Moving Into Action (MIA2012) was a three-day gathering (25 - 27 June 2012) of students, organisations, Bible Schools, churches, and individuals focusing on cross-cultural inistry to celebrate what God is doing on African soil.

The missions empowerment conference took place at the freezing Fountains Valley Resort in Pretoria, and over 640 people went out from the MIA2012 conference on short-term outreaches to implement and transfer what they had learnt during elective training workshops, plenary sessions and evening celebrations.

Speakers during the conference plenary and devotion sessions included Peter Tarental, Reinold Titus, Patrick Kuwana, Adriaan Adams, Teodor van der Spuy, Willem Badenhorst and Ryno Meyer. Organisations involved with the elective training sessions included Crossover Transformation, Transforming Kids, Ubabalo Sports Ministries, Jericho Walls and others.

The evening sessions were also attended by members of the public and press. The teams served at Entities of Change in 14 Southern Africa nations.

The feedback from the teams testifies of healings, salvations, provision and personal transformation as the feedback from the team that went to Kisumu in Kenya demonstrated: “The people from this community are mostly Christian, and they know God, but the Holy Spirit soon showed us that they needed empowerment. They were all living under a constant burden of sin, with the belief that God wanted to punish them for everything they did. Hopefully the message went through that Jesus had already paid that price. God moved powerfully. We didn’t really keep count, but we estimate that we had seen close to 100 healings within the first 4 days. This ranged from stomach aches to malaria. But the best part of it all was that the locals quickly caught the fire, and on the last day of missions in the community numerous local interpreters and pastors started coming alive for Christ and did most of the mission work themselves. It was an amazing sight to see!”

The team that went to Sepupa and Motopi in Botswana were also radically impacted by the truth of the Gospel that they went to share: “MIA2012 - this was a time in my life when God tested my obedience and blessed me with a fresh revelation of His endless love and grace for me! Being a part of God’s body of believers, across ages, across races, beyond the afflictions of our time, opened up my heart to a new perspective of what we are sent to do on God’s earth! How, you may ask? Well, as we went, to serve the missionaries and people of Botswana , our Lord spoke to us in our hearts, and convicted us of His deep love for us, and for all people he created with love.  There was a peace in our hearts, a song – we could sense the purpose with which we were sent – to strengthen the body of Christ for a time such as this! We prayed, and people were healed! We trusted God, and kept us safe! We were part of a process by which our Father is raising up His Church as a unit of love. We are now part of the movement of LOVE! Praise God our Father, who sent his Son Jesus, to die for our sins, to give us love and grace, and comfort us with His Spirit!”

Many more stories and testimonies have returned from the field, confirming once again that Jesus truly is with us when we choose to follow Him to the nations.

Adriaan Adams  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

The Mission Mobilizers Network of South Africa met in the brand new, ready to be utilized, multi-level office block of OM in Hatfield, Pretoria. 
The venue, furnishings, meal and fellowship were quite inviting and made for a perfect day of cross-pollunation and mission deliberation.  All in all 46 mobilizers turned up.  One brother said:  “The Lord was using us to encourage each other and build new connections.”   There was a wide variety of mobilizers from the spectrum of mission organizations and church backgrounds as well as various ministries, ranging from student outreaches to the much needed field of member care.  Directed sharing was interspersed with group discussion and feedback was valuable.

It was noted that while as little as 2 500 local churches from a total of near 50 000 local churches in South Africa are seen to mission-inspired or mission-involved, there is an exciting season of new emergence with regard to mission in our country:

• The field of technology and media is fruitfully being explored from South Africa.
• There is a resurgence of mission interest among established afrikaans churches.
• Although most black churches are still not moved to missionary passion, there are a few model churches surfacing strongly.
• Among young emergent mission leaders there is a strong determination to see the old stereotypes of church and mission defeated and a challenging new dynamic settled in order to facilitate that manpower and other resources  flow more freely in our day.
• There is renewed interest to mobilize the theological training institutions for mission - future pastors need to be mobilized.
• Training of more mobilizers is needed.

It was agreed that to mobilize the church is like calling it prophetically to a radical return to the purpose God had with its formation 2000 years ago.  It was also agreed that pastors and leaders of the church are the most critical people to be reached with the challenge of mission.  It was further recognized that mobilization, especially in the
black church, rests upon the vital investment of time spent in building friendships and increasing levels of trust between mission activators and church leaders.  Very often the need for training and development in other fields of leadership is more pressing than mission training and mobilizing, and therefore mobilizers should be willing to move back some steps and spend time in more comprehensive training in order to effectively implant a missionary vision.  There is a definite need for a longer term strategic approach to mission in and from Africa, bearing in mind the spiritual and social make-up of Africa as well as existing mission patterns.  The question needs to be asked:  What could African mission movements look like in 10 years’ time and what new motivating factors could be used to inspire people for mission?  Africa can play a significant role in the worldwide mission movement, and to do that existing success stories need to be multiplied and shared as wide as possible.  A strong visionary direction for the church mission movement is needed in South Africa; something that will unite and inspire people for the way ahead. To obtain this our commitment and openness to interaction and listening together is essential.

Participants were greatly encouraged to meet role players in various fileds of mission of whom they were not aware.  The general spirit at the consultation was energetic and visionary and clearly called for more of this kind of input and sharing.

Need for future meetings 

As to the need for further MMN SA meetings the answer was an obvious and resounding YES.  There was however a need expressed to somehow link all existing mobilizers and mobilizing ministries for the purpose of establishing a platform for conversation, materials sharing and story-boarding.  The WENSA website and Facebook page could be used for this.  Forming a WhatsApp group could also encourage networking and partnership.

The following proposals were forwarded and are summarised in some order below.

1.  Of critical importance is VISIONARY DIRECTION for mobilising mission in Africa.

• Strategic insight can be gained from discerning our common past experiences, joined with our understanding of the current context (spiritual, political, social, economic, cultural and technological) in SA and Africa
• Formulate a visionary framework (trusting God for a new wineskin for new wine) that will enable new role-players to come on board and innovatively create new methodologies to strategically replace well-used traditional models with new options. 

2.  Recognise and work with specific FOCUS GROUPS like students, church leaders, business people, women’s ministries, member care, etc.  Future consultations may need  to rather get focus groups together to facilitate networking.  The whole network can then meet at WENSA National Consultations to reflect on strategic adjustment. 

3.  Open discussion on CHURCH & MISSION relations – both theologically and practically – in order to restore responsibility to the local church and develop strategic mentorship functions among mobilizers.

4.  DEFINE MISSION afresh in the light of the changing face of mission globally and locally.  Gain input from the various focus groups (see 3.2 above) regarding the  differences in practical mission involvement.

5.  Work and pray towards a NATIONAL MISSION MOVEMENT to bring about breakthroughs and launch the SA church into a new era of mission involvement.

It has been my privilege to facilitate this brief but dynamic time of meeting and discussion.  May God help us to keep up the networking process and serve each other as we call the church to fresh obedience to the Great Call.

May God’s assurance to Jacob as recorded in Genesis 28:15 encourage you.  Remember that this promise was linked to what God had promised Abraham, and Paul says in
Galatians 3:29 (just imagine: this is to believers from a gentile background) “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise”.  Wow!

Blessed to
be a Blessing!

Richard M Verreynne
Coordinator:  MMN SA
WENSA, Cape Town
021 939-3300

7 March 2012, Johannesburg

The consultation on Islam in SA was held on the 7^th of March in Johannesburg at Rosebank Union Church. It was organized and run by Egeiro Ministries, In-Context Ministries, SIM, CCM, TEASA and WENSA in partnership.

It was attended by 55 leaders from various evangelical churches, organizations and ministries such as TEASA, WENSA, SAAWE, TWR, SIM, CCM, Dutch Reformed Church, Feba Radio, SATS, In-Context, Lede in Christus, In-Serv, OM, Petra Ministries, CCC-SA, CEF, Open Doors, CESA and RUC.

The topic of the day was effectively reaching out to our Muslim neighbours in SA. Moss Nthla from TEASA, Mike Burnard from In-Context, Kamil Kiroglu from Egeiro, Alastair Jolley, Alan Wainwright and Masizakhe Fulmeni from SIM were the topic presenters of the day.

We believe that the consultation was successful in identifying relevant challenges on the matter and developing biblical resolutions for the Evangelical Church of South Africa.