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| Pastor Kennedy and his family |
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| Children's Outreach |
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| HIV/AIDS outreach |
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Grace Fellowship Africa-Ministry Brief - by Pastor Kennedy Mulenga
Over my past several months with Grace Fellowship Africa (GFA) in Cape Town we have been privileged to serve the Lord through various ministry engagements. First, GFA has continued its ministry to people living with HIV/AIDS in the Cape Town Metropolis in partnership with the Western Cape Department of Health. The partnership has been funded by the European Union. The I Care Project has a dedicated team of 29 carers who reach out to People Living With HIV/AIDS, (PLWHA), in their homes both with practical care and the gospel.
Secondly, the ministry has continued to develop ministry partnerships with churches and other like minded evangelical ministries and churches for leadership training and discipleship. GFA has been privileged to initiate working relations for Leadership Training with the Great Commission Pastors’ Fellowship in Khayelitsha; Grace Feeding Scheme reaching out to underprivileged children and homeless people in Delft; New Life Worship Center a fast growing Full Gospel Church in Milnerton; and the Sons of God Ministry an interdenominational ministry reaching out to fathers. These are some of the emerging ministry channels the Lord has opened up in the few months. We are grateful to the Lord for His grace to serve Him in these ministry situations. The following are the successes, setbacks and challenges we have met in the recent past:
• Ministry Successes
o GFA qualified for funding to do home-based care (HBC). The Government also increased funding for the I Care Project. This funding essentially caters for current carers’ stipends categorized according to training seniority level 3 (R1000), Level 2 (R910), level 1 (R860), and relief carers (R500). The stipends are paid on a monthly basis.
o GFA has pioneered HBC ministry in Fisantekraal in partnership with the Western Cape Department of Health. Fisantekraal is an economically depressed semi-informal settlement of Cape Town. There are no health facilities there. HIV/AIDS prevalence is quite high as well. The home-based care ministry is opening up other ministry opportunities for GFA such as child and adult evangelism. Already three clients who have since gone to be with the Lord, professed faith in Christ and demonstrated a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus just before their passing on. One of the three gave her life to the Lord at the back of our bakkie(truck) as she was being conveyed for her last admission to hospital.
o All our carers have undergone further training in home-based care skills under the auspices of the Department of Health. The HBC coordinators have also given in-house training for relief carers with particular emphasis on caring for our clients with Christ’s compassion. It great to see these new carers show growth in grace as they meet with the rest of the team during our weekly devotions.
o Pastor Gift Makumbe and family relocated to Zimbabwe to set up a School of Ministry and rekindle GFA ministry there. We released them with our blessing to extend the kingdom of God through empowering church leaders in Zimbabwe and beyond. We are ever in grateful prayer for the prosperity of God’s great work in Zimbabwe, the safety and good health of the pastor and his family.
• Ministry Setbacks
On the setbacks’ side, we do not have much to report about. However, we seem to see the relocation of the print shop from Cape Town to Uganda as a ministry loss for us, although we acquiesce in the fact that God’s ways are not our ways. Further we are in no doubt that God was not surprised by the move. He always does the right thing.
• Ministry Challenges
o The stigma of past moral failure of GFA leadership at Cape Town seems to persist, but we are confident the Lord will, by His grace, roll away this reproach and rebuild His work among us.
o The liaison officer’s transportation needs for the work is a challenge. We trust the Lord to come through at this point too.
o Our carers’ monthly stipend, though wholly met with the government’s EU grant, is still a paltry. Granted, the majority work as volunteers, but sometimes there are signs of ebbing motivation especially in the context of escalating food prices for most households in RSA.
o Transport to and from the farms for carers in a bakkie is proving to be a major challenge. A Kombi would be better for this purpose. The bakkie is not roadworthy and may need major repair works soon.
The Impact of GFA Cape Town & Partnerships
This caption is about numbers. Just how many lives are being touched by the ministry of GFA and its partners? A difficult question, but ever so important to the survival of our ministry in the long term. The I Care Project which ministers to people living with HIV/AIDS is currently caring for 176 patients/homes across the city. However, in this kind of ministry when a carer touches one patient it has a ripple effect to entire households and neighborhoods as well. That’s why we find home-based care as an opener to other ministry opportunities.
We are also directly touching orphans and vulnerable Children in Cape Town. These orphans and vulnerable children are mainly casualties of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and armed conflicts on the continent of Africa. Presently we care for orphans Roderick and Ronaldo, whose parents died from HIV/AIDS and Dominique Fragosa, displaced to RSA by armed conflict in his home country, Angola. Dominique is now an astute student at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Community Bible Society, a partner of GFA, supports 45 orphans in Khayelitsha. Our own Reverend Aaron Makili leads this work.
Furthermore, GFA has partnered with the Great Commission Pastors Fellowship of Khayelitsha toward empowering no less than 200 township pastors for effective evangelical pastoral ministry. Within the context of township ministry, GFA and Community Bible Society are feeding Day Hospital (out-patients) patients in Khayelitsha.
Grace Feeding Scheme reaches out to the under-privileged in the Delft area of Cape Town. GFA and Grace Feeding Scheme have a growing partnership. The Scheme feeds no less than 1000 children per week. Discussions between us and Rev Charles Edward George (the point person at Grace Feeding Scheme) toward establishing a School Mission in the Delft vicinity are in earnest. Once this partnership is underway we will be able to reach to both primary and High School learners in Delft. We anticipate touching about 3000 learners of all ages.
Pastor Kennedy is privileged to be pastor of the Sons of God Ministry (SoGM) of Cape Town since September 2007. This ministry has been in existence since 1970 essentially as an evangelism team through music production. They started out as a men’s choir, but are now a ministry which is reaching out to fathers and sons through various discipleship programmes. The Sons of God Ministry hosts free Breakfasts once in every two months usually at church halls. Between 40 and 100 men usually attend these meetings and the Lord is blessing the work with conversions. A key note event for the ministry is a men’s camp held annually. Once a month the SoGM team ministers at Bonnytoun House (a facility for juvenile criminal offenders pending trial). There too about 20 young lives hear the gospel.
Cape Town Staff Strength
We have a total of 29 staff at Cape Town. Please see annexure 1 below for the required details and brief performance appraisal of each staff member.
Local Board Members and their Involvement
Grace Fellowship Africa South Africa Board is presently made up of 10 members. Their roles and current involvement in our ministry are indicated in Annexure 2. I have made comments on their status as far as their registration with CIPRO is concerned.
Personal Observations and Recommendations
• I recommend a conference for all GFA ministry leaders to facilitate vision development, renewal, evaluation, and cohesiveness. It would also serve as an orientation to new entrants to the GFA global family.
• Cape Town is able to raise Ministry/Mission teams duly prepared in terms of spirituality, ministry skill, and biblical knowledge to reach out to much of Africa.
• Include a budget line for travel expenses relating to training ministry assignments. Presently, we have a budget line funded by the department of health which solely caters for home-based care coordination.
• GFA can contribute toward the carers’ stipend depending on availability of funds at least monthly (if possible to equal the government’s present contribution).
• Donation of mobile phones for our carers to facilitate communication with them when attending to clients/patients in areas where their personal security is at stake.
Ministry Plans 2009
• Pastors’ Workshops/seminars Khayelitsha—sharpen pastoral skills (at least 3 training events over 12 months. Dates to be advised). This is envisaged as an on-going ministry relationship. Liaison officer is a member of this fraternal.
• High School Missions—outreach to High Schools in Khayelitsha (precise dates to be advised).
• Local Church Leadership School—New Life Worship Centre( Full Gospel Church), Millerton-Cape Town (dates to be advised)
• Delft Churches Partnership—Local church Leadership seminars, Schools Outreach (in tandem with School feeding schemes vide Grace Feeding Scheme), HIV/AIDS Care and Counseling Training (dates to be confirmed with Pastor Charles Edward George)
• Men’s Annual Camp—Nov 09 (in Partnership with Sons of God Ministries).
• Men’s Breakfasts—outreach to and mentoring for fathers (Partnership with Sons of God Ministries)—Feb 09, Apr 09, Jun 09, Aug 09 and Oct 09.
• East London Leadership and church administration training—Jesus Celebration Centre, New Covenant Churches Church (dates to be advised)
• Fisantekraal—Feeding scheme and child evangelism (project being developed in tandem with GFA Home-based Care ministry)
Needs
• Increase stipend for carers under the Home-based Care project. My faith projection is a GFA contribution of R500 per carer would be helpful particularly to reduce the burden on their traveling expenses from their homes to points of ministry delivery.
• A more suitable vehicle to transport carers to and from patients. Preferably a kombi will be more suited than the current bakkie for our women folk, who are the majority carers.
• Office printer
Prayer Requests
• God’s wisdom in executing ministry plans for 2009 and vision development for future ministry effectiveness at GFA South Africa.
• Revitalization & Growth of pastors’ training, discipleship, and counseling programmes
• Continued Spiritual growth for all staff and partners in ministry
• Pray for the Lord to provide an automobile for Liaison Officer at Cape Town
• Pray for the provision of suitable and affordable premises in Fisantekraal for auxiliary ministry to the growing home-based care there. There’s need for children’s ministry, a ladies’ ministry, and evangelistic work in the area.
To God alone be the Glory!
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Copyright © 2008 Grace Fellowship Africa, all rights reserved.
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