I want to raise R10,5m rand through sponsorships and loans to fund a suitable property to for us to embark on a process of healing and restoring people to take their rightful place in South Africa. Below details of Living Waters who will run the project ....
Hansie Louw
Introduction
This document outlines the vision and community involvement of Living Waters International. The document seeks to clearly indicate the strategic focus, referring to present and past successes.
It also indicates the constraints that need to be removed in order to be even more effective by being able to impact a wider sphere of influence.
The Living Waters International Mission
Living Waters International is a catalyst in society, seeking to bring about healing and restoration of individuals across social divides.
Operating from a church base, we seek to impact every level of society through the transforming message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, presenting it in as many relevant forms as may be possible to effect change.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the single most powerful thing on earth to transform people, bringing about the fulfillment of each individual’s life, as they are brought into the full purpose of what God created them for.
We have been mobilizing Africans for 15 years, reaching out to communities in Cape Town and into Africa. As Africans we need to become a people of produce and not merely consumption. We understand that the greatest revival the world has known will emanate from Africa, as Africans take the fire of Jesus Christ throughout the world.
Leadership
• Senior Pastor
Ian Murray has been in Christian ministry since 1987, has pioneered churches, has headed up the National Youth Department of the Assemblies of God and has led Living Waters International since its inception.
Having been a successful school principal, he resigned from teaching in 1994. Active in sports administration at provincial level in his younger years, his management and leadership credentials are impeccable.
Ian has been involved in theatre for 35 years, and he intimately understands the power of the Creative Arts in transforming people, bringing that expertise to bear in the programmes of Living Waters International. As the PEC Chairman of the ACDP, he seeks to further impact society.
With the rare combination of being a strategic thinker and an excellent implementer of strategy, Ian Murray’s style is that of mobilizing people to their full potential, providing platforms for them to exercise their expertise.
Governance Structure
• Church
A board of Elders governs the church
• Registered Entity
Living Waters International has registered NPO status, complying with the necessary regulations and controls
• Social Outreach Department
Each project or programme is governed by a management team responsible for the outcomes thereof
South African Challenges
Living Waters International has been in operation for 15 years, spanning the advent of democracy since 1994.
The South Africa we live in is filled with the residue of the dehumanizing legacy of apartheid. Democracy has come; apartheid is dead. However, the damaging socio-economic effects of the apartheid system are still evident in our fractured society, 14 years after the advent of democracy in South Africa.
For many, there is no difference; they are still awaiting the new dawn, trapped in an existence which offers them no reprieve.
It is for this reason that mere preaching is insufficient to bring about restoration. We therefore seek to devise God-inspired programmes to mobilize people in communities to deliver tangible change. Largely self funded, we have sought to fulfill this mission over the years.
Impact Focus Areas
Family Restoration focus
Socio-economic ravages have left families in poor communities ruined by divorce, abuse and despair. Drugs, alcohol, rape and other social ills are commonplace causes of much misery.
We have seen the powerful hand of God in restoring families over the years. The family is a God-ordained unit of society, and therefore He is best able to restore what He has instituted. We provide the message and the opportunity for families to respond to that message, walking with them through their restoration.
Youth Focus – Youth Revival International (YREV)
YREV consists of a team of volunteer young people working within schools to motivate and influence children and youth. Since this team works within the education environment with its diverse religious and cultural base, no preaching of the Gospel takes place, in accordance with legal requirements. Wholesome counsel is provided to impact the young people we work with.
We run programmes and camps dealing with Leadership, Life skills, HIV, and Motivation. Using the Creative Arts, we infuse young people with the energy they already have and we assist them to focus their faculties for good use. In short, we bring them into contact with their purpose.
We have been privileged to see the powerful effects of the work we are doing. Our camps are well known to the WCED, and excellent results have been forthcoming.
Missions Focus – Malihambe
Throughout the years, we have partnered with local churches in African countries, conducting Gospel outreach campaigns in African countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia.
People who come to Jesus Christ in those campaigns are placed in local churches, those churches are resourced and we continue to support them in their quest.
Consequently, we have been privileged to see thousands of people come to salvation in Jesus Christ, having their lives transformed in spiritual and practical ways.
Community Focus - Feeding and clothing
We work with Community Bible Society, touching lives of real people in Khayelitsha, one of the poorest communities in Cape Town. Daily, hundreds of people are fed with bread and soup, and children are clothed monthly.
This will continue to be a mercy ministry since the need is great. The difference a simple meal makes to somebody’s life continues to amaze us, and we seek to increase our capacity in this area.
Networking and development focus
We are constantly building relationships with churches in South Africa, Africa and elsewhere in the world, joining hands on support of each other in fulfilling the Great Commission.
To this end, we have built working relationships with churches in South African communities (Khayelitsha, Masiphumelele), Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana. This network will continue to expand over time.
We recognize that the way Africa is presented to the world has to change, as well as the way the Gospel of Jesus Christ is portrayed from an African perspective. We have often been invited to present such an African perspective in USA, Argentina, UK and we will continue to do so.
First in Jerusalem, then in Judea
It is futile seeking to reach Africa when we have not reached our own city. To this end we are working in the poorest communities in Cape Town, such as Hanover Park, Gugulethu, Macassar and Khayelitsha.
We do so by first impacting a few people, and then empowering them to impact their community with support. We have built especially powerful alliances with churches in Khayelitsha.
Leadership Development focus
We develop leaders by providing them with the intellectual and practical tools they require, and by allowing them the practical opportunity to exercise their leadership in the communities we are working in. True transformation is the test of effective leadership, and not mere courses.
We practice what we preach by growing our own people and empowering them to empower others. Consequently, young leaders continually emerge within our ranks, able to handle the diverse social terrain we operate in.
Leadership development is a key part of how we mobilize youth in schools, homing in on their creative genius to bring forth leadership traits.
Education focus
Kids are dropping out of school at an unprecedented rate, mainly due to socio-economic factors. An uneducated, unskilled populace is a recipe for the continued disastrous polarization of haves and have-nots in our fractured society.
We therefore continue to work closely with the Western Cape Education Department to find innovative ways in the schools system to transform and to reverse the damaging effects of the apartheid legacy.
To this end, we are in negotiation with the WCED to launch a radical learner development programme aimed at managing learner retention and success at high school level, which will impact the lives of thousands of highschool learners over a 5-year period.
Creative Arts Thrust
Jesus Christ spoke in parables, told stories and used living examples to teach a new perspective. The creative arts presents a powerful tool to develop self-confidence by restoring the individual’s self image. The effects of such reinforcement are far-reaching in a person’s life. The level of self actualization required to effectively lead people is found in the creative arts conduit.
• Activate
We have launched an exciting Creative Arts company for children and youth. Currently in its first year, Activate’s first production, GHD – it’s all about me, involves a cast of 90 children and youth from across the social spectrum.
• H20 Theatre Café
We seek to provide a platform for performance and for an appreciation of the creative arts. Food, arts and culture form a powerful part of the repatriation of one’s social identity.
• Ambassador Arts Company
Our internationally acclaimed theatre production, Get the Colour Right, heralded us as players of note in the Creative Arts world. However, we did not seek fame, but effectiveness.
Since then, productions have been forthcoming which have transformed people, providing us with an effective vehicle to reach people via the creative arts.
Economic focus
Development of individuals in their business acumen and business pursuits is of key importance. Business opportunities are constantly being sought for people to exploit. So too, skills training is important for job readiness. However, mere training is insufficient in bringing about economic benefit. We therefore place people in jobs and in business as a matter of course.
Conferencing Facilitation
We are experts in running conferences, having done so for top corporate clients such as Metrorail and Metropolitan Life. The ability to bring people together in meaningful dialogue traverses the divides that keep us apart.
It is envisaged that this will be a growing part of our portfolio as organisations continue to attempt to cross their own diversity divides internally.
Current Constraint – a Base to work from
Considering our mission, we are seeking a base from which we would be able to work, housing our programmes in one complex, while being accessible to the communities we aim to reach.
We currently are working from remote destinations as per our audience requirement. It would be advantageous to reduce the logistics challenge by working from a central, accessible venue.
We are constantly seeking suitable property to purchase that will suit the following criteria:
• Accessible to people from Hanover Park, Khayelitsha and surrounds (proximity)
• Accessible to people from plush suburbs (safety)
• Complete enough to enable immediate operation
• Sufficient space to park 50 cars
• Space to run youth camps
• Space to run sizeable conferences and meetings
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