We wrote last year about Izenzo’s partnership in East London with 5 churches, across 4 denominations to establish Nahoon Community Outreach (NCO) to respond to the unemployed. They have made great progress through:
When lockdown began, the NCO group of churches were able to capitalise on the mutual trust and strategy and below are the reports on their co-operation:
The men who attended the worker readiness workshops organised by Josh, received food parcels initially then R 700 food store vouchers on a bi-weekly basis. Josh Bixa wrote the following:
Thank God, for this Outreach, it is not only touching the guys, but us, the congregations as well. I so wished you were all there to witness the excitement and gratitude from the guys. I gave them the food parcel first and one of them stopped the whole thing and called us to prayer. We all prayed, and he led the prayer in thanking God for blessing them through the churches. Then they each started talking about how they had experienced being part of the workshops, and how they always believed that there is something more to this. The change they have been witnessing happening to them because of the prayers, preaching and teaching, has been beyond measure. All thanks to what they have been taught during the job readiness workshops. Then the surprise of the R700 voucher came, there was so much joyful noise. One said he needs to start going to church because he has seen God during this lockdown through these wonderful gifts. One said the vouchers gives them dignity as they can now afford to take their life partners shopping, something they have not done in years. I can go on and on with their stories because we spent a long time chatting and catching up. They would like to be afforded an opportunity to send their representative to come and say thank you to the churches and share their testimonies during a service. Lastly, they said I must convey their “Siyabulela ” (We are grateful) to everyone. Thanks to everyone, together we can do more through Christ who strengthen us.
The NCO was able to assist many of the men to apply for R350 Covid grant that the government has committed to giving to out for a 3 month period.
During lockdown we knew of the importance of aiding the poor with masks as many did not have the extra income to buy them for family members. A small ‘army’ of mask makers got sewing.
As the strategy is to build relationships between churches, Josh encouraged this by giving the NCO partner churches the masks to distribute to their community’s schools and elderly. Each church in NCO reached out to a church in their denomination throughout different townships. For instance, they were able to work with Nompumelelo Methodist Church, St Luke’s Anglican Church in Newlands, Cambridge Baptist Church, Liberated Christian Centre in Kwelera and Calvary Apostolic Assembly in Orange Grove.
The intention is to continue these partnerships into the future as we explore tackling unemployment through Izenzo’s experience with Job Clubs and small business development.
We have spoken at IZenzo about the importance of materially wealthy churches helping materially poor churches with finances but also that the partnership would also grow to sharing of networks particularly for employment opportunities. We hope that these these partnerships that have sprung up now will continue to grow into mutual partnerships of strengthening and encouraging one another
A survey of those members within the NCO churches has highlighted the need to assist those who have now either lost jobs, had their income reduced and need to find additional income. As a result, Bill Brander of Nahoon Methodist will, together with Izenzo, host a series of Zoom sessions focussed on the principles of:
Nompumelelo Methodist members will also be invited to join them and we will keep you updated on how this ministry nurtures the partnership.