let the whole world know...

"Give thanks to the Lord, and proclaim his greatness, and let the whole world know what he has done" (Psalm 105:1)

As I look back over 2009, I am impressed by what God has done for me and in me, and through me and in the lives of others around me. I was given an opportunity to do the Church Planting Experience (CPx) with All Nations in Cape Town this year – a six month, community-based outreach program which teaches people how to make disciples and plant Jesus. Being with them has afforded me the opportunity to learn how to BE the Church, and dwell amongst the poor and the sick, the way Jesus did. It’s very different from just attending church and offering up prayers for the poor or giving them handouts. I am grateful for this opportunity because I would never have sought after poor people in the way I have done this year. It’s been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done before – living in community for six months (25 people in one house), sharing food and space, dying to my own needs and wants for the sake of others, reaching out to the poor, carrying their burdens...the list could go on.

I ministered to the poor in a way that I don’t think I would ever have sought to do because it is so contrary to the normal way of living. Poverty is not only about a lack of money, there’s a whole mindset that needs to be challenged – a mindset that holds onto a victim mentality; a mindset that allows abuse to continue because of a lack of self worth; a mindset that does not support saving for the future or taking pride in one’s household or children; a mindset that embraces futility – believing that there is no way out. Challenging this poverty mentality involves more than handing out money. It involves dwelling amongst the poor, becoming their friends, offering them love and understanding, teaching them how to think differently, live differently, introducing them to Jesus, teaching them how to hear His voice, walking with them through their horrific experiences, taking calls in the middle of the night, for some – moving into the neighbourhood. 

 But the fruit from this experience is unprecedented. Fruit in my own life, and fruit in the lives of those around me. A new spiritual growth has been harvested in me. If I’m honest, I know that I would have preferred to remain in my safe Christian bubble, reaching out to those in need from a distance, and never getting fully involved in their lives. But I have met some amazing people in a poor community called Ocean View. I have experienced walking the way Jesus walked, and (to some extent) living the way He did, and hanging out with the kinds of people he hung out with. To mention just one example, we have befriended Claudine who was addicted to drugs, could not take care of her three children, and who had no hope for her future. She came to know Jesus who transformed her life, gave her the strength to stop using drugs, filled her with so much hope for the future that she is bursting to share this with her friends who are stuck in the rut that she was in.  We baptised her a few weeks back, and her close friend who witnessed this, wants the same for her own life. Claudine received a scholarship this year to participate in our ten day mission program (Ten Days For Jesus) and her maturity is soaring through the roof (please read her testimony below). What a privilege it’s been to see Claudine working out her salvation. She is but one of many stories here in All Nations, Cape Town.

I would also love to share with all of you what’s been going on in my heart concerning the future. During the course of this year, I’ve become more and more aware of a deep desire to study medicine. I have prayed and fasted about it, and talked it over with my leaders at All Nations, and I believe that this may be something God is calling me to do. It’s an impossible dream if I look at it in the natural, for many reasons (money, academic experience, my age, etc.) but it was something that resonated so strongly in my heart, and indeed it’s a dream that I had as a child for many years, that I could not ignore it. So, I have taken a step of faith and applied to two universities and I am trusting God for the impossible (because nothing is impossible with God). Not only is this something I want to pursue for excellence, but it is also a way into any community, and a much needed vocation especially amongst the poor.

While I wait for the outcome of these applications, I will remain with All Nations, ministering to the poor and discipling those that God puts on my heart. I am still also involved with Justice Acts which is anti-trafficking organisation wanting to educate those most at risk of being trafficked, and seeking justice on their behalf in a country where no laws protect them at present.

I would also like to be transparent about my needs. Raising support for myself has been quite a challenge ever since I left my old church in England and not having been back in South Africa long enough to establish a basis for financial support as a full time missionary, before joining All Nations. God has moved mightily in the hearts of many of you, and I am thankful for your generosity over the last few months. However, I am still not in receipt of any regular support and I humbly lay my needs before you and ask you to act however the Lord leads. I am hoping and trusting for people who will commit to supporting me on a monthly basis (no matter how small – or large – the amount).

A brief summary of my (monthly) basic needs: R1600 for rent and electricity, R2000 for food, R2000 for toiletries, petrol – I am using a friend’s car for a few months, cleaning products for my flat etc.

 I will continue sending monthly updates about my ministry in Ocean View and with All Nations and Justice Acts, as I’ve done this past year, but if you would like to receive weekly updates about my progress with medical school, and also my financial situation, please email me to let me know. I will gladly be as transparent as I can about my finances, my needs, my blessings and how my plans are advancing, and also give very specific prayer points.

I cannot thank you enough for your partnership, love and prayers. May the Lord bless you mightily as you serve Him. 

alison.ludick@gmail.com

tell everyone about His wonderful deeds

These are the testimonies of three of our local leaders who received scholarships to participate in our Ten Days For Jesus mission program this December. They are writing to their sponsors to thank them for their gifts which allowed enabled them to do this. These excerpts have been used with their permission. A brief introduction is given before testimony:

Nathan - we met during our CPx this year in February (2009). We got to know him, shared Jesus with him, had bible studies in his house, met his mother and grand mother, baptised him in April before we left on outreach. This is what he writes:

"Ten Days For Jesus changed my life in so many ways. Compassion, love for others, forgiveness etc. I have an illness that doctors can’t cure but I know my God will help and heal me. People always will say everything will be fine but in fact the only one who can make the decision and that is God. I have met many special people. I have never heard any one saying to me that they love me. There’s this one guy Craig who told me that he loved me. And I was shocked; even today I am still crying due to the fact that he actually changed my life without him knowing it. So now I am happy with all the decisions that I have made so far my dear friends. I would just like to thank everyone of the guys and gals who made the dream possible and now I can go out and share the good news with everybody. Jesus is alive – yes friends, he is!!!"

Thandiwe - she is a graduate of our sister school called LxP (the Leadership Experience in Jeffrey's Bay). She  is from Lesotho, her life has been transformed through knowing Jesus, and she has great plans to write a book about servant leadership because of her experiences in Jeffrey's Bay. This is what she writes:

"Thank you for your support. You made this ten days program easy for me and helped me reach people in the community with the gospel.

This program helped me realise that a lot of people are hungry for the Word of God and they lost hope because of what is happening in their areas.

I met a lady at Masiphumelele, her name is Catherine. She told me and my team about her son who is addicted to drugs and that she is struggling because she is not working. We prayed for her and the next day when we met her, she told us that she found a job.

Thank you. You did not do this only for me but also people I reached during ten days because now they know that there is hope in Jesus. 

May God bless you."

Claudine - one of our team members met her during CPx this year (2009). She was hooked on drugs, and hadn't eaten for three days. He gave her what was in pocket that day - something like R10. In October, while taking a Canadian team around Ocean View, Claudine had completely changed. No longer on drugs, and with a renewed hope for life, she was keen to do bible studies with the Canadian girls. After they returned to Canada, Lisa and I continued meeting with Claudine and she introduced us to her friends, saying that she wanted them to experience the goodness and grace that God had shown her. We met her friends, agreed to do regular bible studies with them, encouraged Claudine to take the lead in those, and baptised her this December. This is what she has to say:

"11 Dec – we went to Back to Basics Adventure camp and had a fun day

12 Dec – we went and checked out the community we gonna work. Afterwards we went for a stroll on the beach and then we had a games evening at Mike’s place

13 Dec – I woke up very excited because I got baptised today and it was so awesomely wonderful. Every sin I’ve committed and how ever I did wrong were washed away. I died to the things of the world and started life as a new person in Christ

14 Dec – we went into the communities to start our evangelism tour through Ocean View, and we ended up with quite a few people who were very hungry to hear the Gospel. So we went to the same people every day to catch up on what the Lord has been doing in their lives. And we heard a wonderful things, but some stuff we heard were meant with a good intention but totally wrong. So we tried to evangelise her on the right track but the few days we had in the community were too little, but i will have a follow up bible study with them after this Ten Days For Jesus has ended. The Lord has changed me dramatically through this experience in my own community. I have a better reaction towards other people. I learned to love, trust and obey and be obedient to God’s words. God has come through for me on this Ten Days For Jesus. I just want to thank you for making it possible for me to be here. Most of all I want to thank God for planting the seed in their hearts to help me get here on this journey of discovery. I discovered how much I appreciate myself and my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. I discovered a new me. I discovered a better insight of the word through Floyd McClung’s bible study. It was a pleasure being here, meeting new people discovering new things and being a part of this ten day challenge. I just want to thank everybody involved. The team leaders did a great job. But most of all the people who donated the money in order for me to be here, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. And I love you with the love of the Lord.

Thank you very much, From Claudine Rubain of Ocean View, Cape Town, South Africa" 

These testimonies are but three of the many stories of transformation that have occurred in the communities we've been working in. It's been such an honour and privilege to be part of these stories - to see lives transformed, hope renewed, dreams reignited, and destinies changed. What a mighty God we serve.

"Sing to Him, yes, sing his praises; tell everyone about His deeds" - Psalm 105:2

Ten Days For Jesus 2009

What an amazing time we had this year. Thirty young people decided to give up a part of their Christmas holiday in order to give their gift to the One who's birthday we celebrate at this time of year; and what better gift than your time, your money, your gifts, your talents, your emotions, yourself...

"In view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship." Romans 12:1


TDFJ (Ten Days For Jesus) is an All Nations' opportunity to learn a few basic things about simple church, discipleship and to spend time putting this into practice in some of the poorest communities in the southern peninsula of Cape Town. It is an opportunity to experience first hand what it's like to live in conditions which do not even qualify as "basic human rights" or to grow up in communities where physical abuse and drug addiction is "normal". It's an opportunity to form authentic relationships with people you would not ordinarily seek out, and it's an opportunity to see first hand how an active relationship with Jesus Christ can change a life.

This year's TDFJ kicked off with us going to an adventure camp called Back to Basics - just an hour or so outside Cape Town. The participants were divided into their outreach teams (representative of the communities they would serve in over the following ten days) to perform a number of team building tasks - such as raft building, obstacle courses and the like. They had a fantastic time, getting to know each other and learning how to work in teams. This specific adventure course was chosen because the running theme throughout TDFJ was also "Back to Basics".

The "basics" of discipleship, prayer, morning quiet time, bible reading, application and obedience of what was read were modelled and taught by Floyd McClung each day. This was a great opportunity for those who were familiar with these models to get back into the daily discipline thereof; and for those who were very new to this, it was an opportunity to learn from scratch, and to put into practice effectively. Each day started with a scheduled quiet time, and a time of prayer, and was followed by a time of teaching. Thereafter, the teams went into the communities for most of the day, to interact with the poor and build relationships with them, to serve them.  They returned in the late afternoon.

We then spent time together in our own "community" through cooking together, eating together, prayer and worship times and then hanging out over some tea and coffee and sharing our stories. I believe I speak for everyone when I say that we caught a glimpse of what living together as brothers and sisters looks like; sharing our space, and our time, making allowances for each other and building good, solid relationships all in the name of Jesus. And the overflow of our love for each other was demonstrated to the poor each time we went out into the communities.

Their exploits were too many to mention but here are two noteworthy stories, one of which comes from a local guy who was selected to do the TDFJ program. His name is Lucas and he is from Masiphumulele and he was granted sponsorship to do TDFJ. Our vision at All Nations is to raise local leaders and so we used this program, not only to give outsiders the opportunity to engage with the poor, but also to give people from those poor communities the opportunity to be discipled and then to minister to their own.

This is what Lucas said:

“We went into the community and met three guys (the naughty guys of the community). After praying to the Lord that we would not be avoided by the people, we found ourselves sitting in their place watching TV. I was afraid we might get beaten this time, but the Holy Spirit gave us words instead. The next moment we found ourselves speaking and listening and they were responding with hunger to know the Lord and they asked us to pray for them and find them a bible so that they can read; they wanted to serve the Lord like us.”

The second story is from Valentine, who was serving in Redhill. He said:

“On Friday, as led by the Holy Spirit, we found ourselves at a house where we met a lady who had been sick with Asthma, difficulties to breathe and to walk. So we laid hands on her and immediately she was healed. We walked outside with her and she starting running and jogging, lifting her hands into the air praising God.”

These are just two of many stories. God did some amazing things in the lives of many people this December. What a privilege it's been to be have witnessed His transforming goodness. Pastor Bob from Living Hope in Hamilton, Ontario said (when he was here in October 2009) "we're in the life changing business". I can't describe the excitement that fills my heart every time a story of desperation is turned into a story of glorification after people meet the King of Kings, and he floods their hearts with His love and mercy, and sets them free, and gives them new life.

Baby B

I came home one Friday afternoon for lunch, and was pleasantly surprised to find my flatmate, Alli, feeding a tiny baby – four months old, desperately hungry, sucking a bottle as if she’d never had one before.

The police in one of our communities had given her a call to come and fetch this baby because her mother was threatening to leave her right there. She’s a drug addict, who is trying incredibly hard to make a positive change, and has booked herself into rehab. Her home situation is that all of her family and the people who live with her are addicted to drugs too, so she is never at peace about leaving the baby alone. She had run out of options that day; she had to choose between going into rehab and leaving her vulnerable baby at home, or forgoing the treatment to stay and look after her.

This is the reality of the communities we work in, and the people we meet and the lives we engage in. Every day, we see how the addiction to drugs destroys lives. We hear stories about how women get beaten, and we see the bruises (physical and emotional). They share with us the reasons they drink; how alcohol provides an escape to a hellish reality.

But then we also get to participate in the redemption stories.

I meet with a group of women every week (sometimes twice a week) who are so hungry for change. Just today one of them was able to tell her story of how God changed her life and how a life with Jesus is better than the reality of drug-addicted past and the way she used to neglect her children; this testimony she shared in front of many just before she got baptised. She told of a life filled with hope and a new love for her children. She is so motivated to spread this story to her friends, who are still caught up in the life she used to be trapped. One of them was at her baptism today. And this past week, this same friend came to the realisation that alcohol will not make her problems go away. It’s one thing to know this fact cognitively; but it’s another when this truth becomes a reality. She has mentioned on a number of occasions that she, too, wants a different way of living. She’s thinking about baptism and we are waiting for the day that she will take the step and choose to walk away from the things that destroy her life.

And, right in my home, I have the privilege of being part of baby B’s story. She’s an absolute delight. Today, I rocked her to sleep and fed her a bottle, and watched her laugh and relax and revel in contentment. (I also cleaned her puke and dribble, and I won’t be surprised if I get asked to change her diaper too!). We will only have her for a few days until a foster family will take care of her.

I have loved every minute of her being here. I get the biggest thrill knowing that my life is being used to make a difference in the lives of others.

My flatmate, Alli, works for an organisation called the Baby Safe, committed to offering life, hope and options for desperate women in crises, and their babies. It is an amazing ministry – please feel free to read more about who they are and what they do here – www.babysafe.org