Floyd & Sally McClung

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.

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

There is much talk these days about missional church. I am more interested in missional living. When we speak of the church we can easily point out the church’s faults and irrelevance but exclude ourselves from the criticism. It is easy to find fault with “the church” but much more difficult when we accept that we are the church.

Accepting Jesus’ invitation to “go and make disciples” gets at the heart of what church is all about. That is missional living. When I think of making disciples I think of it in a holistic sense of being involved in every area of a persons’ life.

Missional living is about investing in the lives of other people. It is not a program. It is certainly more than organized outreach activities. Being a missional person means intentionally building bridges to other people – for the sake of them knowing Jesus and discovering what it means to be a fully alive, free human being. It is an attitude that says, “I will invest my life in others for the sake of Christ and his purposes on earth.” It means I will live that way in every sphere of life and every day of the week.

I met a young man a few years ago named Charles who was an infectious disciple maker. Charles was “missional.” He was driving me to the airport after a visit to his community. I asked him if he had a dream, and he eagerly shared it with me. “I want to have eight generations of disciples.” Eight generations of disciples? I was intrigued by that statement - it made me curious to learn more. So I asked Charles what he meant.

“My dream is to have eight generations of my own disciples, even more. I want to disciple people who disciple others, who reach out to still others. I want to start a movement that transforms people’s lives. I know I won’t be able to do it unless I invest my life in others, one person at a time.”

“Why eight generations of disciples?” I asked Charles. “Because I am an eighth generation disciple of Pieter!” he replied.

Charles was alive with his dream. He was busy gathering a small community made up of people who were giving their lives away to others. It was a small, simple, and somewhat fragile community, yet the members of his community were alive with their determination to live focused lives.

I have discovered in my experience that you can build a missional community with a few outward focused people. Charles had discovered the same thing. In fact, he was already dreaming of more than one community. He wanted to start a movement.

To impact people in Europe we have to have a dream, a dream of what it will look like if we impact the lives of other people for Jesus. Each of us can dream about what God wants to do through us to impact other people. It is not popular to dream in today’s Europe, especially to dream big. But unless we have a dream greater than the dreams of materialists, cynics and hedonists around us, we will be swallowed up by their dreams.

Not only do we need a dream, we also need courage to transfer that dream from our hearts to reality. Courage has to do with pursuing our dream without fear of man, but it also means saying no to opportunities that will lead us away from our dream. Courage is the willingness to take risks, face criticism and rejection, and to dare to believe God to use us to impact other people’s lives.

A third characteristic of effective missional people is the willingness to continually reevaluate one’s effectiveness in living and communicating Jesus to our friends and neighbors. This willingness is an expression of humility. We are often given the impression that humility has to do with inner spirituality, but surely it has to do with the willingness to be missional learners as well. We need humility of we are to learn how to engage our culture and effectively share the good news of Jesus with people in the culture.

If we are to be effective in living the mission of God, we have to go to people and not expect them to come to us. I think of this as stepping over a threshold into people’s personal lives A threshold is small and easily overcome if we respect those who live in a home, and we are invited into their home.

I have noticed several different “thresholds” that separate post-modern Europeans from Jesus. If we discern and step over those thresholds into people’s lives with respect and integrity, we enable those people to move toward faith in Jesus, and perhaps as important, to feel welcome in our homes and communities as followers of Jesus.

The thresholds that I discerned during my years of living in Europe involve helping people move from distrust to trust; from spiritual complacency to curiosity; from wandering aimlessly to sincerely seeking; from cynicism to faith; and finally, from hardness of heart to acknowledging one’s need of forgiveness.

During my 18 years of living in Amsterdam, I found people had different attitudes, or if you will, different levels of spiritual hunger. These are the thresholds that I am describing above. By respecting where people are, and at the same time gently challenging them to consider the invitations of Jesus, we are inviting them to move beyond where they are on their journey to faith.

Jesus taught his disciples to see missional living like sowing seed. In Mark 4:3-29, Jesus tells the story of the sower of seed. Jesus tells them that people’s hearts at like different kinds of soil. Some are hard, some shallow, some are overcome by the cares of life, and some are open and responsive.

Regardless of the response of a person’s heart, our role is to both give our lives away, and to give the good news of Jesus. We give Jesus, we don’t sell him or push him on people. We give him generously and with honesty, kindness and courage. We give him with our actions and with our words, with our involvement in the issues and concerns of our nation and community, and with our passionate pursuit of living in Jesus communities with others of similar vision and values.

I encourage the members of our All Nations community in Cape Town to dream about making a difference in peoples lives, but not by packaging religion like a commodity. The kingdom of God is a powerful force for change, but it not an object to sell. When it is let loose in our lives it has a way of infecting everyone it comes in contact with.

When I quizzed Charles on what steps he was taking to turn his dream into reality, he told me about listening to his house-mates to hear their story, and then sharing his story of how he lived before Jesus, how he journeyed to faith in Jesus, and what difference Jesus made in his life. He was also getting involved in the pain and problems of his friends, as well as celebrating life with them. He was taking simple, practical steps to turn his dream into a reality. He was faithfully working away at it, and you know what? I believe his dream will become a reality.

Living your missional life

Missional living is deliberate. You will have to be very intential if you will life a missional life. It’s more than hanging out and hoping others will ask us questions. It includes caring, listening, building friendships, being honest about our weaknesses and fears, and getting involved in the problems and joys of life around us. Most of all, it means bringing Jesus into every relationship.

We are created by God to reproduce after our own kind. If we are proud and arrogant, we will produce the same fruit in others, and if we are humble and transparent, we will reproduce that fruit as well. Living a missional life is a longing to live in a way that we can invite others to live like we do as fervent followers of Jesus. Paul said to the Corinthians:

Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.

To the Thessalonians he wrote:

You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord… so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

One of the ways I encourage people to join God’s mission is to intentionally connect their passions and interests with other people with a goal of both building friendships and influencing people to come to faith in Jesus. As we ’sow’ our life into other people, and as we bring Jesus and praying blessings for people into every conversation/relationships, we should pay attention to those who are open and responsive. It is those people we should invite to spend time considering the teachings of Jesus. Many of us stumble when it comes to going beyond friendship to actually inviting people to consider Jesus. I believe the most honest, respectful way to do that is to ask people if they want to do a Bible study with us to consider what Jesus taught and did.

My prayer for you is that you will “take courage” to live your life on mission with God. You will not be alone. He promises to be with you.

Floyd McClung
All Nations

When the storm drains are cleaned twice a year in our area, the city’s waste management reports seeing small, dead, baby bodies. This is traumatic for the city workers, and its reported that a psychiatrist is on staff to debrief the workers. “Baby Dumping” is officially undocumented by officials, but it is not uncommon.

What is more alarming than mothers literally throwing their newborns away, is that no one is doing anything about it in our area. Until now. “Baby Safe” is a ministry to rescue unwanted babies. A team working under the auspices of All Nations has come together from various ministries and churches to make the project a reality - including caring for the mothers who are struggling with poverty, fear and abuse. We have prayed, done “due diligence” research, and now we ready to launch the ministry. Through Baby Safe we will be able to help mothers who choose life over death for their babies.

One baby’s life was radically changed when he was found in Masiphumlele, one of the poorer communities where we work. He was tossed aside, still in his mother’s placenta, abandoned in a black garbage bag. He was left for dead, but thankfully found by a group of children. This little boy is now a thriving 5 year old. He was adopted by a wonderful couple found through a local church. Through Baby Safe we aim to save other baby’s lives like little Luke.

Baby Safe is committed to presenting an alternative to abortion, and we hope to prevent children from being abused and severly neglected by presenting mothers with an alternative.

Children rescued through Baby Safe will be placed in loving, Christian adoptive families. The precious hope of Jesus will also be presented to women in crisis as well as other social service resources meant for women and children in need.

When the little boy mentioned above was rescued and brought to his new home, this verse was read over him: “On that day you were born, your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean…no one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather you were thrown into an open field, for on the day you were born, you were despised. Then I passed by and saw you kicking in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood, I said to you, “Live!” (Ezekiel 16:4-6 NIV).

We believe that God will rescue the helpless through Baby Safe and make a life long covenant with the children who will be saved.

If you would like to learn more about Baby Safe, contact Bethany at bethanyallnations@gmail.com Bethany is a graduate of CPx, the All Nations training program. If you would like to receive information about CPx, write to allnationssa@gmail.com

Click the first image below and you will take a short journey to see faces and visit places where All Nations serves in Red Hill, Cape Town, South Africa. More than 75 fire-destroyed shack homes rebuilt. Micro businesses started. Simple churches begun. Lives changed. Servant leaders called out. Gardens planted.

Take the Red Hill journey….

Floyd and Sally McClung

These photos were taken by Paula Watts, a CPx student and professional photographer - www.paulawattsphoto.com