Mozambiquean Women leaders emerge to change the continent!

When you have 70 women leaders together something is about to happen or change. The purpose of the seminar for women leaders was to converse on topics like:

• Africa - what now?
• Poverty and facing hunger - a challenge to confront
• Respect and encouraging others to stand up
• Family relationships
• Getting rid of things that will waste your time
• Emotions
• How not to give up
• Stand up - practical marketing skills
• Arts and crafts

A mouthful to say the least but conversation on these topics brought some great insights to many women leaders on how to tackle daily relevant matters in Mozambique. Let's quickly give you an insight on what happened through some pics .....

Women arriving via the mission truck to the seminar. They are all monitors in their respective zones and all of them are leading other women in their areas.
Woman are not allowed on their traditional culture to attend seminars or be away for a few days without attending to their husbands and families but these leaders were given the opportunity by their "enlightened husbands". And the ladies dressed for the occasion too!

Worship, dance and prayers plays an integral part of coming together to converse. This was no exception as the ladies enjoys the presence of God.

And oh brother (or should I say sister) once they get going they never stop. Despite the high temperatures that accompanied the seminar (about 41 degrees Celsius) that made them even more determined to praise God.

A time to catch ones breath! During the seminar the ladies could rest and be served by others - as they are usually the ones serving others.

Prayer time at the end of each session was a special time. Because of all the challenges that the ladies face eg. abuse, hunger, raising malnutrition kids, no basic services like water and power they had a change to share this with their fellow leaders and prayed together. It was great to see ladies serving each other!

One of the true great things of Africa is that the kids are always part of community and church life. Many of the ladies had to bring their kids with them - and they shared in the true community of believers. They were part of the worship, prayer and the seminar.

Thank you again to all who made this possible. Thank you Elizma de Villiers and our gracious queen Barbara Rainford - through your generosity women leaders had the change to emerge and influence the rest of Mozambique.

Character is the buzzzz word!

We have just finished a course on Character building for kids and adults in the RSA at the Ethics and Leadership Institute. The plan is to invest the 6 pilars of character into all our more than 250 kids in the bushschools,the 150 kids in our pre-school and then take it to more than 300 ladies in the Ladies Ministry. Our current more than 400 pastors would also benefit from the program.

This program teaches kids the value of:

1. Trustworthiness
2. Respect
3. Responsibility
4. Fairness
5. Caring
6. Good Citizenship

I just found the following article which I just have to share with you. Was in todays News Paper at http://www.news24.com/ and I shed a silent tear (really!). This is exactly what we would like to bring to our kids:

Thulani Lesie with his grandmother Evelyn Mompei at his matric farewell.

Potchefstroom - The headmaster of Potchefstroom Technical High School gets tears in his eyes every time he thinks about the matriculant who took his grandmother to his matric farewell as a thank you gesture, he told News24 on Friday.

"It was an excellent gesture on his part," said headmaster Chris de Villiers of Thulani Letsie, 18, who invited his grandmother to his matric farewell.

"Initially we were surprised to see an old lady accompanying him," De Villiers said.

However, when everybody realised it was his grandmother, who had raised him since he was 10 years old when his parents died in a car crash, it turned into an emotional experience.

"I have been in education for 32 years and this is the first time I have experienced something like this," said De Villiers. "When I think about it, I get tears in my eyes. We are all very proud of him."

Thulani lives in the school hostel during the week, but spends weekends and holidays with his grandmother and his aunt, Julia Mompei, in Ventersdorp.

News24 Users praised Letsie in their responses to the article.
Here are a few of the comments:

"I hope this young man gets all the opportunities in the world, he deserves it." - eJay

"What an amazing way to express gratitude. A great lifting of the spirit when it is much needed." - CtheB

Wow, that's the noblest thing I ever heard of. Hats off to you, Thulani! - G-U

"This is a great sign of appreciation by Thulani. His grandma must be touched indeed. These fruits can only be enjoyed by those parents who do not choose not only to be automatic parents but conscious ones most importantly. I was touched indeed." - Nelisa

"Now that's a young lad with excellent morals! Congratulations Gran on bringing up a humble and respectful young man. We need more of these youth in today's society. - Brendon

"What a wonderful story to hear in the midst of this horrible turmoil. It's uplifting to hear that there are still young people who respect their elders. I'm living in the UK now and it is horrific to see the behaviour of the teenagers. Perhaps Thulani can come over and teach these youngsters how they should be treating life." - Judes

"This is what the bible calls wisdom. May you live a blessed life, and grow up to be a man of wisdom and character while other people are blessed by you. Well done." - Zah K

Not on fire yet!

It's fire season! We just hit 41 degrees Celcius today and to top that off we had huge fires raging and getting closer to the house as I am writing this. As I am looking out of my bushwindow I can still see fires raging. Even my motorbike are parked in the "ready to fight fires during the night" position.

Fires in our area are being set alight for several reasons. It seems litting fires is something of an artform here - because it happens yearly. Some of the reasons are:

* To hunt
* To get ready for the planting season - less grass!
* To make an offering to the "firegod" which in return would send good rains.
* ........ and who knows!

Preventing fires is an educational task where we are. And a hard and ongoing one that is.


Here is our house in the middle of the bush. Sun is setting, fires raging outside but all calm and quiet in the garden.


Our open garage. What you see in the background are fires closing to our vehicles.




The house from a little closer!


If you come and visit ...... relax on the veranda!

CURRENTLY HAPPENING ON THE BASE:

1. Bushschools getting ready for their year end exams.
2. Women seminars in progress.
3. Clinics working away as ussual.
4. Building on the base continueing non-stop before the rainy season hits.
5. New school building nearing the finishing stages with trusses being made.
6. Movie outreaches in full swing.
7. Please keep on praying for all the projects on the base.

A new couple arrives in the bush!

A word of welcome to Rick and Heather Neufeld. Rick is a pastor in the Baptist Church. Heather specializes like Rick in Children's Ministry. They are from Canada and arrived a few weeks ago.

Heather says: "After that long long long day in the truck- we arrived here at the farm. It is such a blessing to finally be here, but so overwhelming when we think of everything that we personally need to do to get set up, as well as the things that we need to learn! So many new faces and places. We are currently staying in a "almost done" cottage, that will eventually be home to some missionaries from Mercy Air in South Africa, we hope. Once Dwight and Lynn are finished their house, we will be moving into the cottage they are currently in. We spent most of yesterday in town (about an hour away) purchasing food and supplies. Its a crazy town, but we managed to find most of what we needed. Here in Mozambique, food prices are comparable to Canada, but items that are "luxury" items are more expensive. For instance, cans of whip cream costs more than ten bucks!"

Please pray for both of these wonderful people as they settle and serve the people of Mozambique! WELCOME AGAIN!

The way to blog!

His name is Zach Roberts (right on the photo). I met him while I was in Rwanda with our Emerging conversation on a Gospel of Reconciliation. He is a young Baptist minister busy with his doctorate. He is a real emerging thinker when it comes to transformation on different levels. His latest posting on his blog made me sit still and take notice.


There are a lot of things changing in my life these days. I’m making a significant move in my career, and I’ve found myself in a significant “liminal space” that has forced me to make serious evaluations of my time and commitments. I’ve been an active blogger for about four years now. Much of that has served as an outlet for my dissatisfaction with status quo Christianity, or as a way to articulate a more contemplative, and imaginative way of following Jesus.

This blog itself was becoming more than an outlet. I was, and had initially, gotten off the ground here with podcasting Lectio readings and interviews with other contemplatives. That was starting to eat up more time than I had available. Somewhere in there my web-server stopped accepting my audio files. Right around that time I made a pilgrimage to Rwanda and had my legs kicked out from under me. Many things, including this blog began to have the flavor “vanity.” I began to really ask myself “why” when it came to investing so much time and effort into this blog site. Not to mention I had started feeling pressure (self-imposed) to post regularly, keep up with my podcasts, and generally “wow” my emergent readers and friends. The more I though about it, the more it wreaked of vanity.

Another part of what I am dealing with here is communal attentiveness. I had started this blog as a compliment to a physical community I was trying to foster here in Greensboro. After a little over a year of starts, stops, and unsuccessful revisions, we’ve had to accept that it was not to be. As I enter into a new church position, I feel it necessary to devote my energies to that physical community, and to not be distracted with an attempt to maintain dogwood as a virtual one.

This is not my blogger’s swan song. Writing is one of the few emancipated spaces I have as a clergy person. I am, however going back to the basics. Writing when I want to because I must. I am going back to simplicity. I’m also broadening my landscape. Most of all, I plan to dedicate my blogging to dreaming, beauty, creativity, imagination, discovery, and the like. Whatever subversion emerges will come about on its own. And it will.

I have a new blog in the works. Its just a plain-ole blog. I’m not paying for a domain name anymore. I’ll post that link here in the coming weeks before this site goes off line. Until then, thanks for being readers and participants in the dogwood blog. Until we meet again in the blogosphere, peace and all good to you!

-Zach

(Thanks for sharing that Zach ...... and may we all learn!)

From 10 to 37 in a few hops!

Got these pics out of Cape Town as we crossed the beautiful Hex River Valley with its mountains and vineyard just before you enter the vast spaces of the Karoo - a semi desert area. What a contrast ....... I can feel a message coming ...... something about our spiritual journeys.

In late August 2008, Mozambique’s dry season was nearing its peak. The rainy season typically starts around October. During the dry season each year, agriculture-related fires are widespread.

This image of the country shows the number of active fires (locations marked in red) detected by the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 26. Skies were hazy with smoke. Although such fires are not necessarily immediately hazardous, they can have a significant impact on climate, human health, and natural resources.

More friends!

Please keep on praying for all these wonderful ladies. They are all somewhere in the world busy with transforming lives and making a difference in so many peoples lives. Without our wives it would be nearly impossible to do what we are doing. Yes you may quote me ..... "I salute all these ladies!"

Below .... the "no fear" clan of lifestyle designers. I promised them all that I would publish these photos. So here it goes.

Just could'nt resist this photo in Hermanus. A Harley Davidson ..... we can only but dream.

Cape Town from a distance .... hello to a warm Mozambique!

Someone once said: "Business before pleasure unless pleasure is your business!" One of our home churches (I mean they all feel like home churches to me ..... but seriously I grew up in this one - Goodwood, Cape Town) took us away for two days to Hermanus. And what an experience. The weather cleared (all be it for 2 days only) and we had a great time with so many other transformational engineers from all over the world.

Alta with Gerald Ferreira the new executive pastor (Lifestyle Designer) from Goodwood Congregation. He has a great heart for the lost and a great leader to lead the church into a new emerging awakening.

Francois with Paul Alexander from Europe. He is also the Executive Director of African School of Missions.

And then there was Hermanus. A beautiful coastal town about 150 km from Cape Town!

Goodbye Cape Town

We have just ended our Cape Town obligations and had a great time with many churces and friends. One thing is sure: The people down south has a great heart for the lost and the hurt of this world and it was great to hear them verbalizing God's Missio Dei in so many words!

Struggling to load photos on blog today .... but watch this space!

Meet more Lifestyle Designers!

Ever wondered if the face of mission changed throughout all the ages. I tend to think so. The old picture of a missionary wearing a safari suite, long socks and a rifle of some kind over his shoulder has long passed. Today's men and women on the field are on the forefront when it comes to be relevant to people who are seeking God. I was privileged to meet some very cool people who are serving in Southern America, Egypt, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Taiwan, Turkey, Rwanda, Angola and Europe to name a few.

And ..... yes ..... we love eating ..... again!!

Dancing in the rain!

While I was in Cape Town I met this group singing and dancing in the cold! They were so friendly I just had to take a picture.

We spend some time in the Waterfront meeting up with some friends.

What does Transformational Engineers do when they travel?

This is a question I often hear when I travel ......! "So what are you actually doing as you travel?" "Are you resting well?" "How is the holiday?"

Well ..... yes I am resting well and the holiday is not bad at all ..... thank you. But more important is the networking and meeting with partners who supports the work and are helping us to engineer God's grace to people in Mozambique.

A planning session with several role players in Stellenbosch Congregation with Dr. Tielman Marais leading one of the sessions.

The time was blessed with great insights and new ideas. Becoming "Circles of Influence" was mentioned and we all brainstormed how to implement a "new way" of reaching out to the lost and to those who are suffering.

Piet van Rensburg, who stayed in Spain for 3 years had the job to feed us all. He made a real Spanish paella which was out of this world.

Francois and Alta enjoying the community!

Cape Town people love to eat! Alta was a guest at a ladies session for women on the field!

Naomi van Loggerenberg is the Director of Mission at a local church. They support 53 missionaries in 16 countries. She has a great heart and an even greater passion for missions here and abroad. This is the type of lady which will come and get you out of jail - if need be!! Full of fire and a great friend.

Sights and sounds of Cape Town

Yes I am still down south and on the move. Just had the coldest week in Cape Town with storms all around. All is well in suburbia it seems but undertones of suffering is everywhere though. Met some great people with even greater stories but also shared some sad stories. Anyway let me share some great pics with you.

We were privileged to stay in a flat right on the beach as you can see. Some great friends made it possible which meant we didn't have to travel long distances to network.

Wasn't long before the first storm hit and froze my legs off in the process. According to the press this was one of the biggest storms to hit Cape Town in a long time. Millions of rands of damage was everywhere to be seen. I enjoyed it though - sorry - but just loved the rain and wind. Why? Because when we head back to Mozambique in a week we await 45 degrees of heat and humidity.