Raymond and Glyn
during worshipFrom our street to yours ...
Glyn, Susan, Maeyken, Adriaena
September 2007 #4.7
Raymond and Glyn
during worshipEmpowering Each Others Ministries
Our ministry life here has a lot of variety. Our primary purpose is to work with Bible Studies and building relationships with the African Independent Churches. However, we also have an opportunity to rub shoulders with other mission workers and organizations. These relationships have both encouraged and broadened our ministry opportunities here. I would like to give you a glimpse of two of these organizations.
Kings Camp coachesKings Foundation Kings Foundation is a UK based Christian Sports organization whose mission is to develop children through sport. More specifically they want to see lives transformed through changing the direction of individuals, communities and societies. They are currently working in two African countries: Botswana and Uganda. Mennonite Ministries Botswana was introduced to the Kings Foundation a number of years ago when their outreach team met MCC worker Nathan Penner in his ministry/work setting with Old Naledi Baptist Church. Nathan, a sports enthusiast, took great interest in promoting and working along side the outreach teams. Since then Matt Loewen, a Canadian Mennonite from Abbotsford BC has come to Botswana and is the Country Co-ordinator. We have connected a lot with Kings staff to discuss ministry issues as well as to encourage each other in our ministries. They have also made use of our guesthouse for accommodation for volunteers from the UK.
In August we were excited to connect some of our contacts with their sports approach to ministry. Raymond from Molepolole attended a week long conference sponsored by Kings Foundation to learn more about how he could incorporate sport into his every day ministry with youth and young adults from his church and community. He was enthusiastic about what he learned and was eager to try out some of the ideas. Two weeks later Glyn received an excited SMS (a text message on our phone) from Raymond. He was apologetic for not being able to try out these new ideas sooner. (We’re talking two weeks!) That morning he had invited some neighbourhood (non church) and church guys to come together to play a game of football (North American soccer) before worship. Then they all attended church and had another game after church!
We also enabled a couple of men to come from a church in Pretoria, South Africa. While at the Mennonite Consultation in July we met the pastor of this church. When he was talking to Glyn he mentioned how he would like to use sport as an outreach tool. Immediately Glyn put the statement together with this event that was coming up in two weeks. This week he received the following SMS message from Pastor Sherwin: “I’d like 2 extend our appreciation 4 t opportunity u gave our 2 guys. Thanx so much 4 yr heart 4 God’s people & all yr assistance. Lucas & Richard have been absolutely BLESSED & Enriched! They have started putting t training into practice. Blessings.”
See http://kingscommunity.wordpress.com/ for more information on Kings Foundation Botswana.
Face the Nation Face the Nation is a Christian Student Volunteer Movement that is an initiative of Open Baptist Church in Gaborone. Almost 100 University students were selected after an application process to be part of this programme. These young adults were committed Christians and committed to fight HIV/Aids and encourage abstinence before marriage. After an intensive training in Biblical knowledge, discipleship, counselling and HIV/Aids awareness these young adults went out in groups of 4 or 5 to all of the Senior Secondary schools in Botswana. Each group spent five weeks in the school teaching life skills classes, being involved in the school life to build relationships and counselling individual students where applicable. What an amazing group of young people they were. At their commissioning service after the six week intensive training session the enthusiasm was high. These young people believed in their message and wanted to help their younger peers understand the full impact of their choices especially in the area of sexuality.
Monica and studentsMonica Shank, the Mennonite Church Canada intern who was here during that time participated in some of the orientation and was a full member of one of the outreach groups to a high school in Botswana. Here is what she reflected upon her experience.
“Speaking on big life issues in front of classes of 45 dubious, argumentative (or worse - dead silent) teens, many of which were around my age, I was forced to... articulate them (my basic life attitudes and values) in a way that students could connect with and apply to their own lives in Botswana. Through mentorship sessions, heated discussion with students, colleagues, and guidance teachers, participation in poetry club and choir, and eternally being a public figure bombarded with questions, troubling issues, and eager friendship seekers, I got into the thick of the many challenges students are up against and learned a tremendous amount about pressing social issues... and hopefully impacted young lives in the process.”
We hope to continue a relationship with this organization as they plan to “Face the Nation” annually. Students were from a variety of churches including a few from Spiritual Churches. The HIV/Aids crisis is a huge issue here and it is only as we work together as organizations and as churches that we will be able to make an impact.
For more info see www.facethenation.org and search on www.youtube.com using the words: face the nation Botswana.
Upcoming Events
Sept 21 - 27 Glyn in Lesotho to worship with the St Paul Faith Morning Star Church.
Sept 27-30 Meet with the Lindell Detweiler family (Mennonite mission workers in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) in South Africa for relaxation and mutual encouragement.
Oct 6 Graduation of members of Bible classes in Gaborone.
Mid October Glyn visits in Francistown
Nov 1-5 Dan Dyck from Mennonite Church Canada here to take photos and video of ministry in Botswana.
Nov 16 - Jan 16 North American assignment.
Blog
We aim for weekly updates of our Blog. This seems to rarely happen on schedule! There is a link to the blog from our website. Or follow:
http://thegatheringsite.ca/botswana/
Susan outside a
rondavel with babiesFamily
The girls had a quiet school vacation with time spent primarily in the Gaborone area. It gave them a chance to catch up on sleep, play time, emails and other household tasks. We also spent time getting ready for our North American assignment. Adriaena made some presents and Maeyken worked on a photo album to share with supporters, friends and family. One thing we learned from our last North American Assignment is that nothing beats a hands on photograph album!
Their biggest week of excitement was attending Kings Camp the week of September 3rd. Sponsored by Kings Foundation it was a week long day camp that provided good wholesome activity for children during the month long break. These camps have been well attended and profits go towards their outreach activities here in Botswana. So it is a win - win situation. Both girls enjoyed the week immensely. Maeyken was a “rookie” at the camps. This meant that she got to work on her leadership skills as she assisted one of the Kings volunteers with their age group. But of course like true sisters she avoided her sisters age group!!
After worship at the
Brethren in Christ church last
SundayOn Tuesday both girls started back to school for the final term of 2007. It is always good to get routine back into our lives. Adriaena will be busy with swimming this term and will be able to participate in all of the galas before she leaves for Canada. She is also writing her Grade Two piano exam at the beginning of November. Maeyken too will be swimming but her days of competitive swimming are limited since she has been forbidden to swim breast stroke because of her knees. She will however, volunteer to help coach the youngest group of swimmers at Thornhill School.
As for Glyn and I (Susan) our main task in the next number of weeks is to get ready to go to Canada. There are a lot of details that need to be attended to here when we leave for a couple of months and details to arrange for our North American Assignment. But all of us are excited about spending the Advent/Christmas season in Canada. We’re ready to freeze but trust that the warmth and love of friends, family and church members will help to take away any shivers we may have!!
North American Assignment
We will be in North America from Nov 16 to Jan 16. During that time we will be visiting our supporting congregations and connecting with friends and family.
If you have an event you would like us to be part of or you want us to connect with your church you can contact us directly or you can contact either:
Hinke Loewen-Rudgers hloewen-rudgers@mennonitechurch.ca
Rebecca Yoder Neufeld
ryoderneufeld@mennonitechurch.ca
Confirmed dates:
Nov 23 - Missions Event, Baden
Nov 25 a.m. - Living Water
Nov 25 p.m. - Soulspace, Stratford
Dec 2 - Wilmot
Dec 4 - Chapel at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, KW
Dec 9 - Wadsworth, Ohio
Dec 16 - Wellesley
Dec 23 - Shantz
Jan 6 - The Gathering, Kitchener
Please Pray for...
... Mission Worker for Francistown. Money to support a Mennonite Mission Network (USA) worker for Francistown has not come in as all had hoped. However, the possible worker remains upbeat and hopeful that somehow someway God will make a way for her to come. Please keep praying!!!
... Existing and Emerging classes. Please continue to pray for these Bible classes that help people to grow in their faith and their understanding of God in their lives.
...Our North American assignment. We will be in North America from mid-November to mid-January. Pray for those who are putting the church visitation schedule together in the next couple of months.
...The Brethren In Christ Churches here. They are actively reaching out into the Setswana community here in Gaborone and in a number of other places in Botswana. Ask God to help them be creative and relevant here. We are currently spending the money the VBS’s collected for Bibles, tables, stationary supplies and curriculum Pray that we will be wise in the purchases we make.
... New forms of outreach. A number of people we relate to have recently attended a workshop led by Kings Trust (A UK Christian organization running sports camps and training initiatives in the UK and here) to help them use sports in reaching out. Pray that as they take these new ideas home they will find ways to implement some of them.
Give Thanks for...
... A restful school break. We find the school terms, especially the winter one with it’s dark cold mornings to be busy and stressful. All of us enjoyed our break and time to spend more time together as a family and working on special projects etc.
... Our South African Mennonite Colleagues. We are particularly blessed to have some amazing colleagues in South Africa. We will be together with the Lindell Detweiler family from Pietermaritzburg next weekend to connect as families and spend time encouraging one another. We are thankful for this opportunity to be with them before we go to North America.
...The almost 30 people who will graduate on October 6th with diplomas or certificates. It is exciting to celebrate with them their hard work and commitment to studying the Bible.
Contact us
Mail us at:
Susan Allison-Jones & Glyn Jones
Box 33, Gaborone, Botswana
Phone us at:
267-390-5554 (Just remember that we are 6 hours earlier than Ontario!)
Skype at:
susanglyn
Email us at:
We welcome your financial contributions for our support and invite you to send these to:
Mennonite Church Canada WITNESS
600 Shaftesbury Blvd
Winnipeg MB
Canada R3P 0M4
