Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Mighty Men's Conference


This past Wednesday, I (Brent) was able to go to the Mighty Men’s Conference in Greytown, South Africa. I went with 8 boys and one caregiver from the New Hope Centre in Swaziland. We left Wednesday morning for the eight hour trip. This was to be the final MMC, and 400,000 men anticipated.

Seven years ago, the Mighty Men’s Conference started with 14 men led by farmer and evangelist Angus Buchan. The story of his faith and ministry is told in the book and movie “Faith like Potatoes”. The second year of MMC had 50 in attendance, and the following years grew to 700, then 2,000. Last year there were 200,000 men and as this year was the final meeting they were anticipating many more. This growth has come without any advertising or publicity campaigns. In recent years they have launched a website, but only to organize camping and registration for the event.

Each morning having the opportunity to wake up and see tents and men moving around, as far as the eye could see, was something I could not adequately take a picture of or describe in words. Having the additional knowledge that each man was there to search for and hear from God more than awesome. The focus of the week was Men of the Watchtower, the premise being that we as men have been called to stand watch against the enemy in our homes, communities and churches. We are the ones called to blow the trumpet to alert everyone of the presence of incoming enemies.

When talking to other men at the conference they offered me an interesting perspective concerning the magnitude of this event. 400,000 men represent nearly 20% of the white South African male population. And in a time of real testing with new issues in the country, Angus spoke for all when he said, “men are coming to this place for answers from God”.

We arrived Wednesday night at dark and set up camp. Think about how challenging that would be with eight boys under 14! For the next few days, we were able to camp and attend the conference that started on Friday and went through Sunday. (four services) I have never been in such a large group of people, let alone men.

If you want to know more about this event and resources associated with it you can search on the internet thru Google “Mighty Men’s Conference South Africa 2010”
For those of you that knew I was going on this trip and prayed specifically for safety and hearing from God your prayers were answered (Glory to God!!!!!) and for those that continue to life Michaele and I up in general your prayers were answered this past week as well.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Ndubazi Church Update


This Update was sent specifically to the team from BFC (Plus Matt Bunnell) that came in March concerning ongoing and exciting work at the church our ministry focused on..

Enjoy!!

Last week we received a call from Reverend Mahlalela (South District Superintendent), asking us to come visit the Ndubazi church. We hoped that the congregation had been meeting in the new building, but he told us they had not yet. We were disappointed, but understand that it can be very cold without doors or windows now that winter season is coming. We did agree to come down to Ndubazi today (Monday April 19). We have been working to get additional groups involved to get the church finished, but that would not require us to be there in person. We usually are able to talk on the phone or when Reverend Mahlalela is in Manzini. So we were just curious as to the purpose of our visit.

When we got down south we met at Rev Mahlalela’s home and we loaded into the car with Mrs. Mahlalela and drove the short dirty road to Ndubazi. On the way there they talked the good memories of the team and the success of the projects. And then we arrived at the church..

When we first arrived I looked up the road and saw Babe Masuko walking down to us. We greeted each other and then began to walk to the church and as I looked in the open windows I saw… a poured, finished, concrete floor!!!!!

In the weeks since the team has left the church has been working hard. The walls have been completed with plaster and the entire floor has been poured – even the back rooms. There was much rejoicing today!! We could not believe what was in front of our eyes and were excited to see what God is continuing to do there in Ndubazi. With pride Babe Masuko and Rev Mahlalela walked us through the church on a hard smooth concrete floor. I still remember the few days that the men of our team and Ndubazi worked hard to get that floor leveled and now it is completed. Babe Masuko also shared with us that he has ordered and made plans for the installation of all window frames, complete with burglar bars.

This is exciting news that we wanted to share ASAP.
With this tremendous work it is going to take much less to complete the church!

Additional needs at the church:
Payment for window frames and burglar bars
Window panes
Doors
Plaster of the outside (only 12 more bags of cement will be needed)
Final labor payment for plastering of the outside and installing the windows
Paint for walls inside and out

The total cost to complete the church now looks to be about $2,000 USD instead of our original higher expectation, which was a much larger number.

We wanted to share this exciting news with you all and let you know how the work that was started is being taken to completion by the hands of our brothers and sisters here in Swaziland.

Monday, April 12, 2010

In Transit

Greetings to all!!

We have just had a great two weeks with our family (Brents Mom and Dad as well as Michaele's brother Caleb). It was such a rich time and a great honor to have them see and experience things that God has allowed us to be apart of in Swaziland. They are now all safely home and getting back to the things that they do on a daily basis (hopefully jet lag is not to bad on them).

This week Brent leaves to take some boys from New Hope Center to the Mighty Men's conference in South Africa and Michaele takes part in a Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Conference here in Swaziland.

Please pray for safety as we travel and for God's strength as we continue preparations for the three teams that are coming to serve here in May.

More updates to come soon!!