IFES Assembly in South Africa
SCO is the premier evangelical student organization working in both schools and post school institutions around the country. SCO started as the Student Christian Association (SCA) in 1896, serving as a mouth piece for Christ in schools and universities across South Africa. It was divided into four racially distinct groups by the order of apartheid in 1965. SCA served ‘English speaking whites’, ACSV served ‘Afrikaans speaking whites’, SCM serving ‘blacks’ and CSV serving ‘coloured’. SCA and SCM formally merged to form SCO at a joint conference at the Pietermaritzburg campus of DUT in 1997. SCO has grown over the years and it has a presence at most university campuses and TVET Colleges campus around the country. Some of the notable leaders who have served as leaders in the organization that have preceded SCO include our President Cyril Ramaphosa, Rev Frank Chikane (AFM), Rev Moss Ntlha (TEASA), Mr Septi Bukula (Business), Mr Maurice Radebe (Business) and many others
The Student Christian Organization (SCO) is hosting the IFES Assembly in the holiday and conference town of Bela Bela in Limpopo from the 3rd to 11th of July 2019. The Assembly is meeting under the theme: Messengers of Hope – The University in God’s Story. An estimated one thousand two hundred delegates and participants are expected at the Assembly from the five continents. The Assembly will bring together students, faculty, graduates, staff and senior leaders.
IFES is the international federation of evangelical students and has a presence in the five continents and in most universities of the world. The process to launch IFES was started in Norway in 1934 and culminated ina launch Assembly at Harvard University US in 1947.
IFES holds an Assembly once every four years, and it is coming to South Africa for the first time. The Assembly will bring together some of the finest evangelical students, senior leaders and faculty from around the world. Some of the planned plenary speaker at the Assembly include Rev Frank Chikane (AFM), Bishop Hwa Yung (Malaysia), DR Daniel Bourdanne (Chad), Alejandra Ortiz (Mexico), Ms Sabine Kalthoff (Germany), Dr Zac Niringiye (Uganda), Dr Chris Wright (United Kingdom), Mr Augustin Ahoga (Benin) and Dr Mamusha Fenta (Ethiopia).
The coming Assembly offers not just the SCO but the church in RSA an opportune moment to benefit immensely from the presence of so many renowned evangelical leaders in the country. IFES related ministries have unique competencies in the areas of evangelising and discipling students, leadership development, indigenous missions support development and cross cultural mission to students. We can host most of this leaders in our churches and organizations in the period before and after the assembly. Thus benefit from their gifts, talents, knowledge and experiences in our churches and organizations.
TEASA (The Evangelical Alliance of SA) is partnering with SCO to organize introductory breakfast meetings in at least twenty cities and towns across our country. The breakfast meetings will be hosted by local TEASA leaders and SCO Associates. The breakfast meetings will be used to introduce the ministry of SCO to churches and appraise churches about the coming Assembly and how churches can benefit from it.
If you or your local church wish to take advantage of the visiting ministry leaders to minister in your church, contact: aaronmolebi@gmail.co.za
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