Productive Workday at Aphiwe Good News Centre

We had a highly-productive day of physical labor at the new Aphiwe Good News Centre in Tembisa today. With four additional Christadelphian missionary P2P’ers from England (Mat Collard, Laura Iredale, Phil Ashcroft, and Naomi Midgley) and one Sister from Durban (Christy Beyers) visiting Kempton Park, we were able to get a lot of work done: planted two trees, built the front entryway, leveled the front yard, spread gravel in the parking area, hung bathroom fixtures, and painted a creative wall mural of Noah’s Ark (Phil’s ingenious creation).

The building remodeling is going very well and the construction crew will finish later this week, so we can continue with finishing touches to prepare for the launch in two weeks. The launch date is set for March 25.

The African township people are so amazingly friendly and inquisitive, which makes it such a joy to do work in Tembisa. We spoke with several dozen different people today as we were working in the front yard who wanted to inquire about what we were doing. They were very appreciative of people who live elsewhere and wanted to help their impoverished community. They were glad to know with several areas the community center will serve that there’s something available for virtually everyone: preschool for 5-6 year olds, free bible courses, and general education life skills classes.

We passed out several bible correspondence courses for God’s Master Plan to interested students and will have a large contingent ready to attend once bible courses begin in April. There is a lot of anticipation and positive support from the Tembisa community for the opening of the Aphiwe Good News Centre. They truly view it as a “gift” to their community, as the Aphiwe name means in Zulu.

With an ideal location in front of the busy Tembisa train station, thousands of people walk by the front of the Aphiwe Good News Centre every day. Many people wanted to stop and talk with us about what we were doing.

Leveling the front yard to prepare it for laying down more sod.

Planting the first of two trees.

The new tree looked great in the front corner of the Aphiwe Good News Centre property and already provided some immediate shade.

Sis. Megan Sabo hanging bathroom fixtures.

Bro. Hendri Viljoen drilling holes for bathroom fixtures.

BEFORE: The front door entry area, in need of a proper walkway.

Laying concrete steps with drainage in the entryway to the Aphiwe Good News Centre.

AFTER: The finished front entryway complete with proper drainage and concrete steps.

The inside of the community center is looking good and will be finished later this week in time for the launch date March 25th.

Lunchtime with sandwiches to eat.

Bro. Mat Collard and Sis. Christy Beyers painting the beginning stages of the Noah’s Ark wall mural in front of the community center in Tembisa.

Sis. Megan Sabo painting the border around a cloud on the wall mural.

We drew a crowd of interested onlookers all day who wanted to watch us work.

The finished wall mural in the front of the new Aphiwe Good News Centre in Tembisa: a rendition of Noah’s Ark.

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Bro. Jonathan Sabo – Kempton Park, South Africa Ecclesia

BEC Busking in Durban

BEC Busking




For the past month or so on Fridays we’ve been going to the BEC to draw people inside to sign up for the different courses. How did we happen to draw people in you might ask? Well through Zulu songs of praise of course! These passer-by’s are amazed by the fact that these odd group of white people are singing songs in Zulu.

Laura and Phil take turns with the guitar and the rest of us pass out fliers to let people know about what the BEC provides. Some people just stop and stare, and that gives us the perfect opportunity to start up a little chat and invite them inside. Some people stop and join in with either singing or dancing; it’s always best when it’s both.

Each week through God’s blessing we’ve signed up more and more people for God’s Master Plan! I’m pretty sure our peak number is 27 new students in just a couple short hours!

Onlookers have gotten so used to us in such a short time that they recognize us as ‘the singing people’, and ask us when we are singing again. I’m glad that these people are looking forward to it as much as we are!

We don’t just stay stationary outside the BEC on Mark Lane either, we tend to get around. The ladies at the front end of the street requested our singing. So we gave them a little show as they waited to get their hair done. Each of those women signed up for God’s Master Plan! It’s amazing the way music is a language of it’s own. Music is our way of sparking conversation about God and His kingdom that’s coming on earth!

We also moved into the shopping centre across the way, which had some great acoustics by the way. A lady came over and started videoing us on her phone. I invited her over to the BEC, but she said she couldn’t leave because she was actually the only one working in the shop and she left it unattended. Later when we dispersed we went back to her in the shop to sign her up for the course and she was listening to our singing already and showing customers!

Oh and another neat thing is that there have been a couple of keen students that have either finished the courses or are still enjoying them that come help us on Fridays. They pass out fliers with us, strike up conversations, and join in with the singing. God is so great!

All in all, God has been blessing these efforts greatly- praise to Him! Something as simple as playing the guitar and singing songs of praise in public is drawing people closer to God. How awesome!

P2P workday at Aphiwe community center

The special P2P team helping to get the Aphiwe community center here in Tembisa ready had a fantastic productive workday at the center on Thursday 4 March. Together with some of Autopage personnel the interior of the centre was cleaned and a lot of work was done outside the center. The majority of the hard work was done outside as 3 different areas around the center was prepared for laying down instant lawn. The process required hard physical work as the ground had to be leveled, additional soil had to be brought in, the grass off loaded and then laid down on the prepared soil. It was hard, dirty work but great fun.

 

God especially blessed us in giving us a cloudy day. The instant lawn need a lot of water after being "installed" and it rain the very night after we got the lawn down - just what we needed. Whilst working two people came and enquired about what we were doing and we could introduce them to the Bible course. Another gentlemen stopped his car, got out and asked where he could join our church! It just served as confirmation that people are starting to realize that Christians are at work showing the love of Jesus and God by way of giving their time and energy to the community without wanting anything in turn.

 

As the day ended we were all in high spirit as we managed to get everything done we planned and for sensing God's presence in all we did. Most of us had our T-shirts written off as we carried many a chunk of quick lawn to and fro but it was a minor "loss" compared to what the work would mean to the community. As we looked at the transformation of the centre in one day we realized how many miracles God is still doing in just the ordinary events of every day life as he uses us as privileged instruments.

 

With abiding love from the special P2P team and the Kempton Park 2010 team.

 

 

 

CUDDLE project - Weekly Bible Classes for the little ones at Zelda's crèche

Liezl and Hendri gives a Bible class for Zelda's pre-school children on a weekly basis. The children love it and it is great fun while the children learn valuable lessons from Bible stories. It is very encouraging that quite a few of the ladies who attend the crèche course have requested that we come and give Bible classes at their crèches on a regular basis. We have 5 crèches on the request list at the moment and it will grow as the crèche course is given to more teachers. We thank God for this wonderful opportunity that is growing where we can be actively involved in teaching the children about his word.

Crèche course in Tembisa - 3rd week and still on 100% attendance.

We are into our third week of the crèche course. All 37 ladies turned up again making it a 100% attendance for three weeks in a row. And they were all 15 minutes early. It is also wonderful that the ladies have asked Leona to open and close the sessions in prayer. This has given Leona much more opportunities to use scripture as examples in her teaching. The practical work for this week was to show how easily one can use throw-away material to make teaching objects at no cost or at very little expense. Making a spider out of egg holders and paper proved a little more challenging to some of the teachers that we thought but is was all great fun.

The course is getting a good reputation via word of mount in Tembisa. We already have 116 ladies officially registered for the next courses which will follow in April, God willing.

We Candu it

Five of us volunteers (Tim, Ben, Roxy, Katie and Ellie) just went on a week-long road trip to visit our brothers and sisters in the Eastern Cape. It was an awesome experience.

Aiming for Candu, we got a little bit lost in the rural wilderness and without knowing a word of Xhosa we decided it was high-time that we prayed. Thankfully and amazingly God led us to a shepherd (of all people) to guide us to our first destination: Candu.

Local brother and sister, Templeton and Dorothy gave us a warm welcome and they soon showed us what needed doing on site. The general maintenance list included: painting walls, fixing up the toilets, the showers and the electrics and giving the jungle gym a new lease of life. There were some simple fixes (namely: flipping a switch or changing a light bulb) which made us appear like superheroes in Templeton’s eyes. We couldn’t take all the glory so we came clean: no we didn’t rewire the whole electrics; we simply changed a light bulb etc. Nevertheless we were happy to help where we could.

Some of the highlights of our time in Candu included witnessing an epic rain and hail storm. Apparently Candu hasn’t seen rain like it in twenty years. Templeton was rejoicing as his prayers for water had been answered. The lightning continued throughout the distant valleys for hours following and we stood awestruck by God’s mighty power.

Another magic moment in Candu was talking to Siyanda (Templeton’s youngest son) about his wish to be baptised and follow Jesus. Praise God! We were so excited to hear this news that we wanted to plunge him in the rainwater there and then, but we had to hold-back as Siyanda wishes to wait to share his baptism with all of his friends at the Easter gathering soon God willing.

Finally, another memorable moment in Candu was being welcomed into the home of a family who were grieving the recent death of their young son. It was a very moving experience to share God’s hope with those that need it the most: the broken hearted. Templeton identified this as a great preaching opportunity, especially seeing as its Xhosa custom to provide comfort in the homes of the grieved. In an area which is rooted in the folklore of their ancestors, we pray that Templeton’s efforts to share the gospel of peace will touch hearts.

Next up, P.E. Brother Mike and Vanessa made us feel right at home and after some much needed post-Candu showering, we led a Bible class discussion on “thankfulness”.The conclusion: even in times of trial we can be thankful for life itself- Every breath is a gift from God!

We also enjoyed having some quality time with Luzoko, the only young brother in P.E who is largely responsible for the BEC. It was clear to see that P.E could really benefit from the power of prayer and the energies of more people (P2P volunteers and ecclesial members) to get things moving. The BEC is in an ideal location, bordering on a number of townships. The potential for outreach is huge.

After P.E, we roadtripped back to KwaZulu-Natal to meet with some more volunteers (Jude, Julie, Phil and Nay) plus those from Margate eccelsia. A good handful of people joined us on the edge of the Oribi Gorge, including our five Wild 5 friends, to sing praises and learn more about God. What breathtaking surroundings! Last up, we had a great praise and worship session the following morning with lots of people from the local settlement and our newfound friends from the Mugg and Bean restaurant. God is working so let’s continue to put things to prayer!

*Valentines special*

For the fourth time, I saw the same small forearm find its way 50cm from my eyeballs. “It came off again” she says. I apply the henna pattern again to her arm and tell her once more it is wet and she must not touch it until it has dried.

         Last minute cancellations sparked an idea for a relaxation spa day at ‘Happy’s’ for the girls, a day where we could show we cared for them.

         There was music blasting out (mainly beyonce as requested) coupled with matching voices, feet flailing in the air waiting to be washed, hands being massaged, a crowd around the nail polish table blocking the passage way making it impossible for anyone wanting to get through and crazy requests for henna including African names I could not spell!

         Bookmarks were made the evening before with bible verses on which were given out.

         It was a Saturday, the day before valentines day, a day normally spent lolling around or socializing on beds. So our surprise spa day was really appreciated. One of the girls said “It is good that you show your love in this way” which is exactly what we wanted them to know. They come from a culture which is not always accepting of disability so we want them to know that they are worth caring about as a child, as a black person, as a disabled person and to have the feeling of being pampered and the feeling of being a lady.

“ People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care”

Bible verse bookmarks

Lamlile showing off some henna

Ellie and laura painting nails

Julie and katie washing hands and massaging feet

Ntokozo