What are the Dichristins doing?

As a family we have been living in Johannesburg/South Africa since November 2006. We are working as missionaries with the European Baptist Mission. Our workplace is the HIV/AIDS Desk of the Baptist Convention of South Africa. Here we work as project facilitators and assist the desk administrator, Rev. Owen Nkumbi, in coordinating the work of 15 HIV/AIDS related projects all over the country. As the desk we organize workshops for the mainly lay people volunteering in the local projects. We do follow-up visits to help the co-workers implement the workshop contents and to identify more shortages that we can face through workshops. The project visits also help us keep in touch with the suffering people and with the ground work.

Matze is responsible for the EBM bookkeeping as far as South Africa is concerned. In this field I have little to contribute; so I am very grateful not to be in charge… I, Esther, am also the mentor for EBM’s volunteers who regularly come to South Africa to work in church ministries for 6-12 months usually. I try to find the perfect workplace for them, prepare the local staff to live and work with a European and the volunteer to live in an African setting. During their stay I keep in touch with them and try to make their stay a good experience for both sides.     

You will find more English stuff…

… if you follow the “Impressionen” link (photos with English subtitles)

… if you scroll down this page and look at “What’s new?” or at "Downloads" (28 July: here is a new newsletter from our projects - the first edition)

What's new? 

July 2008: 

I (Esther) have my last official office day today as I will be on maternity leave tomorrow. Because we will be on a three months furlough in Germany from 1 October on, it is actually quite a long break for me. The following weeks will be used to prepare our furlough properly regarding organizational stuff, but also sermons and presentations for our support churches. Matthias is spending a few days in Germany at the moment to attend two weddings, meet friends and family and to bring as much of our baby stuff as possible.

In June we had a wonderful "Churches - Channels of Hope" workshop here in the National Office. The idea of this concept is to teach participants important facts about HIV and AIDS. There is also a major focus on awareness and on questions like: How do we as Christians respond to the pandemic? What are my personal prejudices and misperceptions? What does the bible teach us? Should Christians promote condom use?

We has a warm atmosphere in our group and learned a lot from each other. We were blessed by three femals participants who disclosed their status and let us take part in their personal life stories.

This was the most impressive and touching workshop part for a lot of the participants.

End of June we had to say good bye to all three European volunteers that we had had with us for 6-11 months. They have all headed back to Austria and Europe. We wish them all the best and the Lord's abundant blessing for their future!

Please pray for

• all furlough preparations and the changes we will be going through as a family in the next six months
• the upcoming workshops and meetings
• for journey mercies during project visits, on teh way to the office and for the trip overseas

Mai 2008:

In April we implemented a workshop concept that we had fully developped on our own: General Capacity Building and Debriefing. We had planned this intervention after observing that there is a lack of leadership and acknowledgement of volunteers' needs in the projects. We felt that it was really a good experience and got a lot of positive feedback from the participants.

At the beginning of this month we made a weekend trip to Cape Town together with our missionary collegues from Austria, Mirjam and Alex Strecker, to prepare the service of two young German volunteers who will arrive in September. Besides we are visiting a lot of projects in the area at the moment - distributing toy donations, monitoring the impact of the last workshops and training staff according to their enquiries.

We are also busy preparing another new workshop on HIV/AIDS Basics and Awareness. Esther was trained as a facilitator in this field last year and we feel hat it is a really important issue to create a platform for Christians to reflect on their role in the pandemic. We are also already in the process of setting up a schedule and contacting our supporting churches for our furlough in Germany from October to January.

Last but not least, we are running out of time with a few things for a very nice reason: From the beginning of July on Esther will be on maternity leave as we are expecting our second baby in August. Looking at our ministry as well as at our family life we are having a busy, fulfilling and interesting time that we really enjoy. Please pray for everything that is coming up - thanks for your support!

January 2008:

In December we had a whole bunch of visitors in our house, including Hans Guderian (EBM General Secretary) and Andrea Wiedner, representing the World Mission Committee. They came to South Africa in order to take part in the Annual Assembly of the Baptist Convention. This time it took place in Cape Town and included the celebrations of the 20 years of independence of the BCSA. So there was a lot to be grateful for; a lot to celebrate and a lot of people to say thank you to for their support to BCSA.

After the Assembly we had a week of holiday as a family and drove along the coast around Cape Town and the Garden Route where the landscape is marvellous and makes you consider to never go back to dirty and smelly Johannesburg... Well, back we where before Christmas already and spent it at home together with Claire, one of our volunteers. Today the National Office is re-opening and we are preparing for the annual staff retreat next week. Noa is very proud to be in the Owl (Pre-School) Class now - the old and wise ones... We are happy for her to be back at school because the holidays were seriously becoming too long and too boring.

19 January: Volunteers (Susanne and Corinna) start their service in Soshanguve north of Pretoria. They will work in Pfunekani Project, caring for AIDS patients, preparing food and a programme for orphans and destitute children

18-22 February: HIV/AIDS Desk Project Management Workshop

Downloads

How To Make History With God (Sermon Esther 22 July)

Desmond Tutu's Speech at the World Social Forum

Christmas Sermon Esther 2006 Jabavu Church

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