November 2011 Update

16 November 2011

...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. Phil 4:11b

Dear Friends,

Our year of learning Afrikaans is coming to an end and it is time for us to begin working with Word and Life, the ministry to/with farm workers. We have learned much over the past year, much more than Afrikaans. We are so grateful that God does not simply leave us to our own devices but uses circumstances to teach us about his faithfulness.

Tomorrow is moving day for us. We'll be moving to Weltevrede, a farm in the Northern Cape province of South Africa about mid-way between the small towns of Laingsburg and Sutherland. Weltevrede means “well-contented” - something that Paul learned and we are learning. The world is such an uncertain place but we have such a certain God. There have been many circumstances over the past year that help us remember this crucial fact.

The farm house at Weltevrede will be our new home, Lord willing, from November 17^th. We will be working with the farm workers in the area and the house is in the midst of those farms. Our nearest neighbor is over 10km from us. We're staying at Weltevrede because the town alternatives would about 100km away (and there are no places for rent in either nearby town, anyway).

We are quite excited about the work we'll be doing in this area. We'll be working with 12 farms (we're hoping to reach more – there are about 30 or so in the area). There is a small group that meets monthly for worship (about 20-30 farm workers from 5-6 farms; especially exciting is the fact that the farmers worship with their workers). We hope to soon start weekly worship. Each farm is visited, now, about every month or two. At these visits, the workers have a brief Bible study and some singing. We also hope to increase the frequency of these studies.

Our prayer is that ultimately there would be a church in this region where the people “show and tell” the gospel to the glory of God. As we settle in, we'll be learning who is who on the farms and what the gifts and interests God has given this group. Out of this, we'll be meeting regularly with the workers to develop leaders and a vision for what community development looks like in a rural community.

We truly appreciate your support – financial, prayer, and encouragement through word and deed. We praise God for his provision to us through you. We would appreciate your continued prayer for us in these coming days. In particular:

1. Please pray for the move tomorrow (November 17). The house at Weltevrede is 3 km off of the main road (and the main road is a gravel road that hasn't been graded in years). The road to the house is very rough. The mover believes he can make it down this road but if he can't, we'll have to off-load and shuttle our things to the farm. This will be a lot of work.
2. Please pray for our settling in to a new living situation. It is very rustic – the house is not connected to the electrical grid so electricity comes from a diesel generator. We hope to install a solar generator but there are some details yet to be worked out. Also, we are city people. We never imagined that God would have us living in such a situation. Pray that we can adapt.
3. Pray also for our “well-contented-ness”. We find it ironic that we're moving to a place named Weltevrede while we often struggle with being content with where God has us. We thank Him that every time we say the name, we're reminded of how we can be content in God.
4. Bert continues to preach in Gouda and Saron. This is a wonderful opportunity to grow in our ability to speak in Afrikaans as well as minister in these farming villages. He'll continue to preach there for at least a few months after the move. Pray for the continued growth of these small congregations.
5. We are thankful that Nancy's shoulder is healing well. When she fell, she also injured her knee but the pain of the shoulder kept her from thinking too much about the knee. But it isn't healing properly. She will be seeing another orthopaedic surgeon in early December to see what needs to be done next. Pray for wisdom in this.

In another week is the American holiday of Thanksgiving. As we look back over this past year, we have much to be thankful for:

1. We thank God that Gregory graduated from Geneva College. We thank Him that we were able to attend the graduation. We also thank Him that Gregory was able to begin 2011 with us here in Cape Town.
2. We thank God that Emily was able to spend much of her summer with us here in Cape Town. It was especially a big help given Nancy's injury.
3. We thank God that we have a great church home here in Cape Town – Brackenfell Community Church. We are very glad that they also are catching a vision for our ministry. Before we went back to the US in May, they called us forward to pray for us as we return to the US to minister there.
4. We thank God for the ministry we're working with here. Word and Life, led by Johnnie Tromp, has a passion for evangelism, church planting, and development that fits very well with what we believe we're called to do.
5. We also thank God for the MTW team here in Cape Town. We don't work together as much as many teams but we meet monthly for prayer and encouragement. It has been a blessing to be able to do this.

For the time being, we are going to have a small place here in Cape Town as we'll continue to make regular trips back (twice a month) for work purposes. Our landlords have been living in a small flat behind our home. Next week, we'll be moving back to their flat while they move forward to the house we've been living in. We are grateful for the place to stay here in Cape Town and especially grateful to Nowell and Rose Africa (our landlords) as they have reduced the rent for us to stay back there. They consider it a contribution to our ministry.

Since we'll be staying in the same location, basically, our mailing address remains the same. For the time being, we'll also have the same Vonage number. Both of those are listed at the end of this email. Since we'll be mainly at Weltevrede, we won't have easy email access. It may take a week or two before we see your emails after Thursday.

This is a longer than usual email. I hope you have been able to read this far. In case you have forgotten already, we truly appreciate all your support.

May God richly bless you with all the blessings that are in Christ Jesus!

Bert and Nancy

Church Planting and Development

People sometimes get confused about how/why a minister of the gospel is involved in Christian community development. The title of our blog should go some ways towards answering this question but I recently came across a quote I wrote down a long time ago that says it better:

"Sustainable Christian development requires sustainable Christian communities. In other words, while it is possible to have sustainable development without local churches, you cannot have sustainable Christian development - development that is distinctly Christian - without sustainable Christian communities. This means that Christian development must be accompanied by church planting where no churches exist." Tim Chester in Good News to the Poor: Sharing the gospel through social involvement. p 131-132

I hope in the next week or so to describe what we'll be doing now that we're back in South Africa. It fits very well with the above paragraph.

Bert

Preparation: Past, Present, and Future

Thought for the day: "All that had gone before was a preparation for this, and this only a preparation for what was to come." Quote attributed to Gladys Aylward (Inn of the Sixth Happiness by Alan Burgess ). I can see this so much in my own life. God is so good! Nancy

Home is where the clock is

I hate going first. I never (hardly ever) volunteer. But we were beginning our pre-field training; I wasn’t keen to be there but had no choice; so I thought I’d try my best. And I went first (for the last time!). The ice-breaking question was “How do you know where home is?” This is an important question for missionaries because we rarely are at “home”.

Wanting to give it a fair chance, I went first and volunteered, “Home is where my books are.” Everyone after me said, “Home is where my family is.” Now, of course, that is true. We were nearing the end of what would be four years of support-raising. During those four years, we traveled together as much as possible. Emily was either in high school or college but Gregory was right in the back working on school as we traveled down the road. So, we were mostly always together and, by most definitions, at home.

But I was very embarrassed. We were living in a small apartment in New York City at the time. I like to know what time it is but there was no clock there. We were planning to go to K-Mart later that day to get a clock and a few other things to make living a little more comfortable. On the way home, I declared that, for our family, from now on, “Home is where the clock is.” We carried that clock to South Africa so we’d be home there. And now that we’re back in the US for Home Ministry Assignment (HMA), we have a clock with us here. The clock we bought back in 2003 was a little too large for my suitcase so we bought a nice, smaller one to indicate home (see picture). Now, as we travel around, we can bring home with us.

We are aliens and strangers on this earth, longing for our heavenly home. In the meantime, God has graciously given us friends and family. We rejoice that in the coming year, we’ll be able to see most of our friends and family. We won’t be able to travel as a family so much because Emily is teaching and Gregory is in college now. But we do have a clock to remind us where home is.

Home Ministry Assignment (HMA) is called “furlough” by some. This gives the impression that we are on vacation. While we do hope to get some vacation, we have many other things to do. HMA allows us to visit our supporters, get some additional training, and tend to business (doctors, dentists, etc) that is easier to do here in the US.

Already, since we arrived back on September 16th, we’ve visited N (not enough) churches and supporters, put X (too many) miles on our 2001 Mercury Sable, and celebrated Thanksgiving with our family (would you believe we left the clock in Maryland while we traveled to Chicago?). Our desire is to finish our church visits (we have 31 supporting churches) and see as many friends as possible before we return to South Africa in September 2010.

We hope to thank you in person for your support of us during our four years in South Africa. We truly appreciate and thank God for your prayers on our behalf as well as your kind financial support. We would not have made it without you!

While on HMA, we have several recurring prayer requests. We ask for prayer for:

1. Wisdom in scheduling the remaining visits to supporters. We have 31 churches to visit and have visited 6 so far.
2. Safety as we travel. We spend a lot of time on the road traveling to churches. We ask for prayer for safety and wisdom. We also ask for prayer that our car would hold up. We've had many mechanical problems with it in the 3 months that we've owned it.
3. Our participation in the Re-Entry Conference with MTW in late January. This is an important part of our HMA, giving us an opportunity to get reacquainted with MTW and their policies.

We ask you to join us in praising God for:

1. The good visits we've had so far with our supporters.
2. The opportunity to be with our families at the holidays this year.
3. The renewing of our many friendships here in the US.

As Christmas approaches and the year ends, we rejoice that home isn’t really where the clock is, nor is it where family is, but ultimately it is where Jesus, our Savior and Protector, is. Won’t you join us in praising the Triune God who sent his son as a small baby to live, grow, die, and rise again so that we might glorify him and enjoy him forever!

May God bless you and your family,


Bert, Nancy, Emily, and Gregory Williams

Prayer for SA Ministries

As you all know, we're busy preparing for HMA. In fact, the movers come tomorrow to pack our things (mostly books) for storage.

Part of preparing is to say good-bye. When we held our final worship service in Reimvasmaak, I asked the saints there for a year's worth of prayer requests. I am pleased to share them with you and to ask you to lift up these saints to our Sovereign God.

They asked that we pray for:

1. Love, peace and unity - especially for outreach. There are few if any churches in the area. They are well aware of the power of Jesus' words: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)
2. Youth and youth leaders. There are many young people in the area with nothing to do but get into trouble. Please pray for Christian leaders to organize and channel the energy of the youth.
3. Mutual understanding and trust. This is related to the first request but deserves special mention. Too often in communities like Reimvasmaak, people get involved in leadership out of self-interest. Pray that those saints in Reimvasmaak trust each other because they are part of the family of God.
4. The marriages and families of the community. With such extreme poverty and idleness comes conflict. Pray that Christian families might be truly different.
5. The physical health of the community. There is much sickness and health care is far away.

Also with preparing for HMA comes filing and sorting. I found, on a crowded corner of my desk, a big sheet of newsprint folded up that contained prayer requests offered at our last Family Workshop at the AFM Church in Sun City, KwaMhlanga. I knew I saved it for a reason. This blog post is just the reason.

We closed our last session with a time of prayer. Before praying for the families of the AFM church, we collected these prayer requests. You'll notice that these requests could be prayed for the families of your church. Won't you consider praying for the South African church families and your church families?

Please pray for:

1. Courage and strength and commitment to attend church. In Sun City, as in many communities, it takes an effort to get to church on Sunday morning. There are many competing activities and Saturday nights sometimes get a bit wild.
2. Unity within the family. As is the case everywhere, families are increasingly separated sometimes due to work, sometimes for other reasons.
3. The development of "House rules". We spoke about Ephesians 5:15-6:4. Each family was to review the Bible study and apply what they learned to their own family.
   
4. Families to use their gifts for God's glory. Earlier in the series, we discussed family ministry - that each family can minister together for God's glory. Please pray for this.
5. Members of families who have left the faith (backsliders). This is a problem here, too. Many children stop attending church when they hit their teens.
   
6. Families to grow strong in the Lord. Again, we discussed family worship, led by the father or the head of the household. For families to grow strong in the Lord, they must have strong leaders, pray for this, too.

Thank you so much for praying for us and now, for praying for these ministries in South Africa.

See you soon!
Bert and Nancy

Christian Community Development Association - South Africa

Many of you have heard how we ended up in Pen Lucy in Baltimore - through God's use of the book With Justice for All by John Perkins. Maybe some of you remember that we visited Voice of Calvary in Jackson, Mississippi twice in the mid-80s to learn about Christian Community Development. We also attended one of the first Christian Community Development Association's (CCDA) conferences (it was either the first or second but it was 20 years ago). Then, last October, we attended another CCDA conference.

It was at this conference that we met Pastor John Aidoo. Pastor Aidoo is the pastor of LifeChanging Ministries in Roodepoort, South Africa. I believe we have written about some workshops we did with his church. One of the other things we talked about at the CCDA conference was the forming of CCDASA - the Christian Community Development Association of South Africa. Just this week, we finally completed the constitution in order to be registered as a not-for-profit organization here in South Africa. This is the first step to a CCDA organization in South Africa.

Lord willing, there will be the first CCDA conference in South Africa next year. In the meantime, Pastor Aidoo, Nancy and I, and about 4 other pastors will be busy telling others about CCDA. Please pray about this and the many other organizational details we have yet to do.


We are excited to be connected to CCDA and their guiding principles of Reconciliation, Redistribution, and Relocation. These principles have been around for a long time and remain a good start to getting involved in Christian community development. Perhaps, I'll write more on them later.

Blessings,
Bert

Tiny’s Library

Library's Open!






Many of you are aware that when we lived in KwaMhlanga, we ran a lending library of children’s books. The kids in the neighborhood could take out one book at a time, then get a new one when they returned the old one. We worked hard at finding people to take over the various ministries we were involved in when we left but we didn’t expect the “library” to continue. We rejoice that we were wrong!

Library's Reopened!

Tiny, a friend who lives a few blocks from our old home, really wanted to continue the library. We gave her some of our books and off she went. We rejoice that a supporting church, Trinity Presbyterian in Brownsville, Indiana, took up a collection and sent even more books to her.

Tiny, Kamogelo, and Nancy - The Librarians

Tiny opens her library twice a week. She now has about 40 neighborhood children borrowing books on a regular basis. She has more than 130 books in her library. Kamogelo is Tiny’s sister’s granddaughter who now lives with Tiny. Kamogelo is in 8th grade and loves helping Tiny in the library. Tiny invited us to visit her library and meet the children who have been borrowing books. We were so pleased to meet the children and were impressed by how much they have been reading. Here are some examples: Bonginkosi has been coming to the library since it opened 11 months ago and has read 19 books. Mpumelelo has been using the library for only 3 months but has already read 12 books. Kamogelo (mentioned earlier) has read 13 books in the past 4 months, including the Secret Garden, Swiss Family Robinson, and poetry books. Most of the children that come to the library do not have access to a public library. Their schools do not have a library and they have few, if any, books at home. What a blessing it is to have Tiny making books available to the children!!

Don't let anyone know I'm reading :)

Friday's Crew with books