Global Challenge - South Africa
Global Challenge is an initiative by OM where Christians can join a short outreach to communities around the world. In South Africa we host an outreach every year in the July school holidays. This year we will reach out to communities living around Gauteng.
Welcome to Gauteng - the heartbeat of the country. It's the economic and cultural center of South Africa. Gauteng is an unique fusion of democratic and traditional values, where people work hard and play harder. So take time to peel away perceptions of business suits and briefcases and discover there is more depth to Gauteng than meets the eye.
Theme: Be the breath of hope
Date: 29-Jun-2009 - 11-Jul-2009
Application deadline: 31-May-2009
Cost: R 1000.00
Outside of Africa $400
Before going out in a team of 8 to 10 participants to partner with a local church, you will be equiped at a three-day orientation which will be held at a local university or high chool in the vicinity of Johannesburg, where all 400+ participants will be together. At the orientation you will receive some teaching in cross-cultural communication and the Biblical basis of missions. You will also receive tools that will be useful on the outreach, like how to share your testimony, how to share the gospel with someone, creative evangelism tools, children's ministry, AIDS ministry, etc. After the orientation you will be sent out in your team to work with a local church in Gauteng.
With only a few days left to go to the launch of the Durban Challenge, preparations are moving into high gear. Although the preparation team has been working very hard up to now, the last few days are always a time of tons to do and not enough time to do it in! Most people will start to travel to Durban on Sunday or Monday but some people already started today.
From Monday onwards, just like last year, I will keep you up to date with whats happening on the challenge and bring you the fresh stories as it is happening. I hope this will keep you inspired and praying for us the whole time.
Here is some facts and prayer requests for now:
- We will have slightly over 360 participants this year (hard to know exactly until they show up)
- These participants will be working together with 39 churches and organisations that we are partnering with.
- Most of the teams will be Durban, Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas.
- In these areas there are many Muslims, Hindus and Animists.
Prayer Requests
- For safe traveling of all the participants
- For the preparation team and their mad dash to get everything right
- For the Holy Spirit to start working in the hearts of the people that our participants will be meeting
- Praise God for the churches and organisations that we are able to partner with!
Durban is known as the playground of South Africa, but behind the fun, sun and surf is a city filled with pain and suffering.
Join us as we reach out to the diverse cultural and religious groups in the Durban area. Get involved in a variety of ministries that vary from taking care of HIV/AIDS sufferers to sharing Jesus creatively with children. Even a bit of beach ministry might be involved!
Help us share God’s message with Durban: “You are loved!”
Information
30 June - 12 July, 2008
Cost:
South Africans - R900
Application Deadline: 30 May 2008
Apply before 1 May 2008 and pay only R790
From outside of South Africa? Please contact us for more information
Contact:
OM Global Challenge
Private Bag X03
Lynnwood Ridge
Pretoria 0040
South Africa
(t) +27 (0)12 807 0161
(f) +27 (0)12 807 0164
(e) challenge@rsa.om.org
You might be wondering why this year's outreach is called the Outeniqua Challenge.
You didn't? Well I'm going to tell you anyway.
Down in the Southern Cape (the very south of South Africa) there is a beautiful mountain range called the Outeniqua mountains (pictured in the top of this blogsite). Hence the name! The main city around there is George (the same city where we will be holding our orientation meetings from 2-5 July) but the teams participating in this outreach will be spread out from Swellendam and Oudtshoorn in the west, up to Uniondale in the north, and as far east as Plettenberg Bay. To the south of course is the sea and Antarctica but we couldn't find any towns down there, so we won't be sending teams in that direction.
By the way we have a quote that we are using as the theme for the outreach.
William Carey - "Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God."
We are all expecting great things from God during the Outeniqua Challenge, and we hope that the participants will be willing to step out of their comfort zones and attempt great things for God!
Welcome to our blog site! We hope to keep you in the loop of all the activities running around the Outeniqua Challenge outreach. But first up introductions are in order. The Global Challenge team that runs, breathes, eats and sleeps (and sometimes organises) the outreach is ...
Middle: J.P Hall
Left: Pollyanna Hall (J.P.'s lovely wife)
Right: Bonny Davids (newest member)
These three are working from Pretoria in the OM South Africa offices.
Another key person for this year's outreach is Christo Crafford. He lives in Riversdale in the Southern Cape and is OM's Regional Representative for this area. He has had his hands full as he has been lining up churches with whom we will partner during the Outeniqua Challenge and doing the ground work. He has successfully lined up 45 churches/ministries who will host a team of 6 to 10 people for 9 days.
If you need to disturb these guys for any reason, you can do that by emailing them at challenge@rsa.om.org.
