#FeesMustFall | What do we say?

As an Every Nation family we love the next generation and we are passionate about reaching our students. We believe in them and we believe in the potential their lives carry.

These past weeks we had quite an up roaring on our campuses, in our streets and ultimately at the Union Buildings. So what do we, as Every Nation, say about #FeesMustFall, students fighting for their rights and governments role in all this?

Statement by His People and Every Nation Churches re. Student Uprising.

We stand in solidarity with all students who are battling to afford ever increasing university fees and those who cannot access higher education for financial reasons. 

Proverbs 21:13 - "Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poos will also cry himself and not be heard."

We believe that this week may go down in history as the day when students said enough is enough on a matter of national importance.

We support all students who exercise their democratic right to down their books in solidarity with those who face financial exclusion and out of respect for those who have been unjustly arrested in this week's protest action.

We appeal to students who exercise their democratic right not to down their books not to ignore the light of their fellow students.

We appeal to all concerned to exercise these rights responsibly and represent the character of Christ in all our actions. We condemn all actions that violate the rights of others, damage property or commit unlawful acts. We reject intimidation and violence. We pray for calm, peace and non-violence in these protests from all parties involved.

We appeal to academic staff to postpone tests, exams and assignment deadlines in the next week out of appreciation for the gravity of the issue at hand. We voice our support to those vice-chancellors who have been engaging this protests responsibly and hearing the plights of the students.

We call on Minister Nzimande and Vice-Chancellors to place a moratorium on all university fee increases until a clear way forward has been found. We call on the Minister of Higher Education and Training to urgently overhaul the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and implement the recommendations of the committee established to address the funding of universities in 2012.

We call on President Zuma to turn the tide on corruption in our beloved country that is entrenching poverty and lining the pockets of the politically connected at the expense of the poor. We ask him to intervene in this crisis and engage in proper dialogue to hear the plight of students.

We call on business and alumni to increase their efforts in bursary and loan funding to students and to apply their creativity and entrepreneurial flair to find ways to meet the needs of the financial excluded.

We remember the words of former President Nelson Mandela when he said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

May we all do more to invest in the next generation - they are not just going to lead our country tomorrow, they are already leading it today!

2 Chronicles 7:14 - "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Church Planting | Why, Where and When

As I mentioned in one of the previous posts, we know that God has called us to church planting. In a way this stirs a great excitement in our hearts as we can have confidence in what God has called us for, but on the other hand its also a little bit scary. Not knowing exactly what it will look like, what it will take from us, what we can expect... There's a lot of variables.

But we know that this is what God has called us for.
Here is the Why, Where and When of our church planting journey!

Why?
One thing I am really convicted about is that God's plan to establish His Kingdom on earth is through the church. The local church is the hope of the world - Bill Hybels. I truly believe that. Its through the local church that God's rule and reign is established in communities - through the power of the Gospel. And it is the responsibility of the church to show the world who God is, what God expects of us and how God has made provision for humanity to be restored in relationship with Him!

If we are serious about reaching the world and redeeming the world with the message of the Gospel then we can't be anything but serious about the local church and planting strong, healthy, vibrant, disciple-making churches!

Click here to read more on Why Church Planting from the Every Nation Global website.

Where?
One of the things that came out of the assessment center was that we need to get our own conviction of where God is calling us to. It can't just be something that our leadership feels or somewhere that is just a good idea. It's needs to be a burning conviction in our own hearts as well.

That is what we are praying about now. Where. I have always loved Africa and I deeply love our nation South Africa. So those are two places we are praying about. 

That is also part of the reason for me going to Kenya in November - to get my feet on the ground to see and experience what church planting in Africa (outside of South Africa) looks like.

Since last year when I had an encounter with three German students in Cape Town Europe starting stirring in my heart as well. I have been in contact with some people coming back from trips to Europe and the general feel is that Europe is ready and open for a fresh Gospel impartation and healthy disciple-making churches. So we are praying about Europe and next year I would like to join a missions team to Germany, again to get my feet on the ground to see what it looks like!

When?
We know we are currently in a preparation phase. To learn and grow as much as possible before we are sent out. We have incredible leaders walking alongside us to help us grow in specific areas. Riëtte and myself also anchoring the second service at our Southdowns congregation is part of the preparation.

Currently there is a specific timeline put in place. I personally think a lot of the timeline will rest on the conviction in our hearts of where God is sending us. The aim for me in 2016 will be to raise up leaders in each of the areas where I am involved so that by the end of 2016 I would be able to stand back completely without compromising in any area of results or excellence. So it will be a very intentional season of raising and developing leaders.

How can you support us?
Please pray with us. That we will clearly hear the voice of God as He leads us and that we will also be able to discern between emotion, circumstances and the will of God. Our hearts desire is to obey the call of God on our lives. Pray with us that we will hear God speak and that we will boldly obey!

Nairobi, Kenya | The Why, What and How behind our trip to Kenya

Why?
Kenya is currently the most strategic nation in Africa to reach the east coast of Africa. From Kenya we can set up an apostolic base to reach into the rest of East Africa - Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan. All of these countries are waiting for the Gospel!

The motive above all motives remains Jesus. With Jesus' blood He purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation - Revelation 5:9

What?
Make disciples. Raise leaders. Plant churches. That is what we do and will keep on doing with a very specific and intentional focus on reaching the students. The missions trip will be focused on reaching students at the Kenyatta University and getting them connected in discipleship groups. From there they will be established in strong Biblical foundations and be equipped and empowered to reach their peers!

The team on the ground who are staying in Nairobi full time will continue the work of discipleship and laying foundations from where the church plant will happen.

How?
Pray | Pray with us as we go. The tension and threat in Kenya is still very much real. Pray for provision for the teams going, for the harvest we are going to reach and for protection for the team going, the team staying and those who will be reached by the Gospel.

Give | You can give towards the mission. The cost of the mission works out to R20 000 per person due to inflated flight tickets and accommodation priced in US Dollars. Your giving towards the mission will make it possible for the message of the Gospel to reach the next generation, impact a nation and influence the rest of East Africa!

Go | Pray about going along during our next missions trip in 2016. Go to your next door neighbor, your work colleagues, your friends - go to those God has called you to reach!

Click on the link below to watch a short video about the upcoming mission. 

Church Plant Assessment Center

We had the incredible privilege to be part of the Every Nation Assessment Center in South Africa 2015. The Assessment Center is a comprehensive tool which assesses the make-up of potential church planters or church planting couples - to see whether they are called to be the lead church planters.

Leading up to the assessment center Riëtte and I had to complete numerous personality tests, worksheets and questionnaires. During the assessment itself we went through different interviews, scenarios where we had to work together with the other candidate couples whilst the whole time being observed by the assessors.

In the end there are 3 possible outcomes. A green light, an orange light and a red light.
Green means that the calling and the gifting is there and the couple is ready to be the lead church planting couple as set out by their local sending church.
Orange means the potential is there, but there are certain areas that need attention and an orange light can then become either green or red.
A red light means that you are not called to be the lead church planting couple, but that does not mean you are not called for ministry or that you are not called to be part of a church planting team.

So basically it only assesses whether you are called to be the lead church planting couple or not,
The assessment center was compiled through research from many different leading church planting movements and currently has a 100% success rate!!

After an intensive couple of days we got our results and we got a Green Light!
Before the assessment Riëtte and I spoke openly about this and we knew in our hearts that we dont have a specific outcome preference, but that we just really trust the leadership God has placed over our lives and the calling He has for us.

Basically what this now means is that we will be coaches and mentored in our local church by our local leaders so that we will be ready when we go to plant a church. Part of our preparation will be to anchor the second service in our Every Nation Southdowns congregation and also to start praying into the where. Where is God calling us to. Is it South Africa, Africa or somewhere else... So please pray with us as we continue in this exciting journey God has called us into and of which you most definitely are a part of!

Here is a link to the Assessment Center website and also a video from one of the assessment centers which took place in North America. This really gives a great overview of what the assessment center is all about!

Namibia | Okahandja

This is Ikus and Bianca Conradie. They lead the Every Nation Okahandja church in Namibia. Although their passion and commitment is full time, they actually run and manage a lodge in Okahandja. The church was birthed from a conviction of who Christ is when they were still in Stellenbosch, so when they went to Okahandja to take over the family lodge, the natural thing for them to do was to establish a disciple making family.

Myself and Rudolf Bredell (part of our Ministry Internship team) went to visit Ikus, Bianca and some of their members to help give vision, direction and strategy for how to effectively build a disciple making church and also how to reach their community with the Gospel. The challenges they face are steep, but their immense passion for God and for people has kept them going!

At the end of June a missions team led by Rudolf will be going up to further the support, training and evangelism in Okahandja. I truly believe there is such a big dream and promise resting on Okahandja and I am excited and expectant to see what God will be doing in and through the church!

Please pray with us for Ikus, Bianca and their church. That they will discover the key to reaching their community, that God will keep the passion for the Gospel burning high and that God will place the right leadership team around Ikus and Bianca who can help them lead the church forward.

Below are some photos from our Sunday gathering. We divided into smaller groups and discovered together what God is saying to us from His Word. We specifically broke into smaller groups to help the members see and experience what would happen in a small group discipleship setting.

3 New Engage Training Locations

The Engage Training has been one of my main projects for quite a few months now. The aim of the Engage Training is to equip every believer with the necessary tools, training and confidence to reach those in their immediate world with the message of the Gospel and it has always been the heart of the training to see it implemented throughout congregations and churches throughout South Africa and even in the rest of Africa.

So far the training has taken place in our Southdowns (Centurion) Congregation, the Willows Congregation in Equestria and in Kathu in the Northern Cape.

During the month of April and May the Engage Training has grown into 
3 more areas:

Every Nation Lynnwood:

Philip Pretorius and his team are now heading up the Engage Training in our Every Nation Lynnwood Congregation. They have a powerful and passionate team leading the ranks in establishing an engage culture in the congregation.

Junction Church in Johannesburg:

We were invited by Pastor Craig Elliot to come and do the Engage Training at Junction Church in Johannesburg. This was a truly awesome experience as Frans Olivier and myself got to teach together for the very first time the training we worked so hard on together. The practical evangelism the Friday night included going to Monte Casino which was a great experience as well!

His People Cape Town:

Enrico Arends from the His People church in Cape Town has taken over from Frans Oliver in leading evangelism in Cape Town and he came up with a team member to sit in during one of our Pretoria Engage Training's in order to learn and duplicate the training in Cape Town. They have now held their very first Engage Training with many other congregational and church evangelists who will now also be able to start the training in their local churches!

We have been so incredible humbled by what God has done and will still do through a simple tool like the Engage Training. And one of the greatest rewards is to see a heart for the lost envisioned into the lives of believers.

Botswana | Morelane

 During March/April we had our fist missions trip to Morelane, Botswana as an Every Nation Southdowns congregation. We went to visit pastor Robert and his church in the Kgalagadi and we were welcomed with a lot of rain which is a rarity for that time of year and also a huge blessing!

We had an incredible time as a team. The main challenge was that there is no electricity, so for hot shower water we needed to keep the donkey going. For cooking and coffee we needed the fires going. So we had different teams who were on duty every day who had to get up early so that we could get our morning coffee =)

The main aim of the mission was to strengthen the discipleship culture in the village, to raise disciple makers who will be able to take the message of the Gospel further to their own people.
We also helped with a couple of building projects on the church premises:

• Shade netting for the stoep area which will also serve as part of the church on Sundays.
• Upgrading the chicken den, to give covering during the winter as well as protection from small animals.
• Started with a garden project which we will continue during our next trip
• Installation of solar LED lights

This is still a very young church and a lot of work is still needed in establishing a healthy, reproducing discipleship culture. That is what we will focus on again when we go back at the end of June.

Here is a short video feedback from the mission:

Establish Training - Equipping Connect Group Leaders

One of our greatest needs identified at the and of last year and also our main objective for the first term of 2015 was our Connect Groups. To make sure that our Connect Groups are healthy, that our Connect Group leaders are well equipped and that strong discipleship will take place laying Biblical foundations in peoples' lives that will bear lasting fruit. So we started the Establish Training, running for 5 consecutive Sundays.

The turn-up was really amazing, with about 40 people attending it weekly. One of the greatest encouragements for me was that people were starting to ask different questions. Instead of asking why we need to reach the lost and why we need to do discipleship, people started asking how?

God has been working in our hearts from middle last year and there is a great hunger in our congregation to see the lost reached and for solid discipleship to take place.

At the end of the Establish training we had 9 people signing up to start a Connect Group with lost people, meaning people who are not in church currently. So we will be walking closely with them, practically showing them how to reach out to lost people, how to grow a relationship and how to develop that relationship into a weekly discipleship meeting.

Please pray with us as we are really trusting God that everyone who attended the Establish Training will truly experience the grace of God over their lives as they step out and make disciples.

Equipping our Willows Congregation

During March our Every Nation Willows congregation hosted their own Engage Training fully run by their own teachers - I only had 1 session out of the 8. There were 15 people who attended the training.

For me this is so, so exciting! To see the leaders being raised up who are passionate about evangelism who will also be the change agents in their congregation. God is truly stirring something in the hearts of people throughout the city and we are expectant to see a great harvest of lost people coming into the Kingdom of God as laborers are raised up and equipped to go into the harvest field.

Phillip Pretorius, who is also the senior leader at the Willows Congregation, has now taken ownership to see the Engage Training grow in their congregation. We also worked together on some changes in the manual and we have also managed to get to a teachers manual which will aid new teachers and even new churches who want to do the Engage Training immensely!

Kate de Meillon, above left, will be leading the Engage Training team at the Willows Congregation (along with Phillip). She has such a passion for reaching the lost and God has truly given her great boldness and courage!

This picture was taken in Hatfield, Pretoria, where the team goes out on the Friday night to practically reach out to people using the GodTest.

Second Service Launch

We are so thankful for what God has been doing in church! We have come to a place where we have reached the capacity of our venue (about 180 people) and our kids church and mothers with babies have also grown incredibly so we were forced to step out in faith and to start a second morning service.

We now have a 09h00 and 11h00 service and this is truly just a testimony of God's grace and faithfulness. When the staff all prayed together we were in absolute unity that this is much more than just a logistical step, but a step of obedience. That God wants us to broaden our tent pens so that He can add the increase.

Jesus said that the harvest is ready and that is what we are trusting for - that the harvest will come into the Kingdom of God. Please specifically pray with us for strong leadership to arise, all the volunteer ministries to have enough volunteers and also for new preachers to be raised up and equipped. And pray for the harvest. Pray that God will use us as a church to reach those who are lost and also that the lost will find a place where they can belong and become all that God has called them to be.

These are exciting times we are living in!!!

e-Weekend | February

During the e-Weekend in February we had 12 people attending the Victory Training and 18 people attending the Engage Training. It remains such a privilege to be part of the work God is doing in the lives of people. To see people come to a deeper understanding of the Gospel, what Jesus has done for them and how to accurately respond and live out the fullness of God's plan for their lives.

 

We had 4 students from Tukkies attending the Victory Training as well as a couple from Olievenhoutbosch. One of the students who attended the Victory Training, Ame, had such a powerful encounter with God during the weekend and there is a radical change in her life. 

We also hosted Ricky (above left) and Rudi from one of our Every Nation churches in Cape Town. They specifically flew up to be equipped to host their own Engage Training in the churches in Cape Town. They currently have a bog group of passionate evangelists eager to be trained and also to train others in reaching the harvest.

We are really excited about what is happening in the Engage Training. The manual has been reworked a bit again, and we thoroughly believe it is getting sharper and sharper at each event.