March-April Ministry News

Home Front

Family is a great blessing! We often reflect on just how blessed we are in this regard. Our extended
J-Life family is and has been going through many changes this year. Some Hello's, some Good-byes and quite a few See you Later's. Through these changes we are reminded to keep listening to the Father and remain obedient to his calling.

We often only acknowledge God when big things happen but he is equally present in the day to day happenings - his presence is constant, he keeps us healthy and always provides for our needs. We are grateful.

Youth Worker update

Our Youth Workers have been back in their communities where they are serving in their churches. This is always challenging and stretching for the trainees. When they hit the ground they soon realise that serving and leading is a lot harder than they imagined. Below two of our Youth Workers share a lesson and highlights.

“My biggest lesson has to be the one about serving. Just as there is no such thing as a non-functioning member of the human body, so there ought to be no such thing as a non-functioning member of the body of Christ. This is helping me to find my place of service through my spiritual gifts, natural talents and ministry skills. As I am learning this, I am also sharing it with the young people I am discipling.” Tumelo, Faith Mission Outreach, Heidelberg.

"After I came back from Camp Eden, the practical block ahead of me posed many challenges that I didn't feel I could overcome. Things like planning and managing our Friday night youth event and finding someone to mentor. But by the grace of God I managed to overcome them one by one. 
The biggest highlight of it all is that I have been able to learn and grow myself spiritually and mentally in an environment where the church staff and members are willing to guide and nurture me along the way. I've been able to build new relationships and learn a few new things about myself through this first prac block. For that I am truly grateful to God." 
Londiwe, Randpark Ridge United, JHB

Training Pastors and Youth Pastors to make disciples

Over the past two months we spent a lot of time knocking on Pastors and Youth Pastors doors to arrange training in different areas. We are doing this through 1 Day disciplemaking seminars that serve as an introduction to our training material. J-Life has learnt that seminars are good for information, NOT so much for transformation. Our goal is to run as many disciplemaking seminars as possible, and to use this platform to identify Pastors and Youth Pastors who want more. We plan to take those who want more than just information through our GC² Groups for training, coaching and discipling for implementation.
We have trained two groups of youth leaders, one in Finetown and the other in KwaThema. We are at different stages of planning these seminars in other towns.

Lead THE Cause

We took 2 of our youth workers and 4 young leaders they serve with at Ignite Youth, Acts Family Church to #fierceltc17. Lead THE Cause (LTC) is an equipping event for high school students that transforms young believers into leaders and life-long disciples.  Go.Live.Dare. ran this powerful event at Every Nation Rosebank. It was by far one of the most practical conferences and teens were given tools to share the gospel.

If you are around Durban or Cape Town, this event is coming your way. Check it out here. This event combines small and large group evangelism training and includes opportunities to engage unbelievers in different contexts.

Prayer Items

Please pray that God will provide us with people to join our support team as intercessors. If this is something you or someone you know would like to be part of, please contact us.

5-7 May – Training 2 groups of Clergy and lay leaders from Diocese of Johannesburg, Diocese of Pretoria, Diocese of Christ the King, Diocese of the Highveld
Please pray that this will spark a movement of disciplemaking in the Anglican Church.

8-12 May - Waterstone College Grade 9 Tour focused on serving in communities
Please pray for the hearts of the students as they learn about serving others, that it will become a lifelong attitude

13 May- One day Disciplemaking Seminar
Please pray that this will open doors to churches in Tsakane, Duduza and KwaThema townships.

17-21 May - Connecting with Youth pastors and training in the South Coast, KZN.
Please pray for safe travels for our family

22-26 May – J-Life Southern Africa Summit
Please pray for safe travels for all delegates and that it will be a great time of refuelling

8-30 June – Second Training intensive for the Youth Workers
Please pray for their ministries as they are away for 3 weeks

18 June - 29 July – 6 Weeks Internship
Please pray for more South African students to sign up

Jan-Feb Ministry News

The Home front

Our family is doing well and continue to enjoy being part of the J-Life family at Camp Eden. We are constantly learning what it means to be parents to Ndumiso who is now a busy 3 year old. He has recently taken to climbing which has both pro’s and con’s for living on a farm. We are extremely blessed to have him grow up in this environment and he loves it!

Jesus commissioned us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18-20). As a family we are currently fulfilling this call through discipling J-Life trainees and training them to “make disciples who make disciples”.

The Youth Worker program

We have just completed our first of 3 training intensives in the Youth Worker Program. The participants spent 6 weeks learning to be disciples, live like disciples and make disciples. It is such an honour and privilege for us to disciple and equip them to make disciples. We aim to model and instil the character and priorities of Jesus for life and ministry. Over the 6 weeks we spent time doing that through lectures, spending time in community, small group studies, morning prayer, exercise and serving together. 

Scripture Union

We had 3 trainers from SU who spent a week equipping our interns for School and Children’s Ministry.  Scripture Union has a rich history of being active in schools as well as running excellent Holiday Bible Clubs. The training given will enable our interns to run Christian groups and present life skills lessons in schools. They also have the tools to plan and run a Holiday Bible Club for kids in their community.

The interns were given an opportunity to practice what they learnt during their time with Scripture Union Trainers. We visited 2 different high schools in the area where they presented life skills lessons to Grades 7, 8 and 9 classes.

Observation Visits

Part of our learning comes from others who are in the trenches of youth ministry. This intensive we visited JAM Youth at Selcourt Methodist, Springs. We were able to chat to Enoch (J-Life 2015) about their strategy to reach and disciple the youth of Springs and the surrounding suburbs.

We also visited Encouter Youth, a ministry of Everynation Rosebank and got to learn from Mark and Debbie Tittley, veteran youth workers.

Thank you to both groups for the investment into our interns and sharing how you reach and disciple teens in your communities.

Regional Directors Meetings

I (Bhuti) attended the J-Life Africa regional directors meetings held here at Camp Eden, 7-11 Feb. This was to learn more about my interim role as regional director. In this role I will be looking after our J-Life Mozambique Country Leader, Chico.
We spent time planning together for the regional summits which will take place in four host countries across the continent.
We are excited to see what the Lord is doing and is about to do in our beloved Africa.    

Please join us in prayer for…

-financial provision for our family (We currently need to raise more support in order to meet our monthly budget for living and ministry expenses).

-for the trainees to grow as disciples and to make disciples

-for our team as we disciple the trainees

-open doors to conduct training in new areas (expand our influence)

-a movement of disciple-making across the continent

December Update

As we wrap up the year we are filled with gratitude. We are grateful to God for all his goodness, mercies and provision for our family. We end this year at a different place emotionally and spiritually than we were last year. We are thankful to God for all he has done and continues to do in our lives. We are also grateful to you, family and friends, for your support and prayers.

Our family would like to wish you and your family a happy Christmas. As we celebrate Christmas, let us remember the reason for the season, as a famous cliché goes.

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” - Isaiah 7:14

“For God SO loved the WORLD [this means both the naughty and the nice] that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16

People may not be on Santa’s list but they are definitely on God’s list. Let us share the gift of salvation with them.

L to R: Vincent, Gavin, Hlengiwe, Nathan, Tyler, Nicole, Zrano and Abigail

We had a great time hosting our 2016 Gap Year Students for the final debrief. We shared meals and stories as we took some time to look back at what the Lord had done. As usual, the majestic Drakensberg and Sterkfontein Dam were the backdrops for this time of reflection.

Every year when it’s time for the student to move on to the next stage of their life, I [Bhuti] have mixed feelings. I am excited to release them to “Go and make disciples” (Matt 28:19) but I am also worried that some are not spiritually ready or “fully equipped” or other excuses. In the beginning of the year it’s easy to accept that the trainees are at different stages of the discipleship journey. However at the end of the year, we worry about certain individuals that did not grow at a certain rate, or are not at the same stage as the “others”. I am learning that it’s good to be concerned but I need to trust God for the rest of their journey. The students are entrusted to us for a season. We should be diligent and faithful in discipling them while they are with us. We are to do our best to follow up where possible knowing that “He who began a good work in [the lives of our trainees] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). With this in mind I reminded them that coming to the end of their year is not equivalent to graduation. We don’t graduate anyone at J-Life because a disciple is a life-long learner.

Matthew during a mission trip

Matthew was not able to be with us for debriefing as he still had to run a camp. As a Scripture Union Trendsetter, Matthew did a lot of camps and schools ministry during the year. It was really a blessing to watch him grow in his gifting and leadership throughout the year, which we got to witness first hand when he co-led our annual kids camp.

VAC Fest was a huge success. We had nearly 400 young people and leaders gather for 5 days of vacating from our usual routines and drawing closer to God. The highlight for me [Jann] was definitely the team of young adults who worked tirelessly to make VAC happen. Nothing was too much for them – and some went back to their jobs after a week of long days and nights! What a gift each of them are to the Kingdom.

We are spending the Christmas holidays in Port Elizabeth with family and friends. Ndumiso is enjoying spending time with his cousins and grandparents. 

We wish all of you a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year.

We look forward to what God has in store for the 2017. 

It's October!

On the home front

We are grateful to God who has been good to us as a family. He has blessed us with good health and surrounded us with tremendous supportive family and friends. We are richer and stronger because of the fellowship.

Bhuti has been running a bible study twice a week with some of the men on the farm. Others have shown interest in joining, please pray that we will be able to reach everyone with the gospel.

Youth Workers

The 26^th September   saw our Youth Worker trainees return to Eden for their third and final training intensive. The first four days of this intensive was focused on multiplying disciples. The training covered the Multiplication module, with the focus on “bearing much fruit” (John 15:8) in our lives.  We focused intentionally on the disciple-making life-style because serving in a church, as part of their gap year, may cause a dependence on church structure and programmes for ministry. They may find it difficult to make disciples in the university, work place or wherever God calls them to. This was a reminder that our life is our ministry.

STeM

On the 30^th September the Youth Workers were joined by friends and some of those they have been discipling for STeM (Short Term equipping Mission). The training for the short term mission lasted from Friday evening until Monday morning. The training prepared them for the mission they were about to do as well as equipping them for planning their own mission trip.

Training covered:

• Purpose of a short term mission
• How to share the Gospel
• Summary of strategy 
• Children Ministry
• Ministry Opportunities during a mission trip
• Crossing Cultures
• Catering for a mission

We divided this group into two teams sending them to two communities in the East Rand

Team Tsakane

The team to Tsakane was hosted by The Nazarene Church. During the mission they got to run Holiday Bible Club for the kids, do sports ministry with teenagers, door to door evangelism and run a service. They all testify of seeing God at work through their team in the community and they grew through this experience. One of their highlights as a group was leading 18+ teenagers to Christ at the end of a soccer match.

Team Daveyton

This team was hosted by Chris and Happy Mnguni at Grace Baptist Church. Chris went through the J-Life training in 2006, then went on study theology through Christ Seminary and upon graduating he planted the church.  The team got to preach the gospel at a local clinic in the early morning, have a Holiday Bible Club, do door to door evangelism and run evangelistic services in the evenings.

Leadership Camps
This is also the season for school leadership camps. Jann has recently been involved in Grade 6 camps for Leicester Road and Jeugkrag Primary schools. Working with these kids is always good fun and a great opportunity to impact young leaders, helping them to make good choices and lead well.

Prayer items

• Health, strength and provision
• Opportunities to share the gospel with our neighbours
• Opening to new churches and pastors fraternals
• Quality Interns for 2017
• Wisdom during interviews and selection

Upcoming Events

• Youth Worker Debrief - December
• VAC Fest - December

Thank you to all our supporters for your financial contributions and prayers.

Coming up for air

I will never forget the first time I got to snorkel. It came by chance really. We were just hanging out at the beach as a family. Not far from us was a couple who were snorkeling. Upon seeing that I was curious they invited me to try. I made all the black man excuses about "us" and "swimming". They convinced me that on the rock pools one doesn't need to be a good swimmer to snorkel. I took the goggles and put my head under. I discovered a whole new side to the creation, I was in awe of the Creator. I just wanted to stay there but I had to come up for air.

That's what this week feels like, coming up for air. We realised the last time we updated the blog was March and a lot has happened in our lives and ministry since then.

On the family front we are doing well. We are grateful to God for good health and provision. We are so blessed to belong to the J-Life community and the Heidelberg Methodist Church. In our grieving we have had tremendous support from these communities, friends and family. We have particularly been blessed to be part of a grief share group where we have been able to process our grief. We have received comfort, healing (a continual process), learnt new things about our faith as well as reminders of God's love and sovereignty.

We are also blessed with opportunities to train and disciple the next generation (Psalm78: 3-4, 6). We continue to journey with our Youth Worker Trainees for 2016. They were back on the training site for additional training between 2^nd and 24^th June. We also hosted our 7^th annual 6 Weeks Internship from 13^th June to 24^th July.

Our Gap Year and 6 Weeks students

Here is what some our trainees are learning...

During our time at J-Life we were trained on SU (Scripture Union) content and I found a great interest in what SU does. After returning from our six week intensive at J-Life, I connected with SU here and went on their camp and staff retreat. This opened opportunities for me to do schools ministry with SU staff at Riverton Primary in Bishop Lavis. I grew from this experience which resulted in me doing ministry in Parkhurst Primary in my own neighbourhood, Mitchells Plain. I am excited to see what the Lord will be doing in the rest of this year and the rest of my life. - Zrano, Christ The Redeemer, Mitchells Plain, Cape Town (front left in pic). 

J-Life partners with Scripture Union South Africa to give our students training in schools, kids and camping ministry. For more information read here. 

From Gavin, on having and being a mentor:
I like having a mentor as it's nice just having someone mature to walk with who can give sound advice and teachings in all aspect of life.

I like bring able to  mentor someone as it builds a great bond between you and the person as well as you get to help them grow and give them tips and advice. It also adds a good sense of responsibility. Gavin is a youth intern at Benoni Baptist Church (back row, second from right in pic)

As part of their year with J-Life the trainees are require to find someone to disciple (Mentor) them and to disciple (mentor) at least two teenagers.

With J-Life I was awakened to the basis of Disciplemaking. I had no idea of the different types of lost people to disciple (religious and secular lost).  The stages one has to go through in discipling people from unbelief to maturity. And that although you can force it- by those who are daring, it is not recommended to be discipling someone when you don’t have someone discipling you.

Andile from Gamalake, Margate was part of the 6 Weeks Internship (back row, far left in pic)

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2 

Insights into ministry from Tyler, a youth intern at Rosebank Union:
Ministry is never as you picture it. Mostly because we are trying to define it and put parameters to it. Having had the privilege of working in ministry I can tell you that it can be as mundane as being at church every Sunday and sometimes you don't even want to be there, and yet sometimes you are bouncing off the walls busy with your church's holiday club and loving every second of it. It can even be relaxing with friends and trying to help them out in a Godly way.Ministry is a living breathing thing that is constantly changing and constantly forces you to re-evaluate your mental stand point. So all in all, my opinion is that ministry is one of the greatest gifts that the Lord has given us in order to help one another. It is also one of the best avenues that we can traverse in order to try and bring the glory of God's kingdom here on earth. (Tyler is right in the middle of the back row)

  

My lessons in spiritual growth have really been lessons in trust; letting go of my will for my life and submitting to God's. Seeking after Him in prayer, in His word and intentionally spending private moments with Him. I have learnt to put myself in His hands so that He can mould me though I understand that this process is more than just about resting in Him. My part is to pursue love and righteousness. My part is to pursue Him above all in all that I do in my everyday life - Hlengiwe, an intern at Randpark Ridge United (2nd from left in pic)

Prayer Points: 

- Open Doors for Promotion

• Recruiting interns for 2017
• Access to Pastors fraternal
• Recruiting for GC2 groups

- Wisdom for coaching and discipling the interns

- Traveling mercies for Bhuti as he visits the interns at their churches and marketing trips. 

Upcoming Events:
- UK mission group in August
- Gap Year students third intensive
- STeM 29 Sept -08 Oct

Family and Ministry News

Family Update

As a family we are super grateful to God for the people He has surrounded us with. First, our families for the love and support they are to us. And our friends, who stood with us, supported us and prayed with and for us. During the time our son, Thokozani, was in hospital until he went to be with Jesus, we experienced incredible prayer support. God has truly blessed us with amazing families and friends. These relationships have brought comfort to us in our darkest hour as a family. Through the people around us, we felt God’s presence and comfort. God has been and still is our good, good father in this grieving process.

We are all enjoying good physical health, although Ndumiso is teething and sometimes in pain. We have been busy with training and discipling the J-Life trainees. I (Bhuti) am overseeing the GC2 BETA training and the day to day running of this programme. Jann help makes sure I don’t miss the details of running the internship. She has also been helping on the campsite with logistics during this very busy season in our year.

GC2 BETA 2016

During these first two months of the year we were working with 3 groups of interns from 12 different countries, which made the community richly diverse. An ideal environment for discipling people with a global focus of “…all nations..” ( Matt 28: 19).

The First Group: Gap Year Program

This year we have partnered with local churches to train their interns. Is this any different from what we used to do? Yes - In the past we offered Coaching teams, which were made up of 3 or 4 young people from different churches who were then sent to a church where they served as interns. We felt that this programme was not producing fruit as it took quite a long time for the young people to adapt and earn the trust needed to minister effectively.  We believe God led us instead to partnering with churches who are already running, or want to run, internships. We then train and equip the intern and send them back to serve at their home churches.  This group of interns will return for more training throughout the year. This year we have 9 trainees from 8 different churches.

The Second Group: Bethel Semester Abroad students

This is the second year that we are hosting a group of 4 students from Bethel College, Indiana, USA. J-Life and Camp Eden acts as home base for them, from which they get to experience a variety of different ministry and cultural settings. They spent most of their time during the first 4 weeks involved in training on site with our other interns. Since then, they were able to visit churches in 3 different communities and experience many strange (for them) and wonderful things. They are currently in Margate with Donovan and Chantel Olding at Norwegian Settlers Church.

The Third Group: African Initiative Programme

This programme is aimed at expanding J-Life across the continent. Participants are people who are pioneering J-Life into their countries (in a country were J-Life does not yet have a presence) or into new regions in an existing J-Life Country, helping the country leader reach the regions that are further from them.

12 participants from 11 different countries spent a total of 5 weeks with us. Of these, 5 were pioneers into new countries, the other 6 will be helping extend J-Life in their countries into new regions.  For the first time here on Camp Eden we had more French speaking than English speaking trainees. God provided an incredible translator, Yoshua, from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Johannesburg.

J-Life Annual Summit

Each year, the J-Life family across the continent gathers together with some of our partner churches, at summit. During this time we celebrated what God has been doing in our lives by sharing testimonies. J-Life Summit 2016 was about casting #Vision2020. We had a great time listening to God direct each of us where he wants us to serve over the next 5 years. Together we fleshed out what God want us, the J-Life movement, to do towards 2020. We are excited to see how God will accomplish all of this through us.

Equipping Events
We will host two more major equipping events this year. Please be praying for us as we plan and prepare for them. Please do contact us for more info should you have anyone interested.

6 Weeks Internship: 13 June-24 July 2016
                                  5 weeks of ministry training + 1 optional extra week touring in Cape Town

STeM: 30 Sept - 9 October
            4 days of training + 5 days practical outreach in a community 

June/July Ministry News

We’ve just come through one of our busiest seasons of the year. Since the beginning of June to the end of July, Camp Eden has been a hive of activity. We are grateful to God that we get to partner with him as co-labourers in his Kingdom. We are also grateful for those who support us in the work God has called us to. Thank you to everyone who continue to bless us with your prayer and financial support.

On the home front

During this busy period Jann battled a terrible bout of flu, and in that time Ndumiso also caught a cold. There I was just feeling left out. With prayer and medication, they got better. However Ndumiso did not get his appetite back, so we got him checked out and the doctor said he has tonsillitis. He is on an antibiotic, please keep him in your prayers.

A toothache made sure I get a slice of the action myself. Next time I will be fine with being left out. 

Something we haven’t yet shared on our blog is that we will be adding another member to our family in the next 6-8 weeks. We are excited about this next stage in our family life. Please do continue praying for Jann and the new little one.

A summary of what's been happening…

Second Intensive (2-25 June)

Our Gap Year and Six weeks Interns 

Our 2015 Beta trainees came back to Camp Eden for their 2^nd training intensive. It was good to have all of them back and hear what the Lord has been doing in and through them. Everyone had testimonies of how God came through in opening doors and providing them with ministry opportunities and seeing them through the challenges they faced.

Coming to Camp Eden was also time to relax, refresh and refuel. As a community they get to build into one another and have the J-Life staff invest in them. Please pray for them as they are back in their churches and communities.

6 Weeks Internship (13 June to 25 July)

While the Gap Year trainees were here, we welcomed 10 young people from the USA joining us for the 6 Weeks internship we run every winter. They were involved in some of the training with our Beta trainees, helped at Sports Camp and were able to visit different ministries and get their hands dirty. They ended their time in South Africa with a trip down to the KZN south coast to enjoy some of the sights and sounds that our beautiful country has to offer. It felt rather surreal to say Good bye to them at the end of 6 weeks that had flown by.

Kids Camp

Part of the curriculum for our Gap year trainees is that they learn how to organise and run a camp. 

J-Life has partnered with Scripture Union for this section of training and our trainees are able to benefit from the many years of experience SU has in running camps for kids. After the theoretical training with Scripture Union our trainees get to organise a camp as part of their practical experience. They are responsible for everything from deciding on the theme to the décor on their own. Through our relationships with local churches in Heidelberg and Balfour we had 68 kids from underprivileged communities attend this camp. The kids had fun learning about God’s love for them. The theme of the camp was Chosen. Thank you to Amanzi Nokuphila, the charity society at Waterstone College, for sponsoring this camp.

Valuable leadership and conflict resolution skills were learnt through this exercise. Because they were a big group of leaders (13 Gap year trainees and 10 Six week interns), they learnt a lot about communication, delegation, team work, pulling your weight, work ethic, conflict resolution etc.  

Sports Camp

Our Six weeks interns got to be part of the counsellors on the Sports Camp. For the last 4 years Camp Eden has been hosting a sports camp, which consists of 6 days of sports training and coaching in a sport of the teenager’s choice, tribal games and discipleship. Bronson and his team of volunteers put this life changing camp together every year. This year they had 70 teenagers signed up and show up for this annual camp. As counsellors, our interns got to build relationships with the teens and pour into them. Most of them said this was one of the highlights of their time with us. It gave them an opportunity to disciple and implement their training.

Israel

I (Bhuti) was privileged to be part of the GYI summit in Israel. Visiting historical (biblical) sites, learning the context and culture enriched my understanding of the bible. I learnt a lot of things on the trip and I was challenged to live like a disciple (1 John 2:6). As this was my second trip to Israel, I was struck by how much more archaeologists have uncovered since 2008. This trip I saw more of the city of David that was underground the last time I was there. The archaeological work on the city of David is ongoing. #Lesson: Keep digging. If there is a part of the bible or Christianity I don’t quite understand, I should ask the Holy Spirit to uncover it for me (John 16:13). As followers of Christ we must always have a teachable attitude, never assume we know everything.

Hosting a Team from Hopewell Reformed Church, New York

We had a great time with the group from HRC with our good friends Warren and Lynette Jee. Hopewell church has been a partner with J-Life since its inception and this gave us an opportunity to bless them in return. Over the 12 days they spent most mornings doing manual labour at Camp Eden, with the sore muscles to prove it. Afternoons were spent at different local ministries off site. They got to play soccer at an after school care programme and children's home, visit an orphanage and help out at a feeding scheme. 

Things to pray for

Jann’s health - that she won't have sinus issues and other allergies as we head into spring

Ndumiso to be completely healed

Wisdom as we parent and serve with J-Life

Open doors with churches as we promote and recruit for next year