Mission
People passionate about the church’s involvement in the world. Our purpose: To facilitate opportunities for everyone in the church to realize their significance through serving outside of our church.
Pinelands Baptist Church supports several career missionaries who live and work in various places from Panama to Thailand; involved in activities such as Bible translation with Wycliffe Bible Institute, flying planes for MAF, working for Healthcare Christian Fellowship, etc.
PBC facilitates short-term trips where we partner with missionaries and local churches to support them in their ministry. We also use these as opportunities to disciple team members who participate in the trips . Places we’ve sent teams to in the last 6 years include:
Career missionaries.
Colleen Dechaboon.
Home of the Open Heart – Thailand
Colleen remains on staff at Home of the Open Heart (HOTOH), working as housemother to Mercy and Faith. She has been a staff since January 2009. The twins have health and educational challenges. Colleen sees to their multiple medical appointments. In this season, Mercy and Faith are at a small home school co-op run by an Australian Missionary. Colleen is also involved in the teaching process. She is the children’s healthcare advisor at HOTOH and also functions in this role with their local Thai staff and our long term foreign volunteers too.
Colleen remains on staff at Home of the Open Heart, working as housemother to Mercy and Faith. She is working 1 day as a school nurse at CRICS per week. Later this month Colleen will start teaching a parenting skills course with a mother who lives at Home of the Open Heart ( HOTOH) along with her 2 teen boys. She is the children’s healthcare advisor at HOTOH and also functions in this role with their local Thai staff and our long term foreign volunteers too.
Kees and Fredah van der Vinne.
Beautiful Gate
Kees & Fredah are thankful for God’s work at Beautiful Gate that we could be a part of since 2003. Beautiful Gate seeks to reflect Gods image through the care and protection of children, empowerment and preservation of families and community mobilization. It does this through various programmes and projects run within the premises and outside. Therefore it is important that facilities at the centre are in good working order so that staff are enabled to perform their supportive tasks to children and their families.
Kees is primarily involved in this area with other team members. One of the rewarding tasks this year (2017) has been the painting of classrooms in one local school near BG as part of providing/facilitating a conducive environment towards learning for children. Fredah and the kids are supportive and prayer partners in this work and they are very appreciative of the church family and God who enables them.
Vaughan and Corné Stannard.
Beautiful Gate
Vaughan and Corné Stannard serve at Beautiful Gate in Crossroads township outside Cape Town. Having always been passionate about mercy ministry, Vaughan now serves as a doctor and the director of the project in the township of Crossroads. ‘The job is very varied and I often joke that on Mondays I’m a doctor, Tuesdays a social worker, Wednesdays a manager, Thursdays a pastor and Fridays a fundraiser! Corné works from home as a report writer to help supplement our income and the boys, Ben and Ethan are now both in their teens and enjoying high school, sport and socialising.
In our Child and Family Resource Centre in Lower Crossroads, we deliver the following services: Family Strengthening Services, Parenting Training and Support, Community and Family-based care and placement for abandoned and orphaned children, an HIV Child and Adolescent Clinic, After School Education Support for learners in local Primary and Secondary Schools in our area. We also create a “Social Service Hub” hosting organisations such as Dept of Social Development, SA Social Services Association (SASSA) and other organisations providing child and family services for the Philippi community.
Adrian & Helen Harrod.
Operation Mobilization, Cape Town
Adrian (Durban) and Helen (UK) met and married in the UK after graduating from Missions Bible School. They served as a family on board the OM ship, Doulos, then lived in Manila, Philippines, before coming to Cape Town in 2013.
They have 2 children at a local primary & high school. Adrian and Helen work with OM. They enjoy facilitating people who want to serve God locally and especially those who have a desire to serve globally amongst the least reached. They want to see vibrant communities of Jesus followers among all nations.
Mark & Lorraine Liprini.
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Mark has been a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) for nearly 20 years. He is passionate about using aviation to bring God’s blessing to desperately poor people in remote rural areas of Southern Africa.
MAF is an organization that provides aviation, communications, and learning technology services to more than 1,000 Christian and humanitarian agencies, as well as thousands of isolated missionaries and indigenous villagers in the world’s most remote areas. Mark and Lorraine have recently moved to Uganda on a 4-year contract with MAF.
Joan Kotze.
Mercy Ships, Africa
Joan works with Mercy Ships, a global humanitarian organisation that uses hospital ships to deliver free, world-class health care services and capacity building and sustainable development to those without access in the developing world. It has helped to transform the lives of more than 2.42 million people in the poorest countries of the world. Each year Mercy Ships 1,600 volunteers from more than 40 nations. Together they seek to bring hope and healing to the world’s poor one life, one community at a time.
Joan’s role within Mercy Ships changed as she takes on the role of Programs Medical Capacity Building Director. In her new role, she will oversee the whole Medical Capacity Building Program, as well other countries specific non-ship projects and e-learning. Joan’s new role will be managed largely from Cape Town.
Joan’s main responsibilities include assessment, design, planning and implementation of more than 20 training and mentoring programs in these nations.
Sydney & Andrea Witbooi.
Overseas Mission Fellowship
Sydney and Andrea were sent out from PBC over 38 years ago. They joined OMF International in 1984 and have lived and served the Lord in five countries over the years. In April 2020, Sydney and Andrea relocated to Germany from East Asia, where they live in the city of Cologne. The couple have three married daughters, one in the UK and the other two in Germany (Cologne and Frankfurt) and enjoy their four grandchildren.
Andrea, as TCK (third-culture kid) advisor, mentors and advises families who have children. Sydney coaches and facilitates the team involved in ministry among East Asians in Germany. He is also active in mentoring younger leaders (and potential leaders) throughout OMF International.
Bernadette White-Philips.
Capricorn Community Church
Bernadette is pastor at Capricorn Community Church near Muizenberg. This role provides a huge opportunity for many different ministries in the church and broader community in Capricorn Park.
In partnership with local pastors and organisations, CCC offers a clinic, teen pregnancy counselling, youth groups, soup kitchens, community care workers, community clean-ups and disaster relief packs, to name a few. There are many daily challenges Bernadette faces working with folks from the area, but she is finding the work a real answer to God working in and through her to share His love, grace and hope in often desperate circumstances.