Mission to South Africa 2009

 

Love and Joy Ministries’ 7 volunteers are back from their mission to Cape Town’s Strandfontein after a hugely successful trip to help and inspire the South African community.

The team of seven included Temple of Praise Senior Pastor Tani Omideyi, Evangelist Alfie Levene and church members Joel Bentley, Julie Lyndsey, James Dodd, Peter Hawley, and Mamie Davies. The ‘magnificent seven’ headed for Strandfontein’s Mission Care Church whom TOP have a long standing relationship with.

 

Mission Care church has similar goals as Love and Joy Ministries and they too run projects that are aimed at helping the poor and needy. They reach out to the community in as many ways that they can, including looking after babies and young children in a nursery. Many of the children they take in are left on the streets by parents because they don’t know what else to do. 

 

The TOP volunteers were also heavily involved with the feeding programme that is run daily by the church to feed the poor and homeless. 1,000 loaves of bread, along with hot stew that the volunteers had helped to cook up, were distributed to the patiently queuing hungry recipients within 20 minutes.  LJM International Missions Coordinator Alfie Levene says “We see poverty in our community in Liverpool but you don’t know real poverty until you’ve been to this place. There’s a dense community that is surrounded by shanty towns filled with poverty. The people who we were feeding had been queuing for 5 hours just to make sure they got something to eat for the day. We had to keep a strict eye on who had already had food because some were queuing again or sending their children. It was heartbreaking having to turn people away who had already had food but we had to make sure everyone had their fair share of food”.

 

But feeding the poor wasn’t the only programme that the visiting group got involved with. Their week was packed with a full programme of events including running music workshops to teach Mission Care Church members to play guitar, drums and other musical instruments. The TOP visitors helped to inspire the congregation with their music and helped to devlop a music worship team that would grow within the Mission Care church.
Continuing with inspiration – Pastors Tani and Alfie preached at the evangelical events over the week with the aim to further motivate the church members who are already proactive and share best practice with them.

 

Because of a great deal of support from Love and Joy Minstries friends, the volunteers were able to raise enough money to pay for their travel to South Africa and to donate £1050 to the feeding programme that greatly benefits the needy Strandfontein community. They were also able to take over a computer to donate to Mission Care Church. Alfie Levene says “Even the smallest of contributions make a huge difference to the people of this church. We take so much for granted here.

The whole trip was so rewarding for us all and every member of the group got something different out of it. We’d like to sincerely thank everyone who has given so generously because without them this trip would not have been possible. I hope that they can see how their contributions have made the lives of some of the people in Cape Town a little bit easier. Mission Care church also asked us to bring their gratitude back to the people of our community.”

So what’s next for the international mission team? “We’ve got quite a few trips in the pipeline and hope to include India and Uganda next year. We are also looking at organizing a medical care mission to Malawi, Southeast Africa. We will of course be encouraging people to get involved in these missions to make them just as successful as this trip.”

 

If you would like any further information about any of our international trips and how you can get involved please contact Alfie Levene on 0151 476 2342 or email alfie.levene@ljmgroup.org.uk

 

Check out what the troops got up to in by clicking on our video below.

 

 

Love and Joy Ministries are about to embark on their latest mission trip to South Africa Cape Town Strandfontein, from 23rd to 29th October 2009.

A team of seven volunteers are currently raising funds to begin their mission trip where they intend to engage in various out reach programmes with their covenant church, Mission Care.

This week long trip will see the impassioned volunteers carrying out the work of God as they reach out to youngsters living on the streets and the poor community. They will engage in a programme focusing on feeding the homeless and poverty stricken people of Strandfontein and help to refurbish the Mission Care building. The volunteers will also run music workshops and have life skills classes for the local youth during their visit.

 

This is an opportunity for everyone wishing to help the work of God to get involved too. By donating, in any way that you can, to Love and Joy Ministries you can help the development of Stradfontein and its South African people. You can help through the power of prayer or by donating financially if you can.

Donations can be made through our online paypal system by using this button

 

Or alternatively cheques can be made payable to Love and Joy Ministries (please write South Africa 2009 on the reverse of the cheque) and mail to:

 

Mission South Africa
Love and Joy Ministries
Liverpool Lighthouse
Oakfield Road
Anfield
Liverpool
L4 0UF

 

Donations can also be paid in person to us by visiting our building.

Thank you for your support in advance!