A Redeemed Barbarian’s Cookbook.

A Redeemed Barbarian’s Cookbook.

I am reading a book called Saturated. The author, like me, is a bit of a barbarian, what I mean is that he has a tendency like me to be an initiator and to drive things forward, sometimes without a regard for cooler heads, prayer and the wisdom of experience.

I am having too often painfully at times, learn that Christianity is fundamentally about a change of identity. It’s all about becoming who you are in Christ. So as my mind wrestles with being a Christian and doing Christian things, being the barbarian I am, I often do Christian things without regard for who I am in Christ. This is probably the biggest lesson I have learnt this year. God wants me to be his child, he wants to hold me and he wants to work through me.

In thinking about establishing a mission community in a 70% Muslim area my mind jumps to the obvious things, establish a core group, move into the area and find people to share the Gospel and demonstrate the gospel to.

But thanks to the kind intervention of godly Christians I have come to realise that while all those things are important and need to be done. First and foremost, I need to understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus and how I have fundamentally been changed because Jesus, lived died and rose again.

I am a Christian first and knowing that changes all I do. Now you may be asking yourself, but Clint you have Degree in Theology and have worked for 9 years in church leadership surely you understand your identity in Christ? You can read some of the biblical language words, you have done systematic theology ect. You have run all the programs in a church. You have started new programs.

But as I think as Saturated has challenged me to think listen this Quote ‘Jesus Saturation-Jesus is filling every place with his presence through normal, everyday people in everyday stuff of life. THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOD’S VISION FOR HIS PEOPLE. See in some senses the reformation did not go far enough, it still maintains a false distinction between the clergy and the laity.

So do I just let go and let God. I really detest this statement because it means I can just sit on my hands a wait for a still small voice like the women who would not leave the house if God did not tell her which sock to put on. But I never realised as I went to minister’s meetings and we all asked each other how the ministry was going instead of praising God for what he was doing with my friends instead I was in my mind proud of all I was doing for God and how blessed I was compared to others! My gospel at that point was God is happy with me because of all I am doing for him. It’s at this meeting that a friend said to me he was so glad I was putting my stamp on my ministry?!

I need to be more like one person i am hoping God will include in my core group she says she can't imagine God using her because she does not know the Bible well and is a struggling Christian. What she does not realise is that God will use us weak as we are for his purposes in the everyday stuff of life. And we are all weak made bold by his grace alone.

Another Older couple says something like this, We don’t have the energy for this Missional community. I really hope God gives people like that to me to Shepard because its people who know that they are weak that I want around me and the family.

Please pray for:

My family as we are the core of this missional community at the moment.

Pray for a focus of Jesus and ordinary people for me Clint.

Pray that my traveling to the UK will develop partnership with Jesus at the centre.(26 November to 3 December).

Pray that God would show me My weakness as a Father, Husband and undershepard.

Pray that I would be bold for God in all I do.

Pay that I would focus of being and let that lead me to do.

The Kimble’s newsletter (November 2015)

Leaving Trinity

All I can say about leaving Trinity is that we were extremely encouraged by the send-off we received from the church. The outpouring of genuine Christian love was evident to all. It was heartbreaking to hear how we would be missed in the church. My suggestion is that if you have a pastor don’t wait till he leaves to tell him how much Jesus is done through him instead go up to him at your next meeting and explained to him exactly how Jesus is working through him.

It is also heartening to see that Jesus will carry on his work at Trinity using people during our time there is a family. It was always our desire to raise up local leaders to lead the church in that area. It is wonderful to follow these servants of Christ on social media to see what God is doing through them.

We are so grateful as a family to God for all that he taught us during this five-year period.

Eastmountain.

It was with great enthusiasm that we joined the team at East mountain. The main focus of this group of missionaries based in Stellenbosch is to strengthen the church through providing adequate training for its leaders. This was something we as a family could easily get behind.

We also had the privilege of working in partnership with them at Trinity Church for two years. I (Clint) set about trying to increase their partnership base in Cape Town. This involved meeting on a weekly basis with different church leaders and together with the church leaders discovering whether or not East mountain and the church could work together. It was an amazing time getting to hear the stories of all these church leaders.

One story in particular stands out: it’s about a pastor in guagelethu. All his training and church experience was based in the charismatic church movement. However, he came in contact with evangelical Christians who provided him with training. He decided that the word of God was the most fundamental thing in any gospel community. As a result, he decided to preach and teach it at every opportunity training himself to expound God’s word.

Not surprisingly, many of his former congregants left, and he is one of two Bible teaching pastors in the whole of that area. As you can see the need for training is enormous in our country. This is why the strengthening that East mountain is attempting to do of church leaders in our country is deserving of all the support that we are able to give it.

Lansdown gospel community (being disciples, making disciples)

During my work with East mountain and the opportunity presented itself through various people to begin discussing the possibility of planting a gospel community in Lansdown. Lansdowne is an area that in Cape Town which has, to my knowledge, no gospel preaching, gospel believing community. It is historically a ‘coloured’ area, with a high concentration of Muslims.

It is also geographically located between the traditional white suburbs and colored township’s. It presents the possibility of reaching both groups of people and having them praise God together.

At the moment a group of us has met twice to pray and speak about this idea. The Kimble’s next year plan to move into the area. Once in the area, we would like God to form a group of Christians, which will form the core group of this community. This community has the potential to be supported by some major role players in the community.

We have absolutely no idea what God might do except that we are stepping out in faith as a family. East mountain is 100% behind us and want to partner with us in this endeavor. They very kindly released me/send me into this area to look into all the possibilities. I am also receiving support from the North American mission society which is helping plant over 260 churches and partners with a number of church planting is all over the world.

Look out for a Facebook page and a website... coming soon

The family

Taryn is working hard as a tour guide in Cape Town taking people to the most beautiful places in the city, eating at the best restaurants with her guests. She is managing to work around three days a week to help with the financial situation.

The two kids are really enjoying the school and am constantly amazed at what they can read. Daniela, who is in grade 1 is already reading quite complicated books. She is trying to also increase my cultural knowledge by telling me about the composers she is studying at school. Last week we had a long conversation about Hayden, I must confess I didn’t even know who he was!

Ethan is also reading very well and he is only in grade R. He is constantly telling me what they are reading in the Bible at school. It is also amazing to see how he loves engaging with different ideas. At the moment Lego and Star Wars are hot topics of conversation.

Prayer points

Please pray for my fundraising trip on 27 December to the UK. We need to raise money in order to rent a house in Lansdown. This is very costly!

Please pray for the role players involved in the Lansdown gospel community. Pray that we would seek Christ’s glory above all.

Pray that I would come across Christians who are interested in reaching out to this community.

Thank God for the part-time work both Taryn and I have managed to source.

Thank God for his work in our lives.

Pray for continued generous support.

Pray that God would take the efforts of Lansdown gospel community and do much more than we can ever imagine.