Dear Friends
The new year is ahead of us and maybe most of us are already going full steam. We pray and trust that this year will be a blessed year and that God will be with you and reveal Himself in a deeper and special way to you this year. This is not only the prayer of our hearts to you, but also for ourselves this year.
Kwasizabantu Ministers’ Conference
Coming March 2019, Kwasizabantu Mission in Natal South Africa is hosting their bi-annual South Africa Ministers Conference. In their own words:
Fellow-servants of the Lord,
The 21st KwaSizabantu Ministers’ Conference in South Africa is planned for 4 – 6 March 2019. We encourage you to attend and bring your spouse and any colleagues or friends who are involved in Christian ministry along. Services are from Monday evening to Wednesday evening. This frees you to be with your own congregations over the weekend.
At the 2019 conference, we wish to encourage servants of the Lord to be true to the Word of God despite challenges and opposition. Many values within society have shifted, but God’s Word is still the same yesterday, today and for all times. It is still relevant for this generation and will never become dated. God is still at work; revival is still a reality hence the theme is Revival – God at Work. Each servant of the Lord has to learn how to walk with God today so that our work has God’s blessing in whichever vineyard He has placed us.
We look forward to a time of refreshing and fellowship with all who join us.
We would like to encourage each and everyone to make effort to attend this very important conference, especially in these difficult times that we are living in.
Mattress Ministry
Funerals, it seems, had become part of the everyday life of the people of Onseepkans. It is not unusual to hear of two or three funerals a month, in an area where the local population probably counts not more than 4 000.
After someone has died, it is custom among the people to have a week of evening services at the house of the deceased. The Friday evening, the last evening before the funeral the next morning, the corpse is brought in a coffin to be the night with the family, relatives and sympathizers. A white flag is raised at the house of the deceased and a cooking shed erected where they make fire and cook meals in between. The Friday evening a special cooking team cook right through the night to ensure that there are enough food the next day of the funeral to feed everyone who attend. These funeral weeks are a special time of mourning for the family and relatives and also a sober time for self reflection and more openness towards the Gospel.
Ever since we came to Onseepkans we partook and helped where we could at these funeral weeks. Our involvement included contributing to and helping with meals, giving firewood and other help where we could, driving some of the people around and preaching the Gospel where we were allowed the opportunity.
Lately, however, it seems that a new door for involvement went open for us. We have a few mattresses that were donated to us several years ago. On several occasions so far we lent the mattresses to funeral homes to assist them in accommodating all the relatives and friends who want to attend, especially on the last Friday evening before the funeral.
A lady from the community collecting mattresses for a funeral
Assisting with funerals had become an important part of our ministry, enabling us to minister to families and communities in a way that would never have been possible otherwise. Sometimes just baking something simple like a milk tart or apple tart for the grieved family, brings comfort to them in a time of mourning. Other times by attending the evening services, those who are leading the proceedings would ask my wife or me if we would like to contribute some message or thought. This is very special for us, because it shows to us that we are not considered strangers anymore, but part of the community.
Please continue to pray for this very important part of our ministry.
Seed Production
We look back over the past year with much gratitude in our hearts. God had been good to us. We did many different trials and harvested cauliflower seed, lettuce seed, shallot seed, watermelon seed and carrot seed. Not only did the seed production become a major project of our mission, but it also give us an unique new opportunity to interact with the community. As we give people from the local community work, we spend much time with them in the field and have many opportunities to witness to them.
Waiting seven years for a Constitution
Nehemia had a calling from God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Maybe not everyone agreed with his calling. Maybe some questioned the rebuilding of the walls, questioning whether Nehemia spent his time and resources on the right thing. However, many years later as we read the Bible, we know that Nehemia heard God’s voice and was within His will to rebuilt the walls.
Sometimes God can expect something from us that are not always easy for others to understand. Some could even question if it really is from God that which we are busy with. Sometimes we ourselves can even doubt if we are really busy with the right thing, if we really are within God’s will. We could even feel alone and isolated in what we do, wondering if other brothers or sisters understand or agree to that which we do.
In rebuilding the walls Nehemia had to deal with the rubble and dirt that was left from the previous walls. He did not have nice clean ground on which he could just start building. Many times we are willing to hear God’s voice, provided that we have “nice clean ground” to start building on. How many missionaries go into the mission field with great zeal to win souls for Christ, but when they have to deal with the rubble and dirt that they did not expect, they become despondent and go home.
When we came to Onseepkans just over seven years ago, we idealistically thought that we will immediately start ministering to the people. We even made benches and a pulpit with the idea that we will conduct services on the veranda of our previous home. We soon realized that this will not happen. But then I was elected as chairperson of the irrigation board, at that stage a bankrupt organization that had to manage a completely dry irrigation canal! God’s ways are not our ways. It is now seven years since I was first elected and looking back over the past years it felt like a lonely journey digging into the dysfunctional rubble and dirt of Onseepkans. It took over a year to get a commitment from government to help us to get the canal to flow again and another six years battle to keep it flowing. Meanwhile government promised Onseepkans a new irrigation system and a difficult time followed of miscommunication, misunderstanding and mistrust.
However beginning last year I was approached by the government department of water and sanitation informing me that a new board had to be elected. Again the community chose me as the chairperson, at a special community meeting facilitated by officials from the department. This time round a proper board was elected with active board members, working together as a team to give Onseepkans Irrigation Board structure again and bring order in all the chaos of the past 10 to 12 years.
Beginning 2019 I drew up the new constitution of the new irrigation board. This was very special for me, it felt as if we just had rebuilt part of the ruins of Onseepkans. We are now working towards putting proper structures in place to not only manage the existing canal, but prepare the irrigation board for the management of the new system.
I was reminded of the words of Hudson Taylor:
“It is no small comfort to me to know that God has called me to my work, putting me where I am as I am. I have not sought this position, and I dare not leave it. He knows why He places me here, whether to do, or to learn, or to suffer.”
Dear brother and sister, let me encourage you with these words. When God has placed you at a lonely place or lonely position to labour for Him, do not be discouraged or lose hope. God chose you for that position. Stay faithful to Him, even though you do not understand. God knows why He has placed you there and God will reward you if you stay faithful to Him.
