Previous Ministry Updates

Family Ministry (written 2016-09-30)

We are so thankful that we were able to spend 2 ½ weeks in the U.S. with our kids and grandkids. This space is dedicated to “Ministry Update” and as parents, our family never ceases to be part of our ministry. As I (Dorothy) thought about this, I was wondering what the definition of “ministry” actually is. The dictionary’s definition reads, “the service, functions, or profession of a minister of religion.” Well, that didn’t help much!

To be honest, Dwight and I are incredibly blessed to be called into full time service for the Lord. OK. Let’s look up “service.”. . . “an act of helpful activity; help; aid: to do someone a service.” Hmmm. That might be a bit better. Especially knowing that the “someone” is actually Jesus Christ. And that only underscores the privilege we have being missionaries. All Christians are called to full-time service to Jesus Christ – whether in the work place, in the family, as they go about their day. But, for us, we are called to do it in strange and sometimes exotic places.

Being in full-time support ministry, it isn’t always easy to communicate what it is we actually do. We aren’t out living in a grass hut somewhere, but are currently living in the incredibly beautiful, modern and scenic city of Cape Town. We aren’t translating the Bible into some barely pronounceable language. We get to speak English all day and every day. We aren’t medical doctors, water engineers or other community-changing professionals.

Well, enough of what we aren’t. What ARE we and what ARE we doing? God worked out schedules so that one of the two Sundays while we were in the U.S., our home church was having its Mission Sunday. We were able to share with this special body of believers the answers to those questions. It has been over two years since we were able to share in person at our church. It was wonderful to be able to catch up with old friends and meet new ones over the Sunday morning service and then the evening fellowship time where we were able to share for 45 minutes how we are involved in what we see the Lord doing in South Africa.

We were able to tell how the Lord has given the SIM SA Director a real passion to see the South African churches mobilized for missions. And to that end, we have helped with governance and identifying changes that need to be made in how we relate to churches; how to equip those called to full-time cross-cultural ministry; how to make our application process more user-friendly; and how to change how we look at finances. We were able to share our desire to see more missionaries serving in areas where there is little gospel input – where people are living and dying without hearing the gospel.

So, yes, that is our ministry, but, to tie back in with the first couple paragraphs, even though we are privileged to be living in Cape Town, it does come at a price, and that is living far away from our kids and grandkids. We have to be creative in ways to stay connected, to be part of their lives. It is most likely going to be two more years before we see our kids, grandchildren, or our church family face to face. But, that does not minimize that we are part of them and they are part of us.

Please pray for our work here in South Africa, that we will seek where the Lord is working and join Him. And pray for us as we continue to minister to our children and grandchildren, that we will feel a connection to one another that is continue to grow.

We thank all of those who are partnering with us through prayers and financial support. Without you, we could not be doing what it is God has called us to. Thank you!!

SIM Southern Africa’s 2016 Spiritual Life Conference (written 2016-07-16)

The past four weeks were very full! As we have mentioned in our Praise and Prayer section of our web page and on Facebook, we had a wonderful time travelling from Cape Town to Durban and back. We were able to see so much of the incredibly beautiful country of South Africa.

The main reason for this trip was to attend SIM Southern Africa’s (SIM SA) annual Spiritual Life Conference (SLC) held in Port Shepstone, about 1,500 kilometer or just under 1,000 miles from Cape Town. Each SIM field holds an annual conference, a time for all the missionaries assigned to that field to come together for a time of teaching, encouraging, sharing and fellowshipping. We have now attended such conferences in 4 African countries – Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

Our speaker for this SLC was Dr. Stanley Ling. He has a long history with missions and with SIM and is currently the SIM Director for Southeast Asia. He is a great man of God and a gifted speaker, intertwining Scripture, teaching and stories in such a way that it was very easy to identify personal application. The only drawback was that it was impossible to keep up in notetaking! We were very thankful that he made both his notes and his Power Point presentations available to us!!

The theme of this SLC was “Declaring His Glory Among the Nations” and in preparation for the conference, we were asked to read 1 and 2 Thessalonians.  

Dr. Ling is a master storyteller, with the stories so fully applicable to his point that we won’t be quickly forgetting his teachings. In his first talk about self-identity, he told the story of an 8-cow wife. (A payment of cows or similar by the man to the bride's parents is still a common practive in most of Africa as well as other countries in other parts of the world.) A man offered to pay 8 cows for his beloved, even though everyone, including her family, thought she as worth only 2 cows. And guess what? She then behaved more like an 8 cow wife! One statement that really stood out was, “Worship is first an identity before it becomes an activity.”

In his second talk on building loving relationships on the field, Dr. Ling first defined kindness as “active goodness on behalf of others." He then went on to identify six love languages, referring to John Smalley and Gary Trent’s book, “The Five Love Languages.” Words of affirmation, quality time, gifts - grace and generosity, acts of service, sensitivity and humility. He also laid out three levels of encouragement: thanks for what they did; praise for how they did it and honor for who they are.

His third talk focused on answering the question, “What is true spirituality?” While affirming that there is nothing we can do or not do to make God love us less or to love us more, Dr. Ling posed another question that was very thought provoking – “Can you please God more by sinning less?” Quoting 1 Timothy 4.7, he gave us specifics in how we can train ourselves for godliness by listening and obeying God, loving God and man, living out our faith and imitating Jesus.

Dr. Ling’s fourth talk started out with a great story. A mother who desired her very young son to learn to love playing the piano brought him to hear a master pianist in a large concert hall. They had perfect seats right in the middle and very close to the stage. Seeing a friend, the mother told her son to stay there while she went to greet her friend. Upon returning to her seat when the lights were lowered, signaling the start of the concert, her son wasn’t there. Looking all around, she couldn’t find him. As the lights over the grand piano brightened, there was a collective gasp among the audience as this little boy was seated at the piano and the master was approaching. Instead of shooing the boy away, the master asked the boy to show him what he could play. Oblivious to the hundreds of people watching, the little boy started to play, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” After listening for one run through, the master started to play with the little boy, his hands dancing over the keys, surrounding this simple tune, and turning it into a masterpiece. In fleshing out his topic of “My Work or God’s Work”, Dr. Ling used this story to encourage us to do what we know to do, trusting our Master to make it beautiful.

We went away from SLC tired, but also filled in so many ways. Filled spiritually by Dr. Ling’s messages. Filled emotionally by being able to connect with SIM missionaries serving in South Africa, many of whom we only knew slightly before this. And filled physically through the three meals a day plus three different tea times!

SIMSaMM (written 2016-06-22)

Office structure is something that probably sounds a bit uninteresting and is hardly a topic to raise adrenaline levels, unless it is your structure that is being affected. As we joined the SIM Southern Africa Office team, much of situation that was reported to us was confirmed. The office was not unified and many things were falling through the cracks.

As we gained an understanding of the office dynamics and processes, gaps in communication, some personality issues, territorial protection mechanisms and such became evident. This is not to say anyone was bad, quite the contrary as people felt called by God to fill the roles that they were in. One of the primary areas that needed help was ongoing leadership. The Director has so many other commitments that kept him out of the office that he was unable to provide the needed direction to office staff and the procedures they needed.

From about seven “departments” with as few as one or two people in them, the office has been restructured to form three “ministry teams.” Using ministry team as a description, is a step taken towards working together in the Lord’s service rather than viewing our work as a job. The three teams are: Finance, which takes care of the money matters, Personnel, which deals with the people matters and SIMSaMM, which is the focus of this update.

The SIMSaMM Ministry Team has the primary goal of representing SIM Southern Africa to the public with the goal of mobilizing individuals into missions, raising prayer partners to bring the needs of world missions and specifically of SIM before our Father’s Throne and to raise funds to support the work financially. The name is an acronym/amalgamation of SIM, stewardship, mobilization and media. Projects coordination is also included in the group as we want to be actively updating donors regarding specific work being done through SIM.

Bringing these smaller groups together and forming a team is a relatively new adventure, and the team building is still an ongoing process. The mobilization people still mostly think in terms of “recruiting” new missionaries while the stewardship people still focus mostly on fund raising and the others in the team are mostly doing what they have been doing. BUT, the big change that is taking place is the thinking. Each person in the team is thinking beyond their traditional area of ministry and considering how what they do may contribute to the work of the others.

We have been meeting as a team for several months now and in a recent meeting on branding and identity, the issue of what do we bring back to the churches and others that we visit asking for funding, people and prayer. What do we provide? Historically we have helped churches send their people called to cross-cultural missions through SIM. We have done this through orientation, fund raising principles, working through the person’s field placement and providing accountability while they serve on the field. This is important, but can we do more.

Most churches in South Africa are still mostly white or black or Indian or colored (mixed race). This is a part of the legacy of Apartheid that so seriously hurt South Africa for many years. Government sanctioned racism, which is the foundation of Apartheid, has been illegal for over twenty years, but people and attitudes don’t change very fast. We have attended a number of different churches since moving to South Africa and while most have some mixing of race taking place, few churches are intentional about being multi-racial. Multicultural understanding is an area that SIM has expertise in and is perhaps an area we can come alongside the churches and assist.

We, as SIMers, are also seeing that few if any schools still offer degrees in missions. They may still have a few course available but most of the curricula are geared toward pastoral studies. Pastoral studies are important, but mission studies have been squeezed. SIM is considering asking other mission agencies to join us in starting a school of missions. This is very early in the exploratory stages but is a way that we can help the churches provide missions training to those in their congregations who feel called to serve the Lord through cross-cultural missions.

SIMSaMM still has much to do in terms of building unity and adopting one another’s goals and purpose. However, this is a team of people who want to see the Lord glorified as we share with churches, schools, individuals and various groups what He is doing in world missions and how they can be a part of that call.

The "Office"(written 2016-05-12)

Our ministry in the office continues to keep us busy. We are so thankful that amidst the busy-ness, we have a real sense of purpose and of the Lord’s leading. A verse that keeps popping into focus is Proverbs 16.9: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes His steps.” We know when it is the Lord establishing our steps when things fall into place in the right order, one building block built on another without having to take down any that have been put in place. And always moving forward. That is what we have seen this last month.

A few months ago we shared the governance work that has been done since our joining the SIM Southern Africa (SIM SA) team. As a team, we defined the office’s core values, purpose, mission and vision statements. Just as a refresher, our purpose is to “glorify God by facilitating the work of our missionaries and serving our mission community.” And our mission statement reads, “Seeking to extend God’s kingdom through effective service to our missionaries, we minister to them and motivate the Church to pray, give and go.” While we are both excited to lay out and define these statements, it is ever more rewarding when we see fruit by continually keeping these statements as the foundation.

One of Dorothy’s tasks as Personnel Director is to better unite the sending and receiving functions within the SIM SA office. Each of these functions have their own gifted and committed coordinators, but have traditionally worked rather separate from one another. As she prayed and asked the Lord to show her the steps He was already establishing, the Lord revealed His plan.

When SIMPact (SIM Kenya’s short term program) was designed and run by Dorothy, mentoring was key to the whole program. God is using that experience now in the SIM SA context. Dorothy introduced the idea of having a designated mentor/coach to walk with new folks once they are accepted, through prayer and financial support raising and through their first months in their ministry. Dorothy was so encouraged when the whole Personnel Ministry Team became excited about this new approach.  And instead of limiting mentors/coaches to members of the Personnel Ministry Team, those serving on other ministry teams will be invited to volunteer to become equipped as well.  The purpose in that is two-fold. One, to have a wider pool of trained mentors/coaches, but equally important, that all might see that what they do contributes to fulfilling our purpose and mission.

The second new initiative is aimed at allowing more accessibility for folks to partner with SIM, be it through praying, giving, going or sending. We have mentioned before how much the effects of apartheid are still easily observed in South Africa. While segregation between blacks, colored and whites is no longer legal, it is still prevalent in neighborhoods, schools and churches. One of SIM SA’s vision statements reads, "By faith we see the Church enthusiastically sending, supporting and praying for cross-cultural missionaries. . ." The traditional SIM process is geared more towards traditional sending countries and churches. We need to adjust what we are doing to enable anyone with a heart for missions to be involved. At a task force meeting last week we made progress towards making necessary changes.

We identified the non-negotiables.

We assigned the people of the task force to one or more smaller groups that are looking at: 1) church involvement; 2) the application process; 3) equipping for ministry and 4) flexibility in the area of the financial package. We will meet again in another week and from that meeting we desire to have specific action items that involve making changes in the way we do things so that we will be more accessible.

Please join us in praying that the Lord will give us eyes, ears and heart to see the steps He is establishing.

Travels about parts of South Africa (written 2016-04-23)

Dwight was privileged to travel through several parts of South Africa with the SIM SA Director, Siegfried Ngubane. The purpose of the two-week trip was to visit the various SIM missionaries in the areas these colleagues worked. The journey began as we flew from Cape Town to Durban. From Durban we drove to Pietermaritzburg, as well as up to Mseleni near the SA border with Mozambique. We then flew to Johannesburg, where we continued meeting people.

Lily of the Valley Orphanage
SIM SA Director with SIMers at Lily of the Valley Orphanage

Early in our travels we visited several orphanages where SIMers are working. Generally, SIM’s stand on orphanages is to move the children into the communities with extended families when immediate family members are unavailable or unable to care for the children. Often children growing up in orphanages lose touch with their communities and culture and may struggle to feel accepted once out of the care of these institutions. These orphanages continue, however, as many children do not have any family to care for them. As many as 70% of the children in these facilities are HIV positive. While that was a death sentence twenty plus years ago, most of these children grow up to live relatively normal lives due to the Anti Retro Viro (ARV) medications and the good nutrition they receive. Even though HIV and AIDS are rarely mentioned in the news, South Africa still has a high rate of infection, and those unable to get the ARVs and good nutrition continue to suffer greatly.

South Africa has a colorful and rich history with some severe scars and ongoing struggles but also hope. Until 1994, Apartheid separated people according to race with the whites having the highest privilege, followed by the Indians, then the coloreds (mixed race) and finally the blacks. Not only were people sometimes forcibly removed from areas they had lived in for many years, but jobs were classed according to race and even church denominations were classed by race. Because of this, SIM relates specifically to two different denominations, one being mostly black in its membership and the other being mostly Indian. Recovery from these old government policies is taking place but slowly as the scars are deep.

view in Phoenix
View of Phoenix, KZN from the guest house

Durban, located on the coast of the Indian Ocean in the province of Kwazulu Natal (KZN, the land of the Zulu people), has a large Indian population. Phoenix, a suburb of Durban where Siegfried and I spent a couple of nights in a Christian guesthouse, is an area of Durban that was an Indian township during the years of apartheid.

The four-hour drive from Durban to Mseleni was enjoyable seeing the countryside and occasionally getting glimpses of the Indian Ocean. In Mseleni, a regional government hospital is headed by an SIMer who, with his wife, have given many years of their lives to service. Last year the children’s home next to the hospital had a fire in one of the dorms and a small boy and a care giver who went in to rescue the boy both died. Many months later the home is still closed awaiting a government report on the tragedy. In the meantime, the other children have been placed in different sites, many longing to return to their old home in Mseleni.

Mseleni Hostpital
Follow the colored footprints (bottom right on pavement)
Heliport in background

Also, the SIMer who heads the hospital has been temporarily suspended from his work as there were accusations from some community members that favoritism was displayed in hiring at the hospital. Again, while waiting for a government report, the doctor has been waiting months unable to practice.

Back in Durban, we met with the bulk of the KZN SIM team. It was a wonderful visit learning about their families and ministries. Updates about changes in the Cape Town office were given and well received. We also visited with several ministry partners and denominational church leaders, past and present, as SIM SA seeks to strengthen ties and perhaps renew old connections.

Naranja School
The new Naranja Christian School in the NW Province

From Durban, we flew to Johannesburg in Gauteng Province. Here as in KZN, we met with many SIMers as well as several church leaders. A visit to a school three hours southwest of Johannesburg in the Northwest Province was also taken on, visiting SIMers whom Dwight had met during his travels in Tanzania some years ago.

Dwight was also able to visit some longtime friends and supporters who live near Johannesburg adding to the joy of the trip.

This trip was a great blessing to Dwight as he was not only able to better place people in his mind geographically but seeing colleagues face to face in their own areas adds much to connecting them and their ministries to that of the work in the Cape Town office. In June, SIM SA has its annual Spiritual Life Conference which in Dwight and Dorothy’s experience in other countries is a wonderful time to refresh spiritually and to make or renew friendships with our fellow coworkers.

SIM SA Office Values (written 2016-03-15)

Last month we gave an update on SIM Southern Africa’s (SIMSA) core values, purpose, mission and vision statements. This month we are going to focus more on the SIM SA Office. With us leading the discussion, the office team together agreed to the following statements:

PURPOSE: We glorify God by facilitating the work of our missionaries and serving our mission community.

MISSION: Seeking to extend God’s kingdom through effective service to our missionaries, we minister to them and motivate the Church to pray, give and go.

VISION:

  1. By faith we see a unified team effectively serving together in trust, reflecting Christ’s love in word and deed in a way that is honoring God and one another.
  2. By faith we see well-supported, equipped and motivated missionaries sharing and demonstrating the Gospel effectively, making disciples that make disciples.
  3. By faith we see the Church enthusiastically sending, supporting and praying for cross-cultural missionaries in partnership with SIM and other like-minded mission bodies.

But how does this play out? Let us share three examples with you.

First, SIMSA owns a mission house that is just around the corner from the office. We stayed there last September as we looked for our own place to live. Currently it is housing a family of four. Danny, April and their two teenage daughters are calling it home for 4-6 months as they are in Cape Town while Danny undergoes treatment for cancer. Besides having a fully furnished and equipped home to stay in, they are being supported practically, emotionally and prayerfully.

The next two stories show the dual function of the SIMSA office – sending missionaries from South Africa to other countries and receiving missionaries from other countries to minister in South Africa. In the last month the SIMSA office has had two events that facilitate the work of our missionaries. The first was a Home Assignment Debriefing. Missionaries who have completed a term of service come to Cape Town for a time of debrief, reflection, evaluation and sharing. They share with us experiences that they have had while on the field and meet with various support people at the office. “When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.” (Acts 15.6)

The second event is called SIMStart. It is a time when new potential ministries come to Cape Town for a week and a half. As well as learning more about SIM in general and SIMSA in particular, they complete various personality and psychological inventories, as well as interviewing with key people. If all is favorable, they are invited to join SIM and if they decide that SIM is a good fit for them, then they go from candidate status to appointee status. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’” (Isaiah 6.8)

Dorothy was asked to help L make a scrapbook that will be a resource for him to use as he meets with folks and presents them with the opportunity to be part of his ministry team. Dorothy laid out the basic outline of the book and then she and L worked together to make this book that introduced L, his family, his call to missions, his vision (what he feels God is calling him to do specifically), SIM, and then invites them to join him through prayer and/or financial gifts.  Both Dorothy and L were very pleased with the end result!

These are three accounts of how we, as members of the SIMSA Office are, “glorifying God by facilitating the work of our missionaries and serving our mission community.”

 

Vision (Written 2016-02-17)

Vision TextWhat IS Governance?

This is the question that Dorothy asked when “interviewing” a couple in 2007 who were checking out mission groups in Kenya to see where they might serve six months a year for the following five years. Going into the meeting rather intimidated by their lengthy resumes, she was quickly at ease and felt like she had known them for years. And she was able to convince them to come serve with SIM.

Since that time we have benefitted over and over again in their teaching us in governance principles. The dictionary defines governance as “a method or system of government or management.” Learning and applying these principles to first SIMPact (SIM Kenya’s short term program), then to SIM Kenya and then to our church in Kenya has equipped and prepared us for implementing these sound principles in South Africa.

We have led the SIM Southern Africa (SIMSA) Task Force, the SIMSA office and heads of departments in defining their core values, purpose, mission and vision statements, thus moving them forward in strategic planning. A task force of 12 people met on 4 February to answer two questions. 1) What is SIMSA’s vision? and 2) What are the ministry focus areas for SIMSA? The following is what the task force agreed to. It is only a draft as it now goes to SIMSA members and then to the SIMSA Board. An important questionnaire is going out this week to all SIMSA member serving in Southern Africa that is essential in this process.

As you read the answers to these questions, please praise the Lord for His help during this strategic process. Also, please join us in praying for God’s clear guidance as we move forward. We want to be as sure of His leading as the Israelites were in the wilderness with His presence visible both day and night. 

SIMSA Core Values which do not change over time and are essential to unity.

SIMSA Purpose and Mission Statement, identical to the statements adopted by SIM International as of January 2016.
Convinced that no one should live and die without hearing God’s good news, we believe that He has called us to make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in communities where He is least known.

      Therefore, compelled by God’s great love and empowered by the Holy Spirit

SIMSA Vision is passionate, inspiring and motivating; what we long to see if God really blessed the ministry of SIMSA.      The vision of SIM SA is to see:

        By faith we see SIM SA missionaries who are

        By faith we see the South African church becoming more Christ-like, evidenced by

SIMSA Ministry Focus Areas which will evolve into strategies.

Isaiah 6:8 (written 2016-01-13)

footprintsOur SIM Southern Africa (SIM SA) Director is passionate about motivating the South African churches to become more involved in missions. This includes praying, giving and going. Dorothy is excited to be involved in a new ministry of SIM SA that will provide these churches with a great opportunity to do just that!

The name of this ministry is Isaiah 6.8 which reads, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'” with an emphasis is on “Whom shall I send?” This opportunity is for participants to discover whether or not the Lord may be leading them into cross cultural ministry. From the very beginning, we will involve South African pastors and churches Siegfried, the SIM SA Director, has been working with, asking these pastors to recommend parishioners they identify as being strong in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The church will then support their candidate through prayer and finances.

Under the guidance and supervision of a ministry leader or couple, up to six individuals will live, learn and minister together for 20 weeks. This block of time starts with 6 weeks of training by a number of experienced missionaries on topics that will include the Biblical basis for mission and how to share the Gospel cross-culturally, as well as on practical issues such as working in multi-cultural teams and dealing with culture shock.

This training will be followed by an urban ministry experience (4 weeks), a rural ministry experience (4 weeks), a retreat (1 week) and total immersion into a culture that is not their own (4 weeks). At the end of this time, they will meet for 1 week of reflection and debriefing.

Those involved in this ministry will meet on January 27 to plan for

What can you do?  PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!

Please feel free to write Dorothy at dorothy.hazard@sim.org if you would like any more information! We will keep you posted!!