NCMI SA Equip (Part One)

 

I remember it just as if it was yesterday.

 

 Every year the announcement would go out at church for leaders to register for “Bloem”. The fact that a city was being referred to in its shortened state as a simile for a 5 day leadership conference was not lost on anyone. As the announcements became more frequent in the lead up to the September school holidays, so too did the increasing rate of the church’s excitement. The 7 hour drive in convoy from Durban on the early Monday morning, the bets being placed on who would “open the batting” in the first session, counting down the times someone said the words “in our togetherness”, Dudley Daniel’s insistence to “avoid fame like the plague”, massive choirs, Mimosa Mall hangouts with our best mates from around the country who we saw only once a year and all the way through to the inevitable and yet heart stirring culmination with “Be thou my vision”, “Bloem” never failed to leave an impression as we all left determined to change the world.

Now years later, the journey continues after many mountain top highs and valley lows. The venue has changed, fresh voices have appeared, new songs have been written and we even have had to become used to new terminology (“Equip”). But the mission and very heart-beat of the motley group of men and women who come together in friendship and mission from all over the globe under the name of NCMI remains the same. For the King and His Kingdom, we still believe that the local church is the hope of the world, the nations are our inheritance and He will not return until every tribe, tongue and people group have heard.

 

This is what courses through our veins!

So once again we gather “in our togetherness” in the third term holidays. But this is no mere conference or inspirational get together. We gather to be scattered afresh with the Gospel at our centre and with the nations in our line of sight.

As Alan Frow year in and year out fearlessly declared all those years ago, “we will go for the sake of the cross, we will go for the sake of the lost”

(NCMI SA Equip 2012 - 3rd -5th October at Cornerstone Church in Joburg)

(Follow me on twitter for live tweets - https://twitter.com/GabePhillips23 )

Home sweet home

Back two days in chilly Cape Town after quite a substantial stretch in the somewhat warmer and drier climates of Namibia and Zimbabwe and I’ve already got my famous lists going. Here’s my top 5 reasons why I’m happy to be home.

1.       Clean clothes

18 nights away, 6 different places to sleep, a very full schedule and a small suitcase leads to the need to have my skinny jeans and limited amount of secret socks washed farely regularly...and when you’re constantly on the move in foreign homes, the smell of Omo is a very welcome sight!

2.       Ster Kinekor

With the majority of cinemas shutting down in Zimbabwe due to the skyrocketing prices and burgeoning  piracy market, just the knowledge that I can go watch the latest Hollywood fare with popcorn and coke in hand puts a smile on my face

3.       Photo’s on facebook

As with most events these days, everything is put on mainly so that you can tag yourself in all the facebook photo’s afterwards. I particularly like the picture above cause it reminds me that popular South African band The Arrows opened for my preach last Saturday night. Doesn’t happen too often!

4.       Life Changers

The oft quoted, “absence makes the heart grow fonder” was definitely not first penned knowing that it would ring ever so true in my heart! But everytime I’m away from home base I am reminded what an incredible privilege it is to be a part of this beautiful local church here in Tableview. A church rich in resources, wealthy in community and overflowing with raw love for her King, Life Changers are a people that are truly supernatural!

5.       Planning to go again

The nations are our inheritance. The nations are OUR inheritance. I want to go again and again and again...and I want  more and more people to come with me! So start saving now...and then you'll be able to start writing your own top 5 lists!

Southern African Adventures

Here's a quick fire update of where I am and what's happening:

Landed in Harare yesterday after an incredible nine days in the Namibian capital with the local church All Nations. Preaching, building relationships, outreach events and mass school assemblies were the main building blocks of the time there, and significant and lasting fruit has definitely begun to flourish from it.

And now for the next week I'm back in H town where it's non-stop action with The Base Church (worship training and a family camp) as well as speaking at Dare2Serve's 9941 The Event conference. This conference which kicks off for three consecutive nights from Thursday is hosted at the local entertainment hotspot 7Arts and is expecting teenagers and young adults from around the city to pour in. I'm landing the conference on the Saturday evening (coupling with morning sessions with our very own Japie Swanepoel) after one of South Africa's top bands, The Arrows, have finished up rocking their set. It's lining up to be an incredibly explosive time!

With all this and more on the go, please keep praying for Gospel advance and momentum building opportunities as we continue to remind ourselves that we are here to build a nation and not merely just bless it.


For further updates, follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/GabePhillips23) or on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/gabe.phillips.102?ref=tn_tnmn)

The nations are our inheritance

We believe at Life Changers that when Jesus said "Go and make disciples of all nations" in Matthew.28:19 He ws not just making some metaphorical point, nor just an inspiring charge to those within earshot or in close proximity. We are firm and unwavering in our belief that God's original and ongoing intent is for the nations to be OUR inheritance.

With that being said, God is opening doors for us as a local body to partner more and more with God's great story of redemption here in Cape Town in winning our city as all of us embrace our call as modern missionaries, as well as in an ever increasing capacity translocally (just a fancy way of saying into other nations) through permanent relocations (Gavin and Ang Benjafield to Amsterdam; Ben Gerber to Bangalore) alongside various short-term trips.

Over the next fort-night or so, I will be heading into Windhoek in Namibia to an influential church called All Nations before taking a team into Harare in Zimbabwe where we will be with The Base church, and coupling it with a youth conference hosted by the non-profit organisation Dare2Serve. Although only a few of us are able to go in on this occasion, we are being sent in faith from our local community and base and therefore this is something we all partner in and all reap the rewards from.

The nations are our corporate inheritance!

How can you partner with us and begin to lay claim to what is rightfully your inheritance? Let me suggest three ways:

1.       Pray for us

-Pray for safety, opportunities and open hearts as we preach the Gospel, build and strengthen relationships and learn.

-send any prophetic words to gabe@lifechangers.org.za

2.       Join us on one of our next trips

-Get a passport, start saving, plan your leave around one of the trips, start reading up on the history and contexts of the countries we go to

3.       Sponsor someone else to go

 

       -Speak to an elder about the who and the how

We are a pilgrim people, and whether at home or in foreign lands, let's keep our hearts inextricably tied with the mission of the Gospel....to seek and save that which is lost!