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News Bulletin From Jae & Debra Evans |
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August 2008 |
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In this Issue Special Links
How to Donate
MCM Web Site
Contact Us Praise Report: Please join us in thanking God for the following items: For the continued progress of the Food Center and the growth in the food distribution and donations of vegetables. For our safe return to South Africa. Prayer Requests: Please join us in praying for the following items: That God will continue to develop in us an intimate relationship with Him. This is first above all else. For Debra's continued improvement in strength and health, and for the complete healing of her cancer. For our safe travel as we travel through Namibia and Botswana. That God will continue to touch those who are willing to support us monthly as we work in South Africa. For the continued success of the Food Center with more distribution to feeding programs within the community. For many to be drawn to God's word in our small groups and high school programs. For our new small group leaders and interns to be strong in their witness, attend church, and for their daily protection. For more donations of ingredients from the community to supply the Food Center. That God would be glorified in all our work, words, and ways. |
We are back safe and sound in South Africa. It seemed that it took us longer this time to recover from the jet-lag, but we are back up to full speed now.
It was also tough to come from a sunny Southern California summer to a cold and wet South African winter. We have only had two days when we've had a little warmth and sunshine. The rest of the time has been cold and raining. Our house here doesn't have central heat and is all brick (no insulation) and feels more like a meat locker. It does make for cozy evening under a pile of blankets.
Things are moving so fast at the Food Center that it has been a race for me just to catch back up. I have decided to have a section just for the Food Center news in each newsletter. You can read more of what is going on below.
We are spending some of our time preparing for our big team outreach to the little town of Rundu on the border of Angola and Namibia. It is going to take us three days of driving just to get there. The total trip is over 5000 km (almost 3200 miles)! This is planned to be a three week trip where we will be spending time ministering to the community. We will be doing Life Skills teaching in the High School, hosting an after school program, as well as leading three days of teaching in the church there. There will be about 17 of us from the MCM team going. I think it will have quite an impact since our team consists of white Americans, white South Africans, black Xhosa South Africans and colored South Africans. Along with the ministry efforts we hope to see a lot of beautiful country and a wide variety of wild animals. We will be camping so pray for our safety. Debra and I have our tent set up on the top of our truck so we will be much harder to reach than those camping on the ground.
Since our trip runs from the middle of September to the first week in October our next newsletter will be a little late. But stay tuned for ...
Our first church service back in Paarl was really special. It was a combined service with our little Xhosa church in Mbekeweni, and a colored church in Paarl East. The Paarl East church is lead by Vernon Jacobs who is also one of our MCM team members.
Just as we pulled up to the primary school where the service was to be held two full vans of our Mbekeweni church family showed up - and the were all singing. It was really neat to see the excitement of both of the members of each congregation. When church was actually ready to start and everyone was finally seated and settled down (a least a bit) we must have had over 50 people. That's a full church!
One of the neatest parts of the service was when the newly formed choir from our little Mbekeweni church got up to sing. I have since begun to call them the 'Never Give Up' Choir, which was from one of the songs they sang. I think this whole choir thing was inspired by the visit a couple of months ago by the Santa Fe Christian High School Choir. It really made a huge impression on our church. One other item to note is that most of the choir is from one family. This a family that has come to know the Lord since we started here in Paarl over three years ago. It is wonderful to hear about them practicing in the evenings singing praise and worship songs. That's got to get the neighbors attention.
Following on the heals of a really neat church service was a special night for the 'girls' on the following Monday. This wasn't your normal 'Girls Night Out' event (although I don't know what normal would be since I have never been invited). This evening was a special presentation to our girls in Mbekeweni on HIV & AIDS. This is a serious topic, especially here in Mbekeweni where the AIDS pandemic is so severe.
Most of the girls that attended the evening were from Debra's small group over the years. This made it a very special time for Debra as she was able to reconnect with the girls again. Our two young Xhosa women interns where also there and made a huge impression on the girls as they shared their personal experience with friends and family who have contracted the disease. There were a lot of breakthroughs along with questions and answers to many of the misconceptions. This is the beginning of a monthly event for awareness and training.
Wow! Are things moving at the food center or what! It seems like every day we get a new soup kitchen that wants to get their soup from us rather than make it themselves. This is exactly what we were hoping for. Our goal is to get all the different little soup kitchens and feeding programs to join together and get their soup and bread form our large Food Center. This helps everyone feed even more people for less money. It is great to see the vision actually coming into reality. It also neat to see how the community is really taking ownership of this effort.
We are also seeing a growing number of farmers, food producers, and stores getting behind the effort by donating food to us for use in our soup. Just last week we picked up 31 large 20 liter buckets of vegetables from a big canning operation in Paarl. These were vegetables that are not good enough for their product but are just fine for soup. The neat thing is that these vegetables come to us already washed, pealed and chopped. We prayed for vegetables but God decided to go ahead and prepare them for us first. Isn't that just like Him?
The other neat thing is that the sustainability side of the Food Center operation is gaining ground as well. We are seeing new stores wanting to buy our bread every day. I truly believe that we will see enough sales of our bakery products to fully fund the entire operation. We have a long way to go but it will just be wonderful when the entire Food Center is no longer requiring donations to keep the doors open.
I keep thinking and praising God about how this one little idea has turned into a way to touch the lives of thousands of people. And it is only just the beginning.
Want to see the Food Center Presentation? Just click HERE |
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