Bill Hebner

‘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...

Khayelitsha School Build Project 2014   Click to see Extreme Build planned for this School Another international cast will be traveling for the first time from Canada, Wales and South Africa to the Khayelitsha informal settlement of 1.4 million people on the Mitchell plain just out of Cape Town.  Our project this year is to convert a small building servicing 80+ children into a school similar to the Lehae site of 2012 in Johannesburg ( click to see build plans )  The cost of the project is just under $40,000.00  (£25,000.00) to provide the space needed to support 300 children in the main auditorium with kitchen and bathroom facilities. A Project Inside of the Project.  (A very creative idea) Working with several international charities Northmount Baptist Church in Calgary is filling a 20’ shipping container with new school supplies and children’s equipment (or new condition) to send to Cape Town.  The goods will then be distributed by the ...

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...

The weather has begun to turn here in the U.K. The rain is just a little bit cooler than it was last week, and the sun is cresting the terrace houses at the end of the street a few minutes later every morning.   All around me everyone is drifting back to the routine of school and work.   I visualize 1 st year students excited to learn their A,B,C,’s while feeling apprehensive of being alone in school for the first time without a parent.   I can see teenagers looking at an algebra text they put down in July with only a vague recollection of the concepts. Now they’re praying for secret decoder rings that will remove the fog of summer neglect from their minds.   This is topped only by the worry of “Will anyone like me?”, and “Will they fit in this year’s social calendar?”.   Finally I can see parent’s breathe a sigh of relief as the routine of life gets back into gear. They are free of trying to pry their kids from a screen or pushing them to go out and get ...

If you have ever water-skied , driven a boat, flown a float plane or as some did this summer, flown   a hovercraft on a body of water, you will understand what I mean by getting up and on to the step .   It is the time when the period of greatest water resistance bleeds away and you can feel the craft really starting to make progress.   When you are waterskiing, you can often wonder if the battle is worth it... in a float plane and hovercraft it is part of the ride... but with a CAMP   it is the most exhilarating and overwhelming experience I think I ever had.     ON THE STEP Click for more Photo Updates   In 2010 the possibility of a camp in Middle Park was a dream, a collection of questions more than answers, and a list of logistics problems that kept most of us up at night....pondering solutions that would have to have answers for the camp to survive... BUT in 2013... Camp is now starting to seem NORMAL.. We had a new state o...

Since July 4 th I have had the privilege of working with just under 900 kids and leaders at camp .   Many of them hearing the good news of Jesus Christ the first time .   Others hearing it in a fresh and vibrant way.   ( Click to see photos of all the fun ) SEEDS SOWN   Vibrant and fresh presentation of the good news. As the lights go on in the souls of many of these teens, I often am quieted to think about their future as they go home.   Some face rocky soil, parents that will flat out tell them they are wrong, have made a mistake, and that the love in their life and the light in their eyes is a passing emotional phase.   Others will get home, perhaps even supported by parents that were hoping to introduce their youth to Christ in some way, only to see the seeds of excitement snatched away by the peer pressure and friendships that they are returning too.   15 young people from a community in Scotland will be facing such pressures as the world...