We’re launching... WITH Africa!

5/10/2023

After 16 years in South Africa, 21 years in missions, and 26 years in full-time ministry, we are launching WITH Africa (a 501-C3)! This will simply allow us to better continue doing what we are already doing from a legal and funding standpoint. We feel called to South Africa and this continent as whole, so we’re creating the framework for us and our (nearly) adult children to be able to stay, grow, and thrive while remaining in partnership with so many we love here.

We are WITH Africa.
WITH – a posture; an attitude; a relational way of being, serving, and coming alongside the beloved people of this continent.

South Africa has a word, Ubuntu, which translates: “I am because we are.”

Why the name WITH Africa?

We know Africans reach Africa best. This nation is full of industrious, warm-hearted South Africans who know the best way to serve their communities. Many are living and loving like Jesus and desire to make more impact. What they most often lack is resources and encouragement in the form of partnership, mentorship, or training.

The lasting effects of Apartheid (modern day segregation) plague millions and have caused South Africa to have the most economic disparity between the races in the world. This history of colonization, slavery and Apartheid are front and center in the consciousness of all South Africans, young and old. While most are polite and gracious to foreigners who want to help, they are also deeply sensitive to the attitude behind the helping hand: Are you reaching down? Or, are you walking with me?

WITH Africa is finding, partnering, and resourcing local heroes who are creating lasting change through their grassroots efforts. Together, we care for the most vulnerable and oppressed by supporting leaders who know their communities best. Together, we are making the love of Jesus tangible.

What does WITH Africa do?

We offer partnership and resource local heroes to have greater impact.

African Proverb:
"When you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table and not a taller fence."

We resource local heroes by providing hot lunches for children in 3 challenged communities feeding 1000 kids a week.
We resource African pastors and local heroes with food parcels for those they identify as the most needy in their communities.
We resource local leaders to offer crisis relief for the frequent medical issues, funerals, and fires that plague communities built of shacks & have poor medical care and high crime.
We work with local believers from “the island-that-must-not-be-named” to bring the Gospel to a nation closed to it: We rebuilt homes destroyed by a cyclone, rebuilt a well to serve 6,000 villagers, and are currently building a bakery to create jobs.
New Vision: Apartments of refuge on a secure property within the township (shanty town) of Masi. This will serve refugee moms and kids, offering safety and counseling and will be led by our Zimbabwean partner.

We met Mama Edith during the COVID hard lock down, when most the country was out of work. She was cooking for 150 neighborhood children three times per week! We partnered with her, providing food and help. Here she is getting a new stove! Today, she continues to be the eyes of God in her challenged community, directing resources and the love of Jesus to those most in need.
"To a hungry person, the Gospel is a loaf of bread." - Arch Desmond Tutu

We offer support to local leaders and full-time ministry/NGO workers in the form of: long-term discipleship, spiritual direction, enneagram coaching, and hosting retreats.

African Proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

We met 'M' as a refugee in Masi. He'd left his island nation after tragedy and nearly become a jihadist. He was pretty skeptical of us. After a year or so, one day he declared he wanted to follow Jesus. As time rolled on, he enrolled himself in bible school; we shared holidays together; Kevin was best man in his wedding. A decade of discipleship and friendship later, he's got a Masters in bible translation and has translated 7 books into his home language! Together with "M" we are carefully sharing the Gospel Without Words by uplifting the same village he fled from in rage. Jesus truly is the Price of Peace. (Above he is teaching his first bible class! )

We offer formal trainings and/or coaching in the areas of: fundraising, restorative justice & peacemaking, counter-human trafficking, worship leading, and spiritual formation.

African Proverb: “He who learns, teaches.”

lead In our last school on restorative justice and peacemaking, we had the honor of learning from Father Michael Lapsley, an anti-apartheid leader who lost his hands when a letter bomb exploded. He said, "When the bomb went off, God was there." He spoke to a room full of ministry leaders, showing us how the Gospel is relevant to a suffering world. We can only take people as far as we've come ourselves. The trainings we provide offer both spiritual formation and practical skills that help us connect our faith to our contexts. "We are first about Jesus, and lives lived in obedience to Jesus, in love for each other, lead to and look like justice."

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