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Pack Handed
out at the launch breakfast
Good morning! We trust you are incredibly well this significant Saturday morning, and thank you, as well as God, for insuring your invaluable attendance!
This page forms the 1st of a number of pages included
in your ‘Waking the Giant’ folder! We thought
it of great importance that you are not spoken at this
morning, but instead are given the opportunity to fully
understand the thinking and rationale behind this morning’s
breakfast. We trust the contents of this folder will
allow you to effectively participate in, as well as
greatly influence that which is to come after this morning!
Allow us to briefly elaborate on the theme of this morning’s
breakfast… We have little doubt many of you are
familiar with the term ‘Giant’ in describing
certain of the tragedies millions of South Africans
face on a daily basis. We believe there is one true
and undisputed Giant in this country, a Giant whose
potential cannot be matched, a Giant who’s mandate
is greater than any other, and the only Giant anointed
to work as the body of the God we serve!
This Giant we of course refer to is the CHURCH!
We believe, that while the ‘Church’ in our
communities is currently doing immeasurable good, not
enough is being done to truly support and coordinate
all of these efforts. We also believe, that by the church
uniting under one cause, - ‘together loving our
brothers and sisters in our communities as we love ourselves’,
we can truly impact society in a way not seen before!
We pray that what comes out of this breakfast this morning
will truly benefit all those gathered here, as well
as all those hundreds of other volunteers you unconsciously
represent! But most of all we pray, that the real beneficiaries
of this morning’s breakfast are those you so faithfully
serve in all your different outreaches and projects!
The Waking the Giant initiative is a ‘needs’
based initiative, and has as its primary objective and
goal;
The continual and increased effectiveness, growth and
influence of the ‘CHURCH’S’ community
based outreaches, as a result of these outreaches being
better connected, informed and supported.
Many of you attending this breakfast may have attended
the first breakfast of this nature, held in July 2005.
The ‘Connecting and Sharing’ session proved
to be a great success, and in reality the birth of something
incredibly exciting! This being, the prospect of different
church projects and outreaches coming together, as the
body of Christ, sharing and learning from one another’s
strategies, successes and difficulties!
Unfortunately, time is not only our most precious resource,
but also the most elusive, and the much-needed follow-ups
and sharing sessions required after a breakfast of this
nature, never fully materialised… It has also
subsequently become clear in our dealings with various
project and outreach leaders, that three specific needs
remain unmet. They are;
1) The need to know Who, does What for Whom, When and
Where?
2) The need to easily communicate with others involved
in similar projects and outreaches
3) The need to come together and begin impacting our
communities as a unified, supported and well connected
team!
In trying to deliver on these needs, we as the Task
Team first had to understand the difficulties causing
these needs to remain exactly that… simply needs!
We discovered that the most significant difficulties
facing you are the following;
- Lack of time
- Insufficient information regarding what’s going
on…
- Lack of a simple, open and easy communications channel
- Difficulty in maintaining momentum
- No real structure to support and coordinate the above
points
After much consideration, we settled on a number of
tools (see tools) we believe will help you, the Outreach
& Project leaders, overcome the above-mentioned
difficulties.
We have focused our attention on more than just the
physical gathering of people in this regard, but rather
on the tools and structures that will facilitate the
continual connecting, informing and supporting of all
of you in your respective battlefields!
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