Dave and Donna .ca

As October weather warms in South Africa, we have enjoyed our second spring this year. Each week we live here we feel more settled. Both Donna and I have enjoyed opportunities to speak with pastors, new friends and mission representatives as we continue to piece together a more complete perspective of this changing nation.

Our goal has been from the outset; to assess the opportunities for FEBInternational as a Church planting mission to form a strategic partnership in South Africa in which Canadians can serve. We are steadily working away at that goal with regular reports to our Director.

It is hard to keep thinking strategy when there is such enormous need literally at every corner on busy streets. We have visited two ministries that have different but equally effective strategies for addressing some of the community and social needs here.

The first ministry is called Door of Hope. This is an orphanage that has three homes in Johannesburg caring for 12 orphans in each location as well as a children’s village in KwaZulu Natal. About 50% of these orphans are adopted out of country with the majority going to Scandinavian countries currently given that the US has not yet re-signed an international agreement that would facilitate international adoptions. We wondered why more were not adopted and were told that extended families within South Africa claim a significant number and then a number are not adoptable given complicated family situations, handicaps, and illnesses. This ministry is supported by many donations and volunteers out of country as well as within South Africa. Christian agencies offer care that the state cannot offer. By comparison orphanages run by the state often have 60+ children in them with a significantly lower ratio of staff per child.

The second ministry we observed is called DOLM or Deeds of Love. This ministry attempts to develop communities through willing churches. It facilitates ‘food gardens’ that feed families and often has left over veggies to sell at market, sewing classes that produce and market clothing, brick making, bee-keeping, and grave marker making, and raising poultry for eggs and meat. There are seminars on health issues like HIV/Aids, food hampers to needy families and orphans, as well as clothing cupboards. All of this is done through a local Church which benefits first from the programs and training and second because the community comes to them for help and finds more than physical relief, they find hope in Jesus Christ. The community we visited called “Stinkwater”, has a local Baptist Church doing all of the above programs as well as caring for 16 orphans. The orphans stay in the community, mostly in the care of extended family who receive a small grant from the government. The community provides a safe environment and a wide network of care as the orphans grow up in their own social context. We heard of two families that are just orphans with the older ones caring for the younger.

There are pictures posted of the Deeds of Love and Door of Hope ministries in the photo folder.

Dave has been invited in coming months to participate in local churches in the area of preaching and teaching, but just now we are both preparing for our first membercare trip to Pakistan on November 9th. While not our first trip to Pakistan (in fact, it is our 5th since 1992), it is our first trip in our new role as Coordinators of MemberCare for FEBInternational. We will be in Pakistan nearly a month, with the first 10 days in Murree which is a city in the foothills of the Himalayas. We were asked by our own mission personnel if we would be willing to give some time to the Christian School in Murree. Most of you will recall that this was the site of a terrorist attack in which 6 of the national school workers were murdered on the grounds. Mercifully, no children were hurt physically. Many have other scars that do not show. The school was reopened this August and we are one of several people invited to be active in the spiritual development of the school this year. As such we will be teaching in school bible classes, chapels, discussion groups and a High school retreat in Islamabad, in addition we will be leading staff bible studies and preaching at a Sunday Community service. Following this we will travel south to Lahore for our own mission conference and then further south to visit with our Canadian and American personnel in their ministry settings. We are due home on Dec 4th. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our youngest daughter Ruth, living in Calgary, has applied and been accepted to work as a volunteer at the Door of Hope orphanage. She is applying for her visa now and plans to arrive in Johannesburg a couple of days ahead of us. She will stay with us for December before she starts her work at the orphanage in January. Ruth plans on working at the orphanage for up to six months before she heads to Bible school in Canada.

Thank your for your prayers, emails, and letters. We so appreciate knowing that we have a team behind us that is lifting us up before the Lord.

Prayer Requests

1. That our paper work will be accepted and we will make all our connections (along with our luggage) as we travel from Johannesburg through Dubai, Karachi and Islamabad on our way to Murree on November 9th.
2. For effectiveness in ministry; that we will be the means of encouragement and strength for our staff and the wider mission community.
3. That the conference in Lahore November 21-24 will be refreshing, stimulating and glorifying to Christ.
4. That God will keep us strong physically so we can serve effectively.
5. For clarity in our recommendations for work in South Africa.
6. That the tools of communication that we are developing for our personnel will be the means of encouragement and effective care.
7. For wisdom for our director and ourselves as we plan our travel itinerary for next year (we are to be in Japan in March 2005).
8. Along with you we have been praying for our Canadian National Convention currently in session (1-4) as well as the elections in the US. Both of these will affect our ministries for different reasons and in different ways.

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