Training, this week & next.

This week Tim has been teaching on the subject of Missions on the Discipleship Training School at the YWAM center in Muizenberg. He enjoys teaching and this has always been a great way for us to connect with YWAM staff and students. When he is teaching on Missions he communicates his passion for the people of Africa as well as his many missions experiences in different parts of the continent. The DTS group leave for their outreach phase in Sierra Leone next week so Tim did his best to fill them with anticipation for their time amongst the people there.

In the office we have been preparing for a five-day Leadership Workshop starting next Tuesday, after the long Easter weekend. The workshop is also at the YWAM center in Muizenberg, another great opportunity to partner with them and grow our working relationship.The emphasis of the training will be on developing leadership by growing in our understanding of ourselves and others. Though we are organizing the event none of us is scheduled to teach, we will be sitting in and soaking up the wisdom and experience of two friends from Tim and Miranda's home church in England. Tania and Jules are very experienced in the area of leadership: Tania West is a leadership and management trainer and Jules Hodge is a gifted bible teacher and management consultant. We are excited to have them visit to work alongside us and looking forward to great things next week!

International Communication Network

Tomorrow Miranda returns from Colorado Springs where she has been meeting with YWAM staff at the offices of the ICN.
About 5 years ago, Tom (not his real name; the gentleman on the far right of the photograph above) initiated the idea of having Com Teams around the YWAM world. After years of working for YWAM communications on a global level he had realised the need to delegate responsibility to field-based teams. AfriCom was the first of those teams and has paved the way for Comm Teams to multiply and to become part of YWAM's global communication strategy.
Miranda had the opportunity to meet with a number of people now working to promote Comm Teams throughout the YWAM world, brainstorming with them ways to strengthen the initiative and help make teams more effective.

YWAM Communications is going through a big transition at the moment as our global magazine - The International YWAMer - moves from being a print publication to an e-zine. Tom and Stacey (far left) have written and edited the IY for many years and now Tamara (left of center) will take over. An e-zine has certain implications for our YWAM staff in Africa since many of them will struggle to receive that email or to access the incorporated links. AfriCom will therefore be creating a special print publication for Africa, a combination of our 'Djembe' magazine and the IY e-zine articles. The guys at ICN are very supportive about this initiative, helping us to finance the printing and mailing; this is an indispensable tool for YWAM Africa because it helps to mobilise new missionaries and encourage those already on the field.

YWAM Prayer Day

Every month YWAM holds a global day of prayer across our mission family. The leaders send out a fantastic package of information each time, including a letter from the International Chairman (Lynn Green), teaching on that month's topic and extra resources such as testimonies, video clips and so on. An email is sent to every YWAMer who has signed up, directing them to the related website, which is really well done. The only thing is that not everyone around the world is able to access this kind of web-based information ... which is where Communication Teams like AfriCom come in.
It's our job to find a workable solution so that our staff around Africa are included in these prayer times. It's taken a bit of creativity - for a while it seemed we weren't even able to get people signed up for the emails - but we are on track to make this work. We send out a text message to as many cell phone numbers as we have for YWAM staff members in Africa, alerting them to the upcoming Prayer Day and giving them the theme and main text. Then we mail a short version of the email information ... those that have adequate Internet facility can refer to the wealth of information on the website but those whose Internet is unreliable or expensive are not excluded from the initiative. So far so good: if anyone is reading this in Africa, do mail any YWAM cell numbers to ywamafricom@gmail.com.

The A Team!

Don't you love our latest photo? From back left, Martial from Benin (Visual Communication), Tim from the UK (Research & Writing), Evelien from the Netherlands (Office Management), Miranda from the UK (Team Leadership) and Pam from Zimbabwe (Writing). But there's room for more: come join us!