YWAM Leaders for Africa to meet

Starting today the Executive Group of YWAM's Africa Leadership Team are holding their annual meetings. The larger team will join the Executive from Sunday evening, meeting together throughout next week. Leaders will travel from all over the continent to represent their regions or ministry areas.

Three of the AfriCom team members will be present at the meetings, taking the opportunity to connect with the leaders during their breaks. This gives us a chance to ask them in person for information updates. Miranda will also attend the meetings to act as an observer/communicator, posting daily updates on the YWAM Africa website so that staff members can follow the meetings from their locations.

This year we will take the opportunity of having the leaders all together to promote the School of Field Journalism and the Communication Consultation we are hosting next year. In this way we hope to encourage the leaders to appoint staff members from around the continent to attend these two key events. We believe their is the potential for a communication explosion in YWAM Africa, if we publicise these opportunities well.

Our annual month of prayer for Africa begins on Sunday. Prayer Guides have been mailed to each YWAM base in Africa, and we will also take extra copies to the leaders for them to distribute to their contacts. Meeting with them on the day the Prayer Month begins will be an ideal moment to launch the Prayer Guide and to pray together.

Invariably these meetings are very busy, with a packed agenda and many side meetings. Please pray for the Leadership Team to have wisdom, clarity of thought and unity in their decision-making. Pray for AfriCom to be an encouragement to the leaders and for good buy-in to the communication opportunities.

Trouble in Cape Town

This week South Africa is in turmoil as native-born Africans have turned against expatriate Africans, claiming their presence in the country robs them of jobs and housing. As violence has broken out in communities all over South Africa, people have fled their homes to congregate in hastily constructed camps.

Not far from where our communication team has its offices has sprung up the largest refugee camp in the Western Cape. We have been visiting daily, volunteering to help with food distribution and tent construction, but also hearing people's stories and taking photos. On Monday we joined with staff and students from the YWAM center in Muizenberg for their time of intercession, informing them about the refugee camp and mobilising people to help out.

Meanwhile our email inbox is filling up with stories from other parts of the country, from YWAM teams that are not simply going to places to help the refugees, but who are living and working amongst them. Their stories need telling as well, because in the face of division there are stories of unity across races, in the face of desperation there are stories of hope and in the face of hardship compassion is being demonstrated by the people of God.

Appropriate Technology

This week we have been joined by Greg who is connected to Mission Builders, a YWAM ministry based in Montana, USA. With many years experience in project management and a good understanding of the unique realities of a YWAM environment, Greg is a very insightful guy to help us process through our goals and overall direction.

This is something we have come back to multiple times, since it's always good to revise previous plans and ask the tough questions to help us check if we are on track. Similarly, when new staff members join - as Evelien did in February - some group dialogue is needed to ensure we all share the same priorities and sense of direction; that we all know why we do what we do, the way we do it.

Now half-way through this planning process we are identifying aspects of our vision that require a different approach to the one we have had. Our staff members from Africa have been reminding us again of the importance of creating a sense of family across YWAM ministries in the continent and we have discussed how a truly personal approach is needed to build a strong sense of belonging. As communicators we can get carried away with high tech solutions, while it is perhaps the most 'basic' technology that is the most appropriate. Is it time to think of putting the laptop aside for a moment and hand-writing personal letters to the leaders?!

Planning time for School of Field Journalism

Having gotten our initial 'ducks in a row', this week we have been tackling the details of the curriculum for the School of Field Journalism. We have agreed with the YWAM training center in Muizenberg to host the school on their premises, which is a wonderful opportunity to partner with them, and have agreed on a January 2009 start. We are hoping for 15-20 students who will join the greater student body at YWAM Muizenberg, made up of people attending the Discipleship Training School and the School of Biblical Studies. There sure will be a buzz around the place at that time!

We have been having lively team discussions this week as we seek to build up an overview of the 12 weeks of the lecture phase. We want to have a schedule that reflects the passion we have for our African context, as well as equipping the students with research, writing and media skills so that they can go out into the field and relay the stories they hear about how God is at work around this wonderful continent.

Our team discussions are always spirited affairs; we are a group of strong and opinionated people! It is great to see how we pass through a process of earnest discussion, disagreement and debate (yes, and sometimes digressions too!) and finally arrive at a place of agreement. Invariably our conclusions are way more creative and insightful than if we had taken the easy route of no conflict! We are all committed to the process and ultimately having fun: what could be better?!

Day of Prayer for Zimbabwe

A desperate cry from the hearts of Zimbabwe screams across the world. It calls upon all Christians of every denomination in every nation to focus their prayers on the critical situation in a nation experiencing dire distress and teetering on the brink of human disaster. Let the cry for help touch your heart and mind. Let it move you to do what You can immediately to ensure this DAY OF PRAYER takes place in your country and neighborhood, whether in churches, halls, homes or elsewhere: Sunday 27th April, 2008.

LatinCom

This week Martial and Miranda are attending YWAM's communication consultation, otherwise known as CRIT: communication, research & information technology. It's an annual gathering for anyone involved in these areas within Youth With A Mission and was initiated 4 or 5 years ago when YWAM realised it had to get serious about strengthening its communication infrastructure. There's a strong international contingent - people are here from as far away as South Korea - but each year there is a particular focus on the host region. Next year we will be hosting CRIT in Africa, which is very exciting.

South America has a pretty good track record when it comes to the communications sphere. There have been some great video and graphics initiatives, as well as training courses being run by teams around the region. In spite of that there has been too little focus on communication within the organisation, leaving a great need to facilitate stronger connections between YWAM teams. This is especially the case between those teams in Brazil, which is Portuguese-speaking, and those in the rest of Spanish-speaking Latin America.

There are various working groups taking place throughout the consultation, helping to make progress and build momentum in the main focus areas.
Miranda writes: The group I am helping to facilitate is working to launch a Communication Team for Latin America. Having been a part of starting AfriCom it's fun to work at the process - it's a lot more noisy than I remember our first meetings, with a dozen Latinos all making their voices heard! Things came together pretty well today and it seems that by the end of the week we'll have leadership in place and some initial goals and projects for the team.

Some of the EuroCom team are also at the consultation. The various individuals are all part of different working groups, so not officially meeting together. Having said that, they're a bit stuck and feel that leadership issues have prevented them making progress in Europe, so there have been some extra meetings with them to look at those issues. After working so hard Martial and Miranda will have to come back to the office for a holiday!

Pray for Africa

The Prayer Guide for 2008 is ready! We are thrilled with the result of months of research, writing, design and translation: this year's guide to praying for issues affecting Africa sees some great developments from our 4 previous editions. The biggest change is that the guide is more issues-based than YWAM focused, with lots of information that will help churches and Christians around the world pray for the continent. Facts and figures are listed alongside personal stories, and there are ideas about how to get involved as well as pointers for prayer. This guide is not limited to specific dates so that although YWAM Africa will designate a month for concerted prayer, anyone can use the guide at any time. We hope to see many more people get excited about praying for our beloved continent as we offer them this excellent tool and encourage them to use it!

For copies of the Prayer Guide please email us at: ywamafricom@gmail.com