MCM News Archive:
August 6, 2008
Butterfly House ready for the roof!
It's
taking shape! By the time you're reading this, the roof is going on and
we're ready to begin working inside! Butterfly House is a new HIV/AIDS
resource center for Fairyland that is a joint effort between MCM,
Drakenstein Hospice and partners from Koteng in Trondheim, Norway. For
more information click here.
July 22, 2008
MCM signs lease for New Orleans Sports Ground
After 2 1/2 years of effort, Greg Oefinger, Francisco Naude, and Gary
Helling sat in the office of the Drakenstein Municipal Manager and
officially signed the lease document for the New Orleans Sports Ground.
This 23 acre neglected sports property will be converted into the MCM
Sports Park which will supply safe, top quality sports facilities for
the youth of Paarl East. For more information on the project, click here.
Francisco signs the lease.
June 18, 2008
Nedbank Makes Gift to the Monte Christo Food Center
Today, the staff of Paarl’s Nedbank’s Boland
Business Office- Zomerlust in Paarl made a generous cash
gift to support the new Monte Christo Food Center and MCM’s feeding programs for
those in need in the greater Paarl area. This food center was front and center
in the response to the refugees from recent xenophobia attacks in the Paarl area
and is expanding its reach every week in its goal to feed 5000 people a day in
the Boland.
The gift from Nedbank is a big surprise and blessing
for MCM and one more way we’re seeing the community of Paarl join in a community
wide effort to impact those who are hungry and needy locally. Nedbank’s staff is
committed to generously supporting local community development and upliftment
projects and the team makes ongoing regular payroll donations which are then
pooled together. A committee of Nedbank’s staff
then evaluates and selects how they can best participate in various programs
around the Boland. Monte Christo says a great big THANK YOU
to the team of Nedbank. Shown in the photo are the Nedbank
team and Thomas Gay CEO of Monte Christo at the presentation.
May 16, 2008
Grand Opening
What a great time! The Food Center is officially open! No
more dealing with contractors or deliveries of equipment where
it was always "defiantly, maybe tomorrow."
We really pushed hard to have
everything up and operational before our big event. We even made
our first BIG pot of soup for the event. That was a wee bit
stressful, since we didn't even know if the pot would work or
not. We also baked bread and rusks and served Monte Christo
Spring Water! It was really great to see all the people from the
Paarl community come and check out the Food Center.
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The
crowd at the open house |
Jae and
a BIG pot of soup |
As if the Grand Opening wasn't
enough, the following Monday we hosted a meeting of the Paarl
Community Service Forum at the Food Center. This was a sit-down
dinner where we served soup and bread from the Food Center, a
Quiche and salad from the MCM Coffee Shop, and water from the MCM
Farm in Porterville. All of this was served by members of the
APU short term team.
Our first week of full operation
went very well. We were able to provide soup and bread to all of
our feeding programs ( a little over 1000 kids) as well as
provide soup to a couple of other organizations around Paarl. We
are also starting to see some food supplies coming in from
various places in the community. We were invited to speak at
a local Dutch Reform Church about the Food Center, and they
decided to donate the offering to the Food Center as well. We
really are starting to see this become a Community In Action
program and not just an MCM project.
May 30, 2008
Camp Amazing
We love our camps! But this one was
over the top! It was not only the largest camp we have had at
the MCM camp but it was also the first with White, Black, and
Colored kids together! That is truly a historic event for MCM
and the community of Paarl. Ten years ago this would have been
impossible, and even today there is still a lot of difficulty in
getting the different cultures together.
Not only was this the biggest camp
it was also very well organized. There were so many kids that we
had to set up tents for the boys to sleep in while the girls got
the bunks in the house. It was so crowded that Debra and I had
to pitch our tent out back of the pack shed. We also had a big
tent for the meeting and worship time, complete with hay bales
for pews. The MCM team also put together our own worship band,
which lead some awesome worship time. Again the APU team made a
huge difference by helping out in the kitchen and wherever else
they were needed.
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The
campers get organized (sort of) |
Awesome
worship |
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Amazing
Teaching |
Gathering by the camp fire |
Some of our MCM staff had to leave early to
return to Paarl to help out with the crisis developing there,
but the reports back from the camp indicated that 28 kids made
decisions to make Jesus Lord of their lives. An additional 5
asked to join our discipleship leaders program to be trained to
teach in our small group bible studies. It just doesn't get
any better than that!
May 30, 2008
Xenophobia
Most of us have never
heard that word before and er are am sure most of you haven't either.
It means “a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or
unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people.” The
world press has now and for a long time to come tied the word to
South Africa. Let me explain. Here in South Africa we have what
is an increasingly volatile problem. Unemployment exceeds 30%
and, due to the many known problems in many of the African
countries to the north, we have a large illegal immigration
problem. Many of the immigrants are men seeking gainful
employment and/or safety. They are from Zimbabwe, Mozambique,
Somalia, Congo, Nigeria and many others. Many of them are also
trained with Job skills (teachers, retail sales, engineers,
professionals, etc.) and are hard workers.
Frustration and
anger have been building among the local unemployed South
Africans and much of that anger has been focused on these
foreign nationals, considered by some as illegally stealing the
work that is available.
All that is
background to the violence that has sprung up around South
Africa. Beginning about mid May, shops and homes of foreign
Africans were attacked in Johannesburg. The news reports of
these attacks spread around the country slowly triggering like
actions in townships and informal settlements throughout South
Africa. We, in our community of Paarl, thought it would never
happen here - but last Friday it did! The next thing we know
there are mobs that have developed in Mbekweni forcing people
from their shacks. The Police responded wonderfully evacuating
everyone before their were any significant injuries or deaths.
But now we had a camp outside of town with a growing population
of frightened people. What to do?
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Jae
serving from the back of the truck |
The
crowd of refugees |
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Eating
on the steps |
Evening
Worship |
MCM responded
quickly. From the grand opening of our new food center just a
week prior to these events we had a small inventory of soup and
some bread already prepared. We agreed to provide the food to
the refugees. Many of our team members were called in on
Saturday and we quickly made plans to go up and feed everyone at
the refugee camp. We got a meal up at mid-day and began making
another batch of soup for dinner. The crowd was still growing.
By the next
Monday
morning the camp has swelled to 650. We served Pap (corn
meal mash), bread, and soup.
As the week has gone on, we
have continued to supply food to the refugee camp. We have also
provided some entertainment and spiritual upliftment, including
an evening worship service lead by the MCM team.
April 7, 2008
Food
Center Update
We continue to make a lot of
progress on the MCM Food Center project. The building is nearly
complete and most of the equipment is in place. We also have
made significant progress on our Water Bottling project out at
the MCM farm in Porterville. We now have all our supplies and
the water bottling room is almost complete. We expect to begin
the bottling process in just a few weeks. One of the neat things
is that we just received our new Food Center delivery vehicle
(thanks North Coast Church - Edgeites!), and we have already
made our first transport of water bottles and supplies up to the
farm. What a blessing to finally have all of this coming
together.
19 Pallets of water bottles
Our new Bakkie
The Bakery
side of the Food Center
Equipment and dry store room
If all goes according to schedule
(HA -Remember TIA - This is Africa) we will begin baking bread
and rusks the end of this week. We still need to get a couple
more BIG pots and some tables as well as some small items before
we will be cooking soup. But we are hopeful that the first batch
of soup will be cooking in a couple more weeks. Thanks to all of
you who helped make this possible.
April 7, 2008
Lukhanyo Face Lift
Go Chargers! Well that is what most
of us from Southern California thought when we finished painting
the outside of the Lukhanyo Community Center in Mbekweni. The
colors that the Lukhanyo folks picked reminded us of the San
Diego Chargers Blue and Gold. We had a lot of help from the MCM
team, some of the Xhosa kids in our small groups, and a visiting
short term team from the States. It was amazing how quickly we
got the entire building painted, and we even had a small team
clear a part of the grounds for a community vegetable garden.
The Lukhanyo Center plays a key role
in our ministry in the Mbekweni township. Here we have our
weekly discipleship groups and bible studies. It is also one of
the places that feeds the kids one day a week.
One of our new interns, Lungile Members
of the team at work.
Community
members helping out
The team poses for a group photo
It is really great to see how far
the Community Center has come over the years we have been here.
As one of the Xhosa guys working on the project said, "Now the
members of our community will know to go to the big blue
building." But don't you think it would look better with a
big gold lighting bolt (Chargers logo) on the side?
April 5, 2008
Butterfly House making progress
A new HIV/AIDS resource center in the township of Fairyland is rising out of the
ground. MCM is partnering with Drakenstein Hospice, Paarl Round Table
and some wonderful supporters from Norway to make Butterfly House a
reality. This past week, the foundation and concrete floor slabs were
completed and for the next 5 weeks the brick walls will be put in
place. The building is expected to be completed by the beginning of
September! For more information on Butterfly House, click here.
March 22, 2008
Camp Update... JAM ministries
The leaders of JAM (Jesus and Me) from Paul Roos Gimnasium
in Stellenbosch had a spiritual retreat at Camp Monte Christo the weekend of 7-9
March under the supervision of their teacher – Mr Werner Truter. The lawn (and
every other open space) was immediately converted into (could you guess?) rugby
and energy release arena. But what an amazing group of Davids… Even with
kitchen duty and cooking!
At sunrise each found a special corner to lay the day before
the Father and at sunset 18 young male voices broke into angelic harmonies,
worshipping God on the lawn – their only accompaniment a Djembe drum… I just
know the angels around the farm joined hands and sang with. The ropes course has never been so “alive”
either – with stumps and trees being moved along by teammates to make sure the
blindfolded trust walker really had to trust! Never ending initiative and
creative problem solving spurring them on to give their all… It was truly a
blessing to host JAM, and I pray that the Lord will bless them and keep them,
that He will make His face shine upon them, and that He will give them His
shalom, forever. (reported by Thana Smith)
March 11, 2008
Welcome the Van Rooyens!
We're
pleased to announce that Quentin Van Rooyen, his wife Aneldi and
daughters Amy Lee and Lara Ann have been added to the MCM family. Long
time residents of Paarl and friends to the MCM team, the Van Rooyen's
have been called to become full time team members of our growing work
here in Drakenstein. Quentin was most recently the youth pastor at
Church on the Rock here in Paarl and with Aneldi, also spent several
years as missionaries in Mozambique.
Quentin
will immediately begin work in the areas of front-line outreach,
discipleship and leadership development in the Paarl schools. We are
very excited to begin work in schools such as Boys High and Gymnasium
and know that God has some amazing things in store for the youth of
this area!
Welcome Aboard!
March 08, 2008
Bakery for the Food Center
Big
things are happening at the MCM Food Center - and we mean BIG!. MCM has just
completed a transaction whereby MCM has taken over the bakery operations of
JEPSA (JEsus Peace South Africa). This is wonderful since we were a bit
concerned about starting a little bakery without anyone who had experience in
running a bakery. Well the Lord provided this neat opportunity to take over the
JEPSA operation, all their equipment, and their experienced staff.
This
gives MCM such a head start that we will be baking bread in about three weeks.
Some of the product we bake will be sold to local grocery stores and the income
will be a part of our Sustainability Strategy which helps to cover operating
cost of the Food center and other areas of MCM.
The BIG ovens arrive Getting them into the Food Center...
...took the help of two of our interns Finally in place.
January 30, 2008
MCM and WER blesses local school
At the start of the 2008 school season, Groenheuwel primary school was
presented with over 100 additional students. Needless to say, classrooms and
chairs were scarce! This past fall, MCM received a shipment of school
furniture and equipment from World Emergency Relief in London. Out of
that shipment, we still had 80 chairs in our warehouse, which was
exactly what Groenheuwel
needed! We wish you could have seen the look of amazed gratitude on the
face of the principal as we drove the chairs back to the school in
Tom's bakkie!
Thanks WER!
January 24, 2008
MCM Family begins year with Braai
The
2008 ministry year started off very well with an all-team Braai at MC
House. Our team continues to grow and it showed with 46 total team and
family members present. We're looking forward to some really great
things this year, starting with what you see in the picture - building
a family in Christ at MCM! Stay tuned for more exciting news as the
year progresses.
January 23, 2008
MCM Sustainability Program Kicks Off With Great Grape Harvest (see the slide show)
MCM has taken the sustainability program of the
ministry up a notch. A very big notch! With the harvest of the grapes at Monte Christo
Ministries farm, MCM has made the first significant step into becoming
a self sustaining ministry. The MCM sustainability program is designed
to build ongoing projects and programs which will produce income into
the ministry sufficient to cover the ongoing monthly costs of
operations for the ministry. (Click here to
learn more). While the ministry is a few years away from actually
realizing this goal, the grape harvest for 2008, will provide a needed
boost to the money required to keep MCM moving forward.
December 7, 2007
MCM coordinates Mbekweni Clinic Clean-up
MCM
staff members Reg and Nancy Cowie helped coordinate a massive clean-up
and repair day at Mbekweni Clinic this past Sunday. 120 people from 3
different churches contributed over 1000 hours to help out. The clinic
provides care for the 50,000 residents of Mbekweni with only one
full-time doctor and 12 nursing sisters. To read about it in the Paarl
Post click here.
November 29, 2007
Holiday club in the Drakenstein area prepares
From
the December 3-17 MCM is doing a daily 5 hour program in 10 different
areas throughout the Drakenstein county. 4 of the communities are rural
farming areas and the other 6 are in Paarl East, Mbekweni, Wellinginton
and Gouda. The program will put on sports games such as soccer, rugby
and netball for all the children in the surrounding communities. Keep
sports director Francisco Naude in your prayers as he undertakes this
big program for the Christmas holiday.
November 28, 2007
MCM sponsored Mayoral Cup a success
The MCM sports ministry recently sponsored the youth and
women's portions of the local Mayoral Cup, a soccer competition between local
sports teams. Francisco Naude, our director of sports ministry, was integral in
the planning and organization of this year's event. This year featured 4 local women's teams and
22 youth teams from the Drakenstein area.
November 26, 2007
Construction to start for Butterfly House
After months of preparation, the construction of Butterfly
House in the Paarl East community of Fairyland is to begin this week. This
facility is to serve those in the community who are infected or affected by the
HIV/AIDS pandemic. The programs managed out of Butterfly House will include a
pre-school daycare, adult care, afterschool programs, education and counseling.
The building will also serve as the headquarters for the home-based care
workers and the home for "Butterfly Wings" a foster-care empowerment program.
MCM is a partner with Drakenstein Hospice and other local and international
organizations in this effort. For more information see the Butterfly House
page.
November 24, 2007
MCM heads to Zambia
We
are in the midst of preparing for a Zambia Outreach (Nov 30th – Dec
19th) in which we are taking our young community discipleship interns
and some other MCM’ers who have and will continue to work hands-on in
our community discipleship efforts! The MCM'ers include Greg Oefinger
and his family, Laura Taylor and her family, current interns Heather,
Becky and Jenna as well as 2008 interns Josh, Yolanda, Andiswe and
Lungile. We are partnering with a good pastor friend of Greg's (Quentin
Van Rooyen) and some of his ministry leader’s. There will be 24 of us
in total & the team is comprised of white, black & colored
South Africans as well as Americans. Truly a multi-cultural team going
cross-cultural to share the love of Jesus. We will be driving from Cape
Town, South Africa to Lusaka, Zambia through Botswana! Pray for God’s
guidance, protection & transforming work to be done on each one of
us.
November 20, 2007
Mqokeleli hosts group from Sweden and kicks off new ministry
Last
month, MCM team member Pastor Mqokeleli (aka Actor) and Harvester
Church were visited by a team Sweden, who hosted Pastor Mqokeleli this
past June. They were here to work with the Mbekweni community and help
develop a program to provide support for Mbekweni parents, particularly
fathers. During their time here, they prepared food and served the
community people. They worked along with Mbekweni ADP and World Vision-
Pastor Mqokeleli is involved with both organizations.
During
the Swedish group's visit, they started with Mqokeleli a new ministry
for fathers in Mbekweni. This project is called Mbekweni Parent Care
Centre. They will have a huge
gathering on the 15 December where we will give food parcels and toys
for kids.
Keep this new endeavor and Pastor Mqokeleli in your prayers!
October 8, 2007
A busy season at Monte Christo
Merritt team closes out 2007 visit schedule
A
six member team headed by John Merritt, senior pastor of Crosswinds
Church in Dublin, CA, recently completed a visit from September 25th
through October 4th. This is the home church of our newest staff
member, Laura Taylor. It was a whirlwind visit as they experienced
nearly all of the MCM ministry efforts and some of the local sights as
well. Our partnership with Crosswinds continues to grow as another team
is preparing to visit next April. This group completed our short term
team schedule for 2007 that saw a total of eight visiting teams during
the course of the year. Hosting short term teams is a major part of the
MCM ministry efforts, for more information on our short term teams
click HERE.
MCM staff team grows
Our team at MCM continues to grow. Recent additions include one full time staff member and two additional interns. Laura Taylor,
along with her two youngest sons Joey and Sammy, just completed the
move over to Paarl from Dublin, California. Laura adds many talents to
our ministry and has initially started working with our Discipleship
team in the effort to build a stronger ministry program. Becky Beall and Heather Vroman
have joined our team as interns for a three month period. Becky, who is
a nurse, is primarily working with our local partners Drakenstein
Hospice and Butterfly House to assist with the HIV/AIDS impact on our
communities. Heather recently spent 5 years working for Youth Works, a
USA domestic short-term missions organization and is bringing the
skills she learned to help with our Discipleship team and community
outreach efforts.
WER Partnership continues
Therese
Whitcomb-Eriksson from the London office of World Emergency Relief
(WER) is currently visiting MCM. WER is the major supporter of our
Sports Ministry programs in Drakenstein. While here, Therese was able
to see the kick-off of the annual Mayoral Cup football tournament. She
was able to meet the Mayor and other local officials as well as visit
many of our ministry programs. Therese is helping MCM in our efforts to
raise the resources required to build out our Paarl East Sports and
Community Center. To learn more about this exciting project click HERE.
Butterfly House update
October
has come and the work level has increased on our Butterfly House
project. Here are a few updates from the various committees:
•
The final construction plans have been completed and are being reviewed
by the Municipality. The contractor selection process is under way and
we plan to start construction of the boundary wall next month.
•
The pediatric care committee is meeting bi-weekly and is currently
tracking 53 children that fit the target care group of the project. We
currently have a full-time nursing sister that visits many of these
children, who will be cared for by Butterfly House once it’s open.
•
Since Butterfly House is a program that is specifically for the
Fairyland community, the community relations program is very
important. We have begun planning how to work within the
community to make our programs as successful as possible.
•
Security is a big consideration as well. Our Security committee has
helped out with the building security as well as planning to use the
community to help out in protecting the property once
construction has begun.
• From an organizational standpoint,
everything is being documented and the planning process is being
managed in order to assist other like-projects in the future. We have
already begun the task of identifying other
communities that would benefit from the Butterfly House approach.
To learn more about the Butterfly House, click HERE.
October 3, 2007
Seven youth baptized
Last
Sunday seven youth from Harvester Church in Mbekweni were bapitized by
MCM staff member and Harvester pastor Mqokeleli Mntanga. Most of these
young men and women also participate or lead in our discipleship small
groups. They were baptized in the pool at the MC House, which is
coming in handy for community events like these. Afterwards we enjoyed
fellowship and swimming with these youth and their friends who came to
support them. We are blessed to be a part of their growth in their walk
with our Lord.