Out of Africa Missions' Blog

Business Academy

The Business Academy is an exit strategy for the players in the Sports Academy.  The aim is to help the young people with the first step of starting their careers. 

We have partnered with various organizations that will give these students exposure to the business world in the form of holiday work and after school positions. There is even the possibility that some of these candidates may be employed permanently. 

We placed approximately 20 young people in holiday positions with partnering organizations in December 2011. We met before their shifts to do devotions with them and to continue building a mentorship relationship that has been established through being involved with OAM Sports Academy.

We are working with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Africa Skills Village as well as various other bodies to secure bursaries or learnerships for candidates that meet their criteria.

Our aim for 2012 is to continue to assist the students with as much working exposure as possible while they are finishing school and partaking in the Sports Academy. 

The South African 2011 statistics provide a dire outlook as we are facing a scenario where 92% of school leavers will not find a job and over 60% will never be in permanent employment in their lifetime. The reality is that only about one third of our students will be helped through one of the above mentioned avenues. The rest will have to be assisted to either start their own businesses or form part of a business where they can gain experience and have a platform where their skills can be developed in a practical small business environment. We are therefore planning to start a small enterprise that will aim to employ students that leave school at the end of 2012 and give them that first opportunity. This will give them the option to gain experience and find employment that they qualify for or stay on and earn a part of the profits.

We are very excited and thankful that the Lord has blessed us with so many open doors in relation to the Business Academy.  We hope that through the academy we help to get our students onto the right paths after school to ensure they can continue to grow as leaders and make a difference in their families, friendship groups and communities.

We will keep doing business until He returns (Luke 19:13).

Please continue to pray for us! 

First Impressions

New Volunteers!

We are very blessed to welcome Willemien and Jan Peter from the Netherlands who will be volunteering with us for the next 3 months!  We hope their stay here is enjoyable and that God shows himself in their lives in new and amazing ways!

Here is a quick message from them;

Hi there!

This week is my first week as a volunteer for Out of Africa Missions. My name is Willemien, I am 22 years old and I live in Groningen, a city in the north of The Netherlands, where I just finished my History Studies. The next three months I will be part of the team and I am really looking forward to that. I cannot wait to get started and find out how God wants to use me to show his love and grace to others, and how He will use the people I will meet to get to know Him better!

Last week we arrived at the OutofAfrica missions base.  I am here with the purpose to join the work being done here in the city of George and the surroundings.  I will be staying for 3 months and hopefully will learn a lot from the things we encounter.  If possible I will apply some of the things I have learned myself, but most of all I hope to live the promises God gave us and live in his ways.

Jan Peter

Love and Life Skills

Over the past 4 weeks we have been running a love and relationship program with our young people at the Sports Academy. The course is aimed at empowering the young people to make good choices about sex, relationships and everything in-between! The course is being run by Northern Irish volunteers Hannah McCormick and Rory Blake-Knox as well as Suzi McAfee. We run two groups which each meet once a week, on Wednesday nights and Fridays nights at our base Makani. It has been a great success so far with everyone having great fun and enjoying some good conversations!  We ask for your prayers during the last four weeks of the programme that the students continue to have fun and open up, and that, what they hear and experience really makes an impact in their lives.

Ministry in Blanco

Yesterday we painted and prayed. We painted the inside and outside of an elderly woman’s house in Blanco. We ministered to a total 7 people. We had 2 healings yesterday. One woman had severe anaemia yesterday. We prayed for her and were planning to take her to the hospital for a potential blood transfusion, but she had color back and had a lot more energy. We prayed for one child who had an eye infection and it got significantly better a few hours after we prayed. Another man is slowly healing from an infected leg.

Christmas came to George

Last Friday we went to Kidstop. We were told we were a huge blessing for the staff at kidstop. As we played with the kids the staff were able to decorate for Christmas and get other practical jobs done. We played games, taught the kids songs, performed a skit, and danced. But we think the face painting was the favorite of the day.

Connecting

Today we went to the hospital. We prayed for the children who were staying there and for their parents. One mother was lead to the Lord by one of the team members. She gave the mother her Bible. We also dressed up as clowns and brought out face paint to paint flowers and butterflies on the children’s faces, even on the mothers and nurses faces as well! In the afternoon we went Street Connecting. We were able to meet and pray for many people. One woman we prayed for was healed from a constant stomach pain that she had for over 4 years.  

El Shaddai

Life is Golden

Today we worked with “Options” - a place where single mothers and pregnant teens can come to find help and counsel. We were able to do many service projects: including photocopies, weeding, sorting clothes, and cleaning up the kitchen. In the afternoon we went to Golden Valley and hung out with 40 plus children. Swinging them around, letting them play with our hair, and simply loving them. As a team we also celebrated a birthday today. It is such a blessing to join together to celebrate life, knowing that every life has such incredible value.

Katie

YWAM Team Leader

Adventures at Kidstop

Today our team went to Kidstop. We helped to serve breakfast and lunch to 64 kids. In the morning and the rest of the afternoon we played games, sang songs, and danced with the kids. We told the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Several of the children participated by playing the King, Daniel, an angel, and a couple of lions. Ten children joined hands to make a den for the lions to stay in. They were an energetic bunch of kids and we were thrilled to play a small part in their lives. 

Katie 

YWAM Team Leader