After a gap of five years, we once again hosted the Proximity Conference in Cape Town, and what an amazing experience we had this year. Proximity is a conference hosted by The Message that focuses on community development and incarnational mission.
Our theme this year was “Rebuild, Repair, Restore & Raise” which was birthed out of Isaiah 58:12 which says “your people will REBUILD the ancient ruins and will RAISE up the age-old foundations; you will be called REPAIRER of the broken walls, RESTORER of streets with dwellings.” This is a key verse for the Community Transformation strategy of The Message Trust.
A major challenge of the Covid pandemic was that it caused us to be isolated from one another. It was therefore extremely refreshing to be able to hold our Proximity conference in person. Our vision for the conference was that it should breathe new life into the delegates as we all seek God’s restoration in the post-Covid era.
It was an amazing time of encouragement and sharing and we believe all who were in attendance were reinvigorated to pursue their passion and desire to see their communities changed by the power of Jesus Christ.
Our keynote speaker was Message CEO and founder, Andy Hawthorne. All our other speakers are at the coal face of community transformation across Cape Town – Christina Tucker, Terence Brink, and Siviwe Minyi. Some Message partners held breakout sessions and the half-day conference also included a panel discussion looking at how we can practically implement what we’d been learning. Although the task to Rebuild, Restore, Repair, and Raise is not easy, all the delegates were encouraged to encourage one another and seek ways to collaborate in order that we can maximise our impact.
Enrico van der Poll, the Community Transformation Manager said:
“The Community Transformation stream of The Message SA is encouraged by all that God is doing in communities across Cape Town. We look forward to providing further opportunities for training, development, and collaboration in the future.”
