Joseph Project
Why we Exist
Vision
Joseph Project’s vision is to see every child and teen in South Africa come to salvation, enter the local church and then be consistently discipled in the ways of God and His Kingdom so that we will see a generation of men and women leading South Africa and beyond in the fear and love of God, transforming ‘business as usual’ in every domain of society.
Mission
- To evangelise, disciple and then release the anointed leaders of this generation to go out and reach their peers and diciple them to reach more until all have heard the whole Gospel.
- To challenge the next generation to regard; humility, self discipline, integrity, morality, hard work, diligence, perseverance and equality the only acceptable set of norms to live and judge by.
- To equip the next generation with the 'tools' to transform their families then communities and finally society at large by providing the leadership and instruction needed to transform this nation.
- Maintain a voice into and on behalf of this generation.
Objectives
- Develop the skills to discern and recognise who the boys and girls of peace are in this generation and then implement programmes to train and equip them.
- Continually stay in touch with what issues affect this generation and ongoingly champion their cause where they are subjected to injustices regardless in what domain of life these injustices occur, through the means of media, political lobbying, protest action and other forms of activism.
- Continually engage with the local church to ensure that effective and sustainable children and teen evangelism and discipleship remain high on their agenda, and then to assist as and when needed to empower local congregations to improve their effectiveness in these two areas of ministry.
- To provide facilities and run programmes as response to shortfalls in the local church and/or felt needs amongst the children and teens.
- Continually network with teen and children experts and agencies (and to explore for new ones) both inside and outside of YWAM, in order to have a comprehensive array of resources on hand to provide adequate support for the local church as per point 4.
- Continually engage with other people and organisations, who have direct contact and/or influence over children and teens, in such a way as to bring about their ‘buy-in’ to our vision and objectives.
- To remain informed and able to lead the next generation to their own revelation of what ‘Thy Kingdom come.’ looks like in the South African and broader international context.
- Establish a comprehensive means of measuring the effectiveness of Joseph Project’s activities so that at any time it can give an accurate account for its activities and the success it is having in fulfilling its objectives. This applies to Joseph Project’s objectives as well as strategic activities designed to facilitate the fulfilment of the vision.
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History
The Joseph Project was independently birthed in the hearts of Dylan Atkinson and Jonathan Botha back in 1998 tho they only met and realised this three years later in 2000.
Initially they felt called to establish a youth-centre. A place where the kids could come and feel they belong, but most importantly that they would be introduced to the love of God. However once God gave the ministry the name Joseph Project the objective of the ministries came much more clearly defined.
Centred around the story of the Old Testament character Joseph 10th son of Jacob (Genesis 37-48).The ministry was about those kids in the community who, like Joseph, have an anointing to be leaders in their generation. Yet, just like Joseph, have huge obstacles in their path. So the youth-centre was not the objective it was merely be the vehicle to realise the vision – a generation of young Spirit filled leaders shaping the destiny of this nation and beyond. The creation of a generation of Josephs.
Jonathan and Dylan supported by their wives Maria and Young Mi, respectively, identified inadequate education as one the biggest obstacles to the Joseph dreams and so established the homework centre (officially ‘Revival’ but locally known only as ‘the Centre’) in 2001 to address this. Seeds of Hope was later added as a school readiness centre (Grade R) to attempt to provide a better foundation for kids entering school. The work then spread to address other areas of need.
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Legal Status
Joseph Project is registered as a NPO with the Dept of Social Services. We are also registered as a PBO with South African Revenue Service and have Sec 18a status, which means we are able to issue tax certificates to donors wanting to include their donation to us in their tax returns.
However aside from our legal status we are recognised as a YWAM Ministry Base by YWAM South Africa national leadership although there is no legal bond or connection between us and other YWAM bases and ministries in South Africa or abroad.
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Facilities
Joseph Project owns (mortgage free) two adjoining buildings. One double storey and the other a single storey. The double storey building is home to 4 upstairs rooms and 4 ground floor rooms. Upstairs is the team and visitor accommodation with enough beds to house 25 people. Downstairs has two rooms dedicated to Seeds of Hope, an office and a staff lounge. There are also two single seater toilet/shower rooms.
The single storey house's interior was gutted by the previous owners to serve as a small warehouse. There is a 'hall' area, boys and girls toilets, a garage/workshop, team kitchen, covered dining area and another covered parking/lecture/playing area.
There are also two outside shower cubicles and an outbuilding housing the staff kitchen, the laundry and another toilet/shower combo.
There are also 6 (2X3) shipping containers - the 3 on ground level have been converted to schoolwork rooms and the upper 3 are mostly storage space.
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