Family vacay

Having a lovely family vacay on the beach in mid Mozambique. We've had loads of time together on the beach. And today we are
Taking on ocean safari out in the Indian Ocean. We have found lovely fresh fish and prawn (shrimp) dinners.



Love from the Evens

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Tofo, Mozambique

Missionary Monday 4

This week's Missionary Monday is about a new country to J-Life, Sierra Leone. We are so excited to have Nelson Coulson from Sierra Leone come and train with us for the first 6 weeks of this year. We are so thankful for the Lord who puts connections and people together for the furthering of His kingdom. 

Nelson's story of how he came to know about J-life is only one that God can orchestrate. He was walking along the road one day feeling very down and despondent. His walk with the Lord was not where he wanted it to be.  A big wind came up and this flyer flew into his body. So he grabbed it and put it in his pocket. Later that evening, he reached in his pocket to find this flyer that spoke of youth ministry and discipleship. The flyer was about GYI (Global Youth Initiative) which J-Life is a part of this organization. So he contacted the name on the flyer and they said there is a man in Ghana that you can speak to about discipleship and youth ministry in Africa. This was Palgrave, our country leader. Because of the ebola break out, they were delayed in meeting, But the Lord used this flyer about GYI to connect Nelson to J-Life. I think of all the testimony flyers we have handed out over the years on mission trips with Grant and think that God uses those pieces of paper. 

• Pray for Nelson and his wife Juliana
• Pray for the ministry to spread throughout Sierra Leone 
• Pray for Nelson to implement what he learned in the 6 weeks in South Africa
• Pray for Palgrave as he continues to journey with Nelson

Proud mom moment

The Cast

                              The Backstage Crew

                      Matthew
 


For the 9 weeks my kids have been practicing for Major Production which this year was "Rock and Roll through the Ages".  Matthew was the bassist and Grace was in charge of back stage. They practiced from 4-7pm three days a week. Which meant that we left home at 6:30am and got home at 7:45pm. You ask why in the world would I say they could do this? At some point I wondered myself, but then I would see them working hard at things they loved such as Grace painting the back drops or Matthew working on a new song. I am such a proud mom of all the hard work they did to make such a great show.  I am a firm believer in encouraging my kids to do what they love and to be good what they love. They can't get better without practice and hard work and DOING the thing they love. So, that means mom waiting (and helping out with the show by default) many hours and them practicing many hours, but their gifts from the Lord of painting and organizing and playing the bass have been work out and used for HIS glory. That is the point of our gifts, right? To be worked and practiced and used for HIS glory. Otherwise, the gift means very little.

Anyway, thanks for indulging this proud mom. May you let your little ones practice and work their gifts to HIS glory.

Missionary Monday 3

This week Missionary Monday is about Florence and Leo Fokoua. Florence is the country leader of Cameroon. They have been with J-Life since 2008.  Cameroon was one of our first northern French speaking African countries to come to J-Life. Florence and I became fast friends at summit in 2009. She is joy to be around. She exudes the love of the Lord. I affectionately refer to her as the queen and Leo the king. I don't know where it came from, but as you can maybe see from their picture, they are royal members of Christ's family.  Florence and Leo have 3 daughters, Gladys (20), Ariel (14) and Jodie (10). Gladys is an adopted member of their family. If you are in youth work long, you know that eventually you have adopted sons and daughters. We have many from over the years. Florence has a vibrant ministry that reaches beyond the borders of Cameroon. She is a champion for J-Life and our French speaking countries.

• Pray for Florence and Leo and the girls 
• Pray for the new ministry center being built
• Pray that Florence would continue to reach the youth of Cameroon and beyond

Missionary Monday 2

This week I am going to feature Zoe and Adam Zogar. Zoe is the country leader of Liberia. They just celebrated their 1st year marriage anniversary. They had to put off their marriage because of the ebola epidemic in 2014/2015.  We are blessed to have such a young vibrate couple in Liberia.Despite the ebola epidemic, ministry continued to happen, just on a smaller scale. Liberia was one of the worst hit countries and many things shut down during this time. There was very limited travel, even between towns and villages.  Adam is on Zoe's team and helps a lot with the financial side of things because he is an accountant. We look forward to see what the Lord has planned in 2016 now that ministry can be back into "full swing".

• Pray for opportunities to have GC2 groups (discipleship groups)
• Pray for their young marriage to be blessed and not strained under ministry demands
• Pray for expanded outreach and new connections

Whatcha doing end of September?

The trip is for ladies only (sorry gents) and it's a regular sort of mission trip. Here are some of the things we are thinking of doing. Visiting an orphanage, helping with a feeding scheme, doing holiday club (since it's the holidays here), visit a women's health clinic, maybe light painting or other such things. We will be in and around Heidelberg/ South Johannesburg area. We are hoping to nail down dates this week and start working on the cost. I would imagine somewhere around $2000. Don't let the money stop you. We can have fundraisers and ask some of those who can't go but want to be a  part to give. If God is leading you....there is no question about money. We will stay at the beautiful Camp Eden (international home of J-Life) or 'the farm' as we lovingly refer to it pictured above. These are some of the details I know of at this point. OH, the dates are end of Sept/beginning of Oct. Please email me at evenfamily5@gmail.com if you're interested or want more info.

Serving together, Liz

Missionary Monday

ok, so the new series is here and i am going to feature one of our J-Life Country leaders or a Regional director. I am going to start with a Regional Director and then the countries surrounding him and then move on to another region.

 

This is Mgliwe (mmm-glee-way) Simdinatome from Togo. Which is located in West Africa. You can see it's a very small country located between Ghana and Benin. It is a French speaking country.

Mgliwe's wife's name is Rhoder. His kids name's are Fidele (6), Hilaire (4) and Percee (2). Mgliwe came to know about J-Life at a Lausanne Conference held in Cape Town. Miah and Michelle Collins were working with J-Life at the time and they were in attendance. Michelle was assigned to the interpretation for the French speaking people. They needed another interpreter or something to that effect and Michelle met Mgliwe. They began to talk about what they did and Mgliwe shared his passion to to make youth disciples in French speaking Africa. This, of course, is what J-Life does. This is our mission. So the next January, Mgliwe came to be apart of our training. He then began to build a team in Togo and teach them what he had learned. Mgliwe works very hard and is passionate about the gospel being made known and making Christ-following disciples who will make disciples and so forth. Many of our team members from the French speaking countries in that region have come to work with us through Mgliwe and his influence. Mgliwe has now trained Ben, who will one day transition into being Togo Country Leader. Mgliwe is the Regional director for French speaking West Africa. 

• Please pray for Mgliwe to have wisdom and strength to manage his time with his work and family. As you can see, he has 3 wonderful little ones who need his attention. 
• Pray for his ministry and his leadership in the ministry.   
• Pray for his wife as she helps with the ministry.
• Pray for continued favor in the expansion of the ministry.

Kids Questions

Recently a friend's son had to ask a missionary kid some questions. I thought they would be great to share the answer here:

1.   Do I travel much?  We have gone one several family trips to various places. Mostly places in South Africa. We have been to Durban, Kruger National park, Pilanesburg Park, and Cape Town.  In Oct of 2014 we travelled by car to Ndola, Zambia. It took three days to drive. We drove up through Botswana and across the Zambian border at Victoria Falls where Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana meet.  This was an amazing trip to be able to see several countries all at once.  We have also been to Swaziland twice. Swaziland is the country that borders South Africa and Mozambique.  This March, my father needs to see some of our J-Life ministry guys up in Kenya and we are planning to go with. We will fly because it is too far by car.
2.    Do I help my parents?  Do I help them with ministry? Not in a direct way. We are with them a lot when they are working, but as far as day to day things, we are at school. We do lots of ministry things such as a feeding program that goes on every Wednesday. We help each holiday. There are also several church plants that our ministry and our church here help with, so we help with that when we can.
3.   Do I have many friends?  Yes. I go to a school that the high school is about 600 in number. My grade has about 120 kids in it. We are the only Americans in the school, but we don’t feel out of place. We have been in South Africa for 7 and ¾ years. We have been at this school for 5 years. My best friends are Caleb and Jesse. We have common interest such as gaming, science, art and several sports.
4.    Where do your parents work mainly?  My father works from his home office about 3 days a week and from our International Headquarters about 2 days a week which is on a farm about 25 minutes away from where we live in Heidelberg. There is a campsite at the headquarters that is used to help make money for the ministry as well as used as an outreach tool for Jesus. My dad, David, travels mainly in July, August, sept and October.  J-Life is in over 20 African countries (there are 54 total). So, he travels to see the country leaders during that time. Usually only 3-4 countries each year. My mom, Liz, volunteers at our school, Waterstone College,  and in trade we get full scholarships to the school. She works as the science lab assistant. Our school fees would be about $1200 a month otherwise and we could not afford to be at such an amazing school. We (my parents) raise all their own funds so her “working” at the school helps out a lot.
5.    What are my parents’ names? David and Liz Even
6.    My name is Matthew Even and I am in 11^th grade. My sister is named Grace and she is in the 9^th grade. We have an older brother, Andrew who works for Walmart and lives in the Bentonville area. His wife’s name is Elizabeth.

 
A website maybe to help you:  http://test.jlife.org.za/ (still under construction)
  
School website: http://www.curro.co.za/schools/gauteng/waterstone-college.aspx

Say what?!?!

I know, I know....your flabbergasted I am writing, but one of my New Years resolutions is to blog at least 6 times this year...for all you bloggers who blog everyday, well I know it seems like little, but for me it's big.  Been gone for a year.  And honestly I don't know what happened. Just stopped.

Anywho....

J-Life Summit 2016

Summit is where all 20+ Country leaders and some team members get together for a week of training, mentoring, sharing, learning, worshipping, and encouraging one another. The leadership team shares vision for the next 4 years. Its a hectic week for everyone with all the traveling and meetings, but well worth all the effort for us all to be together. I am only there a little bit because I am at school with the kids, but love visiting with all of our people when I can. They are such amazing people who share the love of Jesus and want to share His life with others.

It's amazing some of their stories, of which I will be sharing over the next few weeks on "Missionary Mondays". I know typing this now commits me to doing it on Mondays. Eeeks. I can and will do it. People keep me accountable. If you don't see a story....get onto me.

In case this video doesn't work....here is a Facebook Link to Video

So, this is the week of faces except for the final celebration dinner which I will put up pics tomorrow.  The internet has been super slow. It's taken me ten tries and all afternoon to get this video loaded.  

love serving together....

liz