REPORT FROM SOSHANGUVE

You might remember that the project in Soshanguve got started last year as a result Zodwa getting married and moving to Soshanguve where her husband pastor Elias is an evangelical preacher. Zodwa brought nine young adults to Richards Bay to get trained in the Smart Choices program with our 2008 mission team. The following is the Soshanguve report written by Zodwa Gomba.

Office
2009 has proved to be a year of success and a bright future. We have been praying for an office where from the Soshanguve, Mabopane, Winterveldt and Mathibestad Ministries would work. In January God provided us with a beautiful and spacious office in the centre of Soshanguve Township. The rent is R2200 ($220) per month. We have started using it. We are sharing this office with Pastors’ Fraternal of Soshanguve. Through this networking we are going to serve our community. There are different ministries involved, Better Choice, Prison Ministry, Counselling Ministry, Discipleship training and Jesus Film. Dawie Peterson got us a sponsor who has paid the rent money for us for six months in advance. We trust God for further renting.

Training
We have had Better Choice training for five-days. Four members have joined our team. During our Easter Conference we will be training members from Victory Fellowship Church from Soshanguve under Pastor Ndala who was deeply touched by the program as well as members of our church (Ebenezer).

Teaching
We have started teaching in Tsibogo Secondary School. Teachers begged us to teach all their Grade 10 Students. We have done 2 classes and are left with 3 classes. Both classes went very well. We have decided to take a video camera and interviewed the Class Monitors and President of the School. They were deeply touched by the lessons. They were also excited about the fact that the School only started teaching grade 10 this year and they are the first Grade 10 group to be taught at that School, that coupled with the fact that America has had its first Black President, they consider themselves blessed to be sharing a coincidence with such a great country. So far this year 94 students from the Tsibogo School have received Smart Choices training. We are targeting 18 Schools in this township. There is a follow-up group from our church who will be running the spiritual movement in every school taught.

Projects / Networking
We have joined hands with other organisations dealing with HIV/AIDS Program. On the 13th February we visited Phakamonola School where all stakeholders were invited. HEARTLINES AND LOVE LIFE & BETTER CHOICE teams. I did a presentation about Smart Choices and afterwards the team dramatized the Thandiwe story to show how bad choices can affect one’s future. The whole day was set apart for an AIDS campaign. Love life team was giving blood tests to the community members & our team also went for testing.

Orphanage
Thank you very much for supporting the children. You are making a huge difference in their lives and your support is shaping a brighter future for them.
Sthembile and Minenhle are now with us. The reason we took them is that she failed her grade 8 and we realised that it was due to my absence. Minenhle was sickly and often absent from school. We may now bring the rest to Pretoria, (Sno, Phiwe & Skho). They all want to come and stay with us, we are renting the house we are staying in but we are in preparation to buy a new plot to build an orphanage.

Prayer Requests
• Pray for a computer, printer and fax machine in our new office
• Rent which is R2200.00 per month
• Pray for transport. At the present moment we are using one car, which takes only 4 people to the schools whereas we have 10 members.
• Pray for a projector. We are using one of the members’ TV set, we are afraid it can get damaged.
• Pray for the house where we can live with all the orphans, we are currently staying with 4 orphans and we have more in our church
P.S. Would you please print T-shirts for us since we’ve already started and the ones that we have are worn out as they are worn 3 times a week, we will appreciate that a lot.

Meet Zodwa & the Soshanguve team

sIn the last three months newsletter we have introduced you to our three team leaders from the three cities surrounding Richards Bay and this month we want you to meet the team from Sohanguve. Zodwa Ntuli is one of the first two Campus Crusade missionaries that has been working with us since 2004.

You can read a brief biography about Zodwa on our website. In 2008 Zodwa brought nine members of their church congregation down from Sohanguve to Richards Bay to be trained and to work with us for the two-week program at the schools. They also ran a two-week long tent evangelism ministry in parallel with our program so they were busy little bees doing our program by day and the tent evangelism by night. All of Zodwa's team members are in their twenties and are passionate students and followers of Jesus. We were particularly touched one of he team whom we call Lebo, her full name is Lebogang Moloi. Susan wrote a piece about Lebo and her faith in the August newsletter but I want to tell you the story about Lebo's vision.


Let me preface the story by saying that Lebo lost both of her parents to AIDS in about 2000-2001 when she was still a teenager. In her words this left her completely destroyed to the point that she dropped out of school and had no ambition to do and further studying. Just before our trip last year she was reading her bible and praying and she had a vision from God of herself standing in front of a class of high school students and teaching them. She was completely mystified by this and couldn't imagine how she could gain access to the schools or what she would be able to teach the students. She tried to put it out of her mind and go back to her reading and praying but she got the same vision again. Shortly after this incident she heard about the group of young adults that Zodwa was taking to Richards Bay to do the AIDS training. She went to Zodwa and asked her if she could go on the trip because she had a vision from God and she knew that she was supposed to be on the trip. Zodwa told her that they were only taking two cars and all the seats were taken so there wouldn't be any room for her. Lebo was so convinced that she was supposed to be on the trip that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. She started to pray that some how some way she would be able to go with the team to Richards Bay. This went on until the day before the team was due to leave and Zodwa called her to say that one of the guys that was supposed to be on the trip could not get leave from work so there was a seat available for her.

Please watch the Lebo video to see her tell the rest of her story in her own words.

It is our hope and prayer that we will be able to present Lebo with her own set of equipment when we go out to South Africa in August. This will cost about $800. If anyone feels led to make this happen your gift would be gratefully received.

We will have more news in the March newsletter about the developing partnership between Zodwa's team, the Pastors fraternal from Sohanguve and Campus Crusade Head office in Pretoria

Playing For Change: Song Around the World

Program expands to Durban

New England, USA Mission Trip to Durban, RSA

After the pilot Better Choices program to Richards Bay in July 2004, a group of twenty-one people from four New England Churches were inspired to repeat the program in Durban. There were four to six people from each of the New England churches. Each of these churches were partnered with a local South African church and assigned a school that they would present the program to.

See the web site created by one of the trip participants documenting the activities of the trip.

2006 Trip to Durban website

Farran Family Christmas Project

The Farran Family
HIV/AIDS Ministry
http://www.farran.abwe.org/
Christmas Project

Christmas for orphans
Children at Musawenkosi Orphanage

As I pull into the orphanage each week, kids come running from every direction. Ten kids with looks of eager expectation quickly surround me...all hoping for a piece of candy that I usually bring. The place is Musawenkosi Orphanage, meaning "Grace of the Lord", which houses 24 orphans whose parents died from AIDS. They are blessed to be taught the Bible from a pastor who loves God and who cares for their physical needs. God has allowed us to do much of our Zulu language learning at this orphanage with help from the children, caregivers and the overseeing pastor.

As Christmas approaches we are reminded of God's love in sending His son to bring us into His family. "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God" 1 John 3:1 This precious gift causes more than warm fuzzy feelings; it creates a desire to love others as we have been loved. "We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

With this desire to love others, we have been looking for a tangible way to show love to these orphans this Christmas and make it a special time for them. We have decided to purchase gifts for the orphans and food for a special Christmas dinner. On Christmas Eve we will be delivering these gifts to the Musawenkosi Orphanage.

Recently, we received a few requests from people wanting to give to orphans during the Christmas season. Thinking that other families and churches may be looking for similar opportunities to show the love of God this Christmas, we created the "Christmas for Orphans" fund. Money from this project will purchase gifts and food for the orphans. Any extra funds will be given to the orphanage for the children's school fees. All donations are tax-deductable.

If this is something you would like to be a part of, please follow the link below to our "Special Projects" page:
Christmas Project
(Pictures will be posted on our website Christmas Eve of the children opening their gifts).


May HE be the CENTER of all you do this Christmas season.

For His glory and our joy,
Kyle Farran

2008 Accomplishments

A year-end Summary 2008

The Beacon of Hope Board of Directors is very encouraged about the progress that has occurred in our AIDS education program and other partnerships during 2008. BOHI is particularly proud of the partnerships that have been established with other public benefit organizations and churches both here in the USA and also in South Africa.


The HIV/AIDS Education program:
Our Partners:
Our primary partner in this program is Campus Crusade for Christ who is responsible for producing the training material we use. We are working with them in three Campus Crusade Regional offices at present (Richards Bay, Durban and Pretoria) and anticipate that this will expand in 2009. The second level of partnership in this training endeavor is through local churches. They are the backbone of the training program and provide the abundant supply of volunteers that present the student seminars at the high schools.




Church Partners:
In the tri-city area around Richards Bay.
Since 2006

1. Living Stones Covenant Church
2. Meerensee Methodist Center

New partnerships this year.

1. Thandaza Community Church
2. Outlook Community
3. Calvary Baptist
4. Richards Bay Baptist

The following churches have also approached us since our summer trip and want to have members of their congregation trained.

1. Victory Fellowship
2. Anglican Church

In Gauteng Province and the city of Soshanguve

1. Ebenezer Fellowship. Zodwa’s husband is an evangelist and oversees three churches. All of Zodwa’s team members are from this church.

US Churches:
We are currently communicating with 16 churches all across the USA that have expressed some level of interest in participating in mission trips to South Africa, if not in 2009 then at some future date. As the AIDS education program expands into new geographic areas it will be essential that we have new blood to help inspire new areas to adopt the program.

Transition to year round program:
The most significant accomplishment this year is that the education program has transformed into a year-round program, which holds the potential of increasing our student numbers 1800%.
Reduced Cost per Student from $203 in 2004 to under $3 currently:
This is mostly as a side effect of the partners that we have been coaching since 2006 finally continuing on with the program in our absence. We are now able to reach a drastically increased number of students without paying the high premium of participants traveling from the USA.

Number of students that received AIDS education in 2008 up by 280% over 2007.
2004 100 students
2006 832 students
2007 760 students
2008 2123 students

Lyndell, one of our volunteer partners from the
Outlook Church with a student from Ntongande
School.

Opened operations in a new City and Province:
In April on of our Campus Crusade team leaders, Zodwa Nthuli got married and moved away to the Gauteng Province just north of the City of Pretoria. She brought nine twenty-something-year-old trainees with her to participate in our July program. Her team returned home in August after the July program and immediately started signing up schools to receive the Better Choices HIV/AIDS program.
New Campus Crusade Area office has become active.
As a result of the activity of Zodwa and her team in their town of Soshanguve just north of Pretoria, the Campus Crusade area director for the AIDS education program has become aware of the impact of our program using their material. He is providing assistance to Zodwa and her team and is also considering activating other Campus Crusade teams in our program next year.

Establishing a Local Non Profit Organization in Richards Bay.
Indigenous Steering Committee Formed: A steering committee has been established in Richards Bay for the purpose of managing the AIDS education program in the Richards Bay tri-city area. This committee consists of the three area coordinators for the three cities of the tri-city area, several members of the Outlook church that participated in the training this year, and one participant from the Methodist church. This team has several goals for the remainder of this year.

1. They are working on establishing a non-profit organization that will enable them to raise their own local funds to fund the activity. The Senior Pastor of the Outlook Church is also taking an oversight role in this activity.


2. They have established a “train the trainer” team that will be used for training new Better Choices team participants.


3. They are training a second team to operate in each of the three cities to be ready for when the school year starts again in January.


4. They will be training teams in new areas that have expressed an interest in adopting the Better Choices program in their area. Specifically the city of Greytown. There may be more to come.

Orphan Care Program
Beacon of Hope has continued to work closely with Horizon International to find sponsorships for the 200 Richards Bay children that are on Horizon’s sponsorship list. Because of Beacon of Hope’s close partnership with The Village Church of Irvine, they have opted to make Beacon of Hope and Horizon International their preferred child sponsorship plan partner for 2009 and beyond.
Beacon of Hope has also taken over the responsibility of overseeing the distribution of sponsorship funds and the collection of periodic reports on the children at one of the four orphan facilities in the Richards Bay area.
During our 2008 summer trip to Richards Bay we visited all four of the orphan care organization or facilities that are receiving sponsorships from Horizon International. I am always encouraged and blessed to witness how some people who have so little are prepared to do so much for those in need. One of the orphan care organization, Izulu Orphan Projects run by Kate and Chad Bain are just such an example. They only have a handful of kids that are sponsored through Horizon so far, but have undertaken to provide school fees and school uniforms for over 500 children. They are providing clothing and meals several times a week for in excess of 700 children. All of these children live out in surrounding villages with foster families.
Kate and Chad are negotiating to acquire a piece of farmland adjacent to their property. The farm has some derelict buildings that they will renovate to use as childcare cluster homes and a medical clinic to care for the sick.
BOHI has connected them with a young pastor form Michigan who is working with the Calvary Baptist Church in Richards Bay and is planning to establish a Hospice facility.

Higher Education Sponsorship Program
First Student Selected: Beacon of Hope has selected one student from our 2006 class to be our first recipient of a higher education sponsorship award. He will graduate from high school this year and plans to go to the University of Zululand to get a Math and Science teaching degree. He immediately caught our attention as a potential leader and has proved his leadership ability to us. He organizing his friends into a group to go out into their rural residential area and teach others what they learned in the Better Choices program. We are currently working to identify other sponsors to help other qualified scholarship applicants to their goal of getting to college.

God's Plan

The Good news . . . . .
We were initially a little disappointed that we only have a three-person team going from the USA this year. It was a bit of a letdown after our ten-adult and eight-teenager team from last year. Anyway We just accepted that this is God’s plan for this year and started to plan accordingly. The good news is that we still ended up teach thirteen classes again this year even with our reduced contingent from America. This was one more than last year. This means that our local partners are starting to take this program over and make it their own.
Taking over. . . . .
Our South African teams have demonstrated their ability take over and run this program by the very fact that we were able to teach as many students this year with a three person American contingent as we were able to do last year with an eighteen person team. They have continued to demonsrate their desire to own this program by teaching another 1253 students in the two months since we have returned from the trip.
Expanding Geographically . . . . .

Zodwa, our faithful sister got married this year and moved away from Richards Bay. Her new husband is an evangelist with his own church in Soshanguve 40Km north west of Pretoria. They brought nine young people from their church to learn the program and team-teach with us so that they can take the program back to their area, which is in a different province. God’s plan is spreading the program geographically. We have evangalized three new areas telling them about the success of Better Choices and we are hopeful that by next year some of those areas will have adopted the program. The three new areas are: Port Edward, Ixopo, and Creighton. We have also just had a request to train a group of teachers in the city of Greytown.