December 2008 News – Vans amper in Burundi

Hi Everyone


I’ve listened to a radio advertisement this morning which states that the 3 most stressful events in life are:
Moving House, Jobs and Country………Needless to say that we have successfully qualified but for God nothing is impossible!!

Well December month has introduced us to the final leg of our current season! God creates every day new with more hope and challenges for us to enjoy. Truly we mesmerise over the last few months and know that we did not come through victoriously on our own accord, no it was because of Great Sons and Daughters of the most HIGH who have joined hands with us to walk over the bridge into our new season.

We love you so much !! Really God has given us a tremendous love for you…..I know this is a kind of blanket statement, but really every person we have connected with over the last few months have played a role in us walking over the bridge into our next season with peace in our hearts, with more love towards our brothers and sisters and a confidence to continue to see God@work!!

Currently I’m wrapping up business at work in order to finish up 31 Dec. God has given me grace and strength to-do so and I pray that I have left a legacy of excellence and that God may receive the Glory!! I’ve had number of acknowledgements in the manner in which I’ve been training and handed over my responsibilities and experience during the last 6 months.

We have also moved in the 3 bedroom apartment in Horison next to my father in law’s house, he has really been a blessing to us in so many ways. He has a golden heart!! Praise God. God also supplied tenants for the T/House which will contribute towards the ministry as well.

We received news on the 19th of December that Diane’s Granny, Annie Rogers passed on at the age of 79…..We know that she is with the Lord where we can all eventually join her, she just had a head start! We will miss her in the meantime. Again how amazingly we can see God’s hand in taking care of the detail, taking granny before we leave for Burundi. Thank you Lord.

The monthly support have been a challenge, but man we have some amazing people who has already started supporting us. We have been allocating all monthly support received to date to the Reallocation cost account. On a 2 weekly basis I’ve been emailing our accountability partner (Hannes van Zyl) with up to date bank statements and Income statement. The state of affairs are as follow:

Monthly Support = 68% attained, Relocation costs = 50% attained…..in my opinion this is great!! Thank you Lord and at this pace Vans is amper in Burundi!!

We wish you a wonderful Christmas and trust that you will enjoy the time with your family.
God Bless
Anton, Diane and Bernice

November 2008 News

Hi Everyone

Since I’ve been back from the Great lakes Region in October we’ve been running a hectic schedule and asked God to give us the strength and endurance for this last leg of our preparation before we leave for Burundi in Jan 2009.

Over the last month we have had a couple of events where we were able to share about God’s vision in the Great lakes and how He has been so faithful in providing the means to get there! We have been using these get-togethers to provide opportunity for more families to partner with us in this journey. Diane and I also want to extent a big thank you to those of you who have been serving and helping us through this time. People who have helped and supported the following events.

· Ivan & Carol – event held at their house on 11 Oct
· Llewelyn & Jenni – event held at their house on 15 Nov
· Andrew & Melissa + small group at the Potjie Dinner – event held at Discovery on 15 Nov
· Ben & Maria – event to be held at their home on 22 Nov

The potjie dinner have raised an awesome R7680 towards our relocation cost. Thank you Thank you !!

During the last month God has been speaking to me about Luke 10:4 “Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.” And in Matthew it speaks about not taking an extra tunic.

I understood from the Holy Spirit that we must not trust in our own provision, our own car or limit our focus on just driving up to Burundi. In fact the word says do not greet any one on the way. This did seem strange to me at the time but last night when visiting a small group lead by Andrew & Lizelle we received prophecy and words of wisdom that we must not have negative words spoken over Burundi or the DRC. This clarified for us not to travel by road to Burundi as we will avoid negative words spoken on the way about DRC which is instilling fear in people's hearts. So this settles it in our hearts we are not driving up any more but rather flying the end of Jan 2009.

The change in plan is I believe is from God and we must be flexible and mature enough to allow God to change our plans! Now this will change the relocation costs somehow which I have updated here on the blog.

Please continue to pray for us for the following:
1. Family to rent our T/House
2. Partners to help provide for Relocation Costs
3. Financial supporters for Monthly Support
4. Intercede for a meeting at Work where I’m going to share my journey with God, on Thursday 4 Dec @ 14:00

Love you guys !
Anton & Diane

Outreach - Burundi / Rwanda - Oct 2008

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Feedback from the Outreach we went on to Burundi/Rwanda...and nearly the DRC.

Ps Theo was our team leader and did so with honours!!! The purpose of the outreach was to go and encourage Ps Theo, his church planter co-ordinators, trainers and also the village churches. In my personal capacity I wanted to establish some logistics for Diane and I.

We were 4 guys, Anton Mansvelt, Grant Spence, Theo and I.

We left on Friday the 10th of Oct and returned on Saturday 25th of Oct. We started our trip at Kigali in Rwanda and travelled by bus the next morning to Bujumbura in Burundi. We visited village churches with Ps John in BJ. We also connected with a missionary couple in BJ who relocated from SA this year August. They were very hospitable and invited us to stay a couple of days in their home in BJ. Amazingly God has called them with exactly the same guiding scripture 2 Tim 2:2 and I was able to draw much information from them regarding the journey by road from SA, Border costs, route, visas, import duties, furniture, bank transfers etc. In addition they are primarily going to start teaching the Leadership program called VERITAS, aimed to teach Pastors and Leaders how to interpret scripture in the Bible context and of cause the application thereof. We have both sensed that God has intended for us to journey together some time in the future. They expecting their first born and will return in December to SA for a few months before going back to BJ in March 2009. We agreed to spend more time together over the next 12 months to develop a friendship while Diane I will serve with Ps Charles to learn the language and culture during 2009. I've already mentioned to Ps Charles about the couple as well as possibly running the VERITAS program for his leaders in BJ and Gitega.

We travelled to Gitega in Burundi, stayed over at Ps Charles' house and ministered at more village churches as well as at Ps Charles' main church. God is developing a very special relationship between me and Ps Charles, he has prepared a room for Diane and I to stay on his property, he indicated that he is concerned for our security and the he prefers that we initially stay close to him.

We visited Ps Charles projects and were specifically touched by those children in school. The school is bursting at the seams and in dire need to expand. 4 new class rooms are almost complete but work has ceased due to a lack of funds. About 10 000$ is needed to complete these class rooms. Also what we did not know is that most of these children do not have a proper diet hence Ps Charles is now feeding all 800 children 3 times a week, just so that they have the mental capacity to learn!

We spoke about the brick machine and agreed to rather go for the manual brick machine available in Zambia as this will mean much less maintenance and the cost is about 1700$ or R17 000. I also shared with him some other possible kingdom businesses we can start
1. Chicken farming - Andrew Dart agreed to donate and deliver 100 chicks for Burundi
2. Dried mangos - based on the Zambia project model.

and Ps Charles is very excited and sends his greetings to DJ and Karen!!

We returned to BJ and was hoping to cross the border to Uvira in the DRC......BUT GOD did not give Ps Theo peace to cross over....we received much reports of unrest and Theo decided to rather stay in BJ. This was great because Ps Charles then met me in BJ on Sunday and I was able to minister in one of his 4 churches in BJ.

Some Liberty members have been faithfully giving towards the orphans in the DRC. Grant Small released about R7000 for the Orphanage school. The need this time was stationary and books for the children. We spend all this money buying stationary in BJ and handed over the material to Flory, the Leader of this ministry, this was done in BJ because we could not cross the border. We asked Flory to pls send us some pics when he hands out the books to the children, well he did so and this is the pic appearing in this blog.

We travelled to Cyangugu in Rwanda in the South west of the country right against the boarder of the DRC.....again spend a few days visiting village churches including a village church on an island in lake Kivu. This church could only be reached by boat. The DRC is much calmer here, Grant and Anton were really wanting to cross the border even for just a few hours. Theo allowed them todo so accompanied by one of his senior co-ordinators from the DRC.

Overall the team dynamics were good, unity was always maintained and found Anton and Grant was experienced goers. I know they were both challenged with the ministry as they were used to more practical outreaches. We know many seeds were sowed and trusting God to water them and grow them…. Ps Theo’s ministry continues to grow exponentially and I believe the official number of churches is around 729 for the Great Lakes region!

Thank you once again for sending us, and for your prayers.
Love you guys
Anton

Saturday 4th October 2008, at Ivan and Carol Day’s place

SPACE
We had an awesome time sharing in greater depth the vision God has placed inside of us and how Diane and I intent to step out on to the water…..although some of us have to remain behind we can together achieve this Kingdom venture!!

Afterwards we had great fellowship around the braai fires.....

In the diagram attached, we created 3 mainstream opportunities to serve in this ministry:
1. Prayer Chain - Network and Emergency prayer chain
2. Financial Support – for Monthly support and Relocation costs
3. Ambassadors – Representatives at your church - which is intended to be inter-denominational.

The next opportunity you will have to join us for a feedback session are:
15 November 2008 at 09:00
15 November 2008 at 18:00
22 November 2008 at 09:00

If you would like to join us on any of these sessions, pls rsvp via email, cell or comment on the blog.

Anton

Important Date:

Sending Cell meeting 4 Oct Sat @ 15:00....Send me an SMS or Email if you are interested to join this core meeting.

Diane and I are so encouraged by people wanting to be part of this journey God is leading us on. It is with great emotion and excitement that we want to share with as many people who want to be involved.

I’m reminded of when God asked Moses to build the tabernacle and how the people pooled together their resources to do this work.
Ex35:5-6
From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze….

We are busy creating a sending cell structure and incorporating everyone who indicated that they would want to partner with us in some way. This we would like to finalise at a meeting to be held on the afternoon of the 4 October. We have asked few people already to consider an intercessory role but do not want to exclude anyone, therefore if you want to be part of the caravan of people who will in some way play a role in our sending cell, then please RSVP us for the above meeting so we can give you the address.

Blessings
Anton & Diane

The Birth of a Ministry.....

Sunday 24 August and 14 September was a dream come true for us, with the official start of serving the Nations with God’s Word. We really want to share this journey with as many people as possible and want to structure an opportunity for all the folks that want to serve in this ministry.

Diane and I seek Partnership in the following areas of the ministry:
• Prayer – link into family prayer network
• Support Group – tasks involve admin, emails, reps, logistics,etc
• Sending – kingdom finance for projects and personal support

In order to relocate we have made a list of items that will help us to relocate to Burundi.
1. Travel by road to Burundi R25 400.00 - Expense paid for
2. Furniture R15 000.00
3. Laptops R16 000.00
4. Sunday School materiaal R2 500.00 (Little Folk) - Expense paid for
5. Data Projector R5 000.00
6. Vehicle accessories R12 500.00
7. Trailer R 25 000.00
8. Water Pump for irrigation cost tba
9. Brick Making Machine about $1700 manual machiene x 2

10. 4x4 Vehicle - prefrence Toyota Land Cruiser pickup diesel

It’s our intention to setup time with all interested to partner with us, so If you desire to partner in any of the above, pls leave a comment on the blog, phone or email me so we can connect.

Making a difference is in our hands.
Anton & Diane

From Anton's desk

REVIVAL CONFERENCE IN GREAT LAKES COUNTRIES 2009 PROGRAM

Hi Everyone

The attached email from Rev Charles in Burundi I read with great EXCITEMENT and ANTICIPATION to what the Lord is going to do here in central Africa. Leaders are being aligned for a great task you can see how we are at a brink of another SPIRITUAL title wave. A title wave of God’s love and righteousness seeking his people’s WORSHIP.

Diane and I are even more committed to go and serve God’s plan in the Great Lakes region. I have to go visit Ps Charles possibly in October to finalise some of our relocation arrangements and will use this time to also start planning the GLLConf2009. Please partner with us in prayer for the following:

Please pray:
1. Great Lakes Leaders Conference 2009 – Logistics, finance, partnerships and speakers.
2. For God’s program and dates, He knows best which time we should embark
3. Fire of the Holy Spirit to fall for purpose to advance the Kingdom of God
4. For the health of all the pastors and families involved with this conference.

Blessings
Anton

Email from Rev Charles - Burundi 21/07/2008

REVIVAL CONFERENCE IN GREAT LAKES COUNTRIES 2009 PROGRAM

DEAR BROTHER ANTON ;
MANY GREETINGS FROM BURUNDI . HOPE THAT EVERYTHING IS GOING WELL WITH YOUR FAMILY; WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

DEAR BROTHER I HAVE A PROPOSITION :
I WOULD LIKE TO PROPOSE YOUR CHURCH AND MY CHURCH TO START I BIG REVIVAL CONFERENCE OF PASTORS AND EVANGELISTS IN GREAT LAKES COUNTRIES JUNE OR JULY 2009 AT GITEGA.WE CAN INVITE MORE THAN 1500 PASTORS AND EVANGELISTS. ANTON ; REV. CHARLES AND YOUR PASTOR CAN PREACH IN THIS CONFERENCE AND MAYBE OTHERS OF YOUR VISITORS. WE HAVE TO MAKE REVIVAL IN SO MANY PASTORS AND BISHOPS HERE IN THIS REGION ..

WE CAN TAKE 4 DAYS IN THE CONFERENCES.
1. I WANT TO ASK YOU IF IT CAN BE POSSIBLE FOR YOUR PASTOR OR THE CHURCHES TO FIND FUNDS OF THIS BIG CONFERENCE?? YES I UNDERSTAND IT CAN TAKE SO MUCH MONEY BECAUSE PEOPLES WILL COME FROM MANY PROVINCES OF BURUNDI ; RWANDA ; CONGO ; TANZANIA ; OUGANDA ECT.. AND WE HAVE TO TAKE THEIR ACCOMMODATION .
2. THE CHURCHES CAN WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GREAT REVIVAL FOR AFRICA AND BY FAITH WE CAN START TO GET THIS GREAT VISION FOR AFRICA. I WANT TO KNOW DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT ??? CAN YOU SHARE THIS WITH YOUR PASTOR ?? MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU SO MUCH .
3. I WANT YOU TO START THE CONTACTS WITH THE BIG EVANGELIST IN YOUR COUNTRY WHO CAN COME TO EVANGELISE HERE .

LOVE TO YOU ALL.
REV. CHARLES

Ministry Launch @ Liberty....

24th August Discovery Campus
14th September Ranburg Campus

During the end of 2005 God started speaking to us about going and the instruction was to take a trip to the DRC. In 2006 we travelled with Ps Theo Burakeye to Rwanda, Burundi and DRC. We met Rev Charles Nduwumukama in Burundi in a town called Gitega, we realised later that this was the man of peace which Luke 10:6 speak about. God has raised this pastor up about 5 years ago under the ministry of Ps Theo.

Ps Charles started his ministry preaching to his own people, of which some are now serving in his 2000 strong congregation. He has a vision to reach the leaders in Burundi, and has a strong justice ministry to the orphans and widows through education, skills development and job creation projects. He is the modern day pastor to the Nation.

Before we left for Burundi in Oct 2007, God revealed to us that we were going to serve Pastors and churches in Burundi, DRC then eventually in Tanzania. Rev Charles, Diane and I share the same vision and passion for the Kingdom. We now have an open invitation to come and serve with Rev Charles in Burundi at his church. We have accepted the call to go.

What will we go and do? Our guiding scriptures: 2 Tim 2:2 in order to entrust the knowledge of God to men who will be qualified to teach others. The church is growing at leaps and bounds in central Africa, but the pastors and leaders do not have a great depth in the knowledge of God and the church is suffering as a result. Hosea 4:6 says that “my people perish due to a lack of knowledge”.

Where will you be based? We will go and setup a base in Burundi in a town called Gitega. Our time line to relocate to Burundi is Jan 2009. Any passengers?

blessings
Anton

Burundi June 2008 Phodies cont...

Click on the image to enlarge

To: DJ & Karen

Diane and I would like to express our deepest thanks to DJ and Karen for the trip to Burundi!!!

We are struggling to find even the words to say thank you…….so let me attempt to make a list of what this trip have meant to us…
· I can most probably count on my left hand of how many other Pastors (in SA) would have gone on this trip…..you live what you preach!
· We asked you once, and when the dates were set you had the integrity and perseverance to honour your commitment….you are of strong Character!
· During the trip we had time to connect which helped us process the depth of your leadership……you have been faithful and taken a Leadership role in the Kingdom!
· You were able to recognise that Ps Charles was the spiritual leader of Burundi and that he is in fact the pastor of the nation…..you have great discernment!
· You have great strategic (missions) insight and have confirmed our entry strategy into the Nation of Burundi……great Wisdom!

We have come to appreciate you more as our Spiritual leaders and as a result we have grown in our understanding of –
· Our own call
· the Vision for Justice ministries
· to live life rather than judging life……….I’ll never forget your sermon on “Gaword” Glory or your dancing with the village church or Karen when she ate the fish in the Pastor’s house in the village.

We are looking forward to our journey for the future and know that God is going to use you as a great influence in our lives……………

We love you guys and thank you again…..

Anton & Diane

Burundi June 2008

Rev Charles is looking for 2 x Brick making machines and a water pump to irrigate 10 hectors of farm land which has recently been donated by the government.


Diane atempting catchup some beauty sleep in Nairobi airport.

DJ with Caspar in Gitega. Caspar is Ps Charles' right hand managing some of the Justice projects.


All set and ready to go.


Ps Theo at the guest house in Bujumbura aka "Sun City"


Fish for lunch, local style.

Anton

Hi Rev Charles

Greetings in the name of our awesome Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.

DJ, Karen, Theo Diane and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit with you and Esperance….THANK YOU….for your love and hospitality..

DJ has spoken very highly of you and your leadership in Burundi, our whole church now knows Rev Charles!!!

Because of the visit our leaders are very in favour of Diane and I coming to stay in Gitega and supports your VISION.

Rev Charles you are a great man of GOD and I cannot wait to come serve your ministry and projects in Burundi, in Jesus name.

Diane and I are now making final preparations for our move to Burundi.

God Bless
Anton

Rev Charles

Dear beloved anton receive many greetings from burundi in jesus name our lord ; i want to thank you very much for the wonderfull visit you have did in my church ; it was great blessings for my church ; hope to see god using many wonderfull works in spiritual revival and physicaly here in burundi ; please send my greetings to your dear wife in jesus name: hope to see you in the future; my heart is with you all in jesus name. may the lord bless you so much. charles

Rev Charles from Burundi Writes

MY DEAR FAMILY AND BELOVED IN JESUS NAME I GREET YOU WITH VERY GREAT COMPASSIONS. YES WE LOVE SO MUCH AND YOU ARE IN OUR DEEPER HEARTS . WE PRAY FOR YOU ALL. DEAR ANTON I WANT YOU AND FREINDS TO PRAY FOR BURUNDI ; SPECIALLY OUR CHURCH BECAUSE NOW THERE IS HUNGER IN MANY BURUNDIANS AND WE SEE THAT THE GOVENEMENT HAVE NOT GREAT VISION TO STOP THIS HUNGER . ME AND MY MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH ARE THINKING TO BEGIN THE AGRICULTURE PROJECTS ; WE NEED CULTIVATE 300 HACTARES AND WE WILL NEED MUCH DOLLARS . THE PRESIDENT ACCEPTED TO GIVE US FOR SHORT TIME A MACHINE TO HELP US BECAUSE WE HAVE NO MACHINE BUT . WE NEED YOU TO PRAY ONLY FOR US . WE KNOW WELL THAT YOU DON.T HAVE MONEY BUT ONLY TO TELL TO YOUR FREINDS TO PRAY FOR THIS AND IF BY THE WILL OF GOD YOU CAN SEE SOMEONE WHO BE INTEREST WITH OUR PROJECT ; TELL HIM ABOUT IT . YES WE CAN PREACH THE GOSPEL BUT IF WE CAN NOT RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM OF OUR MEMBERS IT WILL BE PROBLEM IN FUTURE . IN YOUR COUNTRY ; DO YOU HAVE SOME GREAT FARMERS WHO CAN BE INTEREST TO HELP ?? YES IT NOT VERY MUCH MONEY TO MAKE THIS PROJECT BUT WE NEED OLSO PROFESSIONEL FARMERS HERE . PRAY FOR THIS . BE BLESS IN JESUS NAME. WE ARE WAITING YOUR COMING BACK. IN JESUS NAME BE BLESS.

CHARLES

Jan 2008

Wow did 2007 fly by…..

You know we came to the realisation that God’s plans are much greater, bigger and deeper than what we expected….if you sense a tad of excitement in us….then it is because since we returned from a two week outreach to Burundi and DRC in Oct 2007, God has enriched us with His love and joy .

As you know God started speaking to Diane and I in 2005 about the DRC and serving Him there….and every trip there we started receiving greater and greater clarity on the call and where to start the vision etc.

I really want to share with you in a little more detail what our future plans are (and hope that this find favour with you):

Call –
· Where - we sense that God is calling us to the Great lakes area in mid Africa (DRC/Burundi/Rwanda/Tanzania……) We sense that we will go and setup a base in Burundi in a town called Gitega. Our heart is to impart the knowledge of Gods word, the Bible to Pastors.

· What – to the leaders, pastors and government of this country – 2 Tim 2:2 to entrust knowledge of God to men who will be qualified to teach others. The church is growing at leaps and bounds in central Africa, but the pastors and leaders does not have a great depth in the knowledge of God and the church is suffering as a result. Hosea 4:6 says that “my people perish due to a lack of knowledge”

· When – Time line we looking and immigrating to Burundi in Jan 2009. Yes we sense a fast forward in our time line.

· Vision – Luke 10:6 speaks about finding a man of peace in a town. Well this God has done for us. We met Pastor Charles Nduwumukama in Burundi in a town called Gitega. God has raised this pastor up about 5 years ago and started his ministry preaching to his own people in Burundi, many of who is now serving in his 2000 strong congregation. He has planted many churches and is first an evangelist at heart. He has a vision to reach the leaders in Burundi, and reachout to children. He already funded and build a huge school and is almost finished with facilities to house many pastors when he starts with a number of training centres in the area. We share the same vision and passion for the Kingdom. We have an open invitation to come and serve with Ps Charles. He is a man receiving much favour from God in his business dealings.

It is our intention to start formalising a sending cell early this year. We will setup a formal get together for all who are interested to journey with us.

Please can you join us in praying
· for the final year of preparation
· for favour with the family to release us with their blessing
· for Bernice who will stay behind, she will finish matric end of 2008, and for her future plans.
· for favour with prayer and financial supporters
· and for wisdom how to deal with our material assets