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Opportunities

those of you who have come to this page could generally be put into one of three groups. Potential donor, potential volunteer or potential YWAM partner... if you're none of the three I apologise for my presumption when setting this page out as I did.

Potential Donors more...
Potential Volunteers more...
Potential YWAMers more...

Potential Donors

410 Commissioner 'The Centre' more...
Seeds of Hope more...
Miscellaneous more...

Joseph Project relies on outside funding for it's survival. This includes funding of both the work and the workers. If we had the best facilities and programmes available, but none of our dedicated and selfless team members and volunteers we would be nothing. Our team can operate without facilities, but the facilities could never operate without the team. Joseph Project does not pay salaries, everyone on the team has to raise their own support. It is an unfortunate reality that generally country of origin and also marketing skill separate the well supported missionaries from the poorly supported missionaries. A quiet introverted African might be an exceedingly better missionary than a glib mouthed Westerner, but because of restricted access to wealthier Churches and/or inability to confidently sell himself, he ends up living below the poverty line while his Western colleague drives a Pagero. However that isn't always true and in some cases the Westerners live below the poverty line while their '3rd World' colleagues fly high, though this is not the norm.

So if you are passionate about missions, but are not called to work in this domain then we would really like to partner with you. We would like you to share in the fruits of our labour while we are physically sustained by a portion of the fruits of your labour.

If you are contemplating supporting our work financially or materially, then I ask you to consider supporting the workers (a team member or local volunteer or DTS student) first before you consider supporting the work itself.

We are committed to cut our operating costs as much as possible and so one of the things we're looking at is to reduce our electricity costs as much as possible. To this end all water heating is done by gas or solar, but we could half our gas consumption by installing more solar water heaters. We have also half the infrastructure in place to catch rainwater coming from the roof, but still need the guttering to be re-routed (which essentially means replacement).

So with that in mind here is a wish-list of things we would like to buy/install:

410 Commissioner St.

- new gutter system to feed storage tanks.
- 400l solar water heaters (either 1X300l and 1X100l or 2X200l)
- Desktop PC with +2GB RAM, +500GB hard drive and a dual core CPU suitable to handle video editing plus a 17" flat-screen monitor. Win7, Nero Suite and PhotoShop would be nice too.
- accommodation extension: staff/student lounge on second floor of main building, container conversion in single quarter and 2 room flat as second floor to staff kitchen and laundry.
- 22 HD foam mattresses.
- Several PSII's or similar game consuls with games

Seeds of Hope

- relocation to 408 Commissioner St. : painting, carpeting, skylighting and shelving.
- toys and books
- stationery and art consumables
- bulk T-shirts and/or shorts to serve as uniform (any colour)
- sponsoring a child's school fees. When some of the kids attending Seeds really shine we'd love to place them in a decent primary school but most often the parents can't afford the high school fees.

Miscellaneous

- Staff accommodation. Like all cities Johannesburg's rented accommodation is skyrocketing and so many of those wishing to join us, cannot afford to do so because it's too expensive to find somewhere affordable and secure close-by to live. So we would like to buy or rent (long-term) a house that can house staff and volunteers.
- Training Centre. In anticipation of a significant increase in training we need a property that could house 40 students plus have adequate lecture and recreational space.



This stand has four buildings (the 2 visible and 2 more behind) on it and is current owned by a slum-lord. She's asking R3mil ($50 000) for the lot.

- To date Joseph Project has not owned a vehicle. All transporting has been done by privately owned vehicles. This works fine while there are YWAMers with sufficient means to afford a personal vehicle, but we might very soon move to a situation where the bulk of workers don't have personal vehicles to travel around it. We understand that a vehicle doesn't come as a once off and that for the life of that vehicle there will be running and insurance costs. However we could use a 8-10 seat people-mover very effectively.

Should you wish to give money please let us know if it's a designated gift or for general use.

Bank Details:

Standard Bank of South Africa
Bedford Gardens Branch
Current Acc.: 02 258 1553
Br. Code: 01-83-05-93
SWIFT SBZAZAJJ

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Potential Volunteers

There is lots of scope for short term volunteers in Joseph Project. You can work in Joseph Project alongside an existing ministry or we can second you to other organisations in our community. If you got to the "Activities" page then you will see what is on offer in Joseph Project at present. We are however open to start new things if someone comes with a specific vision. The one proviso being that the new project must either have predetermined life-span or must be established in such a way that when you leave, a local team has been established to carry on the project.

So what's available outside Joseph Project?

-teaching assistance in 2 local junior schools. This can be formally recognised if you are seeking formal teaching prac as part of a diploma/degree course.

-medical care of various disciplines centred around a local AIDS hospice or 'home based' care work.

-a whole range of community development opportunities centred around a local slum district one block away from our centre.

-life skills and life orientation and many other high school related opportunities in two nearby high schools (p.s. South Africa doesn't have a junior high phase)

- professional skills - perhaps you'd like to get involved, but you just don't have the time. Perhaps you would consider making your professional skills available pro bono for people in our community who really cannot afford professional help.

NB This is not an exhaustive list of opportunities but is comprehensive enough to give you a good idea.

If you feel you'd like to volunteer full time with us but for a period longer than 12months, we would very strongly recommend you do a DTS first. Our rational behind this recommendation is that being involved for such a relatively long period you'd become a part of the team yet could sometimes feel alienated when exclusively YWAM stuff is going on.

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Potential YWAMers

You might have noticed at the top of the page in the intro. that I used the term 'YWAM partners'. At Joseph Project there are no YWAM staff because no-one gets paid to work with us. We are a group of highly committed missionaries who share a similar vision and partner with each other to see that vision realised.

So if you are at a place in your life where you feel you are ready to answer a call into long-term missions and are considering YWAM, then you need to know the following...

- YWAM is strongly faith based and so in the area of financial support all its members, from the international chairman right down to the entry level student, raise their own support. And depending on what nation you're called to that can vary from around $300 to well over $1000 per month.

- You have to successfully complete the 6 month induction course called the DTS (Discipleship Training School) which is run in many languages in many countries on every continent (except Antarctica) all through the year... JP's DTS other DTS's 1, 2.

- YWAM is very team oriented and so you have to come with a heart willing to serve others, work in teams and submit to leadership. If you are inclined to be a loner then YWAM is not the ideal place for you.

- If you are a very structured person who likes operating in a structured environment then YWAM is not the best place for you, although there are localised YWAM operations that are highly structured. However on the whole, YWAM is more of a movement than an organisation in it's operation.

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