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
