Who can believe we are nearly at the end of
yet another year…and at the beginning of a new one filled with all sorts of
God-ordained moments?
Like being seated next to a male stripper
on a plane from Johannesburg to Cape Town…
I had a captive audience for nearly three
hours as I witnessed to the love of God shown so clearly in Jesus! Wynand and I
parted as if we were old friends and I pray now for his journey with Jesus
every day.
As you know, Louise and I have been on a
journey since leaving Gambela. So many of our dear friends and family confirmed
our move that if it wasn’t for the emotional ties with our dear brethren in
Ethiopia, the transition might even have been classified as easy.
We have explored different options, but
believe that the Lord is leading us to work with an Anglican organisation named
Growing the Church, or GtC for short. However, this move is subject to SAMS
approval.
So far, we have met with the GtC Director
and team members (several times!), the GtC Board, Diocesan Coordinators, and Elders.
Tomorrow, we will be meeting the Archbishop and the Suffragan Bishop as well.
GtC works in seven southern African areas:
South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, and the island
of St Helena.
In many ways, GtC is a logical extension of
what we have been doing for so many years of our life in Africa, India, and in
the US. Mobilising church members to do what they are called by God to do is
very much part of who we are as His servants. (We have included the GtC Job Description
below for your perusal.)
God willing, we will return to the US mid
January to meet with SAMS Leadership, take a course in Discipleship at Trinity,
take a course in short-term missions training at SAMS, visit our children and
grandchildren, visit as many of our supporters as humanly possible (what would
we do without y’all?!), attend a debriefing session in PA, and seek our more
support as the cost of living in South Africa will be higher than that in
Gambela. The timing of our return to the field will be contingent on sufficient
funding…so we really need your prayers!
Please walk with us as we seek to walk
further with Jesus into His future.
We wish you all the most blessed Christmas
and the happiest of new years. May our gracious and merciful King grant you all
your heart’s desire and may you come to know that His every thought towards you
as His child is always for good only and never, ever for evil.
Many blessings and tons of love.
Johann and Louise
GROWING
THE CHURCH (GtC)
Job
Description: Johann & Louise van der Bijl -
Joint
Coordinators – Training in Mission & Ministry
1.
Leadership Development and
Team Formation
W Primarily to transition
GtC into our 28 dioceses through assisting with team formation, and capacity
building through appropriate training.
W Training at least 15
people in each diocese who will immediately begin to pass their training on to
at least 10 other persons within one year. This equates to 420 primary people
trained in 3 years and 4200 secondary trained persons in that period.
W The Intentional
Discipleship and Disciple-making training process will be the primary means of
team formation so as to instil a missional DNA from the start.
2.
Intentional Discipleship
and Disciple-making (ID&DM)
W To develop skilled faculty
from among those being trained above who will assist with passing their
training on both within their dioceses and regionally.
W The aim is to spark an
ID&DM movement which will grow exponentially and impact virtually every
parish. Disciples making disciples is
thus a critical component.
3.
Mission Teams – Formation
and Training
W A mark of a disciple’s
maturity is that they intentionally reach out to others both within their ambit
and beyond.
W Holistic missional
engagement is considered to be one of the best means of growing mature
disciples as we seek to fulfil the great commandment and the great commission.
W Our primary focus will be
weekend and short-term missions.
4.
Research relevant to
Church Health, Mission and Ministry
W Specific research in
relation to items 1 & 2 above – so that we may serve dioceses in accordance
with their needs and context.
W General research as
regards church health that serves our bishops, clergy and leaders, and serves
GtC as we seek to be more focussed and intentional in our work and ministry.
5.
Participate in Joint Team
Initiatives
W Anglicans Ablaze
Conferences
W Family Life Seminars
W Planning, administration
& execution