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|| Newsletter Archive ||
April 2006
Dear Partners In Ministry,
It is with joy that we have been able to empty 6 m-bags sent to us from the States and begin passing out Sunday School material and books given to us from our supporting church’s missionary cupboards. These materials are going directly into the hands of pastors and church leaders in our African Baptist village and township churches. Recently, 7 Strong’s Concordances, an Ungers Bible Dictionary, Zodhiates NT Word Studies, and 13 other Bible books have gone mostly to pastors or pastors in training with 12 Bibles being distributed to new converts and 3 packets of S.S. material to the village churches. We have more to bless our African churches with and it is one thing we love to do. Thank you for giving and understand fully that these gifts of Bible study helps are greatly appreciated and used in the African churches.
I sat under the shade of a tree eating pap and mince with African pastors at our recent Easter Conference. I asked them about music and the inroads of Western styles and sounds on the indigenous African hymns and choruses. They assured me that there are many theologically rich indigenous hymns, however, they are slowly being lost. One of the main reasons for this is because there is nothing written down on paper and the young people are being bombarded with trite, repetitious choruses that seem to have little depth. There is a great need to teach basic music theory and notation to African musicians to help them preserve the past hymns as well as to help them in the further development of Christian songs. These pastors sitting with me under the tree convey an urgency to maintain their heritage of hymns and to equip youth with the tools to lead in a godly and biblical direction musically in future years. Maybe God would burden you to pray about this area and possibly help in sending someone gifted musically to address this strategic opportunity.
Some of you will recall the orphan family we have befriended ever since coming to South Africa. Mary, the oldest and head of the house, was led to Christ by a friend from our sending church in the States, Paulette Quiring. Her youngest sister, Sarah, was led to Christ by Nancy Teed, working at the time at Bethesda. And the two boys, August and Bongane, just believed and accepted the Gospel personally this past weekend at the Easter Conference. It is amazing how God has worked through all these culturally diverse people and circumstances and organizations to bring His message of salvation to this orphaned family who now have a church home and are rejoicing in their eternal inheritance.
Here are some prayer requests for you to partner with us in:
Charles - needs Christ, attending our church in Onderstepoort.
Matthews - leader in the village we are ministering in with the church, needs Christ, attended this year’s Easter Conference, was verbally made fun of for going.
Ronald - first one we met in the village, needs Christ.
Peter - strong, big guy, nice, needs Christ.
Grandpa Ben - old, gray bearded, drinks, smokes, thinks he is a “good enough” man, needs Christ.
Judas - first one to respond to Christ in the village, no doubt is experiencing much verbal persecution for doing so.
Sello - young man, 16, needs Christ, went with me to this year’s Easter Conference, made fun of for going.
Margaret - Seems to be a leader among the ladies at our church. Needs Christ.
Temba - running with me some evenings, strong, easy going, needs Christ.
Samson - not so strongJ , great personality, needs Christ.
Jerry - went with me to the Easter Conference, needs Christ, made fun of for going.
Josiah - involved in ZCC (Zion Christian Church - the largest African indigenous church in South Africa), helps us with yard work at our home, he and his wife and two daughters need Christ, planning to attend our church in Onderstepoort this Sunday.
*Many of these are living in the village where we are starting the church and battle with alcohol, gambling, smoking, teenage pregnancy, and other migrant village situations.
Let me fill you in on one of the difficulties in ministering in an African context. Because of the African communal environment, which is something the Western world knows little about, there is a sense in which everyone knows everything you do - especially if you are coming from outside the community, and especially if you are of different skin color. So, let’s say we want to minister to an orphan child who our daughter Cortney has befriended in a village church by having her overnight at our house. We work out the details with the granny who is watching over her and tell her when we will have her back. Sounds like a good plan and a positive outing for this little girl. However, since the neighbor doesn’t approve of taking the oldest orphan away from the granny, even if it is just overnight, the neighbor might complain to the church leadership and the church leadership may be upset with us because we caused problems for the community. The granny might think she can care for herself, but that places an added burden on the community in case she can’t. We need real wisdom in seeking to be lights, to minister as God gives us opportunity, and to understand and work in a context other than what we were raised in. We have found that it is always best to work through the pastors whenever possible, even for things that our Western thinking would not have church leadership connected with.
Here is a word from Caleb, age 11:
Hi, I have been taking care of our ostrich but on Friday it couldn’t stand up. We had two other ostriches die last year, this one is doing the same thing. The ostrich doctor said Gracie ate grass that was too long and it got stuck in her crop. Which makes sense because we had the neighbor mow, rake and bale up the grass in her pen but the baler broke down so it isn’t finished yet. I have been feeding her ostrich pellets, stones and water. She gets up on her knees for a longer time and hopefully she will stay strong until her stomach gets rid of the blocked grass. I hope she lives, she is nice. The rock tumbler I got for Christmas is working good. I have a lot of cool rocks that are polished. That’s all for now. Bye!
Odds and Ends:
As I was running past our church building in Onderstepoort, Sello, a 16 year old boy who has been attending the services, started to run with me. He accompanied me all the way back to our house so he could get a Bible of his very own in Northern Sotho.
From my journal:
“We had another service in "the abandoned warehouse" last night. The building has a large black swastica on one wall and cement pillars holding up a tin roof. As we sang, the people came in carrying their chairs of all different materials and conditions - plastic, wood, metal with no back, a plank with side supports, or just a log. There seemed to be no drunkards tonight. Just before I got up to speak I noticed a large rat crawling along the rafters just above Cortney, Jacob and Caleb's heads as they sat on wooden pallets with the other African village kids. They were none the wiser.”
We have had about 50 - 60 attend the last two weeks since having 75 our first Sunday with the Jesus film. After Easter we are going to start discipleship/training classes - like Sunday School - on Sunday afternoons before the evening service. I am planning to teach the Bible using the flannelgraph board and Betty Luken cut-outs given to us by the ladies of Fourth Baptist Church!
In response to hearing that August and Bongone got “saved”, Josiah, our youngest, said, “Who captured them?” Praise God they were “captured” by Christ!
May your love for Christ abound more and more.
Serving the King with Gladness,
Kevin, Sarah and the Pak (Ben, Nathan, Caleb, Luke, Cortney, Jacob, & Josiah)
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African Churches Rooted and Built up in Him. - Col. 2:6,7
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