Ministry Focus: Bergendal School

Bergendal School is a few kilometers outside of Paarl, in the fertile wine growing agricultural area. Here many colour farm workers live and raise their families in the meager accommodation provided for them by the land owners. The school provides education to children from all of these surrounding farms under what can often be very difficult circumstances.

The headmistress, Mrs Abrahams, recently shared with us that the local education authority, who funds the school and the teachers salaries, had forced them to make one of the teaching staff redundant. So she is now having to teach the class herself whilst trying to continue running the school in an effective way. As you can imagine this makes things very difficult for her and for the rest of the teaching staff. 

As mentioned most of the children at the school come from the local farm worker communities in the region, an area know as Suid-Agter Paarl (South-Outer Paarl). Sadly this area is well known for the kind of tragic things that are so everyday here. Alcoholism and substance abuse are major problems and directly associated to these addictions are extreme poverty, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, violence, rape, the list goes on and on. This is the kind of environment that these children are growing up in - they don't have a great start in life. And more often than not we're watched sadly as these kids have followed the example set to them - we've seen kids under ten high on some substance or other, we've watched smart girls get sucked in and end up pregnant, we've seen the pain in chilren's eyes from all that they go through.

But in the midst of all this darkness there is a beacon of hope - Jesus Christ! 'Then spoke Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life' - John 8:12. What's more Jesus has called us as Christians to share that light with others 'You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house' - Matthew 5:14-15. And so we are so thankful that every week we have the priviledge of going to Bergendal School and ministering to these children who are so hurt and in need of light, life and love. We have the greatest news to share with these kids, of Jesus life, death and resurrection, and what it means for their lives. Of God's love for them in sending His son. Of the forgiveness of sins. Of lives transformed by The Holy Spirit. Of the healing and wholeness to be found in the brokenness of Christ on the cross. It really is good news, life changing news.

Someone told me this week that they'd an interesting conversation with a local land-owner who had been having serious problems with the workers at his farm. They're had been drunken brawls going on for some time and of course this was affecting the work etc. He'd tried having the police involved, he had tried getting experts to come in and give them education about the affects of alcohol, he'd tried social workers. In fact he'd tried about everything to get these workers to change and get them back to being effective workers. He spoke to a number of other local land-owners to ask for their advice. Astonishingly (or perhaps not) they told him that the only thing that had worked for them was to have someone coming in regularly to preach the gospel to their workers. What an amazing testimony of the power of God at work! In places that nothing else can affect change, the gospel can and does affect change, eternal change. There is hope!

So as we meet with these children once a week and sing God's praise, teach them God's word and pray with and over them we are earnestly seeking that God would do a work in each of their lives and also in each of their homes and the whole Suid-Agter Paarl. Please pray with us to this end. Also worthy of a mention is Ms Auvion, the guidance counselor at the school, who is completel sold out for Jesus and super keen to see God to an amazing work amongst the children. Pray for her as she daily meets with these children and seeks to point them to her Lord, who alone can save them. Thanks

Ministry Focus: Loving the unlovable - Homelessness

Even back when Vicky and I were in university God really put a burden on our hearts for the homeless. Homelessness is an international issue, so whether it was on the streets of Glasgow or here in Paarl, God has given us a deep desire to see the down and out loved on and evangelised. God really brought that desire to bear once we moved here to South Africa.

Pentez was so stoked to get his own Bible!

For whatever reason the divide between the haves and have-nots here is so much more obvious and there is no welfare state for people to fall back upon when the hit hard times and so there is a whole sub-culture of people who's permanent home is the street. I spent a year working with the homeless as my full time job when we still lived in Glasgow and over the years I've learned that homelessness is a deeply complicated issue and that you have to treat people as individuals, listen, and help find a solution on a case by case basis. Trying to make sweeping generalisations and coming up with fix-all solutions just won't cut it - we're dealing with complex human beings! Though many of these individuals are actively involved in drugs and alcohol and may come across as rude, aggressive and beyond help, we need to look at them through God's eyes.

I'm working my way through the old-testament in my quiet times right now and came across this today:

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother...You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.' - Deuteronomy 15:7,10&11

Greame comes to our door most weeks for food and prayer.

It is clear that God has a deep love and concern for those who are experiencing poverty, and the homeless certainly fall neatly within this category. It's also interesting to me to note here that God said 'there will never cease to be poor in the land', so we can't turn our head and pretend that this issue is just going to go away, or that someone else will deal with it for us.

There is a vibrant homeless community in Paarl, and I use the word vibrant correctly because they are full of life, fun and hope. Many of them congregate in a park near to our home and so we've been able to build relationships with many of them since we arrived here in late 2009. Ministering to them is hard and goes through season of rapturous joy and deepest heartbreak. We've seen a number of them respond positively to the gospel but then fall for the snares of the world again. We continue to love on them, feed them, speaking honestly to them about their life choices and trying to give a helping hand to those who really want to change.

Others are working hard in this town to reach out to the homeless. Monte Christo Miqlat runs a wonderful ministry called Homeless Care which helps provide employment for the homeless along with seeking to share the Gospel with them both verbally and practically. One of the major issues that surrounds homelessness is that small change. Small change makes no change! In other words the good will of many people who hand money to those on the street can actually be more harmful than helpful. The temptation is very strong for those with addictions to take what money the recieve and just waste it on drugs or alcohol rather than feeding and clothing themselves. We've seen that first hand. So Homeless Care have come up with a very successful voucher scheme - people buy booklets of vouchers which they can hand to the homeless instead of spare change and these vouchers can then be used to 'purchase' food or clothing at a number of locations throughout Paarl. Many local businesses have really embraced this project and we are very glad of it.

There is still much to do within the homeless community here in Paarl, food and clothing are all well and good but there are many more needs that have to be met. Please pray with us for the homeless community of Paarl, which is estimated to be up to 2000 people. Pray for wisdom for us as we seek to meet the needs of those who we come across - this can be a very draining and difficult ministry but we know God has called us, along with all His followers, to engage with this. Please pray that needs would be met in a very real and life changing way and that the most important need of every soul - their salvation - would be secured through the life changing news of Christ crucified.

Thanks for your time - Dave

Ministry Focus: Allandale Prison

Once a week on a Tuesday morning we hit Allandale Correction Centre for a couple of hours of Bible study and ministry to the inmates in one specific section of the prison. This ministry is a partnership with Boland Prison Ministries who actually go to seven or eight local prisons for the same purpose of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to those in prison and to teaching the word of God to those who are eager to be discipled.

We don't need any more reason for undertaking this ministry than Jesus own words in Matthew 25:35-40 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

We are currently working through the book of James with the inmates, attendance can be vastly different from one day to the next depending on the other activities that happen to be taking place that day, but we have a core group of 5-10 guys who are really hungry for the things of the Lord and for His word. We are seeing them grow and mature as they receive instruction from the Bible. At times this is a ministry that can be quite discouraging and it's never fun to go into prison (!!) but every week we come out feeling encouraging that we could share life with these men. God is truly at work in Allandale and in Prisons all over South Africa.

Dave (L) & Mike (R) present certificates to some prisoners on completion
of one of the courses. Bottom Right is Pastor D, a great blessing.

Please pray with us for this ministry, these men are living in very difficult conditions - prisons in South Africa are not the warm, comfortable places that they have become in the UK and throughout the western world. They face daily challenges including gang violence, bullying and the temptation of drugs etc. It's a cold, damp and depressing place both in the physical but also spiritually speaking. Added to this is the fact that when they get out many of these guys fall back into old habits and return to prison very quickly. They need your prayers, thanks

Ministry Focus: Rahab Prostitute Outreach

Rahab is an interdenominational organisation that reaches our to prostitutes on the streets of Paarl. People from many different churches in the town come together with a common vision to see these women (and men) impacted by the love of Christ. The team aims to first show the prostitutes love and acceptance as they are so used to being rejected, looked down upon, used and unloved. As relationships are formed then the gospel is shared and the need for change is unfolded gently.

The majority of these 'street-workers' come from very difficult life circumstances. Some where abused as children, some of them lost their families due to tragedy and have had to support themselves financially through prostitution, the majority of them are homeless and live on the streets and most of them have addictions to alcohol or worse 'tic' (crystal meth). They are living very desperate and hopeless lives in which many of them feel that they do not have any option but to carry on living the way that they are.


The Lord really has been doing amazing things through this ministry though. Many churches, including Calvary Paarl, have come alongside to support and work with Rahab, giving time and resources to the ministry. God has really blessed this co-operative work and a number of woman have made the hard decision to come off the street and begin a new life. Praise God that several of these ladies have also been born again or re-dedicated their lives to Jesus. There is no greater thrill for us than to see souls saved!

L-R: Vicky, Marie & Madelein at prayer before outreach

We need your prayers for this ministry, there is a very real battle going on for the souls of these desperately lost men and women. Please pray that God would continue to guide the Rahab team and that many more street-workers would come to Him for both emotional and spiritual healing. Please pray for His protection over each team member as they go out every Thursday evening to some of the roughest, darkest places in Paarl. Please pray that God's love would break through years of abuse, rejection and heart hardening. We are so thankful to see Him at work among the broken and needy. What a mighty and loving God we serve!

Ministry Focus: Christian Skaters Paarl

Christian Skaters is an organisation that spans the globe and aims to take the gospel to skaters wherever they are to be found. We recently started a Christian Skaters chapter here in Paarl.

Way back in October 2011 God gave us a vision to begin some sort of outreach to skater kids in Paarl. At the time we weren't even really sure if there were any! But we were sure we'd heard from God and so we began to pray and to wait on His perfect timing.

Fast forward to January 2012 and, as ever, God opened the door in His perfect timing. Someone came forward to sponsor timber and steel with which to create several ramps, someone else helped us build them, we were sponsored to buy a high quality cordless drill for the mammoth task of building the stuff, we met skaters, a local youth worker sponsored helmets, pads and a skateboard. The list of God's faithfulness and provision just goes on and on!

We now meet the skaters every two weeks. We take the ramps to a local municipal car park every second Saturday from 2-4pm. We skate for an hour then settle down to a short Bible study - right now we are teaching them about the attributes of God. We have 5 to 10 guys in regular attendance and the Lord is really blessing the outreach as there is an atmosphere of love and acceptance not only from ourselves but also amongst the skaters, who come from different backgrounds, schools etc but all embrace one another. God is at work too giving them a desire for His word, it's so awesome to see this amongst teenage guys!

The vision God has given us is to be reaching out to this group of marginalised youth with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This town can be a very hard place to live if you don't fit in to the social norms (as we've personally experienced during our time here). Things that are considered 'different', 'radical' or 'counter-cultural' are very much frowned upon. Sadly, as with so many places, there is a cultural norm that is expected and if you don't fit into this cookie cutter you can find yourself on the fringes. Dave's love for punk and alternative arts has often made him feel this pressure. But the good news for Dave and for these skate kids is that Jesus was also misunderstood and God has a special place in His heart for the outsider. Not that He loves them more than those who fit the norm, but that to him they are not 'different' just another of His creations whom He loves dearly. Leviticus 19:33-34 makes this clear to us ''And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself - for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God".

So our desire has been to reach out to these kids who perhaps don't fit in to the other youth groups and so on that are already operated by various churches in Paarl to give them a place to belong and to experience the love of God (some for the first time). In teaching them about the attributes of God we are trying to give them a good understanding of who God is and what He's done for them.

Please feel free to join our Christian Skaters Paarl Facebook page and pray with us that many young lives would be changed by Christ as we meet with the skaters each fortnight. We are really excited to see how God will use what He has so clearly put into place. Soli Deo Gloria!

Blog Revamp

Hey Folks

Well we thought it high time that we did some work on our blog to make it more user friendly and to get it up to scratch so we've cleaned up a bit around here and we're going to try harder to keep this thing regularly updated.

WE also want to create a series of articles that highlight the various different ministries that we are involved in here in Paarl. The idea is to give more attention to each ministry than we are ever able to in our monthly updates, so that those who read will have a fuller idea of what we do and why we are doing it.

So watch this space for those articles and for more info on our lives here in Paarl as we strive to be faithful and obedient to answer the call of God to go and make disciples of all the nations.

Blessings in Christ - The Emmerson Family

May Update

Hello there! Greetings from Paarl, South Africa. We've had a pretty busy but blessed month and we'd like to be able to share it with you. So here goes:

Sponsor-a-Bible Feedback

A big thanks to those of you who sent funds to sponsor a Bible. We bought 28 Bibles, ten of which were really awesome 'Skate Bibles' which have testimonies of skateboarders who've given their lives to Jesus. These are going down a real treat with the skate kids, please pray that they will read them and that God's word would not return void but find good soil in their hearts – we want to see them saved. The other Bibles were all in Afrikaans and we've already given most of them away at Allandale Prison. We just love to get the word of God into the hands of those who are thirsty for it. Thanks for partnering with us.

Christian Skaters Paarl

This month we became an official part of Christian Skaters South Africa and we had a visit from, Bradley Jones (one of the guys who helps run Christian Skaters SA), who has such a heart for these kids. It's great to be part of a larger organisation with so much wealth of knowledge and experience and to know that we are being prayed for by them. As we mentioned above the Skate Bibles have gone down well and the kids are listening well as Dave shares with them about the characteristics of God and His love for them. Pray with us that we'd be able to reach out to more skaters and that the weather would hold up for us. We've been rained off a couple of times and would really like to find a disused warehouse to use or something but we trust God will provide. Check out the new Facebook page here – www.facebook.com/cspaarl

Men's Camp

At the end of April Dave went to the second annual Calvary Chapel men's conference with about 50 other guys from Calvary's across South Africa. This was a really great time of fellowship with friends who we don't get to see very often as well as a great time of teaching from the book of Joshua. He came home feeling challenged and refreshed to continue in the things God has called us to do here in Paarl.

Children's Ministry

Vicky has recently been put in charge of the Children's Ministry at church. Please pray for her as she is keen to grow into this role and learn more as to how to more effectively minister to the kids and the Sunday School/Toddler time leaders. This is a big responsibility and means a lot more time is needed to write curriculums, plan and research. She is very much enjoying it but very much needs prayer for wisdom and time management.

Jesus at work

Please pray for the women Vicky regularly has opportunity to reach out to/minister to. Some of these women have given their lives to the Lord and are now really seeking to grow in their walk with Him, others she often has opportunity to share with. We can see Jesus at work in these women and are so excited to see what He is going to do in their lives.

We have also recently had one of the teenagers from the Vlakte Farm start coming back to church (Morne). He seems keen to start walking with the Lord. Also this week he mentioned to us that Eben (another teen who previously came to church) was also eager to return, we are praying they both grow and flourish in their relationships with Jesus and that the Lord gives us opportunity to really pour into them God's word.

Church News

We've really seen a great deal of growth in the church over the past while. A number of lovely new families have started coming along and really getting involved which is wonderful. On Sunday mornings we've also seen an increase in fellowship and in people ministering to one another in prayer which has been really encouraging. Sadly we just heard this week that we need to find a new venue again – the business we've been subletting from is doing so well that they now need to expand their opperations and subdived the space we rent so there will no longer be any room for us. Thankfully they are willing to be quite patient with us while we find a new venue. Paarl is not the easiest place to find property to rent so please keep us in your prayers. Last time this happened God used it to really bless and grow the church so we are trusting that he will do the same again this time and provide us with a new venue in his perfect timing.

Prayer Points

• Praise God for sponsored Bibles
• Praise God for bringing everything together for the founding of Christian Skaters Paarl. Please pray that the outreaches would continue to be effective
• Praise God for the great men's camp Dave attended
• Praise God for His constant provision for us and faithfulness to us. We are so blown away at the life He has called us to and the way He leads and guides us.
• Praise God for the growth we've been seeing in Calvary Paarl, in numbers but more importantly in maturity.
• Please pray that every person we give a Bible too will take it and read it and be changed by it. Pray that it will draw them closer to God.
• Please pray for a new church venue for us. Thanks
• Please pray that we'd all stay healthy through the winter – we all had a pretty nasty tummy bug this month that knocked us for about a week.
• Please pray for Vicky for wisdom as she heads up the children's ministry and that God would bless the little ones.
• Please pray for Morne & Eben
• Please pray for the ladies that Vicky has been ministering too, for their growth in Jesus.

Thanks so much for your time, love, support and prayer. You're partnership with us in this calling helps make the burden easier for us to carry.

With love in Christ – Dave, Vicky, Elijah & Murdo

xxxx