Blaze Team South Africa

SWAZILAND-Beveni Point

Martie — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:03:12 +0000

What a great adventure God has allowed me and my family to be part of during our 18 months of volunteering as the sponsorship coordinators for the Beveni Carepoint in Swaziland. We have learned so much about Him: He is certainly bigger, more awesome, and more faithful than we had known and He is willing and able to accomplish great and incredible things when we allow Him! We have been humbled and awed by how He can use us in a place outside of our comfort zone, for His glory and for the good of the children He allows us to care for.

But we have reached a time in our family life when we need to focus our attention, time and energy differently.

We are relinquishing the role of sponsorship coordinator at this time to Danielle Brower, author of www.moms4change.net and a sponsor of one of the children of Beveni. She is excited about the adventure she is about to begin, as the trip to Beveni in September gets planned and further care is coordinated.

I invite each of you to “friend” Danille on Facebook. She can also be contacted via email at danielle.moms4change@gmail.com.

As always, please pray for the children and caregivers of Beveni! Our Father has been so faithful in providing sponsors for these precious children. While He loves them far more than any of us ever could, He welcomes and desires us to be part of their lives, for their good and ours. The joy that comes from obeying His call to love them is a blessing not to be missed!

I also ask that you pray for Danielle and her family as they step into the role of coordinators. She is acting in faith and obedience, with her eyes and heart set on Him who is able to do far more than we can imagine.

Lastly, it has been our joy and pleasure to “meet” each of you in this group. We have come to understand that community with orphan care advocates is one of the best places to be! Thank you for that blessing!

In Christ, with faith in Him alone!
Deb, Tom, Anthony and Aidyn Gangemi

Compassion With Action

Martie — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:48:03 +0000

My friend, there is no trial, difficulty or challenge we face today that our Lord Jesus cannot identify with. The moment we experience a trial, right there and then, because He “was in all points tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15), He feels it too and is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.

Jesus’ compassion for you is the same compassion He felt for the widow at Nain when He sa w the dead body of her only son being carried out of the city gate to be buried. (Luke 7:11–15) It must have been terrible for her to experience the death of her only son after having already experienced the death of her husband. What a horrible thought to be left all alone in the world with no means of support! When Jesus saw her, He was moved with compassion and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Now, some religious leaders might also be moved to approach her, but only to say, “Look sister, something is terribly wrong. Your husband died. Now, your only son has died. You must find out what is wrong. You better ask God what sin you have committed a nd repent. Or perhaps there is a curse in your life that needs to be broken.”

Isn’t it beautiful that Jesus did not extend more confusion or condemnation toward her? He only extended His compassion to her, telling her, “Don’t weep.” This same Jesus will also come to you when you are most distraught and say, “Don’t cry.”

And Jesus’ sympathy does not stop at “Oh, you poor thing! I am so sorry about what has happened to you.” No, His sympathy will move Him to give you the miracle you need in your life. That is why He raised the widow’s son back to life!

Beloved, rest in the truth that He who is seated at the Father’s right hand today understands what you are going through and sympathizes with your weaknesses. The compassion of Jesus toward you causes Him to breathe life into your dead situation and turn it around for your good!

2009 Quality Assessment

Bernard — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:09:28 +0000

Once a year we take the time to do an assessment of the Ministry. How have we faired? We choose to publish the results in order to be transparent. To get a clearer picture of what each area actually means you may ask any leader at BLAZE and they will gladly explain. Here is the results we have gathered from 20 people in blaze. (This represents about 70%) of our most regular attendees.

December Challenge

Bernard — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:56:00 +0000

As a group of believers we want to take a challenge in the way we touch our community this month. We would like as many as possible members to spend some time reaching out to our community in different ways. The first challenge is to get ideas of things to do and the next will be to actually go out and do something. Come on…… Let’s touch our wonderful area. The challenge is simply……….. go into the community touch someones or a group of peoples lives. To keep track of it write a short testimony (Write it in as a comment below this blog or email it to me (bernard@blazeteam.co.za) or hand it in at the church in the proper box. Our goal is to see 15 people that actually do something to touch at least two peoples lives. Pray for people in hospitals, feed the needy, give the gospel, whatever the Holy Spirit leads you to do. Join us and let’s exceed our goal! Send it from wherever you are.

Date and time of this statistic : 6 December 09

Description	Total	Goal	%
Active Challengers	0	15	0%
People touched Documented	0	30	0%
Avg people touched per Challenger	0	2	0%

This is the final scores….
Shure it seems low, but watch us next time!

Challenge form

View

A Megaphone with 1,000 Voices

Annalize — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:04:49 +0000

The year is winding down and we are getting ready for the festive season, holidays and time with family members and friends. But the world will be going on as usual … the seeking, hungy and vulnerable will still be out there … HopeChest is launching a new initiative this December and looking for an online team of activist promoters. In other words, they want you to blog, Tweet, and Facebook throughout December to promote HopeChest and the plight of orphaned and vulnerable children to your social network.

They’re building a megaphone with a thousand voices this Christmas. They’d like to build a network of 1,000 online orphan advocates. If you…

Want to express your heart for orphans this Christmas…
Desire to see HopeChest raise $500,000 by 12/31 to help over 5,000 orphans…
Blog, Facebook, or Twitter regularly to your social network…

…then HopeChest want to talk with you. It’s an easy and fun way to help orphans.

I can’t tell you much more on the blog–but if you want to be one of the first members of this new team, send an e-mail to matthew@hopechest.org for the inside scoop. Or visit Tom Davis’ Blog at http://tomdavis.typepad.com.

Limited space available. Don’t wait…

Letter from Nigeria about SA

Bernard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:13:21 +0000

I just spent some time reading an article written in a paper outside of SA about SA. Once again I realize how God has been the one that has lead us into Victory in this country. SA is better for it! SA is what it is today because of what God had allowed in this great country. Some people may dispise what we have today but I love our wonderful country and feel privileged to be living in it. Thank you God, that You have chosen us to be the ones give direction to all of Africa.

Lord, we surrender rulership to YOU! May the one instruction by our God lead us all to serve the one and only King so we can see more of what is happening in SA. Read the pdf I received below.

Letter from Nigeria

Letter(pdf)

Christmas Party ~ Swaziland

Annalize — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:52:18 +0000

WoW, this was a busy and very full Swaziland weekend!!

We’ve left for Swaziland Thursday afternoon and managed to cross the border with all the Christmas decorations and other Christmas goodies without problems.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the visit to Imanuelle early Friday morning at the Manzini Market Place. It was wonderful to hear his voice over the sound system! He is sending his greetings and blessings to everyone at BLAZE TEAM and is hoping to see us at his church very soon. Before we left, we gave him a copy of Scared and also a BLAZE Volunteers T-shirt.

We then left for Thembeni care point to decorate the hall. Finally we’ve met Kriek, Jumbo’s wife and one amazing woman. I’ve also forgot how big the hall was and realized how much Christmas decorations we need. But we managed with what we had. And afterwards Kriek said it was the first time that they actually had a Christmas tree. One of the funny moments was the little ones trying to sweep the hall, the brooms were almost bigger than the children so we had to take over sweeping-duties! We made a new friend, Cynthia, she is studying to become a nurse and is working for Children’s HopeChest. We also visited Bheveni late afternoon to check up on the vegetable garden. Well, the pumpkins-are-a-growing!! The other vegetables we are not so sure about, but we are praying and I know that God is blessing the vegetable garden, because He promised that He would. Anne and Wandy at Nyanza also said that we could use some of the compost pile at Nyanza for the vegetable garden.

Saturday morning early we left for Thembeni again to put up the last decorations and was met with the news that Kriek was in an accident Friday afternoon. Luckily she was driving a very BIG 4 X 4 and wasn’t hurt seriously except for a few bruises and a sore body. Looking at the photos afterwards I could really see God’s protection and His greatness, it could have been so much worse. The rest of the team joined later in the morning and we had fun with the 600 children at the Jumping Castle, the playground and with the programme in the hall. One of the highlights was the American team teaching the kids how to make their own little Christmas trees which they could take home. While the children lunched, we sorted out the Christmas presents which were a bit of a challenge, but in the end everyone received their present, sweets and a piece of cake. I think the cake was the children’s highlight, they did not want presents but cake and that wish came true. I just once again realized how fortunate we are; daily we are eating sweets, cookies, drinking cold drinks and enjoying ice cream, but still we manage to complain about our luxuries …

Bernard and the rest of the Saturday team left at around 15:00 so that they can reach the Border Post before 18:00. The rest of the group finished up at around 17:00 and we left for Nyanza for a shower, something to eat and to contemplate about the day. We all agreed that we have so many blessings that we sometimes just ignore or forget about, that the Body of Christ is powerful and amazing and unites people from every country, race and gender for the Kingdom’s good. To bed early, again

We left for home Sunday morning and reach Trichardt at around 17:00, tired but happy.

I wish to thank every person that supported and joined the Swaziland team with prayers, hard work and donations.

November Challenge

Bernard — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:28:16 +0000

As a group of believers we want to take a challenge on our relationships in this month. We would like as many as possible members to learn to know more about and spend some time with at least 5 people in our assembly (they would not usually spend time with). The challenge is simply……….. Spend time with 5 people, individually and complete the form attached and hand it in at the church in the proper box.

Date and time of this statistic : 30 December 09

Description	Total	Goal	%
Active Challengers	4	30	13%
Visitors Documented	14	150	9%
Avg Visitors per Challenger	3.5	5	70%

This is the final scores….
Shure it seems low, but watch us next time!

Challenge form

View

Swaziland Christmas

Annalize — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:38:55 +0000

Just a short update.

BLAZE TEAM will be sharing an early Christmas at Beveni care point on 7 November 2009. We will have two(2) teams leaving at different times. The first team will leave on Friday, 6 November, from the church at 6 in the morning and will return on Sunday 8 November. This team will assist Kriek and Jumbo with the preparations for the Christmas party. The second team will leave Saturday morning, 7 November, very early from the church and will join the first team at the care point. They will return to Secunda just after the Christmas party.

If you want to join any of the teams, please confirm with Annalize on or before Sunday 1 November 2009 at annalize.steenkamp@blazeteam.co.za.

Looking forward to see you there!!

Beveni care point ~ 16 to 18 October

Annalize — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:29:37 +0000

Back from Swaziland! It was an awesome, backbreaking, heartbreaking and blessed trip.

The two (2) teams really did what was needed at the specific time and places. The first team (Daanjie, Vikus, Rut, Bianca, Werner, Petro and Uncle John) left from the church Friday afternoon at 14:30.

Thank you to Bernard and the team that took the chairs to Caiaphas on Saturday. We really prayed for favor at the Border Post and God answered our prayers. Every time we cross the border we learn valuable lessons for the future

I don’t think we always realize how fortunate and blessed we are to be able to bless Caiaphas and other ministries in Swaziland. All we have to do is to be faithful and obedient in the little things and God will do the rest. He is already causing the ripple effects; the butterfly affect that Glenn Packiam writes about in Butterfly in Brazil. We have so much favor and support; it’s almost too many to number!!

Back to this weekend, we were worried about the condition of the soil at Beveni care point but God provided and we had soft rain during Friday evening to prepare the soil. Both the teams worked really hard and we managed to plant pumpkin, cabbage, spinach and onion. We were also worried about the water at the care point, but again God heard our prayers and we had soft rain falling just after we left the care point, it rained through Saturday night and Sunday. The rain was falling softly so that it could soak through the ground and the seeds could not be washed away.

We also spend some time with some of the children at Beveni, unlike the other care points we visited during August these children still need to get to know us and trust us. I sat on the ground with them for about 15 minutes before one of the little girls moved a bit closer and climb on my lap. Bianca and Werner played with the children when taking breaks from the gardening.

Joseph also showed the Gogo’s how to maintain the compost pile. All the bits of paper, weeds, twigs, etc. should go to the compost pile. And that can go back to the vegetable garden. The children helped pick up all the paper and plastics laying around the care point, the paper went to the compost pile and the plastics was burned to protect the animals and keep the area clean. The Gogo’s will also use all the washing up water to water the vegetable garden until the water crisis is solved.

By Saturday evening everyone had aches and pains, but it was worthwhile. We realize that we are the hands and feet of Jesus and like Bernard said, of those that is sponsoring the care points. Most of the sponsors are in the USA and cannot visit the care points as regular as we can. It is something that God entrusted to us and we are honored to serve.

I’ve spoken to Musa from Children’s HopeChest Saturday; they have an urgent need of skills. Just the basics of starting and maintaining of a vegetable garden and the compost pile. Guys, we have the knowledge! And that’s how we can assist in making the care points self-sustainable. I’ve also mentioned the projects the youth has in mind for the Beveni Christmas to Matt and he was really excited. We will keep you up to date with the Christmas planning.

We left for home Sunday morning around 11:00. It was still raining and we also had the lovely mist that the other team had LoL, we had a few near-death experiences with lumber trucks, a cow and a white car … but we also knew that we had God’s protection.

This was a successful trip, and we cannot wait to see the first veggies! I’m also excited for the people that went to Swaziland for the first time: Vikus, Bianca, Werner, Ashley, Dawie and Joseph.

BLAZE TEAM is also blessed with wonderful, passionate youth. Finally I can share the first part of their fund-raising to give the children at Beveni a wonderful Christmas. All of you in the Goven Mbeki area should listen up now :

Saturday (24 October) the youth will have a car-wash-fund-raising-event.

Where : Evander Club

Time : 09:00 to 14:00

The cost will be R50-00 per car, and they will wash your car and clean the inside.

Please come and support them!