[Sonlifeafrica-newsletter] February Update

["Mark Tittley" <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Egypt Trip Report January 2006

Thank you for your prayers during my trip to Cairo last month. My time in
Egypt was truly a blessing - that country is fast becoming a gateway to the
whole middle east. The sports ministry conference I attended put me in touch
with key leaders from countries like Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and even
the Gaza Strip. They are so keen for training in their countries and I
believe that the doors for ministry are wide open. There are restrictions of
course, we were not allowed to overtly evangelise on the streets of Cairo
but we could engage in conversations with people we met and handed our
booklet with testimonies of soccer stars - the African Cup of Nations soccer
tournament is taking place in Egypt at present.

I had my Building New Believers course translated into Arabic and got to
share it with 70 key leaders in a 2-hour afternoon session. They all
testified that while their evangelism efforts are going well (slow but
powerful), the church needed to implement a program to follow up the new
converts. I am praying that the tool I left with them will be useful. The
response certainly was most positive.

It was a great opportunity to explore networking with various sports
ministries working across the continent of Africa. They are connecting with
leaders from local churches and clearly present great opportunities for
training in local churches.

Oh, and spending time at the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx were certainly
awe-inspiring moments, as was walking along the river Nile and seeing
bulrushes were Moses could have been found. Cairo is certainly unlike any
other African city that I have ever been in and truly a place well worth
visiting.  I pray that one day I will be able to use frequent flyer miles
and take Debbie, my wife, on a follow up visit.

In January Edgar Ramsami travelled to Malawi to follow up three previous
trips that I had taken - he was able to present our fourth level of training
(Multiplication) to a group of leaders. He also travelled with Olifile
Masangane, an up and coming training and leader in our movement that you
will hear more about in the coming years. Clearly multiplication is at work
in our movement. I was able to stand in for Edgar and present our Strategy
seminar to a group of 30 leaders from two churches in the north of
Johannesburg.

Edgar Ramsami (Southern Africa director), Gary and Sharon Howell (central
Africa director) and myself are heading off to Singapore on the 22nd of
February to share in a leadership day for young leaders from church across
Singapore (we will be sharing our Destiny seminar in two workshops) and then
we travel to Malaysia to attend the gathering of disciplemaking movements
called the Global Youth Initiative (GYI). I am presenting a paper there on
performance management in ministry (building on the impact that using the
Balanced Scorecard has had on our ministry in Africa) and we will have an
opportunity to share best practises and challenges in ministry with peers
from across the globe.

On the home front, we have moved into our new home and transfer has just
taken place. We are waiting for the transfer of the townhouse we have sold
and will then look to work on preparing our cottage to host visitors to
South Africa. The adoption process for Drew Nguvu, our 8 month old son,
should be through in the next month or two and we are looking forward to the
adoption order being issued.

Thank you for your partnership in our ministry. Your prayers are highly
valued.

Your co-worker in the ministry of disciplemaking

Mark Tittley