This Blog is dedicated to a church-to-church, people-in-the-pews response to the AIDS crisis in Africa, and Zimbabwe in particular.
Our vision is to facilitate this response through coordinating and blending locally-based national and international initiatives. We purpose to achieve sustainable answers to the problems of Africans infected, affected and at risk by HIV/AIDS.
ANESU is grateful for the partnership we enjoy with the South Ridge Community Church family in Clinton, New Jersey. It's exciting to be engaged with such an authentic ministry, and with vibrant followers of Christ who are reaching out in practical compassion ... just as Jesus did ... to touch lives in community and around the globe.
A Reason to GatherSara GrovesAudrey Assad, Jenny & TylerCLINTON, NJOctober 14, 2011 For more info call: 908-735-5252
Please see http://www.southridgecc.org/services_events/upcoming.htm
We're looking forward to the soon arrival of a small return-team from South Ridge Community Church in New Jersey. Ben and Rose Stapley will be part of that group, and have created this PDF explanation of their focus as they prepare to come.
We ask you to join with us in praying for the financial, emotional and spiritual provision this couple and the rest of their team, Maria, Nathan and Steve, will need as they prepare to be with us in Zimbabwe ... then embark on an historic launch of a strategic partnership with a Zimbabwean church in Rugare.
Ben will be working to capture a multi-media depiction of the reality here. This is a significant challenge in a day and age when so many images from Africa are used manipulatively ... often at the expense of the very ones we seek to help. This is not the case here. We're grateful for Ben's willingness to take on this challenge with genuine sensitivity and technical excellence ... looking forward with much anticipation to being able to share with you the finished product.
Dare2serve, ANESU’s most recently added ministry partner in Zimbabwe, has called young people in Zimbabwe to come together for a Truth or Dare conference this month.
The young people who lead Dare2serve believe that there is a generation that is ready to take on the difficult things that other generations before them have not been brave enough to tackle.
The conference will introduce teenagers and young adults to the Zimbabwe they don’t see everyday ... the Zimbabwe that is in desperate need of something real and that is crying out for their brothers and sisters to stand with them through hard times and lend them a hand. The street children, the orphans, the forgotten older generation and the people that are trying to clean up the sunshine city one street corner at a time.
The Truth or Dare conference is going to be structured and broken down into three easy sections. Each morning of the conference will be taken up by carefully focused training sessions. Each afternoon will be spent doing different community outreaches at orphanages and other projects that Dare2serve is involved in. Each evening will feature a special no entrance fee gathering at 7arts Theater.
On the last afternoon of the conference Dare2serve will lead youth in taking part in a huge clean up of the Avondale and Second Street Extension area with Miracle Missions. They will pick up trash, wash down dirty walls and paint some of the walls of some of the buildings in that area.
The conference will run from the night of the 17th of August and will close with a concert on the night of the 19th of August.
Dare2serve has embraced a vision to expose the youth of Zimbabwe to God’s compassionate heart. They have determined to introduce Zimbabwean youth to a host of opportunities to serve the community … challenges to Christ-like response that they can take back to their schools and churches.
Please pray for Ron Chifokoyo and his team as they lead this conference. Pray for the young people who will be attending. Pray that many lives will be impacted in a way that will not only bring personal transformation but will result in the transformation of Zimbabwe’s marginalized and disadvantaged people
We are looking forward to a return visit to Zimbabwe by representatives of the South Ridge Community Church.
This church family has responded proactively to a challenge to sensitive, meaningful, and sound participation with ANESU in HIV/AIDS-related ministry. The South Ridge church family is embarking on a relationally driven strategic partnership, together with Hands of Hope, with Hope Valley Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe.
ANESU exists:
To connect global followers of Christ in proactive engagement in Zimbabwe for the good of people infected, affected and at risk by HIV/AIDS
To serve as a conduit of blessing, facilitating relationships and enabling meaningful, lasting, and self sustaining change in the lives of hurting people in Zimbabwe
To assist partnering churches realize the joy of reaching out in a ministry of compassion to hurting people.
South Ridge Community Church is engaged in all three of the above.
Once again, it's our turn to post a personal update, with gratitude to our ministry partners who continue to stand steadfastly with us in this huge undertaking.
Space does not allow for everything we'd like to communicate on a single post, so we're grateful for the opportunity E-mail and Facebook allows for one-on-one communication.
As you pray and give, we are able to engage. We're seeing exciting things happening here in Zimbabwe, some of which you can read about below.
It's a privilege to introduce a dynamic Zimbabwean youth initiative that has recently come within the embrace of the ANESU Partnership.
While the Dare2Serve team embraces ministry to orphans and to others affected by HIV/AIDS, they represent ANESU's desire to connect in meaningful life transforming ways with the uninfected but at risk from HIV/AIDS. It is for this reason that Dare2Serve is one of the vehicles presently in place for extending ANESU's ministry of Reach4Life.
