2 things
The text from this post comes from an update I put on "The City" which we use at Shoal Creek. You can check out the post here.
Two things that I figured you all would be interested in!
1. Business Leaders Meeting:
We met on Friday night in Richard’s Bay (3 hours North of Margate) with a group of Business Leaders. This group came together around the idea that they would be creating funding necessary to move Church Planters around in northern KwaZulu-Natal Province. They will also be helping to mobilize leaders through training and coaching when necessary. One of the main things that they will be doing is helping to create ministry opportunity for Church Planter’s through HIV/AIDS training. Mercy Alliance has been able to offer project based funding alongside the TAN Foundation and local Business Leaders to get the Business Leader hub off the ground. As a SA team, we are looking at starting 5 total hubs of Business Leaders who have the same heart throughout the country. It was cool to see some local initiative to fund the work that is beginning to happen! They still have a bit to raise, but I don’t think it will be hard as there’s not much left to go for their start-up budget.
2. KZN Coalition:
On Saturday, we met with 20 representatives from different ministries throughout KwaZulu-Natal Province. It was a great time to hear some stories of what God is up to and where He is working. For us, it is great to see so many people getting on board and working to make this thing happen. It takes a lot of people to make a movement happen! We look forward to contributing to the coalition by helping in the way of Curricula Design and Mapping as we all work together to create disciples of Jesus in SA!
South Coast CPM
The text below is from a post that I put on "The City" through Shoal Creek. Here is the link if you are interested in checking it out on The City.
We’ve been given access through an organization called World Changers to do a follow up course alongside of their teachers. This means that we go with the teacher (who we’re mentoring in CPM) to find people of peace. This is a huge breakthrough as it gives us access to close to 1000 people who live in the South Coast region of South Africa.
World Changers targets the unemployed population in local rural/township areas. They give them a 4 week ‘Life Skills’ training to help them find work and change the way they see their current situation. They’ve had great success within the program, but are looking to plant the Gospel alongside what they currently do. If what we are doing on the South Coast turns out to be successful, we could see other parts of KwaZulu Natal Province affected by this type of POP finding/Gospel planting begin to happen.
Please pray for 2 potential POP in a rural area called Bhoboyi. They have started going through a discovery process and God has really opened up a lot for them through the scriptures. The other day one said, “Wow, Jesus will be with me until the end of the age? For me that means that I should start to realize that he is there all the time…not just when I’m down or think I need him most.”
I couldn’t have done it without you, but I also can’t do it with you
Things have been super busy here in South Africa. We've been moving around a little less...meaning a little less driving long distances, but more short distances. We've been building a strong relationship with a group of people in an area very close to us...only 15 minutes away! This has been a huge success for us and the relationship is proving to be one that we feel led to invest in very strongly. It is a group of younger people who are passionate about reaching their community, KwaNzimakwe.
Most of them have come together through a program led by the team there called 'Life Skills.' This is a program that targets the unemployed portion of urban/rural communities along the eastern coast of SA. It gives them more skills, helps them develop a vision, and uplifts the community that they live in through challenging the students to action. It has had amazing results in the Durban area and here along the South Coast where we live.
Along with that team, we've been opened up to relationship with approximately 1000 people who've been through Life Skills along the South Coast. This is a huge opportunity for us to begin looking for People of Peace! People who will open up the community to us and be an entrance for the Gospel to change the community. When I say this gives 'us' the opportunity, I'm referring to more than just Shea and I. We've been facilitating discovery for the KwaNzimakwe team to begin looking for People of Peace to start some Discovery Groups.
Last week we saw some of our very first generational growth when a group of leaders went out and led their own Discovery Groups! This is a huge win!
Yesterday when I was driving through town, I had a thought that I couldn't shake. I've been trying to come up with a 'mantra' for our time here being catalytic in movement of making disciples. I finally came up with it and I like it quite a bit!
When I leave SA, I want people to say to me, "I couldn't have done it without you, but I also can't do it with you." This sounds weird right?! Shea and I are here to EQUIP people with a process through facilitating discovery...a process that we believe has the potential to transform communities from the inside out, but we can't DO that process. This also eludes to the fact that they will continue to do it long after we're gone. That process looks different in every community all over the world where it is being done. The leaders in the communities that we work in have to own the process...and even more than that, it has to become more than a process, but needs to be a way of life! When this happens, they adjust it to their context and culture. We're not here to impose Western Culture or Western Christianity.
This group of people has been doing an amazing job and we couldn't be more happy about what God is doing! Please keep praying with us as we continue to go where He leads!
snow…really…this is South Africa
We have been preparing for this week for awhile now.
We would bring in some of the guys that we work with from the old Transkei region to mentor, coach, and train a bit to help facilitate further discovery of this thing called CPM.
Where we live, Margate, it has been raining nonstop for the past 2 days. It's kinda like the scene from Forrest Gump where it just keeps raining and raining.
"We had every kind of rain there is, we had sheets of rain, we had little bitty stingy rain, we had"...you get the picture. Last night we hear on the news that there is snow in the Eastern Cape...Okay, so I've heard of snow on the mountain tops and even some frost every once in awhile...but snow that is enough to shut down some of the major highways...that's crazy! I think this is one area where I could be of service. I could even open an access ministry on teaching people how to drive in the snow...one thing a good ole Missouri boy can do!
South Africa is kind of like that though...almost like a box of chocolates...you just never know what you're going to get!
Update from Bukwini…& Shakira (these hips don’t lie)
We spent last week in Bukwini working alongside Mr. Vumile, a Farming God’s Way expert, and other community leaders. Oh, what a week it was! For the past few months Vumile and his lovely wife Patience have been traveling to Bukwini from their Transkei home in Qumbu in order to serve the families on the Bukwini Child Sponsorship List. Each of these families are caring for one or more orphaned children in this village. We are working toward each of them having a self sustaining garden in order to feed their families. Some of the people on the list have worked diligently in their gardens and have already produced a nice crop. One mama produced 20 liters of spinach alone! Others have put little to no effort into caring for their gardens which was such a disappointment to Vumile who has invested much time and hard work into making each garden a success. He isn’t giving up though. He has found two people who he has trained up in Farming God’s Way in the village and will be sending them back to walk alongside the families that are struggling.
We have a long standing relationship with community leader Mr. Njinjoni and his family who is playing an active role in the Child Sponsorship as well. Together Njinjoni and Vumile have worked to help others realize the importance of working together as a community. If I heard Vumile say it once, I heard it a thousand times, “One hour per day in your garden equals a lifetime of prosperity” and “You must work together, no one can do it alone.” If you spend five minutes with him you’ll quickly realize that he has a deep passion for farming and for people...with little patience for people who aren’t willing to do something for themselves. He will be going back to Bukwini for the next several months to work alongside the current leaders in the gardens of the village.
At the end of the month, we (Raymond, Shea, and I) will be going to Qumbu (Vumile’s home town) to train him in Church Planting principles. We all hope to see Farming God’s Way as an access tool into the community to plant Discovery Groups within Bukwini.
If you want to be a part of what is happening in Bukwini there is a trip scheduled to happen sometime in late-August 2011. You would get the opportunity to help plant gardens, work alongside Vumile, meet the people of Bukwini, and use a long drop for the very first time.
Live from South Africa!
Click the link below to get the lowdown on what's been happening here in SA!
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Live-from-South-Africa.html?soid=1101058278149&aid=ZLDXW3zTUW4.
Spend a Summer in South Africa
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a beautiful story from the banquet
This is a guest post from a dear friend and mother figure to Shea and I, Becky Kenealy. Her blog posts are amazing, and she has been amazing to us over the past year sending notes of encouragement and keeping up with not only what we're doing, but what's going on in our hearts. Her blog is unforcedrthymsofgrace.blogspot.com Enjoy the post as much as I did!
"tonite is the banquet for derek and shea poe, in S Africa. disappointed that none of my dearest friends will be there and wonder how much of that is on me? i pray and ask but wonder what is in my ask? in explaining to my beautiful Grand Emma there was this amazing and pure moment where in telling her my nervousness about asking my friends she kept asking WHY and every time in honestly answering her was another why and before i knew it i had shared all my fears with her and her innocently looking up at me and saying 'just a minute'.
see i told her it's about inviting your friends to a meal but at the end of the meal there is a moment where they will be asked to pledge a financial amount and it made me nervous asking them, even tho I believe in derek and shea alot and what they are doing in South Africa even more.
so she comes back w/this extra large glass piggy bank filled w/money and says..."Gigi i have been praying about what to do with this money and i 'think' i am supposed to give it to Derek and Shea." it was this amazing moment of i had explained it to her and You had her heart ready at 8 years old to understand the concept of 'giving', her parents had communicated already to her in her young life the value and importance of giving back to God what He has entrusted us with...so tonite she will be our guest at the banquet, i want her to listen and be sure.....so tonite i am praying for hearts like Emma's....like a child for all of us to listen to You speak through derek and shea....like children."
Stories like these are so priceless. When Shea and I first heard this story, our eyes filled with tears of joy, maybe even a little shame...I can't imagine having such a soft heart at the age of 8. I was saving money at that age sure...but it was so I could buy the next Ninja Turtle figurine or maybe even a couple GI Joe's. Little Emma's parents must be proud! Shea got the chance to talk to Emma on Saturday night (the night of the banquet) and Emma gave the piggy bank to Shea. Shea cried and Emma probably wondered why she was crying, but how can you not cry at an image so beautiful. Thanks Emma...you've taught us a lot through just having a child like heart.
Our Banquet
Hey Everyone!
We are home and hoping you can come out to our Banquet on January 29th from 6-8 pm. Check out the image below to see the details. We'll be talking about what we do and why we do it!
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