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.