What about women?

Little girls often find themselves day dreaming about becoming a “mom”, a career women, a wonderful sportswomen or even greater things like being a queen.
Are some of these realistic, one never knows these days.

The one thing that women can be sure of, is that God made them a specific way, and if they align to God’s way the rewards are great—like experiencing love, having great joy, blessed with contentment and every other blessing God has for women.

Men often throw their hands up in frustration because “they can’t understand women” but actually women are quite easy to please….

 As the saying goes “treat them like a queen and they’ll treat you like a king”… Well, what does this mean in depth… there is no space to chat about it in this edition  but who knows, maybe soon.

 Shan Cade

 

Women and men - different and unique?

When Adam stayed out very late for a few nights, Eve became upset.
"You're running around with other women," she charged.
"Don't be ridiculous," Adam responded. "You're the only
woman on earth."
The quarrel continued until Adam fell asleep, only to be awakened by
someone poking him in the chest. It was Eve.
"What are you doing?" Adam demanded.
"Counting your ribs."

This insightful joke reveals the simple fact that our gender shapes the way we think and act! God made us either male or female - unique individuals in His image. Yet our world continues to shape attitudes towards gender issues that lead to complex and heated dialogues around coffee tables e.g. can you be born gay? What we are learning at Ethembeni is that gender specific activities are important in restoring people's relationships with the opposite gender and with God. So Men's Only and Ladies Only events have become regular monthly activities which we encourage for example:

· This week 10 females got together and did an exercise class together - they sweated and laughed together in a safe space where God encouraged them to look after    themselves.

·  Last month 15 men went on a 5km obstacle course set up by Wedgewood nougat (www.wedgewoodnougat.co.za) - we were learning how to be brave and work in teams to get over obstacles - God blessed us with a fun memory.

The list of intentionally planned gender specific activities continues to grow at Ethembeni where the outcomes are restored relationships between the two genders for example:

Mens' Imbizo's are organised in each new area where we start HIV counselling and testing

· These events celebrate and challenge men's roles as key leaders of families and communities.

·     Bake for Profit courses have trained over 50 women in how to be entrepreneurs using baking as the means of business. We are open to men yet it is the women who most want economic development.

 Over 100 young people (mostly boys) gather every Friday afternoon with their dogs to learn how to train them. Go to www.fundanenja.co.za for inspiration and encouragement. So what gender specific activities do YOU participate in that you think we should consider adding to our ministry? Drop me an email at director@ethembeni.co.za with your suggestions.  

 

Blessing Grant

 

CONTINUAL GROWTH

Ethembeni have embarked on a programme of developing their managers skills within the work place.

This is a great initiative—using skilled volunteers. The Ethembeni managers have been allocated to 5 different coaches who will work with them for the next 4 months, in developing managerial skills much needed in any ministry or organisation these days.  The main two focus areas to be worked with during this period are COMMUNICATION and PROJECT MANAGEMENT— these very important aspects of management use many connected core skills like organisational skills , leadership skills, planning skills and many others.

Prayer for this initiative would be appreciated during this period.

To the teams ….. May God work in each person for His glory.

 

JOB READINESS PROGRAMME

Ethembeni works with an organisation called Catalyx to run a 40 hour Job Readiness programme for the unemployed in Mpophomeni. The programme runs over 10 weeks where the candidates are prepared for the workplace, they learn what would be expected of them as well as what to expect in the workplace. Customer service, work ethics, time management and entrepreneurship are a few of the topics covered. Ethembeni also focuses on spiritual development, self esteem development, emotional maturity, problem solving and other character building exercises. Ethembeni keeps a database of candidates that have been through the programme and we have been appealing to local businesses to draw from these candidates when they need staff. We are very excited about this programme as we have seen wonderful results and positive changes in our candidates.