Bill Hebner

  TRUST  This (Proverbs 3:5,6) was one of the first verses I committed to memory as a young Christian.   It summed up just about everything I believed in according to my new found faith …. The whole nature of becoming a bond servant of Christ and the need to jump spiritually and say "How High?" and "W hat direction God?" on the way up.   This may seem unorthodox to most in our intellectually conservative world, but it is what the nature of obedience to the Holy Spirit is all about.   And it is how I have chosen to live life. So with this philosophy intact, I sit in a 1 bedroom flat 900m from the 2015 YMP project.   Listening through the night to the grumblings of a community faced with Xenophobic threats and uprisings that are growing due to outside sources…   At the same time I am trying to clean off my suit to meet with the Lesotho education minster about containerized schools while sitting in coveralls as I plan to try my had on some w...

 Click for more pictures and info   November has found me in a rural community just outside of Mtwapa Kenya.   The goats here out number the white residence about 100 to 1.   I am here with the Hope for the Nations charity, to build the two story residence for women wanting to break free from the streets and prostitution.   It is a beautiful community, quiet and just a little away from it all so it seems.   This is in contrast to the constant traffic jam that makes up the main roads through and to Mtwapa from Mombassa.   An 8 mile journey that should take 20 minutes but often is well over 1 hr at best.   The street is peppered with somewhat abandoned hotel builds for the European tourist trade, now left empty due to the recent rash of terrorism in the area.   This is unfortunate as the friendliness of the majority of the people rivals that of our dear friends in South Africa .   They do not have much, but are willing to help to...

‘Christianity is not the absence of sin, but the fullness of life’.   It is a modification of John 10:10, where Christ is quoted, ‘I have come to give you life and life abundantly’.    For years this has been my mantra, to understand the sovereignty of God and to get on with stepping out in faith.   Recently I heard the catch phrase, ‘If you are saved you serve’.   And I must admit that I liked this… I liked it a lot.   Fullness of life is found in the reality of moments, in which we are present and choose to embrace those around us and reach beyond our circle to express love and support. Nothing more, nothing less than harvesting the opportunities before us on a moment by moment basis through serving with the gifts that God has given us. It is in this focus on others we find Joy, and not wanting to be cheesy, remembering that JOY is spelt Jesus, Others, and then You…. But what happens to us if we do not engage ?   People do not go out and b...

A Good Chance to Visit (Back in Canada!) Through a gift from my sister and a friend in the US, it is going to be possible to take the whole family home this February to western Canada for 5 weeks from Feb 1 to March 6 th .   We really want to connect with as a many people as possible, some of you we have already started to try to organize dates.   So if you want to see us for any extended time, or if you have a group of friends that you feel we should get together with, please send us an email or Facebook message.   We have chosen not to have formal dates to get together this year as important relationships are hard to build on at these events.   Instead we are planning on using more of our time face to face.   Below are a rough list of dates we will be in various cities.   If it doesn’t fit exactly let me know as we can still change them a few days either way to accommodate. Feb 1 to Feb 4        Calgary Feb 5...

more photos November 5 th saw a small group of 21 youth and adults from Llanelli South Wales complete the installation of the new ceiling and electrical system for the Khyae centre in Lehae.   In addition to this main project, the group doubled the bakery capacity by adding a second container, laid out 200m2 of turf for the kids to play on... AND took time out to return to The Ebenezer Care Centre to render the 2 nd   of the April 2013 project buildings that still needed to be done. As we waved good bye to this energetic group, Humphrey Birkenstock and I departed for the Khayelitsha township in Capetown to look at a potential 2014 service project site.   Nothing can prepare you for a township of 1.4 million plus people living on a floodplain amongst great wealth and vineyards.   Nothing can rob your emotions like giving flat out for 20 days to fill one humanitarian need, only to have to create another solution 24hrs later for another group of those in nee...

_______________________________________ I had a great deal of affirmation after last month’s blog.   We truly do serve only one.   He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.   But we do not serve in isolation.   Often, outside of our control we encounter ‘gifts from God’.   These co-travellers, committed to the same relationship with God, but skilled in different ways to compliment what God is doing in our own life.   When we walk with the Lord it is amazing how many of these travellers appear to support a vision centred on the development of God’s kingdom.   This blog is dedicated to those who ‘draw alongside’ at the right time, for the right reasons, to weave together the tapestry we are constructing for Him. Bob with me in Africa building relief housing..... Bob- A 70+ servant of the Lord , faithfully comes and waters the grass on our hot Welsh spring days ensuring that there will be a playing field for youth this summ...

March to May has seen very little time for pausing and reflecting.   If I was not off to Africa, I was preaching at my local church or digging a ditch at the summer camp.   There has been no end of variety of activity that I have face on any given day or week this spring.   But how do you measure if this time was successful or not?   How do we quantify success with such diversity in life?   How do any of us know if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing when we are doing so many diverse things? I don’t think I am alone in saying that we all face this at some time in our lives.   We live in a fluid world with so many variables that it can seem hard to find a benchmark to determine success.   Kids come, kids go, work goes well and then hits a wall, our health is here and then the health is a hopeful memory standing in our way of what we used to be able to accomplish.   So how do we measure success?   It is my firm belief that t...

Please Note: There has been a 10 day delay in the posting of this blog. Bill has been in Africa since March 18 th . All Africa photos have been taken since his arrival, My apologies for the delay. T.R admin This blog is being written @ 32,000 ft as I am once again folded into an economy seat in the back of a Boeing 777 head back to Johannesburg for our 2013 YMP build.   This year 92 youth and leaders are attending this year’s build event. Our first contingency of 12 from Calgary Younglife...Yes Calgary…will be building the first phase of a 32 bed dorm for orphans. Why?.....Why not? We are His workmanship created to do good works in Christ (Ephesians 2:10).    Our Job More 2013 Photos In Gallery Our job is to meet teens where they are at in order to help them to understand the full cost of being a disciple, and to become complete in Christ. This needs to be done BEFORE we send these youth out from high school to stand on their own. Therefore we need to develo...

This is the 12 th year that we are serving in the UK and we will once again not be in Canada for Christmas.   With family at such a distance, this season often fills me with reflections awakened by the appearance of several distinct worlds which emerge in the UK as people precipitate around their own traditions…often songs reflect well where they are coming from. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer The first world is filled with those are going to have   “The best Christmas ever!” , what the event is about is immaterial to most, it is just going to be the best Christmas ever.... Whether Jesus is central or not is secondary. Santa Claus is Coming to Town Second world is filled with the awkwardness of people troubled by the social balancing act created by holiday events. Blended families, strained relationships and unresolved conflicts are brought to a head around a series of several forced relational days which can no longer be avoided by TV dinners eaten on lap trays i...

This week, and this summer I have had the privilege of being on the receiving end of a service project for a change.   Over 85 youth, college, and now adults have made the pilgrimage to Wales to serve in the new Middle Park camp.   At first clearing the site, then waiting on tables and cleaning toilets, and now building a new shower facility for the 2013 season, while cleaning up on a lot of needed projects in the Powis prayer house as well as the camp. Receiving a gift such as this can be well.... humbling.... actually quite unnerving.   We sign up to the Christian message in the words of Dietrich Bonhoffer, ‘I bid you come and die’, or in the words of Paul, ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives within me’, and then we are off, to serve, to give, to sacrifice, to pour out our life blood as a fragrant offering to the most high God, bathed in love for Him, with others receiving the joy of our sacrifice.....BUT, ...

The work continues to expand...... We are completely amazed how certain elements of our lives ‘prosper’ daily while others seem to lay dormant for years and then explode like bamboo shoots.   But one thing that seems to be happening is that the work here is growing.   This is a good; it is and has been the dream since we committed to stay here 12 years ago.   To build a self standing incarnational mission in Wales, that would be run by the Welsh to carry the message of Jesus Christ into the future for the next generations of Welsh youth.   Our work has always been this goal, and will remain this goal.    However as the work expands, so too do the demands on my time, our resources and ‘life blood’.   Please continue to pray for the right help to come along that can support the national ministry.   That local funds would continue to grow to support the local staff, and that we would not grow tired in the day to day as we sense that the work is...