Prayer = ATM Card
Tuesday 2nd of March at All Nations Family Meeting. Floyd is sharing from Timothy. Paul is writing to the Corinthians while imprisonment. Telling them to be watchful! Fulfilling their ministry. To endure afflictions, running the race with faith to finish.
Paul says that his spirit is strong, but he is not facing easy circumstances. That’s when he prays: “Lord strengthen me as I stand trial, that You will deliver me and glory be Yours!
We felt the same over the last few weeks. Conrad’s been in an accident with the bakkie (±R 38 000.00 damage). Prior to the accident our neighbour friend reversed into the rear end of the bakkie (±R 2 500.00 damage). A week later a service station attendant pushed a trailer into the Renault (±R 7 000.00 damage). Lord, what do we have to learn from this, what are you showing us? We will stand our ground, glorify God in the midst of the test. He is faithful, we need to persevere! Please stand in the gap for us, while praying for us.
I’m so glad that God is our Banker. We can make withdrawals and prayer is our ATM card.
Fifteen Years
Conrad and I celebrated our fifteenth anniversary on December, 3rd, 2009.
We can testify of grace throughout our journey as a married couple. Getting married at a very young age, we were very inexperienced and had to learn sometimes the hard way. But with so many prayer and encouragement we realised that God has a purpose for us. We will continue to walk in faith. All the wisdom and counseling we received in many ways boils down to love & respect… Woman needs to be loved and men has to be respected. The core of both is our personal relationship with God.
We are grateful for our journey. We love one another and we and our family will praise the Lord.
(We were spoiled with a delicious breakfast at the tennis club).
We are a good team and what God entrusted to us is good and we will honor Him for His grace and favour. We will hold on to His promises. Thank you for your prayers and support.
The Denzil Project needs help
What is the Denzil Project?
It is all about our new coach at the Chrismar Tennis Club, Denzil. He is 37 years old and he had a rough ride for a large part of his life. Some of it may have been bad choices that he has made but not all of it is. I’ve met Denzil in 2008 during the Western Province Club league and I knew when we met again in 2009 that God was up to something.
For me Denzil is like a brother and I see our relationship as a calling on my side to coach him life skills and to disciple him.
How can you help?
We have started to market Denzil as a coach in the surrounding area of the Tennis Club. It is a fresh start for Denzil thus we have to build his customer base from scratch. At the moment Denzil’s budget has a shortage of ± R2500 / month. Because of this he can’t afford a place of his own and now he is staying at his fiancé’s parents house in Kommetjie. For those of you that don’t know, Kommetjie is ±65km from the club in Bellville. It is not healthy for his relationship with his fiancé and it causes logistical issues.
I have agreed to manage Denzil’s budget on his behalf untill he can manage it for himself. If you want to be part of this project you can help as follows:
1) Pray for Denzil that he will grow spiritually.
2) Pray for me to have clear discernment during this whole process.
3) Support Denzil financially with a monthly contribution for a six month commitment.
I will give feedback reports to everyone that supports this initiative. I can not support Denzil spiritually and financially all by my self and that’s why I dare to post this request. You can send me an email if you would like to be involved to conrad4c@gmail.com Alternatively you can make deposits directly to the following banking details:
Standard Bank Account name: Classen Missions
Account number: 374222177
Branch number: 036009
Please use the project name e.g. “Denzil Project” as a reference for your deposit.
Or you can make use of:
Let’s be do-ers
Good intentions will not get the job done; we must act.
Good intentions do not equal obedience to God.
Let the book of Haggai reminds you to obey without delay when God asks you to do something for Him.
Home School
I’ve attended the first Home Schooling support evening (Oiled) on September 7th. The evening was filled with testimonies and sharing from families represented and their amazing journeys. The most important question: “What is God saying to you for your family?” Do not keep up with the Jones next door. Live in fear of God and not of men. Make sure you are where God wants you to be and follow His purpose for you and your family.
A new journey will start for us as a family, starting to Home School the kids. We are very exited. Facing challenges is part of that and we look forward in growing long lasting and healthy relationships with our kids.
Please pray for us. Thank you for your encouragement and support! As one of the moms mentioned to me: “when you decide to home school your kids, the spiritual warfare is on…”
Your peace and quiet!
During this week I was carrying a word of encouragement in my heart. Encouraging everyone I came past, sharing that we should stand together and fight the darkness and give God glory in the Victory we have and gain through our struggles, in Him. And this morning I read these confirming words.
Mother Basilea writes to us about the Battle of Faith:
We are all prone to grow weary of fighting. The word “battle” does not suit us. We want to have our peace and quiet. That is why Scripture has to exhort us: “in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Hebrew 12:4). We don’t like fighting against the demons. We don’t like fighting for Jesus’ Kingdom. Why? Because the battle inflicts wounds. Because battling entails hard work. But then let us look at our Lord Jesus. His whole life was a battle. A battle with the Pharisees, who hated Him; a battle with the demons, whom He cast out; a battle with His disciples, who did not understand Him; a battle with His chosen people, who did not accept Him.
That is why our Lord Jesus is called the Lion of Judah. He has fought the battle as no one else has. That is why we can declare: Jesus is Victor! But that is why His true Church, His bridal host is also the Church Militant.
And so I would like to exhort you, my dear daughters: renounce your peace and quiet. Yes, in this sense renounce your peace. Jesus said that He has not come to bring peace on earth, but a sword in Matthew 10:34.
This is what I have experienced. Although Jesus is my Peace and always dwells in my heart as the Lord of peace, He still does not bring peace. He gives us a sword. We are to fight for Him, because we live in a world that is in danger, because Satan is trying to gain power over us. How could we possibly sit back and rest? We would grieve our Lord Jesus most deeply, if we sought peace and quiet, if we grew tired of fighting.
To grow tired of fighting is to leave Jesus in the lurch! To be ready to fight is to stand at His side and go His way with Him! He who loves Jesus fights, because he cannot bear to stand by and watch Satan, Jesus’ enemy, gain power and invade Jesus’ Kingdom.
He who loves Jesus will never grow tired of fighting. Love gives us new energy. Love always makes us ready to give our time and energy, because love which is constantly fed by repentance contains fire, and fire breaks out in battle.
Whoever loves Jesus can fight, because he has Someone at his side that fights for him, and because he knows that eternal rest in the heart of the Father awaits him.
So dedicate yourselves anew to the battle. He who is tired of fighting will fall victim to the enemy – he who is ready to fight will bring trophies to Jesus.
Where we need support?
Our sponsorship for the CPx course did not realise. We have an outstanding balance of R66 000.00 for CPx fees.
The management of All Nations does not force us to pay these fees immediately, but we are obligated to settle the account as soon as possible.
We need your support in this regard. If you feel part of our journey in any way and you would like to support us, you can support us by your prayers or by making monthly financial contributions.
The size of your contributions is entirely between you and God and we would urge you to pray about it. I believe that we can manage our business debts but we need support for our outstanding CPx fees and mission projects.
Another way to donate:
Thank you.
What can you do?
Our most urgent prayers for the second half of 2009:
- Pray for us to get clarity about the direction we have to go in with our businesses. Do we need to close it, sell it or build it or what does God want?
- What about school in Fish Hoek? The reality of school fees double the price as in Brackenfell. At the moment we battle to pay the kids school fees, which is almost R1000/month per child. We have an outstanding balance of R12 000.00
- Pray with us about the possibilities of a sports ministry at the tennis club.
- Our involvements with All Nations (CPx leadership, Red Hill ministry?).
- Clear direction. What is God’s plan with us and with “Logos Christian Church” (our own congregation)?
- We are considering to home school our kids, please pray for Gods wisdom and plan not yours or ours.
Thank you
CM3
A Fresh view
We had a meeting with Floyd on Wednesday afternoon, June 3rd, to inform him of our current situation and concerns. He is very open and he respects our priority in business. For now we will pray and halt with what we are busy doing. We need a fresh view on what God is doing and teaching us in our current situation. We will not go to Mozambique or any other outreaches, unless God is telling us through direct confirmation and scripture to go.
In the mean while we will go back to our business on a daily basis to pull things together, minister to staff and manage the business. We also see this as an opportunity to sow back into the market place what we’ve been taught over the last months.
Praying for us
We’ve received an excelent chart on how to pray for Missionaries. If you want to engage and are willing to undertake the responsibility and commitment to pray for us, please let us know. We will add you to our intersession list and send specific prayer request to you.
Following is 28 Character qualities of effective ministry which we want you to pray for and over us.
Day 1 – Available
Day 2 – Biblically based
Day 3 – Committed to God’s call
Day 4 – Discipler
Day 5 – Explorer
Day 6 – Faithful
Day 7 – Flexible
Day 8 – Good sense of humour
Day 9 – Grateful
Day 10 – Humble
Day 11 – Industrious
Day 12 – Joyful
Day 13 – Keep short accounts
Day 14 – Loving
Day 15 – Motivated
Day 16 – Normal
Day 17 – Optimistic
Day 18 – Patient
Day 19 – Quiet time oriented
Day 20 – Relational
Day 21 – Servant
Day 22 – Teachable
Day 23 – Uplifting
Day 24 – Visionary
Day 25 – Worshiper
Day 26 – Example
Day 27 – Yielded
Day 28 – Zealous for God’s work
Thank you!
King Pie News
This week was such a blessed week for us! On Monday morning our team went to our King Pie shops. We arranged with our staff that they will teach our CPx Team members how to manage, bake and prepare the pies. We stressed out all the important factors they need to have in mind: customer service, cross/suggestive selling, clean shop and personal hygiene, merchandising, stock control etc. In that way we could also see if they are capable of training new staff, if needed and how much they really know and understand of the business and trade.
In return we as a CPx Team would like to share the Gospel of Jesus with them. We have already bought all our staff Bibles last year. We did not really know how to share the Gospel with them (where to start, what to share and communication barriers) and now we are equipped to do just that! The bonus – our Team members can communicate in Xhosa with the staff.
We had a lot of fun together! We are exited about igniting our staff for Jesus. If we can share the good news – imagine what ripple effect that can have? They will take this message to their home towns and it will also have and effect on how they live it out toward fellow workers, customers and the whole world!.
One of our staff members, Gloria, gave her heart to Jesus, praying the sinners prayer with Maria, on Monday morning, “desperately in need of Jesus” was her own words. Audrey and Andiswa still needs prayer and will tell us when they are ready. We will only pray, if they ask us to do so.
It is still your choice to choose for Jesus or not!
The front line
The reason for this post is to bring all our supporters, friends and family up to date after a few quiet weeks on the blog. The challenge is on and to start with I want to explain our current situation and beliefs.
We initially believed that we should sell our King Pie business, it was supposed to be sold by March 2009. The sale did not go through and we felt convinced by the end of April 2009 that we should not sell the business anymore. It was actually almost unbelievable to chat to Edmund (the buyer) and to find that he had the same thoughts of not buying now.
It was during this time that we felt that we should not be in a hurry to go to Australia. Marlese and I both agreed to stay in Fish Hoek for at least another 15 months to see exactly what God shows us to do. I refer to a previous post named Detour in our journey.
I have noticed over the past 2 months how our cash-flow was getting tighter and tighter. Since about three weeks ago we started to visit the King Pie shops more regularly in an effort to work with the staff and to see what needs urgent attention. What has happened this week is that our cash flow became so tight that we struggle to pay our pie supplier. They have placed our account on COD and now we have to pay cash for each delivery and pay off the amount that we are in arrears.
Yes this is serious but it is not a time to panic. I would like to refer you to Luke 12:22-32 and say it is time to trust God and believe that He is in control! We are busy doing the possible and we trust God for the impossible!
Most of our regular followers of the blog know that we are planning to go to Mozambique in June 2009. I want to ask you to pray with us:
For a miracle that the business will be turned around quickly.
That we will know without a doubt and have clarity if we should still go to Mozambique. We don’t have all the finances to go yet and looking at our situation it does not make sense to go. We can keep on working in Red Hill, the local community and also reach out to our staff in the mean time.
We need unity in our outreach team. Raymond (our team leader) went to Limpopo with his wife, she is pregnant and he will return in 5 days. Elmon’s mother is sick. Maria’s brother (the main person in their family who is the breadwinner) is also very sick. Both of them are burdened with this and we need to trust that God is busy working in our families for the better.
Yes we are going through a crunch now. We need your intercession for us and our team.
Woman’s gathering
So it was! A wonderful woman’s meeting in Red Hill. Thank you for your prayers! We explained that we will do M.A.W.L (modeling, assisting, watching and leaving) with them and that we don’t want them to be dependant on us. God will reveal Himself through the Holy Spirit to them and will teach them the truth.
This group of woman are hungry for God and we will spend time with them, going to their shack every week on Tuesday and Friday mornings. We start off with ABC, meaning asking questions, reading Bible together and commissioning (what are we doing with what we’ve read and discovered in the Word?).
They are so great full that we are willing to just spend time and be with them, loving them and share “our being” with them. We are encouraging them to start their own small church with friends and have a support and accountability group. I can just again say: “the harvest is ready – we need to help God with the reaping!” (Luke 10:2b).
They are thankful for their shack, God’s daily provision for food, family and friends.
Their prayer requests:
Discovering more about Jesus and to know Him better
Jobs (no work, no money, no food!)
To be able to go back to Zimbabwe (they need a minimum of R3000)
For their country and leaders
In awe – home church with Bantu!
During the last week we’ve been blown – standing in awe how God is moving people. On Wednesday evening we visited Red Hill joining in a small church group Bantu and Nono is leading. Bantu took initiative and led the whole evening with so much confidence and faith in God. We are so thankful! God has been faithful to them – healing Bantu with his ear infection as well as their little girl, Azania with diarrhea.
Bantu had dreams the last few weeks and also read the book of Daniel in the Bible. Specifically Daniel 9 touched him – he is crying out to God (interceding and praying) for Red Hill’s people and we are so touched by his desperation. As Neil Cole said in one of his teachings: “Some people must drown or be close to drowning, before they will get saved and turn to God!”.
Ace, one of the men who joined in also said he wants to quit drinking. Please pray for Ace that God will set him free and that he will make a choice to want more of Jesus in his life – to live in truth!
Reap the harvest!
Our team decided to visit our King Pie shops while we’re doing our outreach phase. We will visit the shops twice a week and started today! Wow…. As we drove this morning, we were praying and asking God to prepare the staff’s hearts – His job is to fix and change people’s hearts and we’re to love and serve them!
So it was…. our staff is so hungry for the gospel. We prayed, shared and just loved them this morning. Some of them in tears – sharing their own stories and need of belonging. We are so blessed to be there for them. God is good! We were just there for them, listening. One lady prayed the sinner’s prayer, accepting Jesus today. She still believed in ancestor worshiping and today we could use the “Heart Chart” (a powerful tool) to show her the heart of man. She could grasp the truth – the seeds are sown, we need to reap the harvest for God! The harvest is ready, God need some willing workers to just do it! Luke 10:2 b
Family and friends vs Support
This post is especially for our family and friends that care so much about us and for those who are worried on our behalf. First of all, thank you for your interest and care, we really appreciate it! Secondly we would like to assure you that we are doing just fine. Yes we can see it: “God is in control.”
We understand that the choices we make do have an impact on our lives and certainly on your lives too. Be assure our prayer is that whatever we choose to do, that it will be in accordance with God’s will for our lives. We also pray that God will use our lives in the areas that it will impact yours for His glory and for His glory alone.
We enjoy this journey and can not tell you in words how much it means to us. We are privileged to be where we are, because we are experiencing God in so many new ways. If you have not been in this place before I will understand if you do not understand and really it is ok. If you think we suffer because we have asked people to support us financially, we don’t but it will be a pleasure to suffer for our faith because we have not done it before!
We have asked people to support us financially because of mainly two reasons. We need extra finances to do the work we are doing (spreading the Gospel). Secondly we believe that God has prepared people to support us because of His kingdom, it is His work for His kingdom.
I think the best prayer I can suggest you pray when you pray about / for us are, that we will hear God’s voice and that God will give you peace and understanding. Please also pray about supporting us financially because we would want you to support us because God is doing the work in you not because you feel obliged to support us!
Click on “Financial Support” and it will take you to our Mission Projects page where you can find our banking details if you need it.
Waiting in Expectation
All the students doing CPx with us are in the process of preparing for their outreaches. It is exiting times since we’re not the only ones that do not have all our outreach fees yet. We are praying as a group for ± R140 000 that is still outstanding, since we have decided that none of the groups will go on outreach if everyone can not go. Less than two months ago the total amount outstanding was ± R500 000.
The exiting part is that all of us are preparing for our different outreaches in faith that all the teams will be able to leave end of this week. Some of the teams are planning to leave Friday 1 May 2009 (in 4 days time). I am specifically exited because I have an unexplainable expectation that God is at work in this whole process.
I want to make a statement: “I believe that God is teaching us, the importance of prayer and faith and that He is going to bless us with the unexpected and His name will be glorified.”
Pray with us: for the spiritual growth of the group.
Outreach to Mozambique
We will depart for Moz. on 19 June 2009 till 10 July 2009. We are very much exited to go and especially now that we are starting to prepare for the trip.
Our main goals for the outreach expedition is:
1. To Love God – grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus.
2. To Love each other – disciple one another, care and be in community with one another.
3. To Love those who don’t know Jesus – see people come to faith in Christ and be formed into little churches that grow and multiply.
The Moz. team will consist of 8 people. The 5 Classen’s, Raymond, Elmon and Maria in the photo you can see most of us.
Our financial situation for the group is our biggest challenge. In short the Classen’s still need to pay
R49 000.00 for CPx training fees and our outreach fee’s are another R25 000.00 The rest of our team’s outreach money is also not complete yet.
Please pray for our finances and tell your friends and family that would like to support us about our “blog” and our journey.
Click on “Financial Support” and it will take you to a previous post where you can find our banking details.
Being real!
Today is the very first day that the going gets tough for me personally!
We have only ten days left before the teams will depart for their different outreach destinations. Last night I voiced myself at the Team house saying: “community living is getting hard now”. One of the guys responded: “community living was hard, when I arrived!”.
I am really at a place where I feel very isolated (missing our friends and having support from loved ones) and I know that God is at work in my heart. I know I have to feel what I feel and will not ignore where I am. If I could verbalise myself… I don’t have a mom and dad anymore…. I’m vulnerable. Although I have my own family to cling to, I really value elders (mom & dad’s) opinion and I feel that I just need the encouragement and affirmation?! “Giving you that pat on the back, saying everything will work out just fine”.
I’m in an uncomfortable place and things I experience and feel are so real. I want to be transparent; refusing to put on the mask we so often do and would like to share my journey with you. I need to ask if you will be standing in the gap for me and pray for me and my family.
We need to know Gods’ plan, little by little He will reveal the way
We need patience and faithfulness
We need to discern His voice (through The Word, people, confirmation etc.)
Being joyful in the midst of our tribulation and test
Financial support will come through
Have supernatural peace!
It’s just difficult to be out of my comfort zone. I’m longing to have my own oikos (house), sometimes feel like going back to the familiar grounds. But we are at a place of no return. We have made the commitment of pushing through to follow Jesus, hole heartedly! The price we pay is huge, but it is above imagination, rewarding! We need to PUSH through… Pray Until Something Happens!
Prayer requests
You can be part of our journey by praying for us! We would really like to make use of the opportunity to ask for your intercession. Thank you for your support and that we can take hands in praying, serving together and reach the un-reached.
Please pray with us:
* We will walk the talk
* Protection
* Wisdom and discernment (where God wants us to be after CPx)
* Teachable spirit
* Divine appointments in communities
* Financial support
Titus 2:11-13
For the grace of God (His unmerited favour and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness (irreligion) and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self-controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world, awaiting and looking for the fulfilment, the realization of our blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
Training 4 Outreach
I have attended a Medical training session on Thursday and Friday afternoon. It is really a big responsibility, but I am eager to learn new things that I’m not familiar with. It’s a different story to be the doctor in your own house – taking temperature, giving Panado, giving TLC (tender loving care) to your husband and kids in comparison with working with team members, who will be depending on you in an emergency situation.
We received a lot of information regarding Diarrhoea, dehydration, Malaria, Wound care, Allergic reactions and First aid training. I feel now more confident to assist our team but I would like to ask you to pray for the following:
To hear God’s voice and allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through us!
Protection during our travelling phase
Health and protection against sicknesses
Unity in our team
Communication
Spiritual growth.
On Saturday morning, I had to attend another information session regarding cooking procedures during the outreach. The most important lesson I have learnt is – if you can’t peal, cook or fry food, don’t eat it! We will protect ourselves with Malaria medication, inoculations and tablets that will clean the water. We will learn a lot about the villages and how the people live. We will share all the photo’s and experiences with you when we come back from Mozambique.
All Nations Celebration
The weekend of March 26 to 29th we had a gathering of all representatives around the world from All Nations in Noordhoek. We have just enjoyed one another company in communion, worship and teachings. It was an absolute privilege to be part of this celebration.
We as a family would like to become part of the All Nation’s Family and would like to be representatives in teaching and sharing Jesus in other countries.
Please pray that God will guide us to where He wants us to be and to start small churches where the unreached can be reached. Please pray for discernment and wisdom.
For information on All Nations visit www.all-nations.info
