Hello,
I thought I should share some news and prayer fuel for Red Hill… this is the community where a fire destroyed many homes and wrecked havoc in many people’s lives last February. We have been involved in serving the people of Red Hill and spreading the good news of Jesus there since the fires took place. There are new house churches, but also new challenges. I would like to ask you to consider taking a day or a couple days and commit to pray and fast on behalf of the people of Red Hill .
A passage that was impressed on one of our community members for Red Hill is ISAIAH 62.
As you pray I encourage you to meditate on this passage and let the Lord speak to you through it.
- Please pray for the promises given so many years ago through Isaiah to come true in Red Hill.
- Please pray for transformation of the community, that every aspect of people’s lives would be changed. As Isaiah said, let’s “give the Lord no rest until he completes his work.” Please thank God with us for the many wonderful changes already taking place in Red Hill. Gardens have been planted, jobs have been created and found, and people have been set free from alcohol, drugs and sexual addictions. House churches have been started. A leadership team from the community has been selected and is functioning to give a measure of governance for the people.
Here are some other prayer points regarding Red Hill:
- Strengthening, deepening and envisioning of the house churches. Pray for leaders of Godly character and faithfulness to be raised up in each church. Pray for the churches to multiply through discipleship.
- Pray for our All Nations team working in Red Hill, for faith, for financial provision, and for a “bakkie” (pickup truck) to take them back and forth and to haul supplies. Pray for team members Alexander, Joanna, Petrus, Eric, Gawie, and Bruce. Pray for financial provision, for love, humility, and unity. Pray also protection from crime and disease. For the team to grow in devotion to the Lord, and grace to accomplish all Father desires of them.
- The continuous cry for work by the young men in Red Hill. They are desperate to find jobs.
- Nomandla, age 34, due to deliver her baby today by Cesarean. She has diabetes and high blood pressure that could jeopardize the baby’s safe delivery and life. She has had two pregnancies before and both times the baby died. Pray for safe delivery and a healthy child. 3 times she’s been taken in to hospital and 3 times she’s been denied a bed. Please pray that she would get a bed. She and the father want to get married but are hindered by the lobola – the bride price one must pay for marrying a daughter - and the fact that he is not yet a Christian. Pray for breakthrough in this area. Pray he will fall under conviction and give his life totally to Jesus!
- Strengthening of the many young believers in Red Hill especially David with his history of alcoholism and rejection. Pray for Thandisizwe who has turned away and is now running a shabeen. The pull of the world is strong for him.
- Pray for Michelle, Maggie’s daughter who’s interested in Jesus, but giving into temptations. Pray for restoration of relationship with her mother and that she would find the love of Christ in her own life.
- Pray for Asanda and Wonder. Asanda recently got a job in response to prayer and we praise God for that! These young men need prayer to rise and be the young leaders we believe God wants them to be. Also pray for Bantu. He is a smart young guy with a family to care for and recently lost his job. Pray that he would both meet Jesus in a special way (we see leadership potential in him) and that God would provide for him and his family. Pray for him for a job.
- Pray for the raising up of more young leaders for the house churches.
- Pray for an increase in the presence and love of Jesus to prevail and spread throughout Red Hill community, also the fear of God to permeate the community… we long that this would be a Godly community, fully devoted to the Lord.
- Pray for the finances to build a community center that will be used for job skills training, celebration services for the house churches, and weddings and community meetings.
Thank you! It means so much to us that you stand with us for God’s work to be done in Red Hill. Over the years there have been many impressions given to people while praying that a move of God would take place from Red Hill-Cape Town - all the way to Cairo. Red Hill is the southern most community in all of Cape Town. We believe God wants to raise up the poor to spread the good news all over Africa - even to Cairo!
With gratitude,
Floyd and Sally
P.S. We are once again meeting with the owner of the property that we would like to buy for a training center. It will serve as home base for All Nations, and will include facilities for a trade school, church planting training, seminars for potential business people from the townships, and more. PLEASE PRAY!
It`s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can`t find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.
Bono, rock star and anti-poverty activist
Some of our friends think Sally and I are crazy. Firstly, in 2006 we moved to South Africa, with one of the highest violent crime rates in the world. Secondly, supposedly we are promoting “house churches,” a form of church that is more a “reaction” than it is real church.
In an effort to help you and others understand what we are up to, I thought it would be good to share with you our core beliefs, what some call core values, and how we try to live out those core values in what we call our “core practices.” We often share our stories in this website, but I felt it would be good to share what’s behind those stories.
Three “Inner Beliefs” Guide Us
There are three “inner beliefs” that guide us in all we do. We try to allow our core values to guide the decisions we make and inspire the risks we take. We believe these three core beliefs don’t originate with us but flow out of the heart of God and the purposes He has set for Himself on the earth. They flow together in one seamless connection; no one of these core beliefs can be lived without embracing and living the others as well. Obeying these beliefs in the power of the Holy Spirit is the engine that keeps us going. Our core beliefs are based on Jesus’ teaching in John 15. They are as follows:
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Intimacy – Intimacy, or “abiding” as Jesus described it in John 15, means a lifestyle of daily personal devotion, including prayer, fasting, reading the Word of God, and receiving the Father’s love. We try to make Jesus the source and goal of all we are and do. As a result of experiencing His love, we long to see the grace and mercy we have found in Jesus spread to others wherever there is poverty, injustice and spiritual darkness.
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Community – Jesus said in John 15, “…love one another…that your joy may be full.” Sharing our lives with those who carry the same desires and longings of knowing and sharing Jesus is not just a noble idea to us, but the very purpose of the church. We have embraced the command of Jesus to love one another, disciple one another, and together to reach out to those who don’t know Him. We love His church and seek to ‘turn it inside out’ as we reach out to the poor and the unreached – and to do that as we
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Mission – We are on mission with God. That is not just rhetoric to us in All Nations. It is God’s mission and it is a privilege to join His mission. He is the source and goal of His mission and we believe He has commissioned us, all of us for that matter, to join Him. He warned His disciples in John 15 that they would face opposition and persecution as they bore witness to Him in the world. That doesn’t happen if we do nothing to spread to good news of Jesus, but if we get involved with the poor, or stand up for those suffering injustice, or reach those who are closed off behind the walls of religious fanaticism and political oppression with the good news of Jesus, then we will experience the hatred Jesus warned about in John 15. Jesus is at work to reach out to those in hard places in our planet, and we gratefully accept His gracious invitation to join Him in doing so. We see Him at work to build His church through book of Acts type of movements where He is breaking into those so-called “closed countries.”
Everything we do in our church planting, working with the poor and the training programs and leadership equipping we do is aimed at preparing people to create communities that change people’s lives. We are burdened to reach “all nations.”
The three beliefs described above are at the core of who we are and what we are trying to do. To be accountable in our obedience to those core beliefs and to give them practical expression, we have adopted the following five “core practices.” They are like the wooden ties, the “sleepers” as some people call them, that railroad rails lie on. These core practices keep us focused and on track. By “staying on the tracks” we keep focused on our calling. By following the five core practices in all the various programs and projects we are involved in, we keep moving forward in the same direction. We do a lot to serve the poor. We rescue babies, do AIDS awareness and prevention, volunteers in hospices, conduct skills training programs in schools and community centers, run sports programs for youth, do job creation and and help young entrepreneurs get started, teach the poor to save and budget, and much more! Following the five core practices outlined below keep us unified in the rich diversity that is All Nations.
Five Core Practices
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Prayer – We believe we are totally dependent on God as we seek to plant the seed of the good news in people’s hearts. That dependency is expressed in personal and corporate prayer, in both intercession and worship. We have experienced that God answers our prayers when we cry out to Him, especially when we pray and act on behalf of the poor. Through listening prayer He inspires us to discover new and effective ways to serve the communities, cities, peoples and nations where we are called. Through prayer and spending time alone with God He gives new strength to carry out our dreams, to stay faithful when we are discouraged. Through prayer we are enabled to experience the gentle conviction of the Holy Spirit when we sin, become proud or critical, or commit any other sin that grieves God or hurts people. Listening to God gives us the grace we need to confess our sins to Him and to others and to receive His forgiveness. Through prayer, God encourages us to understand how He wants to use our gifts, passions and abilities to serve the poor.
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Meeting people – We are called to go to people, not ask them to come to us. We call this “incarnational versus attractional mission.” Jesus came to people. He left His home in heaven and came to us. In other words, we seek to get among people where they live. We see this as “turning church inside out” by going to people rather than asking the people to come to the church. We believe we have been commissioned to tell people about Jesus and his offer of forgiveness for sin – where they live and work and do life. We believe in doing church where people are. We seek to walk and live among people, particularly those who don’t know Jesus. We are carriers of good news, and we seek to share that good news in every relationship and every community where we work, live and serve. That includes every nation/people we seek to reach.
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How do we do that? We begin by sharing our stories, we speak of Jesus, what our lives were like before we met Jesus, how we came to faith in Jesus, and the difference He has made in our lives. We are committed to telling people about the loving rule of the God who has come to set them free and restore purpose and hope to their lives. We look for and give special attention to “good soil” hearts that are open to receive this good news while we continue to serve those who are too broken or hard to receive from us. As we meet people who don’t know Jesus, we also seek to meet their needs in practical expressions of service and compassion.
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Making disciples – We are committed to obeying Jesus’ command to, “…go, teach, baptize and make disciples of all nations,” and equally, to obey His command to “…love your neighbor as your self.” (Matthew 23:19, 28:19-20). He commanded us to make disciples, and to teach our disciples to make disciples. He commanded us to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. His commands to make disciples and to serve others starts for us when we meet get involved with people, and it continues as we invest in their lives and teach them to love and obey Jesus.
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We make disciples by following the example and teachings of Jesus: he started a new way of church by gathering a few followers and teaching them to teach others also, who in turn passed on the good news to still others. Remember, Jesus was not trying to start a meeting, but He was launching a movement. We seek to follow the same pattern of Jesus by gathering those we meet who are open to Jesus with others who are open to Jesus in Bible studies, and as they grow, to turn those Bible studies into simple churches that help them grow in God’s love as they obey His commands. We begin with the end in sight: a multiplying movement that is made up of small, easily reproducible simple churches led by non-professionals. We believe every disciple can start a simple church, and that many of our disciples can lead a church planting movement. We treat them like that, and you know what, many of them believe it too?! And they are living up to our expectations!
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Gathering in simple churches – A simple church is two or three or more people who have come to faith in Jesus and who seek to obey His commands. As we do these core practices of prayer, meeting people who don’t know Jesus, and making disciples, we then seek to gather those who are open to Jesus in simple churches. Simple churches begin as we gather a few people to study the words of Jesus, to pray for each other and to share their Jesus story with others who don’t know Jesus. The goal of gathering in simple churches is not only to grow together, but for each disciple to start more simple churches that start still more simple churches. Simple churches begin wherever people are open to Jesus: any day, any time, and any location. Where possible and when helpful, we encourage networks of simple churches in a region to gather for celebrations of corporate worship and prayer.
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Multiplying movements of simple churches - The goal of meeting people who don’t know Jesus and making disciples is to start simple churches that rapidly reproduce into a movement of simple churches that are preaching the Kingdom of God and transforming the lives of people in practical ways. We don’t seek to plant one church at a time through “addition,” but to initiate church planting movements through “multiplication.” Our role is to initiate a few simple churches and then coach local leaders who lead and multiply the movement.
This is our dream. Fortunately, it is not our dream alone, but God’s dream. He longs to have sons and daughters who love and obey Him. We have aligned our lives with His mission, His dream.
To learn more about what we’re doing, you can order a copy of my new book, You See Bones – I See an Army. Or watch the six minute video about All Nations found on the Media page of this website. If you would like to help us reach and train a new army of leaders for Africa and the Middle and Asia, write to us today.
Are we crazy? We’re crazy about Jesus! And we are crazy enough to believe that He wants to change the world, one life, one village, one family and township and city and nation at a time.
God bless,
Floyd and Sally McClung
Why Leaders of Integrity Are the Key to Transforming Africa
0 Comments by Floyd on 10/24/08 - NewsPrintE-Mail this“I committed my life to Christ when you prayed for me for the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome temptation… I realized that I can have all the riches in the world, but if I don’t have Jesus in my life, what do I have?”
One of our workers in Red Hill squatters camp asked a young man named Asanda when he committed his life to the Lord. Asanda answered with the above.
Asanda is now helping lead a simple church in Red Hill. He has a way to go in his journey with the Lord, but he is responding to God’s call to be a servant leader. And we are investing in his life, and the life of a dozen other men and women we are training to be leaders of integrity in Red Hill. It is a time consuming task, but we believe selecting, training and commissioning such leaders is the key to the future of Red Hill, and to all of Africa.
It has been eight months since the raging fire broke out in Red Hill and destroyed 78 shack homes. The focus of our work in Red Hill has now shifted from providing material relief to an emphasis on discipleship and leadership development. Why is this important? We have seen the beginnings of a movement taking place in Red Hill, a movement of simple churches multiplying and impacting the lives of others through sharing Jesus and disciple making. Red Hill is being transformed by the gospel. Small businesses have been started, garden plots have been dug, children are being care for, marriages are being healed and leaders are being trained. There is a long way to go, and there will be failures, we know that, but we will continue to sow the seed of the gospel, and disciple those with good soil hearts. We are believing for nothing less than a movement of transformational simple churches that multiply into a movement that spreads to other communities, all the way back to the Transkei and to other nations.
Africa needs men and women of integrity, servant leaders who find their significance in God’s eyes, not who seek success in man’s eyes. This is what we believe and this is what we impart in our leadership training. Africa will stand or fall on such leaders. We are finding them in the disadvantaged communities where we work and we are equipping them. We are finding them in the market place, in local churches and in the university campuses of Africa. We are preparing them to be leaders in their communities and in their nations. We emphasize character, integrity, and servanthood. We mentor people in the skills they need to be leaders who can change Africa.
Training African leaders is at the heart of our calling in Red Hill and other communities and cities in South Africa. But we need help if we are to carry out our calling. We cannot do it alone.
As I write this letter to you, we are trusting God for facilities for a trade school and leadership training program. We need a place to take the leaders we are training out of the noise and crime and busyness of the disadvantaged communities to go on retreats and for special training seminars and courses. We will start a trade school in January - and we start our next CPx leadership course in February, but we don’t have a place to house the school. We need a home for All Nations.
We are getting closer to the goal of being able to buy a training center. People are responding and giving - for which we are incredibly grateful. But we still have a ways to go. Every gift will make a huge difference.
Please partner with us to train men and women of integrity for Africa, would you?
With gratitude,
Floyd
To give in South Africa or from other countries outside the United States, send a bank transfer to:
All Nations
Standard Bank
Fish Hoek branch - # 77 Main Rd., Fish Hoek 7975, South Africa
Account #072110619
Branch #03-6009-80
Swift Number: SBZA ZA JJ - for international bank transfers
If you give in the United States, send your gift as a check made out to All Nations and mail it to:
All Nations Support
c/o Walsh and Washburn
5330 College Blvd.
Overland Park, KS
66211
Attach a note saying the gift is preferenced for All Nations Training Facilites in Cape Town, South Africa
For a “tell-all” story about All Nations watch the video below. Four minutes is not long, but it tells the heart of our story and where we are in the journey.
I just received a message from Raymond on his way back from a weekend in Mozambique. Four churches were started with over a 150 new believers just two months ago. Raymond went back to encourage the believers and to appoint leaders. That is not particularly unusual news in Africa, but it is unusual when the people are disciples not just decisions.
Actually, these simple churches were birthed in SORROW. Raymond went home to Mozambique to plant a church in his birth-village. You see, Raymond was an orphan. His parents died when he was 1 year old. Or so he thought.
That was 30 years ago. Raymond returned to his birth-village only to find out that his family was alive. Raymond’s father had simply decided to give him away. He discovered his whole life was built on a myth, a lie. He discovered things about his father that he didn’t want to know. Raymond was shattered, heart-broken. He was consoled by his team members. He spent weeks grieving.
Meanwhile the team carried on. They persevered without him. His wife, Delina, 18 year old Thandi, and young Petrus and Eric were soldiers, going hut to hut, traveling on harrowing roads to outlying villages, leading people to Christ, gathering the new believers in Bible studies, and teaching them the basics of simple church life. Older papa Abram stayed with Raymond to comfort him, to steady his shaky world.
Raymond came through. The team grew. And four new churches were born.
So… to hear from Raymond that he is encouraged, that he went back home and is coming back excited, well, I’m deeply moved. And grateful. And confirmed to keep on pouring my life into young men like Raymond.
Raymond leads our work in Limpopo, the northern part of South Africa. It is men like Raymond and his young band of disciples that are the hope of Africa. They live sexually pure lives, a miracle in Africa today. They openly share about AIDS/HIV and how to prevent it, they care for widows and orphans, and they disciple others to follow in their footsteps. Raymond and Delina, Eric, Petrus, Abram and Thandi attended CPx, our leadership school. They learned they could start simple churches. They are on fire now.
Thanks for caring, for standing with us in our work in Africa.
Floyd and Sally
P.S. TEN DAYS FOR JESUS …. If you are between 18 and 30 years of age, join us for TDJ - Ten Days for Jesus - December 5-15, Cape Town. A multi-cultural, awesome outreach of prayer, worship, teaching and serving the poor. Give away ten days for Jesus, won’t you? If you are interested, write to allnationssa@gmail.com.
Baby Safe is our ministry to young mothers in need and babies that are at risk. This story is written by Bethany O’Connor who leads Baby Safe.
“There was a young girl I had been looking for this week, after having been told about her, from friends in Masi. I found her yesterday. Basically she had a baby a week ago, she was so desperate as her boyfriend was supposed to take her in, as she just arrived from Zimbabwe, but he left her, because he has a wife here. He would not take her calls and she described wanting to take her life. She had the baby at False Bay Hospital but then left him in the field next to Food Zone grocery store. So she is staying with her cousin, and he asked where the baby was, she said that it died at the hospital, but he didn’t believe her and so then he made her go back and get the baby who was alive. She was so afraid and distraught because she had nothing, no money, etc…and her cousins wife, didn’t want her there, etc.. I was told before meeting her that she still didn’t want the baby, which is why I sought her out.
But after one week with us, she is feeling much better, she has attached to the baby, she does want him, she has made some friends, and although her cousin’s wife is being very mean and will share nothing with her, including nappies ( she was using a towel).. she wants to keep the baby. I explained adoption, what the options are for the baby, etc.. She was very closed to the idea, as she really seems to want her son. I was very comfortable with her state of mind, she was very sweet and she was honest about how she feels so much better about things now. She does know the Lord, and said she loves Jesus very much. She named her son, a Shona name which means “thankful to the Lord” . I left her with some nappies, clothes, blankets, etc that the Michigan team brought. We prayed together. It is great because Porcia and Nosiviwe ( two girls from our house churches) have become her friends now. They prayed with us. You can pray for her, as she desperately needs a job, and also needs to get her asylum paperwork figured out at Home Affairs. She had tears in her eyes, when we talked about God having good plans for her here, plans of a hope and a future, for her and Dion ( her son).
Thats the second Baby Safe client this week. The other was a 19 year old in Ocean View who I was connected with through the clinic. I counseled with her; her mom was forcing her to have an abortion ( her 2nd) on Monday. But she didn’t want to do it, and thus needed a place to stay for her pregnancy. We found her one of the last beds in Cape Town, available for a pregnant woman. When I left her, we prayed the Lord would turn her mom’s heart before I came to pick her up on Friday to go to the home. Thats exactly what happened and her mom had actually decided to not make her abort, and let her stay living with her. Pray for her, as she battles drug addiction. She has been clean since she discovered she was pregnant. I am going to see if she will commit to outpatient drug counseling (which I know of a free place and nearby). She gave her heart to the Lord a year ago, but needs to be cared for and discipled desperately.”
Bethany O’Connor for Baby Safe/All Nations
I’ve been reflecting lately on how many things we know and learn in life that we just take for granted. They don’t seem like a ‘big deal.’ For instance:
- knowing how to plan/organize
- knowing how to study
- having/managing a bank account
- knowing how to use an ATM machine
- having a budget
- how to mail a letter
- learning how to drive
As we grow up, we learn so many of these life skills so easily. The opportunities are there to learn them. We don’t really stop to think about them, we just learn and do them.
But many of the poor and disadvantaged in the world don’t have this opportunity. In our almost 2 years here, I have found myself helping so many people fill in a bank account deposit slip - or showing them how to use the ATM machine. The look of helplessness on their faces at facing these simple tasks and not knowing what to do is heart breaking. One day I stood in line at the ATM for a long time behind a man. I couldn’t imagine what he was doing that was taking so long. Finally he turned to me with a look of agony on his face, and said, “could you please help me?” I was so glad I was there to do that.
A friend here told me of a recent experience she had. She knew her husband was meeting a couple of young men from Masi, one of the townships nearby, at the bank to do something. She went to the mall, and was surprised to see one of the young men just wandering around. She asked him about the appointment with her husband, and he gave some vague explanation of why he wasn’t there. They talked for a few minutes, and it suddenly dawned on her. He didn’t know how to get in the double lock security door at the entrance of the bank! You wait for a green light, open the first door and go in, let that door close, then wait for a green light to go in the second door to then enter the bank. She went to the bank with him and helped him get in.
Such a simple thing - but if you don’t know how to do it, it’s a big thing! In the culture many of us have grown up in, we would have looked at the door/system if we didn’t understand it and thought “what’s wrong with this door?!” To those who haven’t had the opportunities and training we’ve had, they look at the door and think “what’s wrong with me?!”
It is so important as part of our “mission” here that we impart self-worth, security, and dignity!! It’s one way of spreading the “glory of God” when we let people know how valued they are in God’s eyes because He created them. When we have opportunities to teach and pass on simple life skills, it does so much to do that and to help a person feel good about themselves!
“God created man in his own image.” Genesis 1:27
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Our Vision
Justice. Community. Hope. Discipleship: Our vision is to establish a training and outreach community in Cape Town that impacts Africa from Cape Town to Cairo. Our vision is for a multi-cultural community that exemplifies the kingdom of God and brings heaven a little closer to earth. read more
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Starting a House Church
by Larry Kreider & Floyd McClung
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Amazing Grace
directed by Michael Apted
What Others Say
It`s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can`t find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.
Bono, rock star and anti-poverty activistWhy Africa?
It is Africa's hour: Africans are rising up in great numbers to take hold of the promises of God for their continent. The president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, says there is an African renaissance in the making. Everywhere you turn you find a spirit of entrepreneurship and vision for new things. read more