Witness Ministry’s ecumenical partnerships with URCSA Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal has been maintained for many years and is a blessing to both parties. One of Msinga’s most supportive partners is eThembeni (which means ‘place of hope’ in Zulu). It is a partnership of churches, government, hospitals and organisations that has originated from the local DRC and URCSA.
But what is eThembeni all about?
“Ethembeni is in a working relationship with two independent NPOs, that originated from our ministry,” explains Rev. Lourens Schoeman, “but now run as independent entities, giving their local leadership space to grow and form their own networks.
“The first is ‘Wake up Call Ministries’, with focus on men and boys. The other is ‘Wounded Healers’, who focuses is on wounded women and girls in the community. Both these entities are bought into the concept of holistic youth ministry, with a strong Biblical World View as foundation.
Mr Sithembiso Mdakane, still on eThembeni pay roll, is the driver of “Wake up Call” and Miss Phindile Ziqubu, a teacher from Mpofana/Mooi River, is driving ‘Wounded Healers’. Sithembiso has completed Veritas Module 4 and is continuing with his Certificate 4 course. He is an active facilitator, who also drives the Veritas Light program. Phindile is registered as Module 1 Facilitator in training.
“We are very excited to see these two young people, taking the Word of God into the communities, discussing, discovering and applying the text to the context! Please pray for their protection and growing capacity. As eThembeni we need to pass the baton to a new generation who will continue with the race, taking the Word deeper into the lives of our youth, of who many have no present father figures and are excluded from the church’s ministry.”
Mentoring community facilitators
Rev. Schoeman explains further, “Together with Sithembiso and Phindile we employ mentors, who mentor the community facilitators. They are Nkazimulo Ngcobo from Keate’s Drift and Khanyisani Mbatha from Ladysmith. There are quite a few community facilitators who grow into being mentors to other volunteers, so doing deepening the depth of youth leadership, making this a movement that is driven by mentorship and discipleship leadership. For this we praise the Lord.
“In 2022 the organization had 15 community facilitators (volunteers) that covered 15 communities. So far only 4 schools were accessible with this programme. But life coaching was mainly done with soccer clubs in the community. There are both boy and girl soccer clubs.
“Another way to get life coaching to the teenagers is by running holiday clubs in the communities, where teenagers get together at central points, during holidays, where they have life coaching.
“By far the most effective way to assist teenagers with life coaching, is by running youth camps at our youth camp site at Pepworth, in the N11. So doing, the following communities were reached: Nkuthu (Driefontein), Tsakane (Mnambithi), Bergville, eBusi (Ndaka district) , Estcourt, Msinga (Keate’s Drift), Msinga (Pomeroy) , Mhlumayo, and Msinga (Mchunu tribal area).”
Read this report (page 3 – 33) about their team of community facilitators, the different types of projects they run, looking at what was implemented, what were the challenges and what were the high lights. We conclude by looking at a proposed way forward.