WEEK 6 - 12 JULY 2008

The evening was attended by 12 adults and 4 children who huddled around a roaring fire. Llewellyn, the facilitator for the evening got the meeting going with a discussion around Isaiah 61: 1-4. A summary would be our role in bringing the Kingdom down to earth through the annointing of the Holy Spirit. It is an interesting verse for one to think about with regard to ones role in the Kingdom. The next item was a reportback from Mario, Ansie and Sonia regarding there visit to a white squatter camp. Unfortunately, the visit did not materialise due to a misunderstanding and so they had a meeting with Hans instead. This, however was a good thing as they learned a lot about the work that Hans is doing alongside 350 other organisations. He showed them a diagram listing all the different areas where one can get involved, e.g packing food, sorting clothing, prayer and social issues to name just a few. Hans refers to this diagram as a flat structure as he does not like the hierachical structures in the church as he feels that they only serve there own agendas. Another point that we discussed was that Hans is beginning to show signs of burnout due to the fact that he is fulfilling the position of both co-ordinator and goer. This is apparently a common problem amongst a lot of people when they start out in ministry. It was decided that Mario will make arrangements with Hans for a team of us to go and have a pancake and cards event at one of the squatter camps (possibly the 2nd week of August) so that we can interact with the community. The next point of discussion was Ansie's experience with OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship). She made enquiries about going to Asia to work with children for a period of six months. On receiving the forms from OMF she was shocked at the amount of information she was required to furnish them with. After a lengthy discussion on the topic and with input from Jean-Pierre we all learnt that it is extremely necessary for sodalities to request this information so that they do not have repercussions later on. They use them for screening purposes and to give them an idea of where the applicants niche would most likely be. Even though many people would find the questions daunting and even feel unqualified, we agreed that if it is God's will for that person then He would make a way. The last discussion of the evening was whether we should expose ourselves to other possible Skin Contact Two (local orphanages, squatter camps, poor, old age homes etc) places with a view to possible involvement or whether we should start acting on the ones we've already been exposed to. Jean-Pierre said that at this stage in our walk the more we are exposed to the better. In doing this we will gain experience and may even find our calling. "We will never know 'till we go'.