Meanwhile, in Argentina ...

While AfriCom has been busy getting a newsletter printed and posted, and connecting with the YWAM staff in the south central region, LatinCom has hosted their first corporate gathering since the global communication consultation that was held there in April 2008. Com Team members from around the Latin American continent met together in Buenos Aires to pray, discuss strategy and to connect with one another. Miranda was able to meet with them via Skype to bring a greeting from Com Teams internationally and to field questions. It was great to 'drop in' on our fellow Com Team members in South America and particularly to see the Portuguese-speaking Brazilians and Spanish-speaking Latinos seeking to work more closely together on behalf of their continent.

Com Teams in South America have developed differently to those in Africa. From the beginning of LatinCom we have had representatives in a number of countries and the challenge has been to coordinate the work of those individuals as part of a Com Team strategy to support the work of YWAM in that part of the world. In Africa we have always had the core team working together from one location, with a common strategy, but we have had to work hard to mobilize regional teams for different parts of the continent. We have a lot to learn from one another and in both parts of the world we are seeking to work more closely with YWAM's communication training that takes place through the College of Communication that is part of the University of the Nations.

LatinCom, we wish you the very best as you serve YWAM in South America! Thanks for allowing us to connect with your gathering, it was great to 'see' you all :-)

South Central Africa Regional Conference

You could hear the sound of a drum resounding through the South Central region of Africa. People came from the North, South, East and West, for one purpose; to be reunited as a family.
On the 9th of August, YWAM South Central Africa gathered for their annual two years regional staff conference in Livingstone, Zambia. Altogether they formed a family rich in diversity and flavour, living throughout Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

YWAM South Central Africa is rich in its assortment of ministries, but this was not the centre of the conference. The message of the conference was simple, ‘together for the harvest’, and the focus was to rest and to be set free from bondages and fears that withhold us from walking in our full potential serving God. To be unified as a region and together reach these nations for God.

Words of encouragement were spoken. “We are people of labour, people of turmoil, but the number one in spiritual warfare is to rest, rest for strength.” Jonathan Mumbi, director of YWAM Zambia said on the first day. This set the tone for the conference.

Guest speaker of the week was Don Gillman, base director of YWAM Taiwan. He inspired us with his message and challenged us with his life stories and questions. A few of his questions were, how far are we willing to go for the gospel, what fears are keeping us from the will of God, what is true obedience and what are our value systems?
Through the daily preaching there was a calling to come back to the heart of God to find rest, to be strengthened, and to receive Gods grace in the middle of struggle or victory. To come back to a place where we “Obey the Father and not the need of men.” (Oswald Chambers).

With teachings in mind, fellowship in the heart and a cup of tea in hand, YWAM South Central Africa together tackled their fears and discussed their value systems.

At the end of the conference people were returning to their homes, encouraged and prepared for the task before them.

Lydia Smit

Bits & pieces

Some of the advantages of having our office next to the YWAM Muizenberg base are easy networking and opportunities to hear stories without having to travel far.
We also get to be part of the cool things happening under their roof and participate in ministry and events. The most recent event we attended was the Catalyst 9 gathering in Cape Town. Catalyst 9 is part of an YWAM international outreach which takes place in different cities around the world. What a great way to find out what the YWAM teams are doing in and around the city of Cape Town in partnership with local churches.

This week Evelien and Pam are in the office. The Heathcote family is in the UK for a well deserved break. Lydia is in Livingstone, Zambia where she is attending the South Central Africa staff conference. Check the blog next week to read about her time there.

Djembe, the YWAM Africa newsletter that we produce from our office went out this week. If you are on our mailing list check your mail box, if you would like to receive a copy please let us know.

Meet Vikki

This is Vikki Wright, an awesome American YWAMer working in the north of Uganda with her British husband and three kids. We first got to know Vikki and John through Tim's visits to their rural YWAM campus to teach on Discipleship Training Schools. It took us a while to realize that she has a love of writing, and a little longer to draw her into YWAM communication through the writing of stories from her region. Back in May this year, Vikki joined us for CRIT and her desire to incorporate communication into her ministry in a greater way began to take form.

This week, as we met at the East Africa regional staff conference, it became clear that Vikki really carries the vision for developing communication more effectively in the region. In addition to that, she is a respected part of her base leadership team and well-known to the regional leaders, which makes it easier for her than for others to dialogue with the leaders on communication issues.

With the blessing of the leaders, Vikki has expressed a willingness to be the coordinator for AfriCom East, which she will do with help from Sandra Merriman who is geographically closer to the group of communicators located in Jinja, Uganda. That group is also being ably facilitated by Agnes, one of the graduates of our 2009 School of Field Journalism. Together these women will make a great team as we keep moving towards the goal of building more effective communication to, from and around East Africa. Welcome to the team!

Growing AfriCom in East Africa

This week Miranda has been in Tanzania, East Africa. She's been enjoying the buzz of attending a YWAM regional staff conference, always a great opportunity to meet a lot of YWAMers from a number of countries without having to go to each location! Meeting together in Arusha at the foot of Mount Meru were staff from Ethiopia, Chad, DR Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda, not to mention those from Tanzania itself. There was a wonderful atmosphere of celebration as the crowd of around 300 recounted the faithfulness of God in all their myriad activities around the region.

But Miranda was not just there to enjoy the inevitable vibe of a YWAM gathering. She had an ulterior motive! This was an opportunity to follow up on the progress made at CRIT towards forming a regional Com Team, an AfriCom East if you will :-) Attending this conference was well-worth it ... together with the regional leaders and the staff with a interest in communication, Miranda helped to form both a structure and an immediate concrete goal for the team. She is hoping that this will help both those who are already keen to be involved and those who may be mobilized around the practical project that was decided on.

This project is one that could be adopted by other regions in the continent, or even by other parts of the world. It centers around gathering stories and historical information in preparation for YWAM's 50th anniversary celebrations next year. Communication teams globally have planned to produce a celebratory magazine to be made available at all the 50th anniversary events, an opportunity for YWAM International to tell their stories. So communicators (and others who don't yet know they are communicators!) in East Africa are all set to unearth a treasure trove of stories and to share them with the world ... what better way to launch a regional Com Team?!

Com Teams and Training

Those of you who have been following the journey of our YWAM Communication Team know that in the first quarter of this year we ran a School of Field Journalism through YWAM's University of the Nations. This was a new experience for us, having focused up until that point on production projects as part of our communication service to the organization.

This morning we spent some time evaluating how well we felt the school had contributed to AfriCom's overall vision and purpose: was it worth the effort and resources required to run a 3 month residential course such as this? If so, is the School of Field Journalism the most appropriate school for a Com Team such as ourselves, or would a Communicating for Missions school be more appropriate?

The SOFJ had some great outcomes. In several ways running the school clearly benefited our coverall vision, which is to connect YWAM in Africa to one another, to YWAM internationally and to other interested parties. We recruited a communicator for the East Africa region and one for the core team in South Africa. We also had a number of YWAM-related stories published and saw graduates go on to get involved in helping to strengthen other YWAM ministries in the area of communication. By partnering our field assignment phase with a Basic Communication Workshop and a Communication Consultation we were able to maximize the impact of the school and help the students get a taste for strengthening the mission using their communication skills.

In addition to this, there were some outcomes that were beneficial to our broader goal of acting as champions of YWAM in Africa and of the continent itself. By running a journalism course we were able to introduce students to the African context and worldview, to develop connections with others who are experts in this area and to promote an engagement with the issues facing this continent in particular. One of our longer term visions is to become part of establishing a resource center for Africa and perhaps the School of Field Journalism could play a role in this?

When we think about training we believe that shorter, field-based training opportunities best serve the needs of this continent. Indeed we had a number of students who struggled to pay their fees throughout the School of Field Journalism; many others inquired about attending the school but were unable to do so because of a lack of finances. Running the Basic Communication Workshop in Uganda showed us, if any further proof were necessary, that taking training to the staff reduces overall costs to them and makes the training more accessible to a greater number of people.

So perhaps a training strategy that creates space for both longer and shorter training opportunities is called for? We are potentially looking towards running a residential school, such as the SOFJ,somewhere in Africa once every 24 months, in addition to running a shorter 6 week communication workshop in another location 12 months later. This would develop into a 24 month cycle, enabling us to invest in as many people as possible with the limited staff team we have available.

Our thoughts turn to other YWAM Com Teams around the world and we wonder whether some of the lessons we are learning could benefit them too. Perhaps in future we'll see more of a strategic partnership growing between YWAM's College of Communication and the field-based Com Teams such as ourselves? There is both a need and an opportunity to work together to see people equipped with communication skills and YWAM served through the use of those same skills.

Strengthening YWAM Communication

One of the ways the AfriCom team works to strengthen YWAM communication is through contributing content to websites and blogs that promote YWAM ministries in different parts of Africa and the world. This week, some of our writing has found its way onto the blog for the YWAM center in Arua, northern Uganda. In fact, this was part of the work produced while our School of Field Journalism students were in East Africa.

Take a look - let's be part of increased traffic to another great YWAM Africa site!