Dayne Myles

So that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky..

Philippians 2: 15

 

We live in a world where we see and experience injustice every day. It is truly hard. Yet in the midst of it all, God is doing a new thing. He is raising up generations of men and women to manifest His glory on earth.

The Message Trust is passionate about reaching young people, seeking to break the cycle of poverty, unemployment, gangsterism and crime that negatively impacts young people in communities across Cape Town. We have faith in young people and seek to raise up “Urban Heroes” who will become godly leaders in their families and communities for generations to come.

Who are Urban Heroes?:

Urban Heroes are men and women who were once the problem, and have now become the solution within society; sharing their testimonies and life experiences to help other young people find their purpose in life. They are those who now say “no” to crime and “yes” to God!

 

After months of preparation, we finally hosted our first Urban Hero South Africa Awards at the Ritz Hotel in Sea Point on the 1st of November, 2018. The evening was filled with excitement as guests and businessmen from all over Cape Town flooded the Ritz Hotel lobby to witness and take part of this exciting event.

Democratic Alliance (DA) Leader, Mr Mmusi Maimane, was among those who came to witness this prestigious event and present a trophy to one of the award winners that night.

Our International CEO & founder of The Message Trust, Andy Hawthorne, spoke on the vision God gave him to see young people’s lives being transformed through the gospel of Christ; and seeing that happening in Cape Town from a vision birthed in the UK says a lot about carrying the vision of God!

  

 

“It was a great honor to have been part of The Message Trust’s first ever Urban Hero Awards!
Me and my friend Jade were very excited to be volunteering as hostesses on the evening.
My highlight was the interaction I had with the kids from Genetik Sessions as they sat and waited backstage to go on stage.”

 

“The Urban Hero Awards was a very good experience for me and encouraged me to continue trusting God in the calling he has given me. I was really reminded of the purpose God placed in my heart to work with young people in my community. The honor was like God came to remind me that everything I’m doing he is with me always.”

 

The awards were for all our Urban Heroes who are helping to better our society by sharing and living a positive life in their society. These men and women defied the odds and refused to be victims of their pasts, rather they changed to become change agents for young people in their society using their life stories as testimony of the saving power of God.

Award Winners:

Sheldon Heuvel – Achiever Award

Thembinkosi Mbelu – Catalyst Award

Mthetheleli Ngxeke – Servant Leader Award

Melissa Titus – Ubuntu Award

Mkhululi Letsatsi – Special Leadership Award

Xola Dingiswayo – Mission Award

Xola Dingiswayo – Overall Urban Hero Award

 

We are thankful to everyone who helped us make this night possible, our sponsors and donors and the Message Team for their hard work and dedication.

In the early hours on Saturday the 6th of October, The Message staff along with 58 activists met at the bottom of Devil’s Peak in preparation of our 4th annual Triple Challenge Fundraiser.

It was a beautiful day coupled by excitement and anticipation as we began our attempt at completing a three mountain (Devils’ Peak, Table Mountain and Lion’s Head) climb in one day in order to raise funds to aid the mission work we do with young people from hard to reach and neglected urban areas in and around Cape Town! In addition each staff member and activists were challenged to raise R2500 towards the hike. We raised up to R156 000!

“It took me 11 hours to complete the challenge and the sense of accomplishment and joy far outweighed the pain my joints were feeling.
I met inspirational men and women who were changed through the great work The Message does. I was honored to be part of this challenge and will definitely be back next year.
Thank you for the life changing work you do
”

The Message South Africa is thankful to everyone who contributed to our Triple Challenge Fundraiser! Because of your support more lives will be impacted by the work we do in Cape Town.



On the 24th of September, we hosted our first event in our new home to celebrate the faithfulness and provision of God in our lives.

The past four years have been filled with frustration and thoughts of uncertainty as we waited and trusted God to come through for us with a building we can use for our ministry. Finally, after some endurance and perseverance, God has come through for us and has given us the buliding we’ve been praying for.

This means we now have a place to thrive, a hub where people can implement new and innovative ways to share the gospel with many who come through our doors.

“For many years we’ve been trusting God for a building as a space for The Message SA Family to thrive. We are full of thanks to God for our new building. We believe it will be a place of hope for many people, continuing the legacy of mission that the previous owners (the Protestant Association) have had within this community.”

We continue to praise God and acknowledge Him in all we have accomplished so far as a ministry. It is to His glory that we have received our new home.

Isaiah 43 verse 19 says:

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

What a prophetic passage of scripture! In a time when crime and gangsterism are rife in Cape Town, God still promises us hope and life in this city!

In 1991 John was sentenced to two 15 year sentences which ran concurrently in Pollsmoor. In this time, his wife was pregnant and John felt he wanted to be a father to his child but couldn’t due to his time in prison.

After some time in prsion, John accepted the Lord. Later, he was released and became an evangelist who went back into prison (Pollsmoor) to share the gospel to those behind bars.

John worked for a charity organization called “Help A Rural Child” and about two years ago, John felt he wanted to have a permanent program to run in Pollsmoor due to his experience. It’s now been 18 years since his release and John has become a mentor to many men in prison, allowing him to minister and share about God’s goodness.

On the 1st of September 2018, John joined our MEP team (Message Enterprise Program) which works in and out of prison with young men who want to make a change in their lives and society.

This is what he had to say about recently joining the Message Team

“The Message Trust is very innovative and has a variety of streams which reach out to the lost, the least and the forgotten. I can really see the servant hearts from the Message staff; they’ve got the passion to reach young people with the gospel.

My vision is to see young men coming out of prison facility into society being productive, to see men being restored through the grace of God.”

As our team grows, we are thankful to God for bringing people together with the same heart for young people, and our prayer as The Message is that many may come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

 

 

 

On the 26th July, The Message Trust hosted their Annual General Meeting where our stakeholders and members of the public gathered to hear the organisation’s highlights and accomplishments from 2017.

At the AGM the 2017 tax year financial report was officially adopted and is available here.

 

 

At the AGM, our CEO Dr. Tim Tucker addressed the public and shared about how God has shaped the direction and goals of The Message South Africa in 2017. The following are some excerpts from his speech:

“One of the most critical outcomes of 2017, our fourth year as a ministry in South Africa, related to the questions we asked in terms of our purpose as an organisation. Specifically we looked at two things… what is the prophetic role that God has placed upon us as a ministry in Cape Town? And how do we ensure that all we do is connected to the purpose we feel that God has given us?

It’s easy for an organisation like ours to get caught up in “good activity”, but we always need to evaluate whether our activity is contributing to our central purpose. Given some of the testing times that we went through during 2016-2017, there was a danger of fragmentation and the team operating in different silo’s… whereas the global vision of the Message is united by a single goal – to raise up generations of urban heroes.

As CEO, I felt it was also important to develop language that contextualised the global goal of the Message to reflect what we believe our specific purpose is here in Cape Town. A few years ago we began to articulate our long-term objectives as: Empowering young people, Equipping the church, Eradicating gangsterism and Expanding into Africa. These all still stand… but we wanted something that more succinctly expressed our prophetic role in Cape Town, while not disconnecting from the global vision of The Message.

As an exec team, we reflected on what God had been saying and doing through us over the past four years… and then, together with the board, agreed on the following statement –We exist to be a Catalyst for new stories through the Gospel…

…We have a five year vision to be a catalyst for new South African stories through the Gospel as we develop an environment that enables Urban Heroes to flourish in faith and life. By 2022 we are planning on hosting our first city-wide youth evangelism initiative called the Higher Tour. Over the next five years we want to cultivate partnerships across the city with churches, businesses, schools and communities in order that we can have a significant culture-shifting impact. We believe that mobilising young people for missions is critical if we are to stem the tide of gang violence that plagues communities across Cape Town.

I sincerely believe that this is the most significant development that came out of 2017…

However, God also continued to do amazing things through our team…We launched our MEP reintegration programme, opened our first Gangstar Café, released three new mission programmes: RespectME, Genetic Sessions and Refocus. Our Eden Salt River team purchased a safe-house for at-risk women. Our Eden Nyanga team saw many children come to Christ through their soccer programme. We impacted almost 40000 young people through creative mission… while went deep and found work opportunities for 8 ex-offenders. So I want to sincerely thank our staff and volunteers for all their incredible hard work in 2017!!”