OpenHeaven.com - Our walk during the first quarter of 2016 - hein& helene van wyk

Dear Friends, Family and Supporters,

The first quarter of 2016 is gone! How quickly time flies! 2016 started pretty much in the same way as 2015 ended; blessed, but busy.
Thank you to everyone who showed interest in many different ways in what we do.
�I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;� (Phil 1:3-6)

As we said in our last News Letter, it�s with gratitude and appreciation that we look back on 2015. It was a great year! We were challenged in so many different ways, met so many new people and discovered the goodness and lovingkindness of God in so many fresh ways. It was a truly a memorable year for us.

In addition to all the training and facilitation opportunities we had, we also saw a total of 6 x Experience Mission teams arriving from the US. As Coordinators of Experience Mission Africa, we received these teams into our home, took care of their logistic needs, facilitated their training and orientation processes, identified host families and other accommodation arrangements for them, provided transport, set up various communities where they served, helped manage outreach programmes as well as taking teams on sight-seeing opportunities. We had teams who went to Rehoboth, Walvis Bay and Swartbooisdrift in Namibia, Maphutseng in Lesotho and Olievenhoutbosch, Mooiplaas, Centurion and Darling in South Africa.

In was a huge privilege to my family and I to have had the opportunity to meet and work with so many different and precious people! It was wonderful to see how God worked in their lives. As one participant put it, �of all my training and the discussions we�ve had, I truly believe the phrase �Coram Deo�, which translates to doing all things as if doing them before the face of God, is the capstone and overarching phrase to encompass how we lived and served during our time in Africa and really more so in our time on this earth.�

Experience Mission 2016
On the 2nd of February the first team for 2016 arrived; it was a 6-month Africa Immersion team consisting of 12 members. After going through worldview and cultural orientation, the team, hosted by Church Without Walls (KSM) in Centurion, visited the township of Olievenhoutbosch and served at the Christian School and Disability Centre. They were in Olievenhoutbosch until the third week of March after which they went to Lesotho.
For the last six weeks the team has been in the Maphutseng Valley in western Lesotho serving with the residence students of Growing Nations. The team will head to Swakopmund in Namibia in the next week or so where they will serve for 6 weeks before returning to the US at the end of June.

At the end of May we will receive a team who will serve in and around Walvis Bay in Namibia until the first week of August. In June/July we will have a 1-month team working in the Mooiplaas Squatter Camp outside Centurion. In July/August another 1-month team will travel to the Kunene Region in northern Namibia where they will stay with the local OvaHimba people. Helene and I will travel and camp with the team during this time. In July and in November we are receiving 2 x 2-week mission teams who will visit the town of Darling in the Western Cape. From September until the beginning of November a 3-month team will visit Olievenhoutbosch and also the farming community of Darling.

In addition to all of the above registrations for 2017 teams are already coming in��

Writing a book on Covenant: Visiting Phoenix, Arizona 29 March � 5 April 2016
I turned 50 last year and I am in professional missionary service now for 22 years. I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to many different countries, meeting many different people, serving in many different places, seeing and experiencing many different things. I�ve seen the Glory and Majesty of God in so many different ways; in places, in people, in protection and in provision. I�m blessed and encouraged from what I experienced.

At the same time I was also deeply challenged by what I saw. In the midst of the many blessings I also came across excruciating brokenness, extreme hopelessness and deep divides.
Looking at the times we are living in, and also looking back at the things I experienced in life so far, I�m convinced that there is no other message that will bring peace, healing, hope and reconciliation other than the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is good news to the poor; it brings hope to the hopeless; adoption to the fatherless; healing to the sick; freedom to those we are bound. The Kingdom of God transcends sexism, racism, tribalism, denominationalism and every other dividing �ism� you can think about. The Kingdom of God is God�s total answer to the total question of the human race. By grace I discovered that this total answer of God came, still comes and always will come in, through and by the establishment of His administration, His Kingdom. The constitution of His Kingdom, I believe, is Covenant, and more specifically the New Covenant in His blood. It seems that the further people move away from covenant understanding, the more broken they become. It�s the revelation of covenant that is changing my life daily and inspires me to go further, deeper and higher!

Andrew Murray captures something of the depth of the revelation of covenant when he wrote:
�To the many who have never thought much about the covenant, it would mean the transformation of their whole lives to have a true and living faith. The full knowledge of what God wants to do, the assurance that it will be done, and the being drawn to God Himself in personal surrender, make the covenant the very gate of heaven.�

For a number of years now I sensed God is putting an increasing burden on my heart to write a book. Since March of last year it became clear that the theme of this book should be on Covenant. Writing a book has come as a surprise to me. I never saw myself as someone who can write. It�s much easier for me to speak ideas than to write them.
As a confirmation on writing the book, God has connected me to some very special people with whom I will work to write and publish this book. Among them are Jose Gonzalez from Semilla who is co-authoring the book with me and also Darrow Miller from Disciple Nations Alliance who is providing oversight and professional assistance for this project.

I recently traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to meet with these two brethren to get some of the ground work for the book done.
I�m thankful to the many others who encourage me to write this book; something I've never done before.

Worldview Training at MET (Missions Exposure & Training), Pretoria: 25, 26 April 2016
In April I facilitated Biblical Worldview and Transformational Development training at MET (Missions Exposure & Training) in Pretoria. The training forms part of a four to five week residential programme for Church leaders, called MCL (Missions for Church Leaders) . The group of MCL Students was from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Nigeria.

Background to Missions Exposure & Training (MET)
Established in 1996, MET�s vision is to see local churches actively involved in global missions by strategically living out God's purposes in Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8 until the return of Jesus Christ. They are actively involved in equipping the African church to arise to a new day in global missions. No longer just a recipient of missions but a sender of missions! The African church offers the world a dynamic Spirit led enthusiasm in evangelization.

The mission of MET is to empower the local church to be a dynamic missions congregation by exposing and training its leaders and missionary candidates in multi-cultural and global missions. The mission is fulfilled by:

a four and five week residential Missions for Church Leaders (MCL) three times per year in Pretoria
facilitating specialized missions resource persons as lecturers and consultants to Bible colleges
facilitating annual Missions Fest conferences in Pretoria

The Worldview of the Kingdom matters
Last week I spoke on Kingdom Worldview Matters and how it relates to transformational development. A lot of time was spent exploring and discovering what the Kingdom of God was all about. It was an exciting and refreshing time as the hearts of the participants were encouraged by the vision for the Kingdom of God!

God always wanted His people to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Therefore God prepared a Kingdom for them; the Kingdom of the Son of His love. For this purpose God determined a moment in history when He established His heavenly Kingdom on earth. By doing this He made it possible for His people not only to seek it, but also to possess it. We read in the book of Daniel, �But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever. �. the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.� (Dan 7: 18, 22)

In order to possess it, God first had to show his people what His Kingdom, His government, His administration was like so they can desire it and find the way to possess it. That moment was the day God sent Jesus Christ from heaven to demonstrate the Kingdom on earth, among the people He loves so much.

In the Gospel of Mark we read about that moment when �The time was fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand.� (Mark 1:15). Also in the book of Esther we see that the coming of the Kingdom happened at a strategic moment in time. During a time of great challenges for the Jewish people Esther�s cousin, Mordecai, told her, �Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?� (Esther 4:14(b) Esther was destined to be queen to save her people from a genocide. Esther was born for that moment.

There is a desperate cry from many nations, communities and families around the world. Mankind is at his wits� end. No plan or programme can bring peace and deliverance. Many people have become hopeless and depressed and echo the sentiments of King Solomon, �Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity� (Eccl 1:2)

We are God�s people and this time in history is our moment. Just like Esther we called to the Kingdom for such a time as this. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God�s own special people, called to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (2 Peter 2:9).

Soli Deo Gloria!

Peace and Grace to you all.
In Christ
hein& helene van wyk