May our Thanksgiving be reflected in our giving!!!

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As for many of you, November represents a time for Reflection and Thanksgiving. And so, as we consider the year past, remembering where we’ve come from, and where we’re heading, we find fulfillment of God’s purpose for our lives. How revealing to know that the journey that we’re on is God in Christ reaching out to us, and through us in love to those that He has called us to serve! His is a love that is enfleshed around the wounds of this world in order to bring healing; a love that is willing to be sacrificed in order to restore the goodness of creation, a love that is resurrected in order to make all things new. Therefore, as we consider the many reasons we have for Thanksgiving this season, may we as the recipients of such gracious love, continue to proclaim and embody this good news through our lives and deeds!

PROVIDING FOR THE WIDOW!

Myra has been part of the AFnet team for over a decade now. Her work has included taking care of all domestic responsibilities around the AFnet campus, both offices, lecture and guest facilities. In this task Myra has excelled with great passion and pride in her position and work. She knows and remembers everyone who has passed through our facilities. And I’m sure that all who have met her, remembers her. And so we are grateful for Myra, and her contribution towards helping make it possible for us to get on with our responsibilities, as together we respectively each fulfill our specific part of the Task before us.

But things have not been easy for Myra. Over the past year she lost both her daughter and her husband. Sadly her daughter, Charlotte, at just 21 contracted a rare virus, which damaged her heart. She died shortly after graduating from College – a “luxury” which her parents could not afford – so AFnet paid for her. Then, shortly afterwards, her husband who had just retired was misdiagnosed and unexpectedly died of a perfectly preventable condition. Myra lost her child, and became widowed in the space of a couple of months.

It was through these tragic circumstances that we first found out about the state of disrepair of Myra’s home in her village. The iron roof-sheets were just about completely rusted through, and years of rain damage to the inside of the house very serious. Therefore, understanding that our mandate to serve the Orphan and the Widow does not only refer to those far away, but also to those closer to “home” we immediately set to task to fix Myra’s house for her. We have already replaced the entire roof, at a cost of around $6000. But we still have a lot to do, to re-plaster a large section of the house, together with replacing water-damaged and sagging ceilings, repainting the house, and replacing cabinets and wooden closets that have rotted out. Any contribution towards this faithful Widow’s immediate need will be greatly appreciated.

CARING FOR THE ORPHAN!

In August Christo and I traveled to Zambia, and among other reasons for the trip, we replaced the defunct water pump on the well at the Mansa Orphan Center. Several of our, supporters rallied around that specific need, and helped pay for the replacement solar pump. The extatic appreciation expressed by the children, when they again saw fresh clean water flowing into the tank, was all the reward we needed. But then, as “fate” would have it, now just over a month later, our Director at the Center notified us that the Water tank had sprung a serious leak in the same spot, where on a previous occasion we had patched a hole. We have no option now than to replace the 5000 Liter tank, before it completely ruptures. And, for that we need to raise around $1600.

LORD SEND ME!

Commissioning and sending out new Church Planters is at the core of AFnet’s evangelistic strategy. And so over the years this ministry has had the privilege of Training thousands of Church Planters, but also as funds permitted, to commission and send out church planting teams into countless numbers of especially rural and unreached areas of our Continent. And so, now again a call has come from our Zambian coordinator for financial help to send out several new Church Planting Teams. Our immediate desire is to plant several new churches in the northern remote regions of Zambia, where that country borders onto the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania. The 6 villages where Henry proposed we next plant new churches are: Milenge, Luwingu, Mbala, Mporokoso, Mununga and Chipili. Two of our recent graduates, Kasuba Chanda and his class-mate, Butemwe Mumba, have already been identified, and are currently in practical training, ready to be deployed to Mbala on the Tanzaniana border first of the new year. Also identified and ready to be deployed to either Milenge or Luwingu is pastor Vincent Mulenga, with his wife Beatrice (who also is qualified in basic clinical medicine) with their one year old todler. They are currently engaged in an orientation program with Pastor Henry Mumba, at the church in Mansa. We are in the process of prayerfully indentifying other teams to send out to the other 4 sites mentioned asap! But, we also need to raise the support for these 6 church planting teams, $400 per month per team, for a total of $1200 per month, over a two year period that we usually commit to first support each new church planting venture.

“The Great Commission, the final command of Jesus to the Church, demands that we take the Gospel to all peoples in all places. And so we are increasingly burdened by the knowledge that there are still places, and vast numbers of people in our part of the world who do not have access to the Gospel. And so, in identifying also these villages where there still is no viable church, we believe that we are acting in obedience of our Lord’s command to take the Church to where it is not! At the same time, we likewise believe that Christ’s commission fully intended to also include acts of righteousness and a practical expression of His grace towards all Peoples. And so as a ministry we feel that our mandate includes helping and providing for the needs of the Orphans and Widows, as per God’s command in the Book of James, chapter 1:27. May I therefore, challenge you dear friend and supporter of AFnet/AFnetAid, that as you perpare to celebrate Thanksgiving this month, that you also will allow the One to whom we will be returning Thanks, to prepare your heart as to what He would request of you to sow further into, and towards these needs mentioned.”

Johan and Christa Combrinck

 

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