We all say “never,” right? I’m not the only one who says “I’ll never be in politics.” Or, “I’ll never buy a minivan.”
Whatever your “never” (don’t get hung up on that rhyme – I did – and I wasted too much time trying different rhythmic patterns while making Judah, my son laugh. If you do try. Use the triplet. Works best… Now back to our regularly scheduled program.) Whatever your “never,” might have been, you have probably found yourself doing a “never” at one point in your life.
My two latest and biggest “I’ll Never” turn-a-round
I’ll never be a missionary.
I’ll never plant a church.
Both of these “I’ll never’s” are currently being exiled from “Never”land because after much prayer and more prayer our family is moving to Johannesburg, South Africa to plant a church!
Welcome back, as I assume some of you had to go back and read that last sentence a couple of times to see if it really said what it said.
The Reader’s Digest version is that after turning down an offer before Christmas of 2011 to plant a Westside Family Church in Jo’burg I was in the 6th day of a 21 day fast at the beginning of 2012 when I heard “I want you to go to South Africa.”
I questioned it. Didn’t tell Cassie about for a while but it ate me up so much, cause I knew it was from God, that I had to tell Cassie.
It was a hard thing to hear. I didn’t want to be a missionary, much less a church planter. But God’s call is stronger than our “I’ll Never’s.”
Wait!.. Why!? What!? When!? How!?
Well, I think the “Why” question was answered in the paragraph above.
What exactly we are doing?
Cassie and I will be planting a multi-cultural church with two South Africa natives, Nhlanhla Sibayoni (We call him Siba) and Stephen Colin. These two men are former recording artists in South Africa who have recently responded to the call of God on their lives.
We will be equipping these two men to lead this multi-cultural church to Love Jesus, Become Like Jesus, and Share Jesus to Jo’burg.
Siba will be the Teaching Pastor. Steve will be the Worship Pastor. I will fill an executive leadership role while helping teach on the weekend and equipping these two leadersto make disciples in Jo’burg.
Cassie, my wife, will lead our kids ministry and will identify, equip, and release a local to assume this area of ministry.
When are we leaving and how long will we be staying?
Our plan is to land in Jo’burg in October of this year (2012). Our initial commitment is to stay 12 months, but we expect to be there for 18 months to ensure a healthy church launch, and to discover, develop, and deploy people to replace our roles.
How can you be involved?
We need prayer.
Lots of prayer.
This is definitely something beyond what we feel capable of doing in our own strength, but that’s what makes this more real to us that this is God breathed.
We have two ways you can connect with us in order to know how to pray.
- “Like” and share our Westside Jo’burg Facebook page. This page will be where we share our vision, needs, and celebrate what God is doing, so people will know how to pray and celebrate with us. I would love to have you join us here.
- Subscribe to the Prayer feed on kaseyrobinson.com via email or add to your feed reader. We will post things here to update those who want to get involved in praying for us during this season.
Hear from You
Thank you for sharing this with us. I’d love to hear your comments below and answer any questions you have.
You are full of promise! I'm so excited to see what God will do through you and Cassie. Jo'burg is in for a great blessing!
Thank you so much for the encouragement Debbie!
awesome, kasey & family!
Thanks Matt!
WOW – Going to Africa & a baby on the way! You and your wife sure do need some prayers.
I’ll be looking forward to hearing about the next couple years of your adventurous life!
God Bless you & your family!
Wow! Makes me wonder where my mission will be when God decides that the corporate business world has had enough of me.