Exciting Volunteer Job Vacancies

Yesterday there was a blog post about the amazing work that is taking place at the Margate ecclesia. This is now an appeal to volunteers to come and help move the work on to the next level and grow the Lightstand in this area.


The Margate ecclesia, in South Africa is appealing for help to further develop their contribution towards the 2010 X 2010  project. (Refer to detail below or blog post yesterday for background to the project).

We urgently need the services of two brothers/two sisters/married couple to help Brother Nelson and Sister Cecilia Msani.

The helpers would need to commit to a period of at least three months full time service on the project. During this period they would help Brother Nelson and Sister Cecilia further develop the crèche,  Bible Education Centre and Sunday School which have recently (April 2008) been established on the ecclesial property.

The helpers would be accommodated in the ecclesial hall which has two bathrooms, a small bedroom (existing kids cry-room) and kitchen.

Margate is a small town located on the beautiful South Coast of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. It is situated about 150 kilometres south of Durban and is a popular tourist destination.


Background and Additional Information

    Jan 06 – Margate ecclesia struggling to survive with only a handful of members. Bro Nelson and Sister Cecilia ( Refer to appendix 2 ) have  to make a long journey to attend meetings on Sunday. Nelson unable to attend regularly due to nature of employment. His family not all able to live together due to his employment. Ecclesial hall underutilised.

    July-Oct 06 - attempt to reach out and become more visible  in local community – Saturday morning tuition in Biology and Math in preparation for school leaving exam

    May/June 07 – proposal accepted to build cottage for Nelson, Cecilia and family on the church property with the view to them being on hand to establish a crèche , Bible Education centre and Sunday school using existing hall ( with appropriate modifications)

    Aim of crèche to provide community service and a means of generating an income for Nelson’s family

    August 07- Modifications to hall made for crèche and BEC

    October 07 -Building of cottage commences

    January 08 – Nelson resigns from his place of employment and relocates and moves in with his family into the  Margate hall in preparation to host the first group of P2P. COP Trust begins paying Nelson a monthly salary with the view to gradually phasing this out/supplementing it as crèche begins to grow and make a profit.

    January 08 – P2P volunteers stay at hall for 2 weeks  and run a kids holiday club and seminar. Also involved with building cupboards and shelves in BEC. Help Nelson with planning of medicinal herb garden

    Feb 08-Nelson opens a Sunday school

    February 08-First issue of stock for BEC arrives

    March 08 – Cottage completed and nelson and family move in.

    April 08 – Thanksgiving service for cottage

    April 08 – Crèche opens for 3-5 year olds – aim to limit it to 8 children initially ( This is the maximum number Cecilia would be able to cope with on her own) – Currently have 3 children attending crèche.

    Nelson and Sister Olive Sampson ( Durban) have been working closely with Cecilia in helping to get the crèche up and running

    Ongoing – 22 lesson Bible correspondence course – advertised each week in local newspaper- run by Brother Eddie Stallbom – 30 students on his books – aim to link into BEC

    Need for a strong advertising drive to attract and make people aware that we have a BEC and offer  free correspondence courses from this venue.  Prominent signage needed .

    Urgent need for volunteers to come and stay at hall on a prolonged basis to help Nelson and Cecilia on a daily basis with the development of the crèche ,BEC and Sunday School as well as Nelson’s medicinal herb garden.

    Volunteers needed to help develop Nelson and Cecilia’s 4 children – Eliezer (6), Sarah (11), Manje (16), Njabulo ( 18)- help with homework – computer literacy – Maths –Physics- Chemistry

    Ongoing help with building projects and maintenance like painting, shelving, gardening etc.

Interested in helping spread God's Good News?

email your contact details to Tim Genders - tim@bethel.cc and he will forward you the relevant forms that need to be completed to apply, plus advise you on other issues.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Newspaper Headlines read - "Christadelphian Church opens a new creche in Margate"

The Margate ecclesia (on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast) has slowly seen its numbers dwindle over the past  30+ years.  For the past few years this lightstand has been kept burning by only 4 members. Yet despite this they have continued to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God. However the Margate members were eager for anything that would help re-ignite their Lightstand. And so it was with great enthusiasm that they jumped at joining in whole heartedly with the 2010 Preaching Campaign.

As part of this it was decided by Margate, that using the hall for a creche and Bible Education Centre would bring much needed life into the hall - which stands vacant for most days of the week, and even some Sundays. In August 2007 modifications were started to the hall to convert it into a suitable venue to have a creche and a Bible Education Centre. In October 2007 building work started on adding a cottage onto the hall for Bro. Nelson and Sis. Cecilia (and family) to live. This would enable them to run the creche and BEC, plus enable them to bring their children to live with them.

In January 2008 P2P volunteers came to stay at the hall for 2 weeks. This was a great kickstart for the new Margate Outreach effort. They ran a kids holiday club and seminars. They were also actively involved with building cupboards and shelves in BEC and helping Nelson with the planning of his herb garden (which will be a source of income for him).

In February 2008 Bro. Nelson opened a Sunday School, the first one for over 20 years, and the first stock supplies for the BEC arrived. March saw the cottage completed and in April a thanksgiving service was held for God's mighty work.

In April 2008 the Creche opened its doors for 3-5 year olds. The Maragate hall is located in a middle/low income area and hence there is a big need for an affordable creche. The aim is to limit it to 8 children initially ( This is the maximum number Cecilia would be able to cope with on her own). Currently there are 4 children attending the crèche.

Ongoing work is continuing with the 22 lesson Bible correspondence course. It is advertised each week in a local newspaper and is run by Brother Eddie Stallbom. Currently there are 30 students doing the course, and the aim is to extend this by linking it in with the BEC and offering courses to the community.

Also very exciting was the appearance of a full page article in the local newspaper about all the developments at the Margate ecclesial hall. This is just a testimony to the exciting new life that God has enabled here - from a little known church building to full page articles - "Congregation gives thanks" and "Christadelphian Church Opens a New Creche in Margate"

Things are moving swiftly and the new life and enthusiasm at Margate is palpable. However with this growth is the need for help. There is an urgent need for volunteers to come and stay at the hall (accommodation has been built to house volunteers) on a prolonged basis (3+ months) to help Nelson and Cecilia on a daily basis with the development of the crèche and BEC as well as Nelson’s medicinal herb garden, minor handyman issues, etc.

This area of God's vineyard, is not only beautiful, but an area rich with enthusasitc ears. We pray for God's continued blessing on spreading His Good News.

160 in one week (including expletive beggar)

The Durban BEC had another busy week (19/508-23/5/08). We had 160 people come into the shop with 21 new registrations for courses. With the huge growth in numbers of students a new Excel-based system has been put in place to help manage everything.

We even had an interesting visit from Lionel, our regular beggar, sporting all sorts of expletives about our lack of love because we do not give him money. He was very drunk. This emphasizes the need to have more than one person here at a time!

It's been great to have young brother Dumisani (who was baptised earlier in the year) helping out at the BEC 3 days a week. He is doing really well, building an instant rapport with people and working wonders with getting younger people in! He’s a quick learner and has been so helpful during Mary’s few days leave in terms of marking Zulu papers.

We have had a request from two ladies to run marriage courses for women. Leah had a good chat with them about this and we might look at doing this at the BEC in July.

The wave of xenophobia is also affecting our brothers and sisters (especially the refugees from DRC). Mary left the BEC early on Wednesday as she is frightened about the xenophobia attacks happening at the moment and feels vulnerable at the BEC. On Friday she was unable to get into the BEC and had to leave her home and spend the weekend (with other brothers and sisters) at the Durban ecclesial hall.

The new computer for the window display is in place, but it’s so archaic, we have to transfer our presentation to it via a floppy disk..…we are working on a solution!

Plans are in motion for a student graduation on 31st May and invites have all gone out. We have about half a dozen students who have done all 4 course (including Bible Basics!) so Leah is looking at transitioning these to more one-on-one tutoring, as well as the Durban classes.




BECITES - Dan & Leah Egginton and Ben Dailey

Kempton Park BEC = Preaching on the fly

“Preaching on the Fly” is really a new concept / idea emerging here at the KMPBEC. We are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities to get the Bible Courses into peoples hands. Opportunities that lie latent and can be effectively used to get more exposure. The car magnets we have been using has been great in this regard. Two weeks ago we were literally pulled of the road by a gentleman who read the sign “Free Bile Courses” on the side of our car and now he is enrolled for the Bible Course. Quite a few petrol attendants have enrolled for our Bible course because of seeing the car sign. We are convinced that the more exposure we give ourselves the more success we will have in getting that first “foot in the door” with people who strike up a conversation or ask to have the course. During P2P we spoke to many people behind the tills where we were buying stuff, even people in the loading bays of shops etc, all because they saw a T-Shirt, a cap, or a car magnet with the Kingdom of God brand or the Bible Course advertised.  Recently we gave a Bible course to a waiter at a restaurant while having a meal there. It just so happened that as we parked at the restaurant the owner of the restaurant saw our car sign and approach us on behalf of the waiter while we were having our meal. One simply can’t have enough signage etc going around and it is perhaps in this area that we can make HUGE strides in the future. T-Shirts, Car signs, posters, Caps , Lapel badges – whatever it takes to get peoples attention – then you can preach on the fly , on your way anywhere – after a while it becomes a habit and then a way of life.

 

Had our full quota (spectrum) of religions visiting the KMPBEC lately. Had some interesting discussions with some Seventh Day Adventists as well as an ex Rastafarian. The discussions were particularly helpful for some of the students that were also around some of the time.  Someone is quoted for saying that “he who knows only one religion knows none” -  some truth in that I believe – always good to know the other persons point of view , where they come from, so that your own convictions are exactly that -  your own convictions.

 

On Saturday, sister Trudy Clarke presented a follow up Crèche Course to some interested ladies. Other interesting visitors to the BEC was Frans who made a ”comeback” after being away for work reasons for two months as well as brother Bill Jardine from Pietermaritzburg. Tankiso is getting very serious about baptism and we will be having specific classes in this regard. Good news is that Nadia Booth, wife of Bro. Glenn Booth will be interviewed soon and will God willing be baptised this Saturday coming.

 

People remain very surprised at how reasonable our books and Bibles are priced and gradually we are becoming more well known for the place to go to for religious literature and Bibles. As always we praise God for the wonderful way he has enabled us to preach in so many different ways everyday of the week on such a regular and organised basis.

 

The Kempton Park BEC team.

“Striving for Biblically Enlightened Communities”