gap Year Interns and Short Term Interns

At the beginning of June, our 7 youth workers returned to Camp Eden for their second training intensive. It was amazing to witness the growth that has occurred as they serve in their respective churches. They shared the highs and lows of serving as a youth ministry intern. Nothing grows a young person more than active involvement at the local church and intentional guidance of a Youth Pastor/Mentor or Overseer. The 3 weeks training intensive allowed us to journey further with each of them.

Some of the highlights were:

Teaching on counselling

Sifiso training the J-Life Trainees and some of his leaders

Sifiso Nkosi, one of the J-Life interns from 2009 who is currently a Therapist at a school and Youth Pastor, was really excited with this opportunity to equip this year’s group. It was good to have him share from his experiences, both in youth ministry and as a therapist in a school. He covered basic counselling skills the interns can use as they disciple young people. They definitely benefitted from their time with him.

Kids Camp 2018

Kids Camp 2018

Each year the group of interns plan and run a camp for underprivileged kids as part of their practical ministry training. This year, for the first time, we had to actively raise money for the camp and we saw God provide wonderfully.  The group did a great job of putting the weekend together after receiving training from Scripture Union on Camping Ministry. We had 82 excited kids here from 4 different communities in the Heidelberg/Balfour area and they all had an awesome time.

This year, for the first time we have a young Congolese lady from Joburg join us on our Short term intensive, Yadah. When Bhuti and Thabo were fetching kids for camp, they were told by Juanita of Shalom home that she had invited kids from another group since she had been given space for more kids than she could send. (This was an oversight on our part as we had forgotten to change that on the letter to her. We were surprised when she said there were 22 kids!) Juanita was having car trouble and wasn't able to collect the other group so Bhuti followed her to where the kids were waiting with their pastor. Their pastor is Gilbert from the DRC who works as a car guard at the church Bhuti and I attend. He pastors a group of Congolese living in Heidelberg. The kids do speak English but are native French speakers. Two teenage girls came along with them to help with translation but God had already provided that since Yadah is here! Isn't He just incredible!!!

Short Term Internship

Yadah, Bhuti, Ndumiso, Ramontho and Wesley.

This year we have 3 young adults in our Short Term Internship. This is a 6 Weeks programme for young people who want to grow as a disciple as well as be equipped to make disciples. They are from completely different backgrounds. Yadah is a South African of Congolese descent, Ramontho is South African and Wes is an American. This makes for a very diverse small community. We are all learning a lot from each other. They are halfway through their programme. This week they are serving at sports camp as counsellors. PLEASE pray that will grow as followers of Christ and be equipped to make disciples.