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News Bulletin From Jae & Debra Evans |
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June & July 2008 |
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In this Issue 4Santa Fe Christian High School Choir Visit Special Links
How to Donate
MCM Web Site
Contact Us Praise Report: Please join us in thanking God for the following items: For the completion of the new Food Center and the beginning of the distribution of bread and soup to our community centers. For the end of the Xenophobia. Many of the refugees were able to return home. 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 return to South Africa. 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. |
O.K. - I know it has been a couple of months since I sent out a newsletter, but I am not saying that we haven't been busy - we have been incredibly busy.
The best thing I can share with you all is the outcome of all of Debra's tests and doctors visits. We are very pleased to announce that she is doing great! The scans showed that while the cancer is still there it hasn't increased at all. In fact it has actually decreased in a couple of areas - Thank you God! The doctors said that she only needs to have scans every six months rather than every four. We really think we are winning the battle even if the war isn't over yet. We attribute the good news to a whole lot of prayer, her amazing ability to stick to a very strict diet, and her daily dose of her supplements. Please keep praying for her complete recovery, and I will try to help her continue doing what she is doing.
So what have we been doing since we returned to the States? Well besides a lot of medical tests and doctors visits we did take a little trip through New Mexico to see our family, make some presentations of our ministry, and try and have a little bit of fun. You can read a little bit about that below. We also had some great times visiting our friends and family in Southern California. To top it all off we did a weekend of presentations at our home church (North Coast Church in Vista) at the venue called the Edge. It was great! One of our senior pastors, Chris Brown, gave the Edge a challenge to help raise funds for our new Food Center (in Paarl, South Africa). Chris has asked everyone in the Edge, about 900 people, to each give $7 for a bucket of soup. That is what it costs us for the ingredients that will make a 20 liter bucket of soup. That one bucket will feed about 80 people. Anyway the challenge is for the whole month of August and we are hoping to raise enough money to pay for 72,000 meals!
One other item to report on is the visit of the Santa Fe Christian High School choir group to Paarl. They came a couple of weeks before we left for the States. It was just a really neat trip and a real blessing for the choir as well as for all the South Africans that heard them sing. Man can they sing! More on that below.
We are just a couple of weeks away from returning to South Africa. We arrive back there on the 13th. We are both anxious to get back and catch-up on everything that is going on in the ministry there. I am especially excited to see how the Food Center is progressing. I just saw in an email that we are up to about 3,000 meals a week to the poor and underprivileged in the area. They have even had their first day using all three of the BIG pots.
What a lot of fun we had! We decided to borrow our daughter's car, pack up our two granddaughters, and hit the open road. Of course with an 11 year old and a 15 year old we had to stop at every road side attraction we saw - well it sure seemed that way. Our first stop was to visit Debra's sister and her family in Las Cruces. We have done presentations to her Rotary club in the past and it was great to catch up with every one there.
Then it was on to Roswell, New Mexico, to visit Debra's Mom and brothers and their families. We were fortunate (or maybe not) to be there for the 4th of July. That weekend was also the Roswell Alien Celebration so there was a lot of activity, at least for a small town. We did convince our granddaughters to go with us and see the Alien parade. Hope (our oldest granddaughter) pretty much summed up the experience for all us when she said "Well that was 18 minutes of my life I will never get back again". It really was a hoot.
The good news was that while we were in Roswell, we were able to give a presentation on the Food Center program to Christ's Church, Deb's family church. They have been great supporters of our Food Center program in South Africa.
Then finally on to Albuquerque to see our oldest son Mark, and his family. We also were able to spend some great time with some friends from our old church there and bring them all up to date on the Food Center as well. All in all it was a great, but somewhat tiring trip.
Santa Fe Christian High School Choir Visit
We have had a lot of short term mission teams come to help us with our ministry in South Africa, but never one like this. The group of high school kids from Santa Fe Christian (this is a private school in San Diego) were singing from the time the stepped off the plan. I mean really. They sang the South African national anthem in the airport.
They spent their time going to different schools to do concerts, and sang in our community centers. They even sang as they walked through the streets of Mbekeweni. The last Sunday of their trip they sang at our little Xhosa church in Mbekeweni. I have never seen the church so full on a Sunday morning. Our pastor from East Paarl even brought his entire (colored) church over to Mbekeweni to see them sing. It was awesome!. In fact, they so impressed people that our little church has apparently started it's own choir. I can't wait to get back to listen to them sing.
Want to see the Food Center Presentation? Click HERE
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