70 People per Week

Things are getting off to a busy start here at our training centre in Fish Hoek. We are now running 4 courses: Computer, English Beginners, English Intermediate and Sewing. We also have a growing amount of people who come for food and devotions on Wednesdays. So far we have about 70 people in and out of our doors each week! This number will increase when Graphic design starts in May, and as the English course grows (which it always does as the term progresses). The Lord has been so good to us in bringing the people to our centre, and we continue to pray for his guidance and help as we strive to bring the Gospel to his people.

We are thrilled to have Gustavo and Stephanie Formenti joining us for a while. They are a missionary couple with M.T.W. (Mission to the World) and they have committed to working with us for the next three months. We are always thankful to God for bringing the right people our way just when we need them.

Our new sewing course is also encouraging. Linda Steyn, a local Fish Hoek resident has set up a wonderful curriculum where ladies are taught the skill of sewing and at the same time are introduced to the Gospel and are taught the basics of living the Christian life. We are so blessed to have her on our team, freely giving of her resources to help our people.

Please keep us in your prayers this term for all that is going on, and feel free to pop in and visit!

OUTLOOK: 1st Quarter 2010

African Renewal’s 1^st quarter begins 8 February 2010. We will be running 5 main courses this year:

Basic English
Intermediate English
Basic Computer
Graphic Design
Sewing

For information on any of these courses, please contact us.

NEWS: Design Students on the Job

After the graduation last month, we at African Renewal decided to start a small business venture. At first it was more of an experiment, but it has turned out to be something that has got a future.

We can do your website and logos for your business or church. In order to help our students Marcus, Jeffrey, and Grace financially we will ask for a fee, but we will surely come to an agreement easily.  In the future we are hoping that this part of AR can not just support the people we deal with but also feed into the rest of the ministry, too.

Check out our first two websites here:
bonolo.bennimmo.com
bbrw.bennimmo.com

SLIDES: Our Second Graduation

Last Friday we had our second graduation. This time we celebrated the completion of two courses. Twelve students competed the Basic English Course, four students completed our first Open Source Design Course. We thank God for our teachers, Audrey and Lucia. They have been a great blessing to us in not just teaching the students but also helping them in some practical needs. May all the students come to faith in Christ through your ministry.

The Design course is now followed by some client work. Two students will be working on a website for the next few weeks and we are hoping for more work for them in the future. This way they will be able to provide for themselves and their families.

Below you can view some slides of the graduation. Please excuse the poor image quality. Next time we wont use a cell phone for sure

SLIDES: Graduation of English Class

Last Friday twelve students received a certificate on our first “Basic English Course” Graduation. It was an awesome celebration at the Muizenberg Community Church. Pastor Brian handed out the certificates and each student shared their appreciation towards their English teachers Audrey and Lucia – and they did not need an interpreter to do so! Afterwards we had biscuits with tea and coffee while the students took many pictures to memorize this lovely event.

SLIDES: 100 students per week

These last two weeks have seen the start of our Graphic Design Course and the rest of the computer courses. We have 6 classes for computers, each with 11 students, and we have 10 students taking the graphic design course. This added with the 15 students being taught English and the 10 enrolling for the Bible course means that we have about 100 people coming in and out of our doors every week! What a privilege, and what a task! We are blown away by how many people God has entrusted to us in this way at such an early stage in the project. Please pray with us that we are able to find ways to spread the gospel to them in effective and lasting ways.

SLIDES: English Course Continues

Our English course is going strong. On three days a week Audrey and Lucea are teaching a group of fifteen Congolese refugees. They haven’t been in SA for long and are not fluent in English. This is the very first step for them to find employment.

SLIDES: Setting up the Computer Room

Over the weekend our training partners, DLK group, came to install their computers in our Fish Hoek training centre! We are so excited to have these computers at our facility and we can’t wait to start training next Monday. Our Graphic Design course will also be run on these machines, and this course also starts on Monday.

Unfortunately the accommodation that we had found for Godelina and her family has fallen through, so we are still desperately looking for a place for them. Please pray with us in this regard, or let us know if you can help in any way.

The Lord continues to show His hand on our ministry and we are amazed daily at how He is blessing African Renewal.

SLIDES: Our first English lesson

Today we were so excited as we saw the start of our first course, Conversational English! The students were all French-speakers from the Congo. The classroom was ready just in time, and Audrey, our qualified teacher, got straight into the first lesson. I had the priviledge of sharing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus before the class started, with the help of Charles (one of our residence) translating into French. We pray that God uses AR in these men’s lives, and we thank Him for bringing them to us.

SLIDES: Transporting goods to Zimbabwe

We are in the process of setting up a number of business ventures to help with self-sustainability. One such venture is transporting goods to Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans living in the Fish Hoek area. We successfully delivered out first load this weekend, and we thank God for keeping safe on the 40 hour journey to Musina and back!