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Life/Ministry Update 2023

January 19, 2023 By jesse

Kommetjie Cape Town Cross overlooking Kommetjie and Noordhoek beaches with Chapmans Peak in the back ground

Dear friends,

We wanted you to be among the first to know what’s happening in our ministry and life!

We have been in full-time ministry for our entire marriage, 16 years last December, and have achieved a lot over the last 7 here in South Africa! We have had the opportunity to craft the safe house programming and leadership at S-Cape and serve numerous rescued victims of sex trafficking. Many connections through the various networks and coalitions fighting against trafficking and sexual exploitation have shown fruitful and we’ve been able to be a part of the impact our partner organizations are making as well. Not only in trafficking but also in their efforts in protecting young people from the harms of pornography and sexual abuse and have been honored to affect change in individual lives as well as helping to shift the culture’s and society’s perception of unhealthy sex, sexuality, gender-based violence, and the nuclear family.

Strong biblical family values, the sanctification of marriage and sex, and digital awareness are among the things we feel stronger than ever that stand as foundational pillars to curbing abuse, trafficking and exploitation as well as a host of other issues that are plaguing the world inside and outside of the church. Those foundational pillars are not a “Western” thing but are created by God out of His image that the World wants to corrupt within us.

The S-Cape Board of Trustees and our Board of Directors at Youth Inc. recognize that for staff to have long-term effectiveness in ministry, they must occasionally step back from ministry to rest, recover, reflect, and refocus. We have found a process for that very purpose. With the support of our leadership from both organizations Emily, the kids and I will be visiting the US for an extended season to do just that.

This season is not a vacation. In fact, it’s a structured and supervised time to intentionally replenish and regroup for future ministry. The first phase is resting and recovering, doing what puts energy back into our tired bodies and family. The second phase is reflecting and refocusing, learning more about God and ourselves. The final phase is realignment, seeking God’s best fit for us in life and ministry. During this season we’ll meet regularly with an advisor, receive some routine discipleship, and professional debriefing as we work through our personalized plan.

Just as Jesus often withdrew to be refilled by spending time with the Father alone we also are in a season to withdraw and be renewed with our vision, calling, and purpose in life. All of this is to prepare us to finish well the ministry to which God has called us.

If you would like to know more about the plan we are following to ensure accountability and effectiveness of this season please contact me and I am happy to send you the different “phases” of this time of intentional renewal and equipping.

During this time we need your continued support. To stand with us in prayer for God to meet with us, refresh us and rekindle our passion for Him, and to see His will for us clearly. We also need your continued partnership financially. As you well know, ALL costs of living have increased! For those that have not already, we encourage you to increase your monthly commitment to help us minimize the effects we are all feeling from rising costs of living.

We have a big God and wonderful team of partners surrounding us. We are thankful and grateful that you choose to be on our team!

With Love,

The Fullers

Something’s moving

June 2, 2017 By jesse Leave a Comment

I want to start off with a special thank you to everyone that partnered with us over the last year. The news we have to share is absolutely and only possible because of your involvement, your believing in us, and your generous hearts! Thank you.

So, the last year was a whirlwind of busyness, down time, pregnancy labor and new life, struggle, growth, confusion, clarity, our experiences were as diverse as the Rainbow nation, of South Africa itself!

The first half our time there was the DTS lecture and outreach phase. Where we had bible, life, and faith lectures with time made for the challenge of application. It was in many aspects a stretch outside of our comfort zone! I would add too that most of the time being in South Africa is very much a stretch outside of our comfort zone!

Racial tensions, cultural differences, standing between the poverty and wealth gaps, the weight of the constant potential for crime regardless of time of day or location; even if you’re at home you need to always be ready and aware for the possibility of a safety issue. Which is very different than here in Evansville.

But still, the country is an amazing and beautiful place. I would not be surprised if God started creation with South Africa and worked His way north then east and west from there. There are so many good people and there is so much need. So many beautiful cultures and people groups. It is truly an incredible place to live and be a part of despite the ugly sides!

So, we successfully completed our first year’s commitment(2nd year overall in the country). Honestly, we were ready to be home back in the U.S. We were hoping and even walked through some open doors in to the Sarasota Fl area and met with some people and the YWAM base there. After some considerable time of prayer and discussion Emily and I decided that we were being called back to Cape Town. It took a bit of processing and what I describe as kind of grieving process of letting go of some of my wants and fears as a husband and father of 4.

Florida, Indiana, Africa or anywhere else in the world our calling and conviction in joining the counter trafficking efforts has not changed. Clifford Roe said this in his book about human trafficking in 1911 and how we should respond:

“The truth may be known throughout the world concerning human trafficking that these poor fellow beings may, through the knowledge of truth, be set free from bondage is our hope. To protect the purity and sanctity of the home, to open the door of forgiveness to the prodigal daughter as well as the prodigal son, to warn our youth against the snares of modern day slave traders, and to raise clean, honest manhood to the golden pinnacle of youth’s ambition is the reason facts are here set forth often times unvarnished, un-gilded and unpainted. Because in the past truth has been clothed in a mantle of mystery and facts have only been whispered in secret, traders in human souls have thrived and grown rich. These arch-enemies of society, the lowest of the lowly creatures on this earth, dwell in darkness; they welcome secrecy, ignorance and false modesty; they abhor light; they stifle truth and trample upon innocence.

In this war on human trafficking there is an opportunity that the Christian world has never before had, for the arousing of the conscience of Christendom in the interests of the poor, the weak, the foolish the oppressed, the exploited. And to arouse the Christian conscience in the interests of any one class of these, means that ever afterwards this conscience will be doubly sensitive to any summons to serve, in the name of Him who came “not to be served but to serve,” any other class needing such service. Hence, as I conceive it, every other moral and social reform stands to gain immeasurably through this great effort to suppress the trafficking of humans. This consideration makes the responsibility resting upon the shoulders of every Christian man and woman, to do his or her utmost for the suppression of this traffic, and for preaching and practice of purity in all its aspects.”

I could not agree more. There has been no greater time in history of a counter trafficking movement than the global efforts today. But there is still much work to do. Daily the efforts combating human trafficking are gaining ground and people and children are being rescued from this modern day slavery.

A few days after Emily and I agreed that the Lord was calling us back to South Africa we were invited to return to Cape Town by an organization called S-Cape which is a safe house for rescued trafficked women. During our time in Cape Town I sat on a board with S-Cape and also did some maintenance work on the property as well. We have been invited by S-Cape to return and lead the project on opening the countries first safe house for trafficked children per request of the Department of Social Development. Our goal is to return to South Africa by the end of the year.

Thank you all for your interest, thoughts, prayers, and partnership in making this happen. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers and we ask you to be a proactive team member in this ministry by supporting us financially and sharing our story with friends and family. Locally or out of town, we would love to come share at your church or small group about the work that we are being called back to South Africa to do. Don’t be shy in emailing us with a word or encouragement, your own personal prayer requests, or just to say “Hi”. Partnership is a two way street.

The bottom line is we cannot do this without your financial support.

Click “Donate” and become a monthly partner .

Support. Follow. Pray.

Week 7-8 Outreach Journal

August 8, 2016 By jesse Leave a Comment

Weeks 7-8 July 25-Aug 5

It has been the best of times and the worst of times. We had great expectations and were foolish to think them manifest entirely yet it was the epoch of belief in many aspects. We experienced the light of God and the darkness of our own doubt. Concurrently we are in love with South Africa and sorely missing home. Our journey can be described as a tale of two cities tugging war upon our hearts.

We have laughed and have been offended. We have offended and blessed. There has been cursing, tears, and a bit of blood. We have learned in theory and practicality. Our study tools have been books, scripture, teachers, prayer, worship, the homeless, our peers, those younger and older, trial and error. We have doubted God and felt his presence. There have been moments of failure and of victory and there has been victory out of failure.

The YWAM modo is “To know God and make him known.” Kingdom living is not perfect living. It is honest. Pursuing God and valuing people. Kingdom living will only be perfect when he who is perfect returns. Until then, we only see through the glass dimly. But I will take every partial glimpse until we see face to face!

The last two weeks have gone by quite fast. It was hard to find time to write each day. We have moved in to the new apartment in St James, a 5 minute drive from the YWAM Base, while juggling our Outreach commitments. Un-officially we are finished with the required Outreach as of Friday August 5. Now we wait till the rest of our class returns from Thailand and Germany and we will debrief with them as a class on Aug 22 and graduate the 25th.

Please be in prayer for us as we settle in to a new routine with the family in a new place. Emily is preparing mentally and physically for the arrival of the new baby. We are gathering items here and there that we need to make the apartment cozy and feel like a home. Only 8 more weeks till the due date!

I will be continuing with Dave and Vuyo in October when Dave and Joy-Lynn return home from furlough. Wired/Youth Inc. has committed to donating the purchase of a 2 story shack for a family in Masiphumelele. Depending on what else we will be involved in, my time with Ithemba Woods may have to be on a part time basis. There are quite a few organizations and ministries that work in human trafficking prevention around Cape Town. I’m praying about pursuing some of them with the hopes of an internship or volunteer staff position. We have good friends here willing to help network those connections. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s leading and confirmation and that He would go before us and give us favor with the ministries and people.

Here’s what you can do:

Pray

-Direction

-Safety

-New baby

-Favor, wisdom, and discernment

Commit to praying as a group with any regular meeting you may attend. Small group, bible study, church meetings, etc. Please share with them our journey and pray together for us!

Commit to

$25, $50, or $100 a month

To make a scheduled or one time donation click the “Donate” tab at the top of the page or below.

Week 6 Outreach Journal

July 26, 2016 By jesse Leave a Comment

Week 6 July 18-22

Monday.

Yesterday morning the Lord began a corrective work in my heart while I was in bed. Later that morning during the teaching at Calvary Chapel Cape Town he completed that work. It was a re-prioritizing of what I’ve been called to do. It was a humbling time and I know that God is faithful to forgive. His correction is proof of his love for me and evidence that he is with me in all that I do.

Today we didn’t have anything definite on the schedule so I took advantage of the YWAM Base’s prayer room and spent some more time before God in light of his word to me from yesterday. While at Base I ran in to Edson, one of the Base elders. He asked if I happened to have a book shelf for sale for the Eldership office. I said “Nope, but guess who’s got two thumbs and can build you one!” (OK, I didn’t say that but it would have really “dad” of me if I did!) Edson told me his budget and I’m going to see what we’ve got at Ithemba Woods to put together for him. Emily played some catch up with Eisley on school work and the little ones did their thang around the house.

Tuesday.

It was our monthly mid-wife appointment this morning in Plumbstead which is an area about 20 minutes North of Muizenberg. Emily and the baby are both in great health with no complications at this time.

With the appointment at the Midwife’s office it took up basically the whole morning. Emily needed to rest a bit and the kids needed to eat. Since Tuesday’s are technically my day with Dave and Vuyo at Ithemba Woods I dropped the family off at home and headed for the other side of the mountain and finished my day there.

Vuyo’s father is not too happy about him doing a DTS and wants him to go to the bush in December to be a part of the Right of Passage tradition. I asked Vuyo what he wanted to do but offered no advise one way or the other on the situation. He and I prayed about what the Lord wants for him and asked God to open or close the right doors.

It’s a hard thing to navigate coming from a completely different culture. Sharing the gospel and discipling people from cultures other than your own is a hard path to walk. The last thing I want to do is strip their culture of it’s uniqueness, meaning, and beauty. I do know there are some very real dangers about young men “going to the bush” to become a man. The first thing they do is circumcise them make them stay inside a grass hut for 8 days with no food or water while they heal. Last year 28 young men died from this tradition. There are some alternatives routes Vuyo could take but it’s a matter of his father’s approval or disapproval. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would move in Vuyo’s father’s heart and speak to him. Pray that God’s will be done in Vuyo’s life and for physical and spiritual protection if he goes to the bush.

Wednesday.

Today we were all back at Justice Dolls/Ithemba Woods. Sinazo and Joy-Lynn were quite impressed with the quality of doll that Emily has been assembling. Joy-Lynn said even she had to practice to get her dolls assembled as well as Emily’s first! I was pretty proud of my pretty wife!

Wednesday’s are technically Emily’s day with Justice Dolls so I keep Everleigh and River with me while I work in the wood shop or on constructing shacks with Dave and Vuyo. Yesterday, we were able to find enough wood and put a plan together for building a bookshelf for the Eldership office. Today we shaped/straightened all the pallet boards, sanded them, cut them to size, and assembled it. It’ looks great! We had to leave before adding a couple minor details to it.

Thursday.

We still have to get our car through the Road Worthy inspection, which I may or may not be late on doing. I took it one morning not too long ago but it failed due to the airbag light being on. The mechanic shop told me it would cost over R6,000 which is over $400! Just to replace the passenger occupancy censor. I opted to wait and find another way.

Before the Renders moved back to the States Shelby introduced me to a Coloured guy in Ocean View named Neville who did back yard mechanics on the side for friends. I called him up and he invited me to bring the car over. It took about 4 hours but we got the problem resolved. The cool part is we spent 4 hours together talking about life and faith. Neville is an inspiring guy. People are writing books and planting churches calling it missional community or missional living. With out the trend, with out the reward of flattery and cool Neville is doing it…with out the books! He told me a lot of his story and shared about how God changed the old angry, violent, and selfish Neville, that even his own family didn’t want around, into the Neville he is today. The humility in which he operates in his community and the work that Christ has done in him has impacted Ocean View for the Kingdom. I’m the “missionary” and I just got missioned. Neville even spoke a word of encouragement to me that was directly on point and exactly in line with what the Lord had showed me on Sunday.

We had to cancel our time at Lavender Hill today because I was asked to play drums at Base worship tonight. I was pretty nervous about it knowing that I haven’t even touched a drum kit in almost 6 months. Turns out I was right to be nervous. At least the first 30 minutes. While playing, my mind would say to do one thing but my arms and legs wouldn’t get the memo. After about about 30 minutes or so I was able to shake off the cob webs. The set went great and I am definitely a fan of playing drums in a multicultural charismatic worship environment!

Friday.

Vuyo next to a mostly finished 2 story shack

All ministry opportunities fell through today and a One on One appointment was postponed to next week. We did our big weekly grocery shop and prepared for our family’s homemade pizza and movie night.

In case you missed it or have forgotten: If you would like to purchase a one or two story shack for us to build for a family in Masiphumelele please email me. The single story is roughly $300 and the two story is roughly $650. Those amounts cover 100% of the material.

Week 5 Outreach Journal

July 19, 2016 By jesse Leave a Comment

Week 5 July 11-15

Monday.

This was supposed to be the first day of us running the coffee shop on Base but it didn’t work out. A bit frustrating but there’s not much we can do about it. I spent pretty much all day yesterday running diagnostic tests and trying to fix a friend’s macbook. He’s on staff and lives in one of the Granny cottages in the backyard. We were able to figure out that it was the hard drive and i’m suggesting a RAM upgrade too. The problem is finding affordable parts and repair. I don’t have any tools here to help him so we went to see a friend of his that works at a ministry called Beautiful Gates about a half hour drive from here.

Beautiful Gates was much bigger than I expected and super nice. I was impressed. Lunathi’s friend works in IT there and manages the computer room that the ministry has available for the people in the area. I’m really hoping Lunathi’s computer can get repaired.

We got back in to Muizenberg and we grabbed some lunch and took some fries to Norm and Allen, two homeless guys I’ve met while we’ve been here and visit now and then. We sat down with them for a little bit and chatted about wether or not it was going to rain and I gave them a brief history lesson on “The ship that won the war”, the LST. I have a tattoo of one on my left arm and Norman asked me what kind of ship it was.

We headed back to the house and spent time with the family and prepared for tomorrow’s happenings in Masi with Ithemba Woods, that’s “Shack Building Dave’s” organization, I just figured out that it had a name!

Tuesday.

The weather has been really nice the last few days. Looks like a cold front is coming mid week but we got one more nice day. Even though it was sunny and warmer today it was quite a bit windy so we couldn’t attach the last truss and roof to the 2 story shack. Instead, Vuyo and I made picture frames today. It was pretty fun. We started with going through the stacks of used wood finding appropriately sized pallet boards. We then stripped them down to the right width, ran them through the joiner, and planed them down the same thickness. That’s as far as we got before I had to leave. The first thing we did was finish up the frames that Vuyu started yesterday by running them through the underpinner machine. That was a cool experience, I’ve never used one of those before.

Dave was at another meeting the first half hour I was there. I was asking Vuyo if he has decided wether or not he wants to go through a DTS. He said he wasn’t sure so I asked him what would help him choose a yes or no because indecisiveness wouldn’t do him any favors. He told me he would apply if he could get a scholarship.

Just as soon as we finished our conversation about Vuyo and DTS Dave walked in with news! He told us that his friend that is leading the September DTS, whom Vuyo knows, was asking about him and wether or not Vuyo would like to have one of the three scholarships! God’s timing is impeccable! To top it off at 2pm today we had to go to the DTS and Admissions office to deliver their new table we finished up last week. Vuyo picked up an application. I know the enemy does not want Godly men raised up in Masiphumelele. So please keep him in your prayers as he begins to fill it out his application and wrestle with the enemy’s doubts and temptations that he will be throwing at Vuyo.

Wednesday.

Emily was back at Justice Dolls today and Vuyo, Dave, and I finished hanging the last rafter and attached the roof. Everleigh and River stay with me on Wednesdays while Eisley does her school work in the Justice Dolls workshop with Emily. Its fun to watch Everleigh and River run around and play while we work on the shacks. Today they practiced hammering nails, riding/racing their plastic motorcycles, and Dave gave them some large hand made African dollies(that were technically trash) that they ran around with and “nurtured”.

View from inside the shack of Everleigh and River nurturing their new dollies.

Thursday.

Back at Lavender Hill again today. There were over 200 kids this week. Also there were some other volunteers from a different organization today too. We split the kids up in to teams of roughly 20 and had a competitive time of field games such as sack racing, egg on a spoon, three legged race, etc. My team won again and Pastor Ivan is now suspicious of Emily and I more than ever, she was the judge again! HAHA, this time however I won out of pure luck. I had some of the older kids in my group that weren’t too cool to be competitive. They worked hard together as a team with hardly any input from me or the other leader in our group. Plus, this time Emily was just keeping a tally of the scores. I do believe we have a good case if we are subpoenaed. She’s 28 weeks pregnant now and looking it! I think Pastor Ivan feels bad for her so finds the responsible sit down jobs for her 🙂 We fed all 200 kids, which took a long time, helped clean up, then headed home. We ate a quick dinner and headed off to Base worship.

Friday.

Today we went back to Lavender Hill. It’s the last day off of the 3 week school break and Pastor Ivan has been feeding the kids everyday this week at 3pm. We went early and helped prepare the food and hung with the kids a little bit. I guess because Emily has been the judge the last couple weeks they are remembering her name and calling her by it. What’s funny about it is that it’s kids she doesn’t know and Emily is caught off guard when it happens. Interesting side note, culturally it’s disprectful for a boy to refer to an older male by their name including the surname. I get called uncle or teacher quite a bit because of it.