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Mobile Evangelisation Tents
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Archive newsletter in pdf
If you want any previous Newsletters please contact us.
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July 2010
1. God is involved in the small things in life! 2. Western Cape 5. Vryheid Tent 7. Admin. 8. Prayer:
GOD IS INVOLVED IN THE SMALL THINGS IN LIFE !Math.10:29-31: "Do not two sparrows sell for a coin of small value? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's knowledge. But the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Therefore do not be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows". God is presented in the Bible as the all-present, all-knowing, all-seeing God. who created and maintained heaven and earth, but also a God who is intensely involved with the least of events hereon earth. This involvement incorporates even that which happens to the smallest of birds. Hence the remark : 'Why have you never seen a thin bird; because God cares for every one!' Even when one dies God knows. In so far as man is concerned, God's reign includes so-called trivialities such as: He is aware of even the loss of one strand of hair from our heads. Every cell of our bodies function under God's control. "The Lord has established His throne in heaven and His Kingdom rules over all." (Ps. 103:19). “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry." (Ps. 34:15). "The eyes of the Lord are everywhere keeping watch over the wicked and the good." (Prov. 15:3). The reason for God telling us of His involvement even in the most trivial things sets us free from our fear that He might not care about them. "Do not be afraid ... ( v 31). Our daughter from Australia visited us in George and ten days before her return she visited her sister in Johannesburg. The last weekend of her stay arrived and she was ready and packed to fly to Australia on the Monday. My wife and I returned from a visit on Friday evening. As we drove into our Townhouse complex the vehicle started to malfunction and we barely made it to our garage. I decided to have my vehicle towed in for repairs on the Monday and so we began to gather all our possessions from the car. It was then that my wife discovered my daughter's Australian passport. She was unaware that the passport was not with her. We phoned her and arranged to send it by speed mail on Saturday morning. Early on Saturday I went to my car and switched it on. There was nothing wrong with it! On Monday morning at the garage they could not find any fault with the car. Had the car not given the trouble on Friday night we would never have discovered the passport in time to reach my daughter for her Monday flight to Australia. What a great God to show us the passport in time!! We praised God for His involvement and reminded each other of more incidents in, seemingly, trivial needs in our lives: The time when my wife mentioned that she would like a wooden curtain rod for the bathroom window. That afternoon as we walked along the beach the very rod she needed had washed up out of the sea. The time that she needed a glass lid for her pretty glass flask I found exactly the lid required on the shelf in a second-hand dealer's shop - as though God had placed it there for me! By chance? No! Just imagination? No definitely not!! This is the God , the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the God who counted the hairs on my head, the God who shows the birds the worms. A father so wonderfully involved with the smallest needs of His children.
"Give, and it shall be given unto you." (Luke 6:38) Solomon said, "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed" (Proverbs 11:25).
It is one of the many remarkable features of following Jesus, that you cannot give without receiving back even more than you gave. The other side is also true - you cannot receive without giving.
"So, instead of going through life as a taker, grabbing desperately at everything you can get your hands on, and then storing it up in secured bins of plenty - open the flood gates of generosity and start being a giver. The truth be told, you cannot live until you give." - Ryle -
Western CapeNico relates: "During a follow-up meeting on the farm 'Uitvlug' a man called Kallie gave his heart to the Lord. I will never forget that simple and yet earnest prayer; a cry from the heart of a lost soul to God for salvation! When we visited him weeks later he was able to testify to being released from his alcoholism. He now spends his Saturdays with his rod and earthworms fishing in the farm dam away from the drunkenness in the community which he now detests. He starts his mornings with a quiet time which leaves him clean and like a new person ready to face the day. One Saturday morning one of his co-workers came into his home sad and crying that he now wanted that which Kallie had received from the Lord. Kallie's girlfriend was however very sceptical about this 'salvation' which, surely, would not last! Today she acknowledges that Kallie's life has indeed changed and we praise God for another soul saved by grace. Kallie has now started distributing tracts with gusto and wants no more of his old lifestyle. Even his old friends can see how the Lord has intervened in Kallie's life and we thank Him for his boundless grace."
Empangeni TentThe March campaign was held for farm labourers in the Hluhluwe area. We thank the Lord for the way in which He leads folk with the need to be reconciled to Him, to our workers. No one comes to the Father without a pull from the Father! Paulus, a worker and induna on one of the farms gave his heart to the Lord. He tells that people always called him the witchdoctor (umthakathi, one who can kill). Since his salvation people have seen such a change in him that they no longer see him as such but have started respecting him as the induna. The next campaign was at Esikhaweni, near Empangeni. The team was invited by one of the many strange named churches nl. The God action Church. The workers had to preach in the midst of great confusion and mistrust among the people due mainly to the fact that preachers were seen to be out to feather their own nests and to seek personal affirmation. This lead to small attendances at first. Most people in the area seemed to view a preacher as one who would either milk them of their money or would interfere with their wives or girlfriends. This perception makes the life of a true Evangelist very difficult and our workers had to revert to home- and school visits. They have had follow-up visits and some success has been achieved. Nokukhanya (19) complained about a number of problems. When the workers started praying for her she fell to the ground and started screaming and crawling like a snake. This was the manifestation of the Umamlambo (snake spirit), a common problem among the Black people. What a privilege to have been able to experience the victory of Christ in practice over many years- as in this case when this young girl received release and relief as this evil spirit left her body. At our subsequent visit she was full of praise of the Lord for her salvation. The tent then moved to St. Lucia area. This was a first visit to this area where a highlight of the campaign was the salvation of a young man (21). He was touched by the Word and came for counseling to be freed from dagga dependence. He was desperate as he had so often in the past tried in own strength unsuccessfully tried to rid himself of this habit. We thank the Lord that he has been set free. ****************** Mpontshane sent in the following report from one of the Empangeni teams. (This team has been split into two). This is his second report and we place it as he has written it. Newsletter from the KwaSithebe (Mandeni) Campaign This time we started our Campaign differently. We set up our tent and began with a three day period of prayer for the area as a preparation for the Campaign. Thank you also for your accompanying prayers. We have seen God doing so much. We are happy to be his servants. We knew that people will be busy with 2010 Soccer World Cup, but the people attended instead of that. The weather was very cold, but the people came. Another problem was that many preachers that visited the area before us used the Bible as a tool to get money from the people. We needed to build up mutual trust. Testimonies: On the fourth day of the crusade we saw God's hand in the healing of a man who was demon possessed. He did not know his name and surname but we prayed for him and after that prayer he came back to his senses. From that day onwards he was again able to bath himself and wash his clothes.
We also saw God working in the people who did not come to the tent campaign. Through the sound system and the preaching coming from the tent they heard everything. There was a 55-year old woman who was full of evil spirits such as the amadlozi, tikoloshe, mamlambo, izizwe, etc. That woman was healed in the name of Jesus. There was another 35-years man. His parents passed away when he was five. His uncle and aunt adopted him. Sadly when he was 12 this aunt raped him and started to teach him how to have sexual intercourse. She used to show him her naked body everyday. Due to this situation he decided to go away and he went back to his father's house. Because his Father's house was destroyed he built a new one and made his living through the planting of maize. This maize was destroyed by the neighbours cattle. He attacked the people and was then arrested and sent to prison. In prison he became sick. He used to see a green mamba and frogs and was very unhappy. After all that happened to him he became mentally disturbed. This man came for counseling. But praise God he gave his life to Jesus Christ. He was delivered and now desires to become a member of our team. We asked him to pray about it. Finally, living for some time in this place we realized that this is a terrible place. The majority of the people is not married and lots of women have children without marriage. When we did our door-to-door visits we found most of the boys living together with their girlfriends without having paid lobola or being married. The people in this area really need God and His intervention through Jesus Christ as their Savior. Please pray for us as we work with the people.
of Joseph Dladla. Eighteen years ago Joseph gave his heart to the Lord at one of our tent services. He was in St.8 at that stage and asked to join the Mission. We encouraged him to finish his Metric first. He did so, subsequently went to Bible College and then was appointed as a tent leader, where he served for a number of years. Here follows news of his ministry after he left us. BRIEF HISTORY FOR KHETHANI CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP "It all started when I had a burden in my heart to share the gospel with the Winterton community since according to how I observed there was no doctrinally/ evangelically sound church among the black community. I would drive a total of 46km to Winterton, from where I used to stay, preaching in schools, to a group of people working in a factory as well as domestic workers on a weekly basis. This was from August 2003. As the time went on, two white pastors from the Assemblies of God and the N.G. church offered me some support towards this work. Soon after that all the five Winterton White churches (NGs, Methodists, Assemblies, Anglicans and Lutherans) put hands together to support my ministry. A movement by the name of Simunye (we are one- Khethani/ Winterton- Black & White) was formed with the vision to undertake the preaching of the gospel with joint efforts. In the beginning of 2004 Simunye offered to lease a house in town for me and my family which they pay a monthly rental up to date. I then began to have roots in Winterton and concentrated in ministering to different sectors of the community. My wife has always been my right hand in this ministry. One Anglican White lady introduced me to her friend from the U.S.A. who donated $25 000. With contributions from the local churches (Simunye) the 300+ seater church building was put up. Our USA donor passed away in September 2008. Thanks be to God for her life! The building is not 100 percent complete but it's usable. That's where we now gather for worship. We thank God that He enabled us to build such a good relationship with the local White churches (Simunye). At the same time we never hid our Baptist identity which they respected and were willing to support us being who we are!" Joseph Dladla.
"Four things will be unmistakably true of you if you serve Mammon: 1. You will live in constant anxiety over still unmet needs, no matter how much wealth you acquire. 2. You will live in dreadful fear about your financial future, which will cause you to hoard what riches you do possess. 3. You will live in constant doubt about the Lord's love and faithfulness, for your life will be disturbed with the piercing interference of Mammon's suspicious whispers. 4. You will live outside the circle of the Lord's blessing, in disobedience to His word, and will miss the miracle of His hand at work in your finances - multiplying the bounty of your estate as you increase in generosity." - Ryle -
Vryheid tent0ur aim, over the years that we have operated in KZN, has been to bring the Gospel to areas that have been neglected spiritually and for this reason we have avoided the cities to concentrate on the more remote areas. The area where we pitched our tent this time has no Christian churches. The only churches in the area belong to the Zionist and Shembe (Shembe is their black messiah) groups. Our workers experienced a serious interest in the Gospel among the youth who arrived in groups to discuss various questions and problems. A number of them asked for assistance to find the Lord. Samuel is still busy with his work on the farms. He received two invitations from a church in Bloemfontein where he had the opportunity to minister as one of the guest speakers at a Convention. In the meantime he is concentrating on services on the farms in his area.
Admin.As we receive financial assistance from the SA Congregation in London Ria has to report on a regular basis as to how the funds are utilised. They are a non- profit organisation and have to motivate to their government why they make these donations and to what use. This is a very onerous task and a big responsibility on our able Secretary to furnish these details correctly! We are grateful to her for her loyal services over the years. Thank you - Thank the Lord for the challenge awaiting the workers during this year - For our office personnel (Ria and Stephanie) - Supply of our financial needs - Thank the Lord for Francois Pretorius, our Chairman and his Board of Trustees who diligently attend to the oversight of the work of MET Requests:
General: - The annual camp for all the workers (11-13 August). - Pray for the tent leaders, for a Spirit-filled passion and vision for a lost world. - Pray for the students receiving Theological training through Veritas College. - Pray that the Lord will save young men and call them to training at Bible College and service in the Mission. - The crop is white but the labourers few.
Empangeni - We need a new tent, - sound equipment , - projector and projector screen , - more workers and campaigns for this year.
Vryheid - The growth of the Gospel in this dark area - Unity among the team workers - Fruitful labour - Our students - A new video projector
Free State - That the Lord stirs up a hunger and thirst after God in the hearts of young people in the Free State - Samuel and Maureen the full-time workers at the tent and for more assistants - Supporters of the work - A larger tent
Western Cape - Accommodation is required in town for Sophia and Simon - Grace for Nico to persevere in the face of despondency over the spiritual state of the farm workers - Wisdom and insight during counseling sessions - Wisdom in the planning of Spiritual camps and for co-operation of the farmers - Young men to assist in the work - A caravan is much needed
With kind regards in Jesus name All the MET Workers and Board members.
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