MCM News and Updates:

adventure! With the schools closed and other areas shut down, we're operating half time until mid-January when demand will increase again.


Homeless:
Jacques and his team organized a Christmas Party for the Homeless. He was anticipating about 40 in attendance and wound up with 75! It was a great feeling to see everyone getting a great meal and enjoying a party... for them! Our Homeless ministry provides work during the week cleaning streets, yards, parking lots and other odd jobs. The primary focus is to help men and women get back on their feet. The plans for 2010 are very exciting including the development of a voucher that will be sold in the local markets by individuals interested in truly helping the homeless. The vouchers can be turned in for a meal or an article of clothing in addition to making contact with MCM staff to help them go get into a program.

Health Ministry:
Our staff helps coordinate activities at Bowy House, Butterfly House and Sonstraal TB Hospital. One of the activities that has made a real impact this
 year are the weekend outings for the Bowy kids. Excursions have been to the zoo, Butterfly World, play areas, or MCM soccer games. One highlight is that they often finish up with a lunch at "old McDonalds" in Paarl.
                  

The 2009 soccer season is officially over. We were able to provide league management, coaching support and life skills programs for 30 teams and over 500 youth this year. With the sports field nearly complete, we're going to be able to offer an alternative way for these kids to spend their after school time... working to make themselves better young men and women!

MCM team member gets a new knee... God shows up!
 

Simon Moos our long term farm gardener in Porterville at the Monte Christo Farm is being blessed with a new knee.  As the story goes, Simon who was born on and has lived on the MCM farm all his life, has labored diligently for many years with a seriously deteriorating knee. Every day was filled with pain and with each passing week he was more immobilized. While the diagnosis was clear... the pathway for Simon to get a new knee was filled with so many obstacles. Coming from a humble back ground and lacking the resources to pay for a knee Simon was on a several year long waiting list as only 2 knee replacements per year were budgeted in the local public hospital.  As the MCM team saw the conditions Simon faced, we mobilized our forces and took this dilemma to God in prayer. Well miracles do happen... First, a local orthopedic surgeon with a huge heart, Dr. Daan Botes, stepped forward and offered to donate his services and do the knee transplant and arranged for the surgical theatre to be available. Now all we needed was the new knee itself at the staggering price of R 21,000!
 
In a deeply moving time of prayer with Simon at a recent team meeting the various members of our Monte Christo team said let's go he's our family and then passed the hat amongst ourselves personally.  Well next Tuesday, February 24th, Simon gets his new knee and is so looking forward to a life without pain and to again being an involved member of the MCM family.  Please pray for Simon's surgery to go well, for a rapid recovery and for his return to duty at the farm he so loves.   Thank you Dr. Botes and thank you God for using us al in this wonderful way!

MCM's "out of school" street-kids program and photo book in the works
 
Dr. Leon de Jager of the Khula Development Group in Paarl South Africa and Monte Christo's Daleen Labuschagne are working together on project to get school age drop out kids off the streets and back into school. The Khula Development Group was established in 2003 with the vision to provide sustainable support to out-of-school street kids and youth by assisting them emotionally, socially and educationally within a community context. As a means to raise support for this foundation, de Jager has taken initiatives to publish a coffee-table photography book showcasing the communities, families and schools these street kids come from. The publishing process is in the works. Monte Christo through its focus on meeting the basic needs of people in the community is working to provide an alternative to the desperate conditions these young people face every day.

December 12, 2008

In November 2008 we celebrated the completion of our first internship class.  The internship was a multi-cultural community based program that focused on the spiritual formation of the interns in the organic, transformative environment of communal living and serving.  They learned & experienced everything from Bible Overview, how to use computers & the internet, the importance of boundaries, public speaking, the role of spiritual disciplines, what is our biblical identity, as well as daily learning the value of service and putting other’s before self.  “Loving God & loving others” is the response Jesus gave when he was asked what the most important commandment is.  Jesus could have answered the question in so many ways, yet he chose this simple reply.  It is our hope and prayer that each young person who completed the internship has grown through personal experience in their ability to follow Jesus’ command of “to love God and to love others”.  The picture shows the interns being prayed for by the MCM team as they prepare to leave the internship and continue on their unique God journeys.

October 26, 2008

The holidays are quickly approaching, and for Monte Christo Ministries that means the majority of Americans make their way back to the States and the MCM coffee shop and most other Paarl businesses shut down shop for a few weeks. MCM is definitely in need for a holiday-season siesta, as 2008 was quite a productive year. For year-end updates and photo galleries, click on the ministry link of your choice below.

But before you explore MCM’s successes on the sports field, at the Butterfly House and elsewhere, here are a few general highlights!

• MCM dedicated the Prayer Room as part of the ministry and now offers a center for prayer in the greater Paarl area.
• The MCM Coffee Shop has become a community resource and center of ministry activities for all communities in Paarl.
• MCM’s staff has grown and now consists of more local South Africans than Americans. 
• MCM has worked with community centers in the poverty plagued areas to train local leaders on how to improve their operating systems, manage their activities with better skills and access resources from local agencies to advance their programs.