Show and Tell the Gospel

November 2011 Update

2011-11-16T11:27:00.001+02:00

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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

2011-01-10T18:05:00.005+02:00

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

2010-01-30T20:20:00.002+02:00

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

2009-12-05T18:38:00.002+02:00

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:

Wisdom in scheduling the remaining visits to supporters. We have 31 churches to visit and have visited 6 so far.
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.
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:

The good visits we've had so far with our supporters.
The opportunity to be with our families at the holidays this year.
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

2009-09-07T08:05:00.004+02:00

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:

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)
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.
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.
The marriages and families of the community. With such extreme poverty and idleness comes conflict. Pray that Christian families might be truly different.
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:

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.
Unity within the family. As is the case everywhere, families are increasingly separated sometimes due to work, sometimes for other reasons.
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.
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.
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.
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

2009-07-23T12:32:00.003+02:00

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

2009-06-27T10:26:00.007+02:00

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

June 2009 Update

2009-06-04T21:18:00.012+02:00

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20

Dear Friends,
You would expect a missionary to quote the Great Commission from time to time. We would like to draw your attention to the last sentence: "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." We thank God that Jesus is with us - not just all the time but in every place. In our last, brief, email, we thanked you for praying for our safe arrival home after an eventful trip to the Western Cape. We do spend a fair amount of time on the road here in South Africa and truly appreciate and need your prayers for safety. We recently completed an expense report where we enter our mileage for reimbursement. We thought sharing it with you might give us a chance to tell you what we've been up to lately.

First some photos of our faithful bakkie -

This is our faithful bakkie (pick-up truck). Given some of the roads we've traveled on, we're very grateful to have it!

Once, recently, we had a metal shield fall off the underside of our bakkie while out in KwaMhlanga. It was easily fixed - we just went to the local muffler repair shop (note trench underneath) and had them re-attach it.

5/9/09 288129 288311
Pretoria-KwaMhlanga: Sun City AFM
We talked about Pastor Daniel Mahlangu before. His church has invited us to do a series of family and marriage workshops. This was the third one. The subject was family ministry and worship. As usual, we only completed about half of what we had planned as things always start late. We covered family worship fairly thoroughly. We'll pick up where we left off in July when we do the next workshop.

Bert teaching and Pastor Daniel interpreting.

The men are tasked with making a tree with the roots and fruits of a good/healthy family.

The women have the harder task of making a tree with the roots and fruits of a bad/sick family.

5/13/09 288367 288579
Pretoria-KwaMhlanga-Bronkhorstspruit: MCDC/Ubuhle Care Centre
Nancy still works with Mukhanyo Community Development Centre (MCDC). On this day, we visited MCDC to make plans for some volunteers that Nancy will be supervising in the next few months. After MCDC, we went down the road about 50 kilometers to begin a teacher training program at a new care centre in Bronkhorstspruit. This one is for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) that live near or on one of the many farms in the area. We thank God for the Christian farmers who care for their workers and their children.

Some of the teachers at the Ubuhle Care Center

The rest of the teachers at Ubuhle Care Center

5/16/09 288730 288914
5/17/09 288914 289094
5/23/09 289484 289635
Pretoria-Roodepoort: LifeChanging Ministries
We met Pastor John Aidoo at the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) conference in Miami last October. At the time, he asked us to assist in starting a CCDA-South Africa. A small group of South African pastors have been meeting since the beginning of the year for just such a purpose. We have a draft constitution we're working on. We hope to have a CCDA conference here in SA in 2010. These trips were for us to hold community development workshops, for Bert to preach at a Sunday service, and to continue the CCDA-SA work. Bert had the flu on the last Saturday but, thank God, he was able to do the workshop. It is getting to be winter here now and there is a lot of cold and flu going around.

Bert and Pastor Aidoo

Nancy and Bert co-led the workshop on Foundations of Christian Community Development

Here the groups are working on a drama (skit) to illustrate some important points. It's too bad we don't have video of the actual performances. They were stellar!

5/19/09 289148 289273
Pretoria-Kempton Park: OR Tambo Airport
Stacy is a school teacher that will be spending part of her summer here working with the MCDC teachers and the children. Nancy is supervising her. We met her at the airport to welcome her to South Africa. Please pray for Stacy as the educational system here is very different from what she is used to. She brought along about 10 science lessons and all the associated materials. Pray also that the children and the teachers develop a love of learning.

5/20/09 289273 289430
Pretoria-KwaMhlanga: MCDC
Nancy met with Stacy to go through the plans for her in the next few weeks. Nancy also made a presentation at the Theological College about the Mobile Educational Resource Centre (MERC). Since the college was still in session, Bert had an opportunity to connect with the pastor/students.

5/30/09 289868 289961
Pretoria-Midrand: Gauteng Region Prayer Meeting.
All the MTW missionaries in the area meet monthly for prayer and fellowship. We're all busy doing different things during the month so it is very good to pause, reconnect, encourage one another and, most importantly, pray for one another.

This is the end of our travels for May. It was a pretty normal month, travel-wise. We have included prayer requests throughout this email. We'd also appreciate prayer for our travels this month. We're leaving on Saturday for 10 days in the Western and Northern Cape. We'll be showing someone the various works that we do with Word and Life Ministry in the area. As usual, this involves lots of travel. One place we're visiting is 10 hours from Cape Town. Please pray for safety as well as fruitful ministry amongst the farmers and farm
workers.

Thank you again for your kindness and support.

May God bless you,
Bert and Nancy Williams

Academic Competition Results

2009-03-27T10:58:00.004+02:00

We rejoice that every centre sent many fans

The teams were lined up randomly (by a toss of the die)

There were trophies and medals for the first three places

The Competition was a huge success! Everyone came very well prepared and each centre should be very proud of their performances. There were slightly over 100 people in attendance. Questions were asked in the areas of Geography, Computers, Science, Africa, Animals, Maths, Bible, Spelling, and Vocabulary. Out of 50 questions that were asked, only 8 were answered incorrectly! The most difficult area for the learners was Maths, where 4 out of 5 questions were answered incorrectly.

The final results were as follows:
1st place - Sun City with 30 points
2nd place - Manaleni with 26 points
3rd place - Vezebuhle with 24 points
4th place - Thembalethu with 13 points
5th place - Phumula with 7 points

Sun City OVC Centre - The winning team with their trophy and medals

As you can see, it was a very close race for the top three positions. In fact, Manaleni was in first place with 36 points until the very last question of the competition. They had a Maths question worth 10 points and they got the answer wrong, thereby losing 10 points and moving them from first to second place.

Many of the learners and staff commented on how good this was in encouraging learning at the centres and asked if this could be done again next year. Of course, I will be in the US next year, but Thelma would be very capable of organizing this event (I could assist her via email).

Please continue to pray that the learners will enjoy learning. School learning is not always valued as it should be. The teachers need encouragement to continue to make learning fun. (See previous postings for context).

I want to keep this brief so I won't go into any more detail, but if you have any questions, please ask!

Blessings,
Nancy

Books, Books, Books (and other stuff)

2009-03-26T12:52:00.005+02:00

Hello All,
As a follow up to the teacher training report, I thought we'd give you a taste of a couple of reports that Nancy wrote concerning the follow-up trips. First, one teacher from each centre went to Johannesburg to a big warehouse with free (yes, free!) books. This is a service offered by the Rotary Club (Rotary Books for the World) to NGOs in Southern Africa. This was a fantastic visit. We had a great time and left with close to 150 books. The teachers chose very wisely. Most of the books were in the area of Maths and Sciences (books that would be VERY expensive), but they also chose books of poetry, dictionaries, books to help them teach English, and much more.

No - this is not Bert's study (although he wouldn't mind if it was filled with this many books). There are many books for the teachers to choose from. It was tough for them to decide.

You can tell from the big smile on Portia's face that she is having a good time. Portia is the OVC manager at the Thembalethu Centre.

Shopping Trip
The next trip to report on is the shopping trip for the teachers. You'll recall from the previous posting that each center that accumulated enough points during the teacher training received R500 each to purchase books and supplies for their center. The center with the most points received an extra R300. Vezubuhle was the winning center. The money for this shopping trip came from part of a donation from Renee Coppes, a recent MCDC volunteer.

We spent most of the day shopping, visiting 4 different stores in Pretoria. The teachers came well prepared with lists of things their centres needed. The teachers made excellent choices, ranging from stationery supplies (rulers, chalk, pencil sharpeners, etc) to books (dictionaries, atlases, English Handbooks, etc.). I was especially impressed that many of their choices for materials reflected the things they learned during the Teacher Training Workshops and are now putting into practice.

The teachers are very clever! There were several things that they wanted to get, but could not afford with their spending money. They put forth excellent arguments and convinced me to purchase these things for MERC so they could all use them!

God showered us with many blessings! There was a particular book that I had used during Teacher Training that all of the teachers wanted to buy. We found only 2 copies of it as we were shopping. The price of the book was R50, but when the two teachers who got the books first went to pay for it, they found it was on sale for only R5! I promised the other teachers I would look for it later since Bert and I are often in bookstores, and they each gave me R50, in case I found it and it was not on sale. I did find 2 copies of the book at another store the next day, and after telling the story to the manager of the store, she gave them to me for free!

Another blessing was that in one store several of the teachers found an excellent phonics program for teaching English. It has many components and is quite expensive, but I was pleased that they were so interested in it. I told them that I had seen it for the first time the previous day and I thought it looked great too, but could not be sure about the quality of the program without listening to the CDs first. The manager heard us talking and offered to play portions of the CDs for us! The teachers feel it will be very helpful at the centres. The manager offered to organize a workshop for us put on by a representative of the company. Talking it over, we decided that I would attend the workshop with Portia (Themb) and Victoria (SC). After completing the workshop, if we decide that the program is useful, I will use additional money that has been donated by Renee to buy the program for MERC. Portia and Victoria would then teach the material to the other teachers at all of the centres. As time goes on, as additional money is donated, perhaps we could buy the program for each centre.

In order to have enough strength to finish the shopping day, we made a stop at KFC for lunch.

Here is the group of teachers at the end of the long day. It's hard to see the big smiles.

We are so grateful to the Rotary Clubs, the donor for the money for the supplies, and to God who allows us to work with such a fine bunch of teachers.

Teacher Training at MCDC

2009-03-24T20:08:00.010+02:00

Below are excerpts from Nancy's report on her work training teachers last year. Also included are some photos of the training in action. We're posting this report to provide some context for the Academic Competition that we asked you to pray for.

Teacher Training concluded on 13 November. Below follows a brief report. I will be phoning Anna soon to schedule a meeting with her, Nomsa, and Sibongile to discuss several matters that arose as a result of the training. These matters include a trip to Joburg with 2 teachers from each centre to choose free books for their centre, the possibility of an Academic Competition between the centres being held in March, and a shopping trip in Pretoria for educational materials earned by 4 of the centres. {See subsequent postings for reports on these activities. We know we are keeping you in suspense about the Academic Competition but just to let you know - we think it was a success and are very happy with the way it went. The scoreboard and photos will follow}

Teacher Training Final Report

Teacher Training was held at the Phumula Centre over a period of 10 days (4 hours / day) during the months of August - November 2008. The highest attendance on any given day was 17, the lowest was 12, and the average attendance was 14. In addition to teachers and some OVC managers, we were also blessed by the attendance of Thelma Ngobeni, Nomsa (4 times) and Sibongile (2 times).

Most of the teachers at the centres, though they have a great love for children, are not equipped with the skills to teach. The goal of the workshops was to provide them with the tools and the confidence to do their jobs effectively. The theme of the training was, “This Is Learning. Isn’t It Fun?!” The teachers came away from the training equipped to teach the children using games and a variety of fun activities.

The workshops were a combination of theory and practical application. Topics included: Teachers are FUNdamental, The FUNdamentals of Reading to Children – Why, What, and How, The Power of a Teacher’s Words, Teaching FUNdamental Bible Lessons, Developing a Programme for your Centre is FUNdamental, Teaching the FUNdamentals of English, Understanding the FUNdamentals of Discipline – What, Why, How, Helping Children With Homework is FUNdamental, FUNdamental Principles of How Children Learn, and The FUNdamentals of the Unit Study Method of Teaching.

Teachers were given notebooks that had outlines for each training session and well as additional related materials. At the end of each month, they were also given a set of my notes that they can use for revision.

During the workshops the teachers had many opportunities to teach in front of the group and receive peer feedback. They also spent much time in small group discussions that enabled them to share ideas and offer each other encouragement.

At the end of each lesson teachers had homework assignments that required them to put into practice at the centres what they had learned. The teachers were faithful in completing their assignments and commented on how beneficial they were.

A competition was held during the training to encourage the teachers to work together as a centre. Each centre was awarded points each time we met for attendance, punctuality, completion of homework, quality of homework, participation, Nancy's observations at the centres, etc. Prizes were awarded each month to those teams who had earned enough points. The big prize they were working towards, however, was a shopping trip in Pretoria to purchase educational materials for their centre. Any centre that had earned 60 or more points during the training will be given R500 for the shopping trip from a donation by Renee Coppes. The centre with the MOST points will receive an additional R300. At the end of the training, Vez. had the most points (93). Themb. (89), Phumula (65), and Sun City (61) all had earned enough for the shopping trip. Only Manaleni (52) did not earn enough points. This was mainly due to attendance.

Teacher response to the training was very positive. Teachers learned a lot and I have observed many of them putting into practice what they have learned. I enjoyed doing the training very much.

My greatest concern is that teacher turnover continues to be a huge problem. Teachers become equipped to do their jobs well, but often leave and we have a new batch of unequipped teachers. I have tried to impress upon the teachers and OVC managers of taking the materials I have given them and using those materials to train new teachers.

My greatest joy was hearing the teachers discussing among themselves the need for them to meet together on a regular basis (even if I can't be there) because it is so helpful to discuss problems they face and offer each other encouragement.

Cruma in the News

2009-02-08T12:22:00.002+02:00

This article is in Afrikaans but describes some of the things we did with the students in the past two weeks. I can't read it either but we had one of the students give us the highlights.

Overall, the two weeks were good. We covered lots of material and exposed them to life in the city. I believe the article even mentions an evening with the police seeing what happens after dark in Sunnyside.

Our prayer for the students is that they would continue to grow in their concern for people different from them. We also pray that they do not forget what they learned. We asked them to write a letter to themselves that we would keep for three months and then mail it to them. This is one way we hope they remember.

Home Visits

2009-01-27T23:01:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, nine fifth year theology students from North-West University (Potchefstroom, aka Potch) arrived at Cruma. This is the third year that they have come to us for their Urban Ministry internship. They will spend two weeks with us learning about life and ministry in the city.

Since Cruma isn't three years old, how can this be the third year? Well, this was actually one of the first things that Cruma did even before it existed. Three years ago, my involvement was a brief presentation on the Biblical foundations of Christian community development and some practical things that I've learned. Then, we went to visit the centres at MCDC and did some home visits.

Last year, I was more involved. I gave an expanded presentation on the Biblical foundation of Christian community development and even more on some practical things. This year will be similar to last year but, hopefully, a deeper look at some of the practical aspects. More on that later, I hope.

However, today we visited KwaMhlanga and Mukhanyo Community Development Centre. Actually, the students are spending the night in KwaMhlanga and will be visiting Mukhanyo Theological College in the morning but Nancy and I had to come back to Pretoria tonight.

After an introduction and overview of MCDC, the students were introduced to the Family Development Program (FDP) by Randy Finkbeiner, the coordinator of the FDP. From there, the students went out in pairs with the FDP workers. The purpose of this excursion was twofold: to see the people that MCDC works with as well as their communities; and to spend time with some local workers to understand their heart for the ministry, the role that Christ plays in their daily ministry, and to see Christ in the way that they do their ministry.

These FDP workers spend all day, every day, walking the communities they are assigned to, talking with people, and visiting those who are sick or vulnerable. They are able to bring some simple medical care to some; some words of encouragement to all; and to pray and share with all (even as part of the encouragement).

Today my group went out with Celia to visit four families in the Phumula area. Each of these families have at least one member that is seriously ill. One man is actually in rather good spirits but he is facing surgery this week for cancer. For the longest time, he assumed that he had a different problem but it was finally determined that he has cancer (in addition to other health issues). He ministered to us by showing us again a very deep understanding of the sovereignty of God. I rejoice that we were able to spend time with someone who, by worldly standards, would be considered uneducated, but, in reality, knows all about theology from a living standpoint.

Our next visit was to a woman who Celia had just started working with. Yesterday, this woman was taken to the hospital but there was nothing that could be done for her. Celia went home with the family and spent much time helping them learn how to care for this seriously ill woman. We rejoiced with Celia that today our new friend was responsive and alert. She has no recollection of yesterday's trip to the hospital but she was awake and aware today.

The remaining two visits were similar to the above but remarkable nonetheless. I'm writing this post, though, to highlight a couple of things I was reminded of during the day:
1. The people we work with have a very deep understanding of who God is and what he has done in Christ. We ought never to assume that because someone is in a tough situation that they are overwhelmed by it all. We saw many things today that would defeat the average, "non-suffering" believer. Yet we were encouraged and even ministered to by the attitudes of those we visited.
2. One of the students that was with me commented on Celia's standard of care. In particular, the student said, "I was amazed at how much Celia touched the sick. She held hands with them. She stroked their hair. She stroked their arms." Celia modeled Christ's care by touch. The family of some of these patients don't like to touch them. Celia's touch showed her love for them. What a blessing!

The students will be with Cruma until 6 February. Please pray for them as they learn more about ministry with the poor and hurting. Pray also for Celia and her fellow FDP workers. I know that each of them struggles with the fact that they can't do everything they would like. Pray for wisdom for them to do what needs to be done and then rest in the fact that God is in charge. And pray for us that we never get insensitive to those we see hurting and in need.

Blessings,
Bert

Happy Birthday, Gregory

2009-01-15T13:16:00.005+02:00

Today is Gregory's birthday. He is now 20. We rejoice that last week, Thursday, we were able to celebrate with him here in Pretoria. Then, on Saturday at around 5:30 pm, here, he started his trip back to Beaver Falls and Geneva College. He arrived at the Pittsburgh airport just before midnight on Sunday. He traveled for about 38 hours to get back. We are glad that he is so young. On Sunday, he was still a teenager. Now he is 20. Soon he will start feeling the effects of such long travel. Now, he started classes on Monday morning.

Of course, he wasn't as young as the photo above. One of the problems with being on the field is you don't have all the photos you want. I'd love to put a baby picture up but unfortunately we don't have any with us. I had a couple of old photos in my wallet, though. Believe it or not, he still looks like this, more or less. The more is the beard, of course.

One of my favorite stories of his birth was my encounter with Eric when I arrived home from the hospital. Nancy and Gregory were still at Hopkins. Emily was at the Cheeks house. It was kind of late. Eric lived on our street and had a substance abuse problem. At the time, it was mainly alcohol. When I got home, Eric was standing on the street corner. I shouted across the street to him that Gregory was born. He was happy along with me and crossed over to my side to offer me a drink from his brown paper bag. I politely declined but was touched he wanted to share with me.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Gregory!
Love, Mom and Dad

November 2008 Update

2008-12-15T08:50:00.010+02:00

We plan on putting our hardcopy and email prayer letters on the blog. In the interest of time, we're not changing them. Below is the most recent one.

Greetings Friends,
Words cannot express our gratefulness to God for your kind and faithful support for us. Some of you have not heard from us in a very long time. It has been ages since we sent out a hard copy prayer letter. This past year has been filled with conflicting emotions which are too complicated to explain in a letter such as this. We have learned much about relying on God alone and His faithfulness. Please join us in praising God for His faithfulness and mercy!

There have been many changes this year. Before we go into detail about these changes, let us first assure you that we are still in South Africa; we’re still working with Mission to the World; and we’re still working with churches who seek to see their communities transformed in all aspects of life through the power of the gospel. As we mentioned in the first paragraph, another thing that hasn’t changed is God’s faithfulness! We’d be truly lost without it.

In our last hard copy prayer letter, we mentioned that Bert was no longer working with Mukhanyo Community Development Centre. The biggest change this year has been our move to the Sunnyside community in Pretoria for Bert to begin working with the Centre for Reformational Urban Ministry in Africa (CRUMA: www.cruma.co.za). This new work is being established by a local Reformed Church pastor, Naas Ferreira, who has a vision for strong churches in the urban areas of Africa, especially Southern Africa. As South Africa’s cities change, CRUMA seeks to see strong, reformed churches in every neighborhood which have a transforming impact on their congregations and their communities, allowing the gospel to change all of life. Bert’s primary role with CRUMA is to mobilize the local churches to mercy ministries in their own communities as well as in the greater Pretoria area. Nancy and Bert also attend a local church plant started by CRUMA and are responsible for developing demonstrations of God’s mercy in Sunnyside.

In addition to this new work in Pretoria, we are also spend about 1/4 of our time in Cape Town working with a ministry to coloureds in the Cape Flats and working in farms in the Western/Northern Cape region. This ministry, Word and Life, has had a strong evangelistic component but are looking for ways to incorporate mercy ministry into their work, while not lessening the evangelistic work. We go down to Cape Town for extended periods of time every few months as it is far from Pretoria. Our focus so far has been on two churches in the Cape Flats area. Johnnie Tromp, the head of Word and Life, has asked us to help in incorporating Christian community development activities in all aspects of this ministry.

While our location has changed, Nancy remains involved with Mukhanyo Community Development Center (MCDC). She recently completed a second teacher training course for the teachers at the Orphan Care Centers. The focus of this class was “Learning can be fun.” She used educational games and taught the teachers how to use them in their classes. Many of these teachers never really considered that it could be fun to learn. Now, some of them want to learn even more games! Nancy has also taught English to some of the children at the centers and to most of the staff of the centers. We never expected there to be a need for this but the response has been great.

As we are gradually shifting away from MCDC, Nancy has trained Thelma Ngobeni to assume many of her responsibilities. We thank God for Thelma’s eagerness and willingness to learn. She is the wife of one of the Mukhanyo Theological College students and mother of 2. So, you know she is very busy. Yet she is also very eager and capable to learn.

Since it has been a while since we’ve reported on some things, we thought we’d close this letter with a report on some of the pastors Bert has been working with. God is very gracious in allowing continuing contact with these men, even though we live in Pretoria and they are in KwaMhlanga.

Bert began working with Job when Job started planting a church at one of MCDC’s centers. Initially, they were working on how to preach but soon they began learning how to study the Bible together. This year, Job grew in Bible knowledge and English speaking ability enough to begin classes at Mukhanyo Theological College. We rejoice that he is passing (he failed in his first attempt) and that the church is growing.

Daniel’s church is establishing their own community development ministry. It has been fun to watch this group grow and develop. In addition to the Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) work, they plan on adding a foster care program, a skills development program and have many other dreams. Please pray for them.

Samson is one of two Reformed Church pastors leading 32 churches in KwaNdebele. There used to be three but one left recently. Prior to moving to Pretoria, Bert regularly preached in one of his churches. As we face a new year, Bert has been asked to begin preaching again, even though we live 70 kilometers from the nearest one. Please pray for wisdom. Pray also that God would raise up other leaders and elders for these churches.

We have been greatly blessed to be able to work in the lives of these men, their churches and many others. We could not do it without your kind and generous support. Thank you!

Our principle means of communication in this past year has been through email. We’ve heard that not everyone on our email list is getting our letters and not everyone on our mailing list is on our email list. If you are on our list and haven’t received anything from us for a long time, please write to us (email on next page) and let us know. If you are not on our email list and would like to be, please email us and let us know.

We are just beginning a blog. It is at showandtellthegospel.blogspot.com. It isn’t up and running as of this writing but Bert is hoping to get it ready by the time you receive this letter. We will be writing more about daily activities and including pictures. We do not send out pictures on our email list as not everyone has broadband access to the internet yet.

Emily and Gregory are mailing this to you over the Thanksgiving weekend. Please know that we are indeed thanking God for you. Please keep us informed of what is happening in your lives and in your churches. We love to hear from you. We do read everything and pray for you all.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Bert, Nancy, Emily and Gregory
p.s. We ran out of space for everything so we added a third page. This is too much but we put our prayer requests there. This way you can keep the prayer requests handy and pray for us. Thanks!

Prayer Requests and Other Important Information

We would like to ask you to continue to pray for the men reported on above and these other requests:
1. The development of a deacon training program for the Reformed Churches in the Pretoria area. Bert met with the deacons once and found a great deal of interest. Please pray that this interest can be translated into meaningful mercy and development work.
2. The growth of the Sunnyside church plant. Brian DeVries, a missionary from Grand Rapids, MI, is the principle church planter. He is being assisted by students Ben Zulu and Malwande Mdonga. We are attending this church plant and helping establish the uMusa (Mercy) Committee.
3. Nancy’s continued work with MCDC, especially her mentoring of Thelma.
4. Our Cape Town work. Right now, we are still establishing relationships but even this can result in God-glorifying ministry. In July, Nancy had a brief chat with some of the women in one church. While discussing the situation in their community, they realized that amongst themselves they had the resources and skills to begin ministering to the sick. Pray that this grows into a good witness for Christ and His Kingdom.
Please also join us in praising God for:
1. A great whirlwind trip to the US in October. We went to attend the Christian Community Development Association’s (CCDA) annual conference. In addition to the conference, we were able to visit seven churches in the five weeks we were there. This was good practice for our Home Ministry Assignment which will begin in the last quarter of 2009. We were only sorry that we couldn’t visit everyone.
2. The CCDA conference was a great encouragement. We were stimulated by the various speakers and enjoyed running into some old friends and meeting some new ones.
3. It looks like Gregory will be able to visit us again this Christmas. Emily is still busy teaching in Chicago and does not get a long enough break to make it worth coming out now, unfortunately.

Introduction

2008-12-01T18:48:00.000+02:00

Bert and Nancy both became Christians in high school. They met in college and were married in 1979. Nancy taught elementary school while Bert attended graduate school. In 1982, Bert accepted a job as a mathematician with the U.S. Department of Defense.

In 1987, they moved into an inner-city neighborhood of Baltimore to live and minister as a Christian family. Bert continued with his job while they both were active in the community development ministries of their neighborhood church, Faith Christian Fellowship (PCA). Bert’s job took them to Canberra, Australia in 1992. While in Australia, they were blessed with the opportunity to work with an MTW church-planting team. God used this unexpected opportunity to prepare their hearts for overseas missions. They returned to Baltimore in 1996, resuming ministry in their neighborhood while attending Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Baltimore (PCA). Bert was ordained as a teaching elder in 2003 and called to missionary service with Mission to the World.

As a result of God’s leading and preparing, the Williams family have spent the last three years in Southern Africa, partnering with churches in Christian Community Development and Reconciliation ministries.

Bert's time is currently divided between working with the Centre for Reformational Urban Ministry in Africa in Pretoria and working with Word and Life ministries in Cape Town. Each ministry involves him in mobilizing churches to respond to the mercy needs encountered in their communities (relief and development). He works training pastors and deacons to show and tell the gospel.

Nancy also divides her time between Pretoria and Cape Town. In Pretoria, she works with Mukhanyo Community Development Centre equipping staff in everything educational from English classes to teacher training to helping communities develop a love of books and reading. In Cape Town, she works with Bert in the various churches helping them to discover their skills in ministering to their neighbors.

We have two children. Emily lives in Chicago where she teaches music at Sumner Elementary Math & Science Community Academy in Chicago. Gregory is a sophomore at Geneva College studying history and sociology (and anything else he has time for).

London City Mission

2008-06-25T20:58:00.000+02:00

I just finished reading Streets Paved with Gold: The Story of the London City Mission by Irene Howat and John Nicholls. I had never heard of the London City Mission before seeing this book in the book store. I hope to write a book review of this book sometime soon but in the meantime, there are a couple of quotes that are too good not to share.

The London City Mission was founded in 1835 to bring the gospel to the poorest neighborhoods of London. They used city missionaries who walked through the neighborhoods every day, knocking on doors and sharing the gospel. Their strategy is: "the same person, going to the same people, regularly, to become their friend, for Jesus' sake." This strategy could be useful for any church's evangelism program. I pray that all churches would train their members to be friends for Jesus' sake.

The London City Mission (LCM) was a little slow using women as city missionaries. But this doesn't mean that women didn't have an important role in conjunction with their work. In 1861, LCM debated whether to employ women alongside men. They finally decided not to; one fear was that people would see LCM as a woman's work and the male recruits would stop joining. They did recognize that women did have a valuable role to play. They quoted in their magazine, "When the heart of a woman has been won to the love of Christ, it is her happiness, her delight, to be employed in works of mercy." Of course, this joy is in men's hearts, too, I hope.

There is much more from this book that could be quoted. I hope to post a review soon.

Bert

June Update - Neigbor-ology

2008-06-21T07:48:00.000+02:00

Greetings Friends,
As we are beginning a new phase of our ministry in South Africa, it is a good time to reflect on our purpose for being here. You probably have heard us talk about "Show and Tell the Gospel" often. We'd like to introduce another metaphor - helping churches and Christians be good neighbors.

One of our favorite books on development, Walking with the Poor by Bryant Myers, introduced us to the concept of neighbor-ology (he credits the term to Kosuke Koyama, p. 150). In his summary of the Law in Matthew 22, Jesus says:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Mt. 22-37-40)

Loving our neighbors as ourselves is the second commandment. In Luke's Gospel, in chapter 10, an expert in the Law says the same thing. The expert then goes on to try to justify himself and asks, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus then relates the parable of the Good Samaritan. Neighbor-ology is, then, the study of what it takes to be a good neighbor.

We can all be good neighbors to those like us and to those we like. The Good Samaritan parable shows what Jesus means when he says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." It goes beyond what we might feel comfortable with, even helping those we are not generally inclined to even notice. We will be working with people and churches, helping them study themselves, their communities,and their neighbors, helping them develop ways that they might be good neighbors. Pray for us as this is a simple concept to state but hard to put into practice in a God-glorifying way.

As time goes on, we'll be giving you more concrete activities related to neighbor-ology. In an earlier update, we asked for prayer for a workshop for deacons that was to be held on May 31 at CRUMA (Center for Reformational Urban Ministry in Africa). Unfortunately, this workshop never happened. We hope to reschedule it for August/September. The next few weeks will be crucial in the planning for this workshop. Working with deacons in the church is one way we are assisting the church in being a good neighbor.

In other news, you may have heard about the spate of xenophobia (fear of strangers/foreigners) in South Africa. The violence was largely directed towards people from other parts of Africa who were living in the slums and townships. There was limited violence reported in KwaMhlanga (as far as we heard) but we do know that the fear of violence impacted some of our friends from Zimbabwe and other places. Please pray for greater understanding among the various people groups in South Africa. We praise God that many churches in South Africa were active in ministering to those displaced by the violence. They were being good neighbors, indeed.

We are planning on spending most of July in Cape Town, working with Word and Life Ministries. In particular, we'll be working with two churches, one in a community called Capricorn and another in Wes Bank, training their leaders in some basics of community development. These are two small congregations in rather poor communities with young pastors. Please pray that they will be gripped by the gospel in such a way that it shows in their love for their neighbors.

Finally, with our move into Pretoria, we have a little better internet situation. We recently were able to get Skype working. This allows us to use our high-speed internet connection for making cheaper international phone calls. Our Skype account is hsw1957. If you have Skype, we can even talk for free. We are not always online so if you'd like to talk with us, please let us know in advance so we'll be ready.

Summarizing our prayer requests (and adding a few):

Pray for our work with churches in neighbor-ology
Pray for the planning of our deacons workshop and the continuing work at CRUMA
Pray for the strangers and aliens in our midst - that the Christians would love them and demonstrate that love. Thank God for the care He has shown them through His church.
Pray for our time in Cape Town with Michael (Wes Bank pastor) and James (Capricorn) pastor. Bert will also be working with Johnnie Tromp, the head of Word and Life, to plan future activities.
Nancy's English classes in KwaMhlanga end next week. When we return from Cape Town, she will begin a new series of teacher training classes for the teachers at the Orphan and Vulnerable Children centers. This will be her second set of classes with the teachers but many (about 1/2) are new since the last time.
Pray that we would get to know our neighbors. Pretoria is a city of big walls around homes. This makes it hard to get to know your neighbors. We are learning names gradually but wish to get beyond that.
Praise God for our improved internet situation. We are glad to have Skype working and are looking into other things that are possible with a higher speed internet connection - like sending out some pictures in these emails. Let Bert know what you think of that.
Praise God also for His provision of work and housing for Gregory over the summer. He is working on campus cutting grass, etc. He is living in a home owned by a family who attends the church he goes to. This house is being renovated and they are allowing him to stay there as the work progresses. It should be completed in July but it looks like he has a place to stay after that.

We thank God for your continued support. We are very grateful for the many ways you encourage us as we are your servants in Christ in South Africa.

Blessings,
Bert, Nancy, Gregory, and Emily Williams