Lefever Family Missions Adventures: Cavod Academy of the Arts

Hello from the Lefever Family!

Wow, has it really been almost four months since our last post? So much has been happening, I'll start with a few updates on our family and highlights of our ministry involvement and then provide some detail on our most recent missions adventure to Cape Town, South Africa!

Family Update
In our March newsletter I mentioned that I was beginning to develop a consulting practice. Since that time, God has provided enough steady clients and jobs that we have decided to make it a full time endeavor! Amy and the girls have wrapped up home school for the year and are already preparing for next year. Amy is continuing to help out at Cavod through the summer, but will try to find some time for a break as the fall is already shaping up to be pretty busy! Bente will continue to be involved in various programs at Cavod over the summer and will be working at Refreshing Mountain. Ascher just finished a theater camp called "Camp Will" that concluded with a production of "Taming the Shrew". Soren attended an Art Camp and she and Ascher will both be involved in the Summer Theater camp at Cavod and their production of Beauty & the Beast. Mala is tagging along with it all and provides lots of entertainment for our friends at Cavod!

Cavod Academy
Classes have wrapped up for the year and concluded with Spring Dance concert. The Dance Company is continuing through the summer, and has several events including dance camps and the missions trip to Cape Town (see below for more detail). Ascher and Soren have parts in the upcoming Beauty & the Beast production and Bente has a role on the production team. Amy is helping out with various items through the summer, including helping to coordinate preparations for Cavod's role in the launching a new learning center that will be located beside Cavod and will have more than 40 students from Cavod attending, including our Soren and Ascher. I will also continue to work with Cavod on organization and strategic planning as they prepare for growth.

Immerge Internship
We completed our internship in June and celebrated with a time of prayer and a meal at the Heckman's house. It was a great time of sharing our experiences, speaking words of encouragement and praying for God's direction in the respective ministries of each student/couple and the Immerge team. We held a picnic in Manheim Community Park on June 21st and invited all of our immigrant/refugee friends. We also invited the missions team going to South Africa as a way to give them some experience with interacting with people from other cultures (many of the people on the team had not previously traveled outside of the states). We had a great time of food and fellowship and met several new families in the area.

Reach Training School
As part of the outreach preparation, we ran a three-week training school for the team that went to Cape Town, South Africa. Merle Shenk, a Lancaster native and missionary in Cape Town, South Africa, directed the school and taught several sessions. We had speakers from many different ministry streams including Brian Sauder (DOVE), Kevin Kazemi (YWAM), Dave Hess (Christ Community Church), Barry Wissler (ECC), Jimmy Nimon (ECC), Bruce Heckman (Immerge) and several others. We receiving teaching and personal ministry on the weekday evenings and then had practical application via outreaches on Saturday's. The students received a lot of input, personal ministry and had ample opportunities for practical application between the classes and outreach time.

Cape Town, South Africa Mission Trip
We had a very exciting and intense 10 days of outreach in Cape Town, South Africa. We spent our first few days in Woodstock, two days in Capricorn and then two days in Athlone, all of which are surrounding towns around Cape Town. Each day involved street outreach or prayer walks in the morning, street outreach in the afternoon and public meetings in the evenings.

Woodstock is very close to Cape Town and is also the town where House of Praise, the church that Merle and Cheree Shenk pastor, is situated. The team at House of Praise is very welcoming and already engaged in outreach in their community which made it very easy for us to join in with what they are already doing. We started with a prayer walk to get the know the city and then held a dance performance in a nearby park. We passed out flyers for the evening meeting and prayed with people who wanted it or had obvious needs. On the second day, the team that I was with visited a home where there were about 6 men who where out of work and living in destitute conditions. We had the opportunity to share with them and pray for healing. It was a very significant time and several of the men committed their lives to Jesus and the man who introduced us to the family will be following up with them over the coming weeks. In the afternoon we had the opportunity to minister in a small squatter village that is located right in the city. The evening meeting was fantastic - worship was powerful, the dance performance and testimonies were well received and the message spoke to hearts. Many responded and we saw many healings and commitments to follow Jesus. On the third day we ministered in area parks and God was moving mightily. We had the opportunity to pray for person after person, with many committing their lives to Jesus and several healings, one girl received a complete restoration of her healing and a muslim man who was addicted to heroin knelt on the grass in the middle of the park and prayed to Jesus! Click here to see some pictures from our time in Woodstock.

The next town we worked in is called Capricorn, which is a township outside of Cape Town. The environment in Capricorn is very different than Woodstock - it is an "informal settlement" where homes are basically shacks of various shapes and materials. Most homes have electric and running water, but the living conditions are very poor. It is a very tight knit community, but drugs, gangs and violence are rampant. We spent most of our time on outreach on the streets and in people's homes, praying and sharing the gospel. We did have one dance performance in a park, where the team taught the kids to dance and played for some time. We had the opportunity to practice the "Luke 10" model of ministry in Capricorn, with God revealing "persons of peace" that led us to home after home where we were able to minister. We joined in with a ministry there called "116" that works to make disciples in Capricorn. We also had help from the local YWAM base, which had a role in starting a discovery bible study three years ago that led to the "116" ministry. It was great to come alongside these ministries and see many people respond. We look forward to hearing more about what God is doing in Capricorn! Click here to see some pictures from our time in Capricorn.

The last town we are working in is called Athlone, which is a suburb of Cape Town. This is an area that a team from House of Praise is working in to plant a new church, so our team is helping with those efforts by meeting and praying with families and inviting them to evening meetings that are being held in the Community Hall. The atmosphere in Athlon is very different from Woodstock and Capricorn. Drug abuse is much more prevalent and there is a higher concentration of Muslims than the other towns we've been in. Similar to the other towns, most everyone we meet is very open to prayer and several have either invited us into their homes or helped introduce us to other families to pray for. On the second day, we stumbled upon a groups of apartment buildings during our prayer walk and were invited to pray with a man who has been working to build up the community and take at risk people under his wing. There were a lot of kids running around, so we came back in the afternoon and did some dancing and were able to attract a large crowd. The evening meeting was full of people from House of Praise and the community and God ministered with many healings and commitments. Click here to see some pictures from our time in Athlone.

On our last Sunday, the team performed in another local church and then spent the afternoon with the House of Praise team, fellowshipping and saying our goodbyes. We developed deep connections over our time working with them and it was great to just hang out and get to know one another on a personal level. In the evening we went back to our guest house and hung out as a team, packing and recording video testimonies of our time together. On the morning of our departure, we were treated to breakfast by one of the families that we had prayed for in our meetings in Woodstock, which turned out to be yet another divine appointment as their estranged daughter came and was able to be ministered to by several of the ladies on our team. We took a cable car up to visit Table Mountain for a few hours and then hurried to the airport to begin our journey home. Click here to see some photos of our team and the various places we visited.

This trip has been very fruitful and the team has grown a great deal in working together and learning to minister in different ways. On a personal level it was great to be involved with street ministry again and to have the opportunity to be in more of a leadership role. I really enjoyed the opportunity to practice what we learned in the Reach School, particularly the idea of finding the "person of peace" in a given neighborhood and letting them lead us to other people that open to receive. It was also really cool to see Bente dancing and ministering to people on the streets! We got to pray for several people together which was very special.

Thank you so much to those of you that made it possible for Bente and I to be on this trip by contributing financially and to all of those who were and are praying for us as we go. We definitely felt the prayer cover and the time was unforgettable! If you are interested in hearing more about our trip, let us know, we'd be happy to visit!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our newsletter and for joining us in our adventures. As always, we welcome your feedback and also invite you to get involved in any of the following ways:

Prayer: We are looking for prayer partners that will stand with our family and developing ministry. Click here to join our prayer email list.
Finances: We are raising funds for local ministry as well as continued overseas missions work. If you want to give, see below to donate.
Volunteers: If you feel the call to help others but haven't yet found an outlet, contact us. We'd love to help you get connected!

Please feel free to share our updates and if you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to one or more of our communication vehicles, use the links below.

Blessings,

Carl & Amy Lefever

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

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Tax deductible donations may be made in the name of "Lefever Family Missions" to Ephrata Community Church. Click the Donate button below to give online via credit card, please be sure to include "Lefever Family Missions" in the special notes field. Checks may be made out and mailed to Ephrata Community Church, 70 Clay School Road, Ephrata, PA 17522. To ensure donations are directed to our ministry, please note "Lefever Family Missions" on the memo line.

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Hello from the Lefever Family!

Happy New Year! Time has gone so quickly, it's hard to believe that it's been a year since we returned to Lancaster. It was an exciting, but challenging year as we learned how to best serve God as a family in missions. We are in a very different place than we first expected yet as we reflect on the year, we realize how blessed we are to be involved in reaching out to people through not only our work in the immigrant community with Immerge, but also in serving hundreds of different groups that come to Refreshing Mountain each year and reaching the community thru the work of Cavod Academy.

This month we want to share more about what we're doing with Cavod Academy of the Arts. Cavod trains students of all ages in dance, drama and music with a goal of "raising the standard of godly artistic expression". Our girls have been involved in classes there for several years while we have volunteered in various ways. This year each of the girls are taking classes (even Mala) and Amy and I work in their cafe. Bente is a member of Cavod Dance Company (CDC) which performs for schools, churches and other groups. CDC is one of the primary ways that Cavod reaches out to the community and also serves as a deeper level of training and mentoring for company members. Check out the trailer of their current production, "Not of this World":

cavod academy infusion trailer from Lavon Films on Vimeo. You can learn more about Cavod and the dance company on their website: http://cavodacademy.com

This year CDC is going international, with a missions trip to Capetown, Africa in June. Bente and I (Carl) will be a part of the team. The focus of the trip will be on supporting the church planting efforts of an existing team led by Merle Shenk. Our team will be doing street ministry and praying for people in evangelistic meetings that will be held in the evenings. The mission team is in the process of raising the funds for the trip, which are approx. $2,600 per person. We'll be doing some fundraising projects as well as raising personal support. If you are interested in donating towards our Africa trip, you can use the "Donate" button on the right to contribute online or see the info below to mail a check. Please be sure to designate that the funds are for the Lefever Family - Africa Trip"

As we look forward to all that 2014 has to offer, we are thankful for each of you. It is such a comfort to know that others are interested in our journey. Would you consider partnering with us in our ministry? Here are some ways you can get involved:

Prayer: We are looking for prayer partners that will stand with our family and developing ministry. Click here to join our weekly prayer email list.

Finances: We are raising funds for local ministry as well overseas mission such as the Africa trip. If you feel led to support us, see below to donate.

Volunteers: If you feel the call to help others but haven't yet found an outlet, contact us. We'd love to help you get connected!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our newsletter and for joining us in our adventures. We will continue to send out updates via email and our blog on roughly a monthly basis. Please feel free to share our updates with anyone you think is interested and if you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to one or more of our communication vehicles, use the links below.

Blessings,

Carl & Amy Lefever

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

Stay connected with our family and receive our updates (click links to subscribe)
If you prefer to receive a hard copy via mail, please let us know

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