Latest Djembe magazine is out!

Last week, winging their way from the printers in India, came the latest editions of YWAM Africa's magazine. A djembe is a West African drum and the magazine is so-called because it reports the rhythms of YWAM in Africa. With stories from around the continent, this is a great means of connecting with other parts of the YWAM Africa family, and a great resource for prayer for the continent.

If you are part of a YWAM ministry in Africa, you should find print editions of the magazine at your local YWAM training centre (base). You can also find an electronic version of the magazine here. Share this resource with your supporters as a great way of introducing them to the broader YWAM work, of which you are a part! Thanks to the work of committed translators, the magazine features every article in English, French and Portuguese - so share it far and wide.

To email us with feedback, or to submit a story for the next edition, contact: lydias@ywamafricom.org

We do it for them

Early next year south Sudan will hold a referendum that may result in the independence of the south of the country from the north. This referendum was part of the peace agreement of 2005 and is set to take place on 09 January. We recently received an email asking us to help mobilize prayer for an end to the harassment of citizens currently seeking to register for the referendum. There is fear that the intimidation may result in clashes and even prevent the historical referendum from taking place.

In the midst of this reality we have YWAM Africa staff continuing their ministries in both the north and the south of the country. The team in Yei, where this photo was taken, have already suffered many difficult situations due to the conflict in the country. For a long time they would have to leave the base at night due to the fear of raids; within this context they continued to offer discipleship and vocational training. Only more recently have they enjoyed a level of peace that has enabled them to develop their team, their campus and the work they do.

These quiet heroes are why we do what we do. The key words of our AfriCom statement of purpose are: connect, champion and change. We want to strengthen YWAM staff like those in Yei, by connecting them with other YWAM teams in their region and across the continent, giving them a sense of the greater family around them who are praying and supporting them. We want to champion them, telling their stories in such a way that others are inspired to pray for them, to make donations towards their work and even to go and serve alongside them for a time. We want to help them bring change in their communities by offering training that equips them with communication skills to be more effective; that enables them to build ministry partnerships with others using those same skills.

One of the ways we do all this is through the magazine we produce for YWAM in Africa. In the magazine we feature stories about people like those in Yei and we tell those stories in French and Portuguese, as well as English, so that all our Africa teams can make use of the magazine. We stick with a printed magazine because many of our teams work in places like Yei where the Internet is not adequate for them to easily access websites, or is too expensive. We mail multiple copies to each YWAM base and the staff receive the magazine for free.

We have heard that as they look at the photographs and read the stories, the letter from the leadership team, and the information about upcoming events and resources, our hard-working staff feel encouraged. They feel part of a bigger 'missionary tribe', they know others are working as hard as they are to see God's kingdom come in their communities, they know they are being prayed for and are not forgotten. We know that many use the magazine to show to their supporters, or to potential students, because it helps put their work in the context of a bigger picture.

All this costs money! We have taken responsibility to raise finances to fund the magazines production and distribution - we want to offer it to our heroic staff members as part of our vision to connect, champion and change. We are raising money primarily through the placing of ads in the magazine and these ads are a great way to build a partnership with the fantastic work YWAM teams are doing in Africa.

Whether you are part of a YWAM ministry centre, or represent a company and would like to partner with us to strengthen those who are change-makers in Africa, get in touch. If you are an individual and would like to make a donation towards the magazine, do contact us: info@ywamafricom.org

Remember ... we do it for them!

Effective Communication Workshop

Last week AfriCom team members ran an Effective Communication Workshop at the Worcester training centre, 2 hours drive from Cape Town.

We had a wonderful time with our 17 participants, most of whom spoke English as a second language.

Beginning with Interpersonal Communication and moving through Writing, Photography, Public Speaking, Fundraising and Use of Social Media, the aim was to equip these missionaries with skills to enable them communicate more effectively; in their teams, with their ministry partners and with other parts of Youth With A Mission.

We had great feedback at the end of the week, so it seems the workshop hit the spot when it comes to people's training needs. Communication is such a big part of a volunteer missionaries job and so many feel ill-equipped to do it well. A special highlight was to find that many participants found the teaching brought a measure of healing to them, especially for those who had been discouraged in the areas of fundraising and communication within their teams.

It was also special for us to partner with Wycliffe's Africa communication team. Heather Pubols joined us to teach on Use of Social Media and we are looking forward to more opportunities to support one another in missions communication.

For the AfriCom staff members running the workshop was encouraging and motivating. Needless to say we are keen to offer simnilar workshops in more locations: contact us to invite us to your region!

Global Communication Meetings

A little bit of a catch-up is needed!

Back in October, Tim and Miranda left the rest of the team holding the fort in Cape Town and travelled to Harpenden, England, to participate in YWAM's Global Communication meetings.

This was a time for YWAM staff from around the world, those who are contributing to YWAM's global communication pieces, to meet for a time of evaluation and goal-setting. One of the highlights of the gathering was the opportunity it provided to remind one another of why we are all engaged in communication in a missionary context.

If communication can be likened to the nervous system of the body, it is clearly there to serve the body and to enable the body to do what it needs to do; to fulfil its functions. In the context of YWAM, the purpose of the body of missionaries around the world is, 'To know God and to make God known'.

Communicators might be IT savvy, social networking addicts with cameras and gadgets hanging off them (the lucky ones, anyway!) but YWAM communicators have a heart for missions that drives and enlivens everything they do.

Being amongst this international group gave Tim and Miranda the opportunity to see again the big picture of how communication tools and training can enable missionaries, both new and experienced, to make God known around the world the more effectively.

What a privilege to be a part of this!

Celebrating YWAM family

Stefaan Hugo has been the leader of the YWAM training centre in Worcester, South Africa, for the past 12 years. This week, amidst much celebration for the faithfulness of God over more than a decade, he handed over this leadership role to Bruno Guntelach who will partner with his wife, Judy.

Twelve years ago the Worcester training centre started in an old hospital, which the 15 staff members set about transforming into classrooms, accommodation and meetings halls. Today there are over 150 staff members and the centre is training people from many different nations, to work in diverse ways to take the message of Jesus to the communities of Africa and beyond.

One of the ministries at YWAM Worcester is a language training school. Many missionaries come from nations such as Brazil and Korea to learn English in order to be able to take news of God's salvation to other nations. Nilto is one such Brazilian graduate of the school who is now working in Maputo, Mozambique, where a new YWAM ministry has recently been established. In the riots in that city last month, Nilto was able to get news about the situation to those outside Mozambique, in order for prayer and practical help to be mobilized. He is one of many people who have been equipped to serve in other African nations through the work of YWAM in Worcester. They describe themselves as a 'gateway to Africa and the world'.

Over 40 nationalities came together to celebrate the foundations of this YWAM campus and to dream of the future growth and fruitfulness possible as they work together. Bruno Guntelach, originally from Switzerland, took on the symbolic mantle of authority from Stefaan Hugo, as leaders from YWAM in the region, as well as community leaders, welcomed him in this new appointment and prayed for him and his family.

There has been a long partnership between the YWAM training centres in Worcester and Muizenberg (the location of our communication team for YWAM Africa projects). It was wonderful to celebrate with staff and students and to look forward with them to all that is to come.

Make YOUR communication more effective!

It has been said that communication in Youth With A Mission is like the central nervous system in a body; when it is functioning well, the whole body works more effectively. If you are a staff member, how about your role in this body called YWAM? Whether you are a foot, or a hand, or a mouth: Are you able to function as effectively as you would like to? Do others know enough about your ministry, and you about theirs? Could you share information more effectively than you do now?

Just as the nervous system requires the ongoing provision of certain nutrients in order to work as it should, so we need ongoing training to help us communicate as well as possible.

If you think your communication could use a top-up of nutrients, then we have just the thing for you!

The Effective Communication Workshop (ECW) is a week-long workshop for YWAMers interested in learning more about communicating effectively in a missions context, and in practising some very practical skills. This workshop will be offered from 7 – 13 November 2010, at the Worcester base in South Africa, and is open to staff members from anywhere in the region. Everyone who attends should leave the workshop with a broader understanding of communication and with an increased competence in communication skills.

We will give an overview of communication in a missions context, as well as covering public speaking, interpersonal communication, writing newsletters and articles, use of photography and video, and support-raising.

For an application form, email us at ywamafricom@gmail.com - We look forward to you joining us. Let’s get our communication highway up to full speed!

AfriCom in Angola

Tim writes: Four of our team have just returned from a very full and satisfying road trip to Angola.

Full is an understatement: we drove a crazy nine thousand kilometres, much off road – that’s 135 hours in the car, an average of nine hours driving every single day. We visited seven Youth With A Mission locations - spread out over several provinces - shot twenty hours of video, and interviewed dozens of people, working 18-hour days for two weeks. We travelled as far north as Cabinda, above the mouth of the Congo River, and our total distance driven could almost have reached Cairo.

Satisfying is also an understatement: being a missions communicator is always exciting, but especially so when we get to tell the stories of ordinary people, doing quite extraordinary things. Often these people are unheard of, living in remote places, like those YWAM staff members we met working with isolated tribes in Angola’s low-lying savannah.

Angola is going through huge changes. Forty years of war ended eight years ago, since then oil has been discovered and the economy is growing fast. The infrastructure destroyed by guerrilla war is being rebuilt, roads are being tarred, new buildings are shooting up.

YWAM Angola is going through similar changes. A small team of Brazilian missionaries arrived in the country in 1991, at the height of the war. Their early years were spent in relief work, food distribution and training Angolans. Three Brazilian YWAMers died in the country in those early pioneering years. Several YWAM ministries have been thriving for more than a decade, in particular church planting and community development work among various tribes, and work among children at risk in one of the poorest communities in Lobito. These ministries have now bought land and are beginning the process of building training locations where they can teach other Angolans the skills they’ve learned over the years of work.

Given the changes in YWAM Angola it was a superb time to be travelling in the country. We visited each location, and now have footage to edit a promotional video for the YWAM teams. YWAM Angola is at the stage of moving to a new level in terms of training and multiplication. We trust that the video will help them publicise their work to raise funds, personnel and prayer.

Back in 1999, my small group leader on our Discipleship Training School in Cape Town was Brazilian, Ismael. He was in Cape Town for a year learning English, taking a break from work in Angola. Now he is YWAM Angola’s national director and he accompanied us on our trip. It was great to spend time with Ismael, to have hours to talk, and to see his leadership style up close. Most inspiring is to see the fruit of Ismael and Sibeli’s twenty years of sacrificial work in Angola. Many of the Angolans they trained are now full-time missionaries, training others.

Sixteen years ago Inacio was in the army, struggling with a drink problem. He wandered drunk into a church service, and left feeling called to full-time missions. Within months he had joined YWAM and begun working with street kids in Lobito. He married Mila and adopted eight street kids, bringing them up alongside their four biological children. Inacio started a school for neighbouring children, which the city mayor has called the best childrens’ project in the city. Today, local businesses are so impressed with the work that most of their food comes for free – Inacio showed me three freezers full of fresh fish! Every fortnight a tanker delivers water to the site, given freely by the mayor. Today, they are building a school on a new plot of land. They also plan a vocational training school, a clinic, and a training centre for people working with children at risk.

Inacio and Mila’s large family is growing up. One son is now being trained in South Africa for further work with YWAM. Another is a skilled welder, and is helping on the school construction site. Just a decade ago they were both street kids, rummaging for food in rubbish dumps.

It was inspiring to meet several Angolan YWAMers like Inacio. During this season of economic boom he has the potential to find a high-paying job. Yet he continues to follow his calling, putting faith into action. His vision to build and train others is contagious. He’s leading by example.

It was great to travel with three other AfriCom-ers. As none of them had visited Angola before it was a baptism of fire all round! In the hours on the road we had plenty of time to talk, argue, make-up again, and get to know each other much more deeply than in the office. I love my job ;-)