1) South Africa longterm:
I contacted the South Africa embassy and got my list of documents I need to get my volunteer visa for South Africa. I am still planning on moving in september of this year. The volunteer visa will be a 3 year visa that I can extend while staying in South Africa so it's a perfect fit. I am hoping to have all the necessary documents by may 2017 so I can submit them on time. I would greatly appreciate prayers for this process, that the whole process will be smooth and that I will get my visa on time so I can move in september. There is still a lot of work to be done to prepare myself for this big move.
- I am doing a leadership course with my pastor who is a certified coach of John maxwell. This has helped me already a lot to be better as a leader. But also helped me build a good Kingdom foundation.
- We are still working on the vision for what we will do in SA longterm. I am going in April for a month to South Africa(More about that later), and this will help figure out details about our vision for South Africa. We will be able to talk to the locals and identify key needs but also possible challenges.
Few things are already clear, we will use sport as a tool to reach the youth, who want to disciple this youth in a very practical kingdom minded way and serving will also be a key pillar for our mission in SA.
- I'm also still raising support, past weeks I got a bit closer to my goal of 1000 EUR monthly support. I am at 800 Euro monthly support which is still 200 EUR short, but through perseverance and prayer I believe God will provide in his timing.
I am praying for 10 people who will help with 20 Euro a month, I want to ask you to join me in prayer for this!
2) South Africa short term
Before I am moving to South Africa, I will be going on a short term mission trip from march 29 till may 1st I will be joined by fellow staff member Jennifer Rhea, and also by Jenni Verstraeten. They will go back to Belgium on April 10 while I stay longer and use my remaining time to continue to build contacts, vision and getting myself more prepared for moving. We will go to Hoopstad and set up a soccer/volleybal camp there. But at same time also invest already in the potential leaders who we can work with in the future. This will be an amazing time of investing and building relationships. Please keep these times in prayer.
3) Huddles
I am also involved in 3 huddles throughout the week, these are discipleship groups set up through SportQuest. I am participating in one for SQ which Rance leads. But I am also leading 2 small huddles, one with 2 Belgians where we look into leadership but also self development. And I am leading one with 2 Americans, where we also look at leadership and self development but also just talk about life and our weekly struggles where we encourage each other and pray for each other. Both these groups are so much fun to do, and it's great to see these people opening up and making efforts to become better daily. They inspire me also to keep working on myself.
4) Ready Set Go
Last week we set up a training event in Brussels. We have been involved with the ECSU and there ready set go strategies for a while now. Ready Set Go is a free resource of strategies to make disciples, share the gospel, build relationships through the power of sport and play. They have a website www.readysetgo.ec where all the resources are on and it's completely free! I love this so much cause it's not an organisation it's a movement. Where people get empowered to act and go out to share about our amazing God. We wanted to get these resources to the churches here in Belgium. So at the end of januari we had our training day, where people from flanders came to, but also someone from Wallonië and even a few from Germany. We shared about 4 strategies and we were blessed to have Marty Woods come from Paris to share about community festivals. We had a small group but it is an encouraging start and I pray that the people who came will act on what they have heard. Like i said Ready Set Go is a movement, so we all have to move to make it work.
5) Basketball
Now normally I don't talk about basketball in my blog, but getting closer to the end of playing. I won't play or coach basketball anymore in South Africa since where I'll be there isn't basketball at the moment. I really starting to appreciate what basketball has learned and given me. I am really enjoying my last year, playing is great, we are 2nd place unexpected and having a whole lot of fun. All of my team mates are non Christian but there are a great bunch of guys, with some of them I have been friends for a 10 years already some of them I got to know this year. But it has been an amazing time playing side by side with them.
In coaching it has been also a great season, we have some injury problems, but being able to work those amazing kids has truly been a blessing. It's now my 3rd year working with most of them and I have seen them grow and work hard every single day. And I feel humbled that the parents support me and allow me to work with their kids. It has been a difficult year for some of them next to the court, and I am humbled that Parents come and talk to me about it. I won't go into details here, but I would like to ask you to pray for my team that I coach! Pray for my players, their parents and their family.
Thank you all for taking time to read my blog posts, for supporting me, for encouraging me and for all the prayers!
If you have more Questions or want to contact me, please email me at kenneth@sportquest.be