Tough decisions

In Muizenberg there are plenty of people who have fallen below the poverty line and live on the streets. Each of them has complex stories of how they got there; very few of these people are easy to support. Throwing cash at the problem without strategic and prayerful thinking is a waste of time. The abundance of drugs and alcohol, added to abusive backgrounds has led so many being in a cycle of poverty that it's hard to find a way for them to escape. The Justice ACTs  S-Cape Home - a rescue centre for victims of human trafficking - this past couple of weeks has seen ladies who have a background of trafficking ending up back on the street, as they posed a danger to the staff working at the home. Grace extended to them was often spat back in the face of those who were there to help them. You'd think that supporting others to build a life for themselves after facing manipulation and trauma would be a rewarding job, but it's often thankless and seemlingly endless, as the abuse that has been inflicted on those we help often is more powerful an influence than the soft kind hand of a friend who just wants to help. The staff of the safe house often have to deal with lies, false accusations, manipulation, violence, depression and a whole host of other problems that come as a result of dealing with broken lives.

Debt and Missions – A Toxic Mix

This past week has been eventful in terms of finances coming and going through our account.

About a month after Joshua's birth, we received an unexpected bill from the various professionals who attended us in hospital - in particular the paediatrician and the anaesthetist. We had already paid the agreed money to the obstetrician (thanks mum!), and the hospital bill had been covered by our insurance. But, it appeared that our insurance company hadn't paid up for some of the others. We resubmitted the claims to the insurance company, only to find out that they'd gone into administration. They agreed to pay a proportion of what was owed, but this left us about £500 (about $800) in deficit. This money, as you can probably understand, we don't have to spare! And when the insurance won't pay, we have to swallow the debt. We felt there was nothing to do but to put it on a credit card to avoid legal action being taken against us.

It was then that I read a blog feed on debt and missions. In Bill Hutchison's blog, he wrote: "One thing that I have seen again and again remove people from the mission field, or prevent them from entering the mission field, is personal debt. Personal debt can take many forms, including, but certainly not limited to Credit Card Debt, Student Loan Debt, Vehicle Loan Debt or Lease. I have seen numerous messages on twitter from people along the lines of wanting to join missions, but can’t because of debt. I have also seen people leave the missions field because of debt they had at home from before they joined or even because of debt they have incurred while on the missions field. Debt is very debilitating to someone wanting to follow the Will of God of their life. There is not one positive mention of debt in the Bible. Debt is always presented in a negative light. It is not a “salvation” issue, but there is not one time mentioned in the bible that debt is used to bless His people."

On checking my emails that same week, I see two that jump out of the page at me. One is from a friend of ours back home. This is a family which engaged with us and our desire for missions and agreed to support us on an ad hoc basis. The other was from my father-in-law. In total, they had sent us donations covering the shortfall.

What a blessing!

This brought to mind whether I should've put the money on a credit card or just waited. I challenged myself on "where was my faith!?", but also rejoiced in the fact that friends and family were obedient to God's call to support those in mission.

This gives me an opportunity to publicly offer our sincere thanks to all our friends who regularly support us and obediently, and often sacrificially give to our work in Africa. Your partnership is valuable and life-giving.

Whether or not I lacked the faith to believe that God would provide for us in our time of need, I know one thing is for sure: I am glad to not be in great personal debt whilst serving on the mission field. Becky and I may not have much materially/financially, but we have the freedom to go whenever God calls us, without the burden of debt holding us back.

Debt did hold us back before we left. Both Becky and I had a feeling about travel and getting into missions several years before we did, but I had personal debt that I felt that I had to 'clear' first. Through the grace of God, I managed it in 2009 and that's when we were able to start properly planning to go. 

Passing on the baton

Thursday last week saw the official Muizenberg goodbye for the Heathcote family and the welcoming and praying for Pete (me) to take the helm. Today I officially 'took office' at YWAM AfriCom. It was the hand-over where the current leader officially stepped down and I took responsibility. The morning started with an official welcoming of the new eldership team and an informal prayer time.

Other than that, it was a pretty normal day for most, I think. The 'exiting' leader had to deal with a family emergency and even borrowed my 'new' car to rush off to sort it out. 

Probably one of the most significant things that happened was the receipt of three application forms for new staff positions, plus a Facebook message from someone following up their enquiry about working with us. This was so significant, as we have not had any permanent applications for some time and for them all to arrive on the day I take office felt like a sign that I was not going to be left alone! 

Leading Africa

I've just returned from the Africa Leadership Team meetings. It's a group of missionaries - from many different nations and continents - who for many years have been hearing God's voice and obediently following what they hear. They live to serve God and they do it through YWAM. I was in awe of how God has used these people, who, with such humble hearts, told me stories that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. One would tell of being beaten and thrown in prison for his faith, while others would talk of great miracles, including seeing people raised from the dead. Yet none of them had an appearance of a 'great' person. They didn't have fine clothes, or drive fancy cars. The don't hold any kind of fame for their work. Few books or films have been written about these saints. If you didn't ask, you would never know that that, let's say, the grey haired lady serving salad at the counter in the dining room heard the call of God and obeyed His call to take the gospel into some of the most remotest parts of Africa to people who had never before heard the Good News.

As I look at this generation of missionaries who have been obedient to God's call on their lives and their obedience has remained through hardships and difficult times. And, how they have continued to serve with humble hearts, I wonder how my life will pan out and my ability to be faithful too. One thing I have learnt this past week is giving proper respect for my elders. One of the best forms of respect we can give these legends of mission is to listen to their stories and challenge ourselves to also hear His voice and obey and see where God leads us.

As a communicator, it is a privilege to be a witness to this gathering. As the Africa Communications Team (AfriCom), we work to serve YWAM ministries across Africa - from the leader to the new recruit. We listen to what everyone is saying and help build connections between all of the work across this continent.

Leading Africa

I've just returned from the Africa Leadership Team meetings. It's a group of missionaries - from many different nations and continents - who for many years have been hearing God's voice and obediently following what they hear. They live to serve God and they do it through YWAM. I was in awe of how God has used these people, who, with such humble hearts, told me stories that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. One would tell of being beaten and thrown in prison for his faith, while others would talk of great miracles, including seeing people raised from the dead. Yet none of them had an appearance of a 'great' person. They didn't have fine clothes, or drive fancy cars. The don't hold any kind of fame for their work. Few books or films have been written about these saints. If you didn't ask, you would never know that that, let's say, the grey haired lady serving salad at the counter in the dining room heard the call of God and obeyed His call to take the gospel into some of the most remotest parts of Africa to people who had never before heard the Good News.

As I look at this generation of missionaries who have been obedient to God's call on their lives and their obedience has remained through hardships and difficult times. And, how they have continued to serve with humble hearts, I wonder how my life will pan out and my ability to be faithful too. One thing I have learnt this past week is giving proper respect for my elders. One of the best forms of respect we can give these legends of mission is to listen to their stories and challenge ourselves to also hear His voice and obey and see where God leads us.

Partners in mission

I have heard many say to me in the past:
Why are there so many charities in Africa?
Can't you all work together...? Surely you'd get a lot more done...?!

Well, I'm not sure about that! Let me explain...

The idea of working in partnership with one another is a fantastic thing. Being in communication and building up the value of communications among people working in Africa has been on my heart, ever since I joined AfriCom. I believe that there are many ways to build good relations across cultural, spiritual and physical barriers. 

But does that mean we should all join together and be one? 

Just take a look at the way in which YWAM works. It's a decentralised organisation, made up of people who have a passion to serve God. But each ministry, school, location and team is different. There are a myriad of different things going on around the world, and that's just in one organisation. Imagine multiplying that by all the agencies in the world. 

It usually starts like this: an individual develops skills and passions to, let's say, rescue children trapped in violent/dangerous circumstances. They publicise what they do and gather like-minded people. I see the communications aspect of this is to value what they do and support them by communicating their message in an appropriate way so that partnerships can be made - maybe even point them towards others who are already doing what they do and get them to work together. Also, get the message out so that the wider world is aware of the need. However, if all the work came under the same organisation, rather than releasing and empowering people to do great work and build partnerships and friendships, it would become bogged down under a mountain of bureaucracy and red-tape. Just take a look at most government initiatives! Rather than being able to respond to immediate needs, a hierarchy of command makes decisions in some office on the other side of the world for issues that are - more than likely - beyond their understanding. 

That is why I value the communications team being in Africa and connecting and empowering local people here to be the communicators. Working effectively in any part of the world is about seeking to engage and understand the culture around you and work in a way that empowers, embraces and encourages good things out of it. 

I have just returned from Johannesburg where we were discussing with the communications directors of other big agencies (IMB, Wycliffe, AIM) the idea of sharing ideas and resources, so that we could effectively communicate both what we, as individual agencies are doing, but also see the bigger picture of our respective work in Africa. Hopefully as these meetings develop, more agencies will be involved and we can work in partnership with one another, when it comes to communicating both within Africa and to friends outside the continent.

Communicators in Mozambique

Some of our team have just been to Maputo in Mozambique to hold an Effective Communication Workshop with the aim to build up missional communicators in this part of Africa. Check out the video...

AfriCom in Maputo from YWAM AfriCom on Vimeo.

Street life

A few weeks ago, Becky organised prostitution outreach training for anyone at our church who was interested, through  Straatwerk (an organisation that enables local churches to reach out to the working women in their neighbourhoods). Two weeks later, Becky took those who had been recruited onto the busiest street in our area on a Friday night. With three women at the front who approached the working ladies, and three at the back, praying for them, they met, chatted and prayed with a number of women. Our local pastor was the designated body guard. The prayer beforehand was vital preparation and was obviously answered because they had instant success the first night. Usually it takes many weeks, if not months, of meeting and building up friendships with the ladies before they will trust and take a step towards a new life. However, that first night they met a lady – we'll call her 'Pat' – who said she wanted to get off the streets, and off the drugs. We met her a few days later, at her shack in the township and took her to a local charity, run by a church, which provides counselling and support from a social worker for those who want to give up drugs. After a brief word from the counsellor, we helped her enrol on the programme. We then paid for her to travel to her mother's house for the weekend to spend time with her children, and to get her off the streets, even if just for a few days.

The following week, we met another lady on the street in the same situation, we'll call her 'Cherrie'. She and her husband were both addicted to a number of drugs and she worked the street to fund their habit. We met her a few days later at her home in the township and she too is enrolling on a rehabilitation programme through the same church charity. However, the same day, Pat failed to turn up for her first rehab appointment, which we found very discouraging. We later visited her home and she said that she had been at the police station bailing out a relative. It is hard to know whether these stories are true or not, but we'd like to believe that she had a good reason for not being there. I feel she does genuinely want to give up drugs.

Although it may appear to have gone off to a great start, and we have had some great successes already, we are aware that this work will inevitably see many challenges and fall backs. We are just starting out and we're very motivated by our current successes. Please pray that we stay focused, even as we face challenges.

Stepping into Sudan

This week we are reviewing the trip made by two members of the team to Uganda and Sudan to help a team of pioneers scout out some new areas to work. By producing this video, AfriCom is helping champion this work and communicate it to a wider audience. More information can be found on the AfriCom blog


Outreach to Issore, South Sudanfrom YWAM AfriCom on Vimeo.

Part of a team

Heathcote Safari: Part of a team: "This week we are working with a team of people from five nations. We are working in two languages. Our ways of thinking and working have been strongly influenced by Europe, South America and Africa. Our ages span three decades. And it's been great..."

Holding the fort

This week most of the AfriCom team have gone to Mozambique to hold a workshop for YWAM volunteers on effective communication. Building a communications network in Africa involves travelling to the region and face-to-face meetings and training. This means that I'm left holding the fort, so to speak, with a skeleton staff-base in the Cape Town office. It's been great, nonetheless, to take this first step of co-ordinating activities from here; putting a toe-in-the-water of directing the operations here, knowing that in 10 days the current team director returns to pick things back up again!

Meantime, Becky is enjoying time with Joshua though she has started back working part time with the co-ordination of the volunteers for Justice ACTs. It's a process that we're going through as a family to establish roles and responsibilities; trying to get everything done (washing, cleaning, cooking), whilst working full time in a more responsible role (for Pete), keeping up with work activities/updates/meetings (for Becky) and getting enough sleep. This balancing act is what many parents go through, I'm sure. Josh is a great little boy who, despite getting a bit of collic on occasion, isn't a particularly grumpy baby. He sleeps a lot and when he's awake he's generally quite happy. He loves all of his aunties and uncles at YWAM and in the community here.

Phil enjoying time with Joshua

We have just enjoyed a lovely visit from Phil, Becky's younger brother, who came for two weeks. The timing of his visit was really good, as he was able to help with cooking, cleaning, washing-up, feeding and nappy changing. An extra pair of hands really helped, especially during the six days Becky was ill. He also had the chance to do some tourist activities, like climbing Table Mountain and surfing. We took him and Joshua to see the penguins for Joshua's one month birthday celebration, which is also the location where Becky went into labour!

If you're following our blog, please comment/contact us with any thoughts/feelings/ updates. As we wrestle with the new things we are facing (being family, new roles at work), we love to know how you are doing. We value your communication about your life, wherever you are at the moment and to get feedback on the stuff we're doing.

Angola video: project completed

Travelling across Angolan terrain, which is still showing the aftermath of various wars and conflict, was the job for the AfriCom team who spent two weeks touring the country to meet the YWAM volunteers doing longterm work in Angola. It was a privilege to travel with them and experience fellowship in such a beautiful country.

After a lot of hard work by the AfriCom team in Cape Town, a video has been created to help showcase some of the great work done by these Christian volunteers with YWAM in Angola.

Short promotional videos will hopefully whet the appetite of anyone interested in getting more involved, while the longer documentary will deepen people's understanding of working in this African country.

The team will get together to watch the documentary where we'll also have a meal to celebrate the completion of this large undertaking.

With a very low budget and scant resources – yet with sheer determination – this film was put together. Many hours went into editing, translating and producing this unique project.

Visiting these ministries in Angola and listening to and sharing their stories will have a much wider effect than just making them feel valued. Already stories shared in our magazines and articles online has developed interest from other agencies who wish to get involved in our work there. Partnerships are starting to be formed which will enable much more work to be done in some of these very remote areas. AfriCom's vision is to replicate this kind of work - supporting Christians working selflessly in difficult areas through sharing their stories - with others across the continent.

In my next entry, I will upload the shortened version of the Angola video to this blog. It would be great to hear your comments/thoughts about this film to help us shape future projects.

Also, if you would like a copy of the full film, please let me know and I'll get one sent to you.

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Communications in Mozambique

Sponsor the trip now by clicking here

Today the team is working on the logistics and finer details of a workshop in Mozambique for missionaries who want to communicate their work better.

It has been said that God equips the called, He doesn't call the equipped. That means that those with a passion to serve, often don't know how to relay that to their supporters and to the wider world. Great things are done that go unmentioned and potential good partnerships in mission are/can be easily missed.

One of the things I love about this job is the way in which we interact with so many different people at different stages of Christian service. It is a privilege and a pleasure to serve God by training and equipping missionaries with what they need to communicate what they do. But, much more than that - we support them in their journey to connecting them with other ministries and championing their work to a wider audience.

YWAM has 1,100 ministry training and outreach locations worldwide, some of them in very remote places – especially those in Africa. Without good communications skills, the effectiveness of any mission work can be very limited. But with foundational skills, taught by experts in communication, young missionaries can further develop their local network of partners for mission.

Our next stop is Mozambique where our team will be running an Effective Communication Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique to train a group of Christians in full time ministry to be effective communicators.

AfriCom is dedicated to equipping and empowering people with the skills they need to communicate their work with the wider world. Rather than forcing all comms through us, we empower them to effectively communicate themselves. This helps them identify partners and build a better understanding locally and globally of their work.

If you'd like to support this training event directly click here.

Missions Communicators in Sudan

YWAM AfriCom: Missions Communicators in Sudan: An update from our missions communicators in Arua, northern Uganda, who were heading into South Sudan in preparation for shooting video footage to mobilize people, prayer and resources for the work of YWAM there. Read more about it here

Becoming a family

It's something that happens to so many people everyday: the transition from being a married couple to becoming parents.

When you choose to get married, there is a whole process of discussing the idea with your prospective partner and meeting the family and going through the emotional and mental process of what it means to be married. The marriage preparation course done by our pastor, Revd Howard Thornton, was amazing and set us up for, what has been a wonderful 5.75 years of wedded bliss.

But, when you have children, it's very different. First of all, the conception is rarely a plan-able event. Many couples try for years to get pregnant, whilst for others it comes sooner than anticipated. Then, once you're on your way, the 12-weeks scan has been done and you're mentally preparing yourself for the arrival of your first baby, the focus is no longer on what it is to become parents and more on the process of having a baby. These two are very different. All the appointments, discussions with medical professionals and others work on the process that Becky's body would be going through at each stage of pregnancy. Then, as the third trimester approaches, it's all about labour and what that will entail. Different methods of giving birth, what to expect, how to know what stage you're at. Then comes the actual event: the birth. An amazing unique experience that in the whole thing, you cannot deny the Creator God in the whole process. Each birth is a miracle, without a doubt.

But in all of this, nobody is really talking about, or preparing you for the transition between being a married couple and becoming parents. The body shock of sleepless nights, as you're cradling your little one at 3am, after he's woken up for the 4th time that night, screaming, you begin to ask yourself: what have I become?

Becoming a parent is a massive shift in any person's life. Yet it so often comes about without any emotional preparation for the status change. All focus is on the birth, and little-to-none is on the actual movement from couple to parent. We know that we have a new responsibility, but it's more than that. My whole thought pattern has changed and developed to have a consciousness of what I am doing, not in light of me, but in light of my family. This is a huge thing for me and has probably caused me more mental exhaustion than any crying at 3am Joshua could do!

Little Joshua is gorgeous. But he didn't come with an instruction book. He has a strong personality and a healthy appetite. There are hours on end when I can't stop staring at him and wondering how Becky and I managed it! The awe that you have as you hold him and look up to God and ask: can I really be responsible for taking care of such a precious gift?