Outreach2Africa

Who we are

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11 – New International Version (NIV)

“Ek weet wat Ek vir julle beplan het,” sê die Here. “Ek beplan voorspoed vir julle, nie teëspoed nie. Ek wil hê dat julle hoop vir die toekoms moet hê.”

Jeremia 29:11 – Nuwe Lewende Vertaling

Humble beginnings…

We’ve been involved with faith workers (missionary workers) and outreach work for a number of year and have experienced truly blessed moments. We’re a husband and wife team who trust the Lord for guidance on our outreach work. We have a passion for the Bushmen of Africa and a calling to minister to them. In 2009 the Lord also placed the Richtersveldt, Gariep and Northern Cape areas on our hearts and we’ve been blessed with a number of meaningful outreaches to small towns where the communities are in desperate need of Christian support to address unemployment, poverty and abuse.

We plan various outreaches each year and trust God to provide the teams and the means towards building His Kingdom. Every trip also includes screenings of the Jesus Film to spread God’s Word to those who are not as fortunate as we are.

Winter Warmth

Every year we aim to visit the Bushmen in Botswana with our Winter Warmth-outreach by taking about 3-tonnes of clothes just before the winter. The aim is to provide for the poorest of the poor in various villages as they are a neglected group.

Bibles-4-Christmas

We also have an annual “Bibles-4-Christmas” outreach whereby we aim to take 1,000 Bibles to the missionary workers in Botswana. They then distribute the Bibles to the most involved members of their congregations. Bearing in mind that these missionaries work in small villages where most of the people have never owned their own Bible, let alone having the money to purchase a Bible. The villages have two or three “community” Bibles and each family takes a turn at keeping the Word for a few days…

Richtersveldt

The Lord put the Richtersveldt in our hearts in 2008. However, we did not quite understand the calling and in 2009 we undertook a recce trip to ascertain the needs in that remote area of our country. We’ve since been blessed with a number of outreaches to Alexander Bay, Sanddrift, Baken and small towns in the area. Our hope is to establish this as a family outreach where we can make a difference. We’ve been blessed to have the support of the Alexander Bay VEK Koinonia pastor and congregation when we visit the Richtersveldt.

Northern Cape/Gariep

In April 2014 we also teamed up with the Cornelius missions group when they presented a holiday programme in Pella. We had a great time with them especially experiencing the wonderful work they do with school children to share the Gospel and teach the children through lectures and song. God willing we’ll be working closely with them from now on.

4×4.4 Kids

An idea of many years ago came into being in 2014 when we had our first two 4×4.4 Kids outings. In May 2014, along with Nissan and the 4×4 community we spoilt learners of two special needs schools on a 4×4 outing and day of fun and enjoyment.

In November 2014 we took hands with the 4×4 BushBabes group to host a Christmas function for Orphans.

We also have a dream…

What we’ve seen is a group of faith workers out in God’s sowing fields who often are in need of care and support themselves. They go out on faith excursions and rely on a small group of loyal supporters and sometimes a congregation who “sends” them.

Invariably they don’t have a support base and structure that especially offers a central point of information on their whereabouts, activities and especially their needs. Furthermore, other groups or individuals may be doing the same thing in a similar area, but in the absence of a centralized database, they don’t know about each other or be in a position to leverage of each other’s knowledge or work.

In the rest of Africa, outside South Africa, we’ve often found faith workers to be very isolated with little interaction with other faith workers. Each so busy working at their calling that they often neglected the power of interaction with fellow Christians.

In other instances the sheer task of phoning or getting Internet connectivity made it almost impossible for faith workers in the same country to get in touch on a regular basis. If for instance they sent out Newsletters to provide regular feedback to their faith supporters, it could be quite a daunting task just to get it all in the mail or to obtain an Internet connection for long enough to sent the e-mail. Let alone the luxury of managing a website where all their details and activities could be easily available to all the world to see and to support them.

In our day and age, there must be an easier way for all these needs to be addressed and especially for all faith workers and faith supporters to make use of the best technology has to offer in a continent that is largely still in its infant’s shoes with regard to offering global data services. But we need to start somewhere.

Even if this attempt is seen as a very basic beginning, our humble deeds for the Lord done in faith and obedience have the promise of Jer 29:11 to support it. And no man, woman or child will ever be needed to do the work of the Lord if He does not put it in their hearts and minds to be up to the challenge and responsibility of serving Him and His Kingdom and to take the message of salvation to all the peoples of the earth.

To this end, we’re taking the first step in faith to start building a database, website and repository of information on faith workers in Africa who has a need for support and who trusts the Lord that the means He put at our disposal will work harmoniously towards expanding the Kingdom of God.

We trust that everyone that visits our website will pray on the Lord for guidance on their future involvement and support. We don’t have all the answers and often struggle to take the first step, but if we follow Him in humble obedience – the pieces of His puzzle for Outreaches in Africa will become visible to all.

This is God’s Africa and he placed us here with a reason. We believe that as long as everyone just acts on the calling of the Lord and if we do it in faith and prayer – Africa will be saved.