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HEATHCOTE SAFARI

STRENGTHENING THE WORK OF YWAM ...connecting people to projects through promotional video

December 2010

Using communication to mobilize people, prayer & resources for the work of Youth With A Mission in Africa and around the world.

Jonathan Jise - affectionately known as JJ - recently joined the AfriCom team from Nigeria. He heard about our ministry after training with Media Village in videography. Since arriving JJ has been a great help, doing a lot of the grunt work involved in editing a video (for those of you who don’t know, this takes hours!).JJ is living in YWAM housing in Muizenberg - his first cross-cultural experience so pray for him! Rumour has it he is also an incredible choirmaster!

The day after we arrived back in South

Africa after 5 weeks in the UK, Ismael Ferreira

came to stay with us from Angola. Ismael,

originally from Brazil, is YWAM’s national

director for Angola and he hosted the AfriCom

team earlier in the year, when they visited to

shoot footage at each of the ministry centres

dotted around the country.

Ismael is an amazing guy. We first met him

during our Discipleship Training School in 1999,

when he and his family were in South Africa to

learn English. He was Tim’s small group leader

during the 3 month lecture phase of the school

and his heart for taking the message of Jesus to

the tough places fanned into flame Tim’s shared

passion.

Ismael and his family have given their lives

to see transformation in Angola, moving there at

the height of the civil war in 1991. Twenty years

later they have seen dramatic changes in the

nation, and in YWAM.

Thirty years ago a missionary was

generally white, middle-class and western. In

1976 a young YWAM couple started working in

Brazil, determined to see young Brazilians

trained and working in missions. Traditional

missionaries laughed at these ideas, saying

‘Brazil needs missionaries, it doesn’t send

them’. In 1989 YWAM Brazil sent their first team

of missionaries overseas, Ismael was in their

third team to leave. Today Brazil is one of the

largest missions’ sending nations on earth.

Ismael had the same vision in Angola - to

train and release Angolan missionaries. Today

there are some 50 Angolan YWAM missionaries,

doing incredible work in tough places. The face

of missions worldwide is changing - and we’re

getting to tell the stories of what’s happening!

Ismael travelled from Angola to Cape Town

- a journey that takes 3 days - expressly to

check on the final editing process for the

promotional video being produced for the work

in Angola. During the days he was with us he

spent hours going through the footage with the

team, among other things checking on the

translation of the Portuguese interviews into

English. Working in more than one language is

certainly one of our priorities and principle

challenges as we serve the work of YWAM in

Africa.

Ismael will be using the video to profile the

work of YWAM teams in Angola to potential

prayer partners and donors. Will you pray with

us that through this project many resources will

be released for the fantastic work that is being

done in that country.

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It has been a very busy couple of months

as 2010 has been drawing to a close ... but all

for very good reasons!

First off was the Effective

Communication Workshop we held in

Worcester, about 2 hours’ drive from Cape

Town. We had 17 participants, all YWAM staff

members, and over the course of the week we

covered a number of key areas of

communication, including interpersonal,

writing, public speaking and more.

The group was very engaged in the

teaching, which made the week lots of fun! A

variety of different YWAM ministries were

represented and it was great to know that the

skills we were teaching would positively impact

a number of projects.

During our session on personal fund -

raising a Zimbabwean staff member spoke

honestly of the challenges of raising support

within Africa. It was greatly encouraging to

have Gustavo in the group. He was in the first

ever team of Brazilian YWAM missionaries, and

moved to the tiny island of Sao Tome and

Principe in 1989. For 2 years his team survived

on fish alone. Only after 6 years did he begin to

receive financial support. He explained that as

a pioneer Brazilian missionary he paid a high

price, and helped open the way for others who

followed.

Today hundreds of African YWAMers are

part of the first generation of African

missionaries. The sacrifices they make are

huge. Yet world missions is changing and the

price they pay as pioneers will bear long-term

fruit.

Another highlight of the Workshop was

the way we were able to partner with others

in offering the training ... we had someone from

Wycliffe International teach on the use of social

media; a staff member from YWAM’s Biblical

Studies department taught on public speaking;

someone from our International Chairman’s

Team in the UK taught remotely on

communicating a message that can be

understood by any audience; and Miranda was

able to use brilliant teaching material from a

member of our UK home church to teach on

interpersonal communication. This partnership

with other great communicators was inspiring!

Feedback from the participants told us

that these sort of events are just what YWAM

staff need to feel more capable of managing

their own communication - a key part of being

an effective missionary, especially over the

long-term.

The workshop was over, we took a deep

breath and plunged straight into the final

stages of another big project - the production

of the next magazine for YWAM staff across

Africa.

This has been a particularly important

edition because we have been revamping the

magazine and attempting to attract regular

advertisers to fund its production. We are

printing a 20 page full colour magazine in 3

languages; lots of work, but so important for

communicating with our teams around Africa

who have inadequate internet to access online

resources.

A Christmas Present that keeps on

Giving ...

With a growing team comes increasing

needs. Our new staff member JJ, from Nigeria,

is a gifted video editor. However he urgently

needs a computer to do his work. Please

would you consider giving towards this need?

Help fund a Nigerian missionary, and through

this make more projects like our YWAM

ANGOLA VIDEO possible.

Thank you and happy Christmas!

Wishing you all a

wonderful celebration

of Jesus this Christmas!

WORKSHOPS, MAGAZINES AND MORE ...

FinancesAll YWAM staff are volunteers. To support us financially, regularly or once off, please contact Ruth:

47 Langaton LanePinhoeEXETER EX1 3SPUK+44 1392 468842

We are blogging:

• www.heathcotesafari.blogspot.com• www.commsteamafrica.

blogspot.com

On-lineEmail: timandmiranda@yahoo.comSkype: mheathcoteFacebook: find us there!

HEATHCOTE FAMILY6 Lock RoadKalk Bay7975South Africa

Phone +27-21-7882523