Helo, Its me again

I just realised something.....I SUCK at blogging!!Yeah SHOCKING I know..Haha!Its just that things tend to get so crazy that by the time I want to sit down and majestically pour out my thoughts and experiences my awesome mind is just too tired so my sincere apologies for being a sucky blogger..

These past few weeks have gone by in a blur and I'm struggling to remember exactly what happened when and where. I know for a fact that we have been doing some extensive traveling to various youth groups around Gauteng province as well as KZN presenting missions and challenging young people to be more pro-active in God's plan for the world. Its been extremely fruitful. God just has this way of using us that exact moments when we feel unusable( don't know if that is correct English but you get the point). Its been an amazing journey thus far with ups and downs and random turns all the way but I'm enjoying every moment of it. Life in the township is AMAZING!!!I love the vibe, the people and the culture here. Yeah sure Pretoria, and Mamelodi, is not as beautiful as Cape Town or Paarl by any stretch of the imagination but quite frankly I haven't missed home that much. Weird huh..Its just that I have solid peace that I'm at the right place at the right time doing the right thing which God has set out for me to do during this season of my life. 

It does get hard though. At times I feel like ripping someones throat out. It gets difficult when you live with the people you work with, yet God has a funny way of letting things work out though. 

So ministry wise quick update:

1. Been doing quite a few youth services like I said. All in all AMAZING times connecting with young people of different caliber and backgrounds (socio-economical and ethnic)

2. KZN partnership weekend, connecting with churches, building contacts and hanging with ex- OM buddies, playing day and night cricket with some Pakistani guys and giving a bit of hope to a homeless boy (given) made for one memorable weekend

3. I am helping out at our aidshope center with their after-school program. I have my own little class with five amazing kids, Thabang, Neyo, Lesedi, Ntebatse and Nqobile. Please keep them in your prayers

4. We just came back from a week long camp called "Africa Youth camp' where me and the team served as leaders. It was one amazing week!!!

Please pray for me for strength as I am feeling very weak but I don't regret it for I know that in my weakness He is strong

KIA KAHA!!!!

(Thanks for the catch phrase Thomas!)

Latest Newsletter

I have almost reached the 4 month mark back in the field and already so much has happened! These 3 months feels more like 2 years! Ministry has been going very well indeed and I can only thank God for everything that has been happening...

Our group of boys have grown to well over 30 and the space we work in has become too small!!Fridays have been really great, the boys are starting to open up more and have become more relaxed and comfortable around us than before. When we asked them what they enjoy most about Fridays Bongani anwsered ‘ We get to learn more about Jesus and about loving people’. For me its great to see them grow and having those one on one conversations with them. Most of he time these boys don’t really have someone they can talk to who is willing to listen to their opinions. Teachers treat them as burdens and their parents simply just don’t have time, especially when they have to look after a family of 7.

I have also been hanging out with some of the older boys over the weekends. We would just meet up, walk around Mamelodi and then spend the night playing Fifa. It has been amazing getting to know these guys more personally and investing in their lives. Last week after soccer one of the boys came up to me and said ‘ Mark I don’t want you to go back to Cape Town, I watched Special Asignment last night and they were talking about gang violence. I don’t want you to die!’It was great to reasure him that I will still be around for a while. We have been teaching them life skills and about Jesus through the soccer drills we teach them and the response has been great! The boys show an eagerness to learn more about God and His purpose for their lives. For some of the boys these fridays are the only place where they learn about God, life and where they are free to ask any questions which they might have.

We have been assisting OM Sportslink every Wednesday with the Ubabalo program at Mateo Primary School here in Mamelodi. The Ubabalo is what we do with our Boys on Fridays.We would teach the kids a soccer skill or drill and  afterwards teach them a lifeskill or scripture that goes with the skill. For example: Shielding– We would do drills where they would have to shield te ball succesfully from their opponent, the application being that it is important to shield the ball from your opponent in the match otherwise the other team will get the ball, they might score and your team would lose the match. In life we need to shield/protect ourselves from bad influences(drugs, bad friends etc.) otherwise we will get hurt or we might hurt others. We also use this platform to share the gospel with them.

The work among the youth leaders has seen a lot of growth. We recently had a group of leaders from different congregations and  denominations come to our house for a social. It wasn’t anything formal it was just us getting to know them, they getting to know us and each other. The response was great and the discussions truly fruitful. We will soon be doing a weekend long workshop with them that will focus on how to be an effective youth leader and so forth. We really want to be intentional about building relationships with them as well as developing friendships, walking alongside them so that they might be better equiped to lead their young people. Some of them are really crying out for help and long to see a change in their young peolple who are caught up in all these bad things. It’s encouraging to find the willingness of them to work together and help each other which is what we are praying for. We long to see young people united for Christ in this community and the rest of South Africa. God has really been faithful towards us in this ministry and have been opening doors for us left right and sideways, we just need to take it. The pace has been a bit slow because my other two teammates have been side-tracked by family and personal issues, but we are definitely moving forward by HIS grace.

The prayer minsitry at Vista has been taking a back-seat because of exams and the holidays. We have been in touch with the students and it has been great listening to their stories and hearing about the work God is doing in their lives. We will be starting again on Teusday afternoons due to changes in their timetables, but the students are eager and waiting for our return. The university has over 700 students and currently there is no ministry whatsoever so the students hunger for God is totally understandable. Their is a lot of developements that might happen concerning our role in the University and we are having talks with the youth-worker who is really excited about what God has been doing through these prayer meetings and the response he has been getting from the students. WATCH THIS SPACE!

Workshops have been a part of my life ever since I arrived here. If I am not helping present one I’m attending one. I have attended a workshop on communications and one called ‘workshop workshop’, yep, a workshop on how to do a workshop!

We presented a workshop in Hammanskraal, another township about an hour drive from Pretoria, at a congregation called ‘Upon the rock’. It was a missions weekend that OM was presenting at their church and Young Hope did a ‘Youth evangelism’ workshop which was presented to the Pastors and Bible-school students of their church body(I later found out that this congregation has over 70 other congregations across South Africa). We tought them some tools on how to reach out to young people and tought them how one can share the Gospel. Tht evening after dinner the Pastor took us for a drive through the township and showed us bottle stores and brothels that are now either vcant, closed down, or bought by their congregation. He went on to share an amazing testimony of how he and a small band of believers from his congregation (which at that time held services in a house) would go to al these places evry single week and either sit in the parking-lot or inside with a coke, and claim these places for God, praying that they be closed down. Some of the owners of these brothels and bottle stores are now part of their congregation and have commited their lives to Christ. This for me was just an amazing testimony of what the prayers of the faithful can do!

I don’t earn a salary with OM so should you feel God leading you to sow into this ministry, seeds can be planted into the following account:

Operation Mobilization,

Account number– 1500 600 302

,Branch Code-632 005

 Absa Bank, Brooklyn,

 reference-Mark Fowler

May God bless your heart!

 

Thank you so much for taking your time in reading this. I know that God will bless your heart. Please continue to pray for me as I reach out the youth of my generation, my country-man. May God bless you and keep you…

All for His glory and in His grip

Mark

Contact details:

Email–   mark.fowler@om.org

        markfwlr380@gmail.com

Cell–     071 725 8814

Facebook– Mark-Shaun Fowler

Blog–www.markshaun.blogspot.com

OM– www.om.org/    

     www.omsa.org.za

Value

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a R20.00 note. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this R20 note?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this R20 to one of
you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the R20 note. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. Still the hands went into the air.

My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth R20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you.

Adventures in Mamelodi

About

My journey wih the King

I am part of a youth ministry with OM South Africa called Younghope. Young Hope is focused on discipling and equiping youth leaders to be effective and relevant, we also focus on mobilising young people to become involved in God's great plan for the nations. Should God lay it on your heart to get involved in some way wether it be financially or in prayer please feel free to send me and email at markfwlr380@gmail.com or phone me at +2771 725 8814...God bless you and keep you



About OM- OM (or operation mobilization) is a non-profit organization that sees itself as part of the Church and is focused on strengthening the Church, mobilizing people from all walks of life into world missions. They offer on-the-job short term and long term training and go by land and sea (OM ships), distributing good literature and helping with community development as well as aid and relief where needed. OM is also committed to planting churches, focusing especially on the least evangelized parts of the world and within people groups that have never heard the beautifull Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. For more information about them visit http://www.om.org/ or OM South Africa at http://www.omsa.org.za/





About training- From February till July of 2010 I participated in OM South Africa’s Missions Discipleship Training program or MDT-training and lived in community with 74 other trainees from 16 different countries. During these six months we were given hands on training in world missions, evangelization, discipleship, children’s ministry, Aids ministry, youth ministry, biblical leadership etc. We also received lectures on topics such as The Father heart of God, Christian basics, missions, world religions etc. During these six months we participated in three different outreaches- rural, inner-city and the ultimate goal world cup outreach.. More information about the MDT-training program can be found at http://www.omsa.org.za/







My calling- It was during the outreaches that God revealed to me His heart for the youth and the young people of my generation and how He was going to use the young people of my generation to change the course of History. So in asking God what he wanted me to do next I received Acts 1:8-But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It looked like I had to cancel my own plans of wanting to serve God abroad. I then got offered to join a youth ministry which will start within OM South Africa called Younghope. So that will be my Judea for the next two years, working with Younghope across South Africa ministering to the broken youth of my country.

Who am I?

About me- I am 19 years of age and committed my life completely to Christ in July of 2009 (my matric year), I have given my life to God in 2005 but it wasn’t until 2009 that I completely started living the life of a committed Christian which the best decision I have ever made!!After making that choice I almost instantly received my calling for missions in the form of a dream, then confirmation through various scriptures my key verse being found in Acts 13:47-“For the Lord gave us this command when he said, 'I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.'”, and the final confirmation being through an OM traveling team that came and visited at our Church. It was then that I started praying about doing the MDT training in hopes of joining OM’s ship the Logos Hope, but it was during training that God showed me otherwise.

My passion is God and to make Him known wherever it is he chooses to lead me. My dream is that He be glorified in and through my life and if I should die doing that then so be it For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain-Philippians 1:21.