Wednesday 22 May 2013

Soul Action South Africa


Phil and Rachel Bowyer work with Soul Action in Durban South Africa. Soul Action South Africa facilitates opportunities for Christians who are passionate about integral mission to network, train and work together in order to address all forms of poverty in a holistic way.

Anti Human Trafficking

Soul Action UK spent 10 days with Phil and Rachel in March, filming how projects and churches are responding to Human Trafficking (HT). Highlights included:

Soul Action - the crew spent a morning with the group of church leaders they have been gathering since October 2012. Everyone shared what they are passionate about, how they are responding to HT and how Soul Action is supporting them. They also visited their literacy team, and leaders with whom a parenting course is being developed by a lady named Clare Whittaker. Both issues are cricital to preventing trafficking.

His People Church - they met and prayed with leaders as they prepared to go out onto the streets and minister to girls whose poverty leads them to prostitute themselves.

Grace Family Church - the crew joined an evening service and afterwards filmed church members as they put together toolkits to assist previously trafficked women.

Redlight Anti Human Trafficking - they filmed a lesson at a local school on how to avoid being trafficked, and had the opportunity to meet ladies who, after leaving the streets, were making jewellery: restoring the beauty in the fallen nature that people usually walk by and ignore.
 
His Church - they had the privilege of joining devotions at a local Christian school where pupils regularly intercede on the issue of human trafficking - it was very powerful!

PLEASE PRAY FOR a good response to the first short film(s) that will be shown in July, and the rest that will be released online following Soul Survivor's UK festivals.

Umoja and Facilitation

In April they began gathering a group of 20 church and project leaders to explore a community development. This group has committed to meeting monthly for a year to explore an approach that focuses on potential rather than poverty. Umoja involves empowering people to the point where they can identify their own needs and use their own resources to address them.

 
Part of the first session was spent thinking about facilitation, which is foundational to the whole process. Phil and Rachel led the leaders in a series of activities to explore the importance of faciliation.

 
PLEASE PRAY that people put what they discovered into practise and consider how to facilitate in the groups they work with.
 
Phil, Rachel and their son Zac will be in the UK from 7th June to 7th July sharing with current and new supporters as part of an awareness/fundraising tour. They will be with us at the Link on Sunday 23rd June.
 
For more information on Soul Action South Africa, check out their website at www.soulaction.co.za or their facebook page at www.facebook.com/soulaction There are also newsletters available in Priory Lane.
 

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