Reasonable Service

Yesterday we started our young men meetings at the church. We met from 3:30 until 5:30 discussing how to give a testimony. We talked about those three words above - before, how, and after. What was life like before Christ, how did He come into my life, and how did He change my life after I received Him. We went over some great material I got off of navpress.com on how to give a testimony. We had a great time as everyone gave their testimony of salvation to someone else. Next week we will step it up a notch as we all stand in front and give our testimonies publicly.

We also had a time of fun and games as the Kaiser Chiefs and the Sundowns (Names of South African soccer teams) went at it in a Bible Trivia bash. The Kaiser Chiefs are up 17-12 (soccer would be much better if that did actually score this much) and we will continue the second half next week. Everything we do involves the Bible - whether we play or just converse we are doing it around the Bible. Psalms 33:9 says - “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” This same powerful Word is what is going to revolutionize the lives of these young men. We had 15 young men in attendance ranging from 13 -29 years of age.

They are not only giving their testimony next week but also have the opportunity to earn a Bible by memorizing the entire 15th Psalm, (5 verses). It is a great Psalm on character and that is what we desperately want in the lives of these young men. Our churches future lies in these meetings. We ask you to pray for all of these young men. Overall I couldn’t have dreamed it coming together any better. There was an enormous amount of potential in that room and the attention, and participation was excellent. I look forward to what lies ahead.

I just want to say thanks to Lubabalo, and Mzikayise for helping lead the meeting along with Melumzi and Sivuyile for helping setup.

Also and above all thanks be to God for giving us these men to work with.

We want to take a moment to thank Missionary Ross Pyle and his family for ministering to our people over the past three days. I know it took alot of work putting the messages and slides together so once again from myself and the church we just want to thank you guys for your help. Our church took up offerings this week and we put together to beautiful baskets full of goodies for Pastor Ross and his wife to show our appreciation. Thank you church for having cheerful giver hearts.

Overall there is much to praise the Lord. We had 13 professions of faith and several people making decisions to give their lives to Christ. We had strong crowds yesterday of 70 in the morning and 53 in the evening service. Thank you Lord!

Lubabalo wrote me a text message last night that kind of sums it up, He says, “God is not playing, I cannot believe how God listened to our prayers when we were praying for this conference. HE is really not playing with us. This is really helping in my Christian life. It is helping me to rely on Him in everything I need. Let us all say WELL DONE TO OUR KING!”

Thanks to all of those who prayed and thanks to the people of Madiba Bay who got involved and worked in the conference - The choir, Swele, Sivuyile, Asanda, Sipho, and Phamela. Thank you very much for getting involved.

a roaring lion

Take a look at this beast!

Well our first night of our Freedom Conference went well. It was not a large crowd but for a Friday night I was pleased. I believe we had 35 in attendance. The real positive note is that God is answering my prayers for more young men. Sivuyile, and Swele both are moving forward. We have already given them a short class on ushering and they are doing a fantastic job of helping Sipho with this task.

We also did a skit about putting ourselves back in bondage as Christians and Sipho, Asanda, Swele and Lubabalo did a great job getting the message across. We have some great actors in our church.

Like I said we had a great service and the icing on the cake was that 3 people made professions of faith. Two young men and one nine year old boy. We praise the Lord for the way God used Missionary Ross Pyle to bring a fantastic message to our church. We look forward to our second meeting today at 4pm. We ask you to keep praying that God would break the chains of sin in the lives of these people.

On April 27th South Africa will be celebrating Freedom day. It is in celebration of freedom and is in commemoration of the first democratic post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected as President. But unfortunately as millions will be celebrating “freedom” on that day they will be doing so behind the prison bars of sin. Real freedom doesn’t come from an election it comes from having the ransom of your sin paid by Jesus Christ and then continues on a daily basis as you defeat sin and live within the confines of God’s Word. That is not legalism that is real freedom. That is where real freedom is found and experienced. Unfortunately man always thinks he is smarter and continues down the path of “true enlightenment”, living the “this feels right to me life,” only to find out too late that what he thought was a wonderful life of freedom was really a damning path to destruction.

Week after week we see people make professions of faith only to turn again to live in sin, much like a dog returns to eat it’s own vomit. It is discouraging and my heart goes out to these dear people because I realize it is not an easy task. I don’t look down on them I just have an ever burning desire to help them get out of their bondage. They recieve Christ but are left to live as babes in Christ in a place where life destroying sin is right out the front door. Please pray for us at Madiba Bay as we try to help give light, truth, and freedom over the next couple of days through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Missionary Ross Pyle will be our guest preacher. We expect great things from a great God!

This morning I just want to start the day out by giving the Lord praise for answering our prayers and yours for our missionary friend from North Africa. The growth in his lung is a tumor and is causing his lung to fill with blood and will have to be removed but the good news is that it is not malignant. Please keep praying for him that he would be able to have the needed surgery quickly and get back to North Africa as he so desires.

That is the way that Paul starts out in chapter two of first Timothy, as he continues to tell us the way to behave in church. He tells us FIRST of all that we should pray. Pray!!! How many of us fail in this critical area? Pray by supplicating, praying, intercessing, and by giving of thanks. We should pray and pray by utilizing these different aspects of prayer. But then Paul tells us the goal of our prayers. Is it only that we should live a quiet and peacable life? No, it is so that His gospel has easy access into all the world - Look at verse 4 - Who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth. Wow, what a responsibility! Let us pray. Why? Because there is only one Gospel! Why? Because there is only one mediator, Jesus Christ! Why? Because God would have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth. That is why. Let’s pray today.

I don’t know if our people are getting anything out of I Timothy but it is sure helping my walk with God. Pray for our services today and also remember to keep our fellow missionary brother who works in North Africa in your prayers.

Just recently I got news of a good missionary friend of mine having serious health problems. Apparently he has a growth in his right lung and there is a 50% chance it is cancer and the results of the tests will be known on this coming Sunday. For safety reasons I don’t want to post his name because he works in North Africa where Christians are not welcome. Please lift him up in prayer and I know that his wife and the rest of his family would really appreciate it.

The past couple of weeks a couple of young men have been attending the church. They have heard message after message concerning hte Gospel so this week we (Lubabalo and I) setup a meeting with them to give them the Gospel on a personal level. To make a long story short both of the young men made professions this past week and were both in church this morning, which is a good sign. We ask your prayers for them as we earnestly desire so more young men to train. We have been praying in this direction and our here God has heard and answered our prayers.

Pray for our services tonight as Lubabalo will be preaching for us again. Both Lubabalo and Sipho are getting some help on sermon preparation right now, but the fact is that there is no better way to improve your preaching than by just preaching. It is an awesome sight to see someone grow in their faith and become better equipped for the Lord.

I am not easily surprized by crazy happenings out in KwaZakhele at the church. I have seen my share of entertaining events. Today was a mild one but still one I wasn’t ready for. We have had baptism days several times now and so I kind of took it for granted that people knew how we did it at the church. Well this past week we went over Baptism with a couple candidates and they both wanted to follow Christ in Baptism today. Well, I am also learning another lesson and that is never assume. As I am getting in my position Anathi makes his way to the baptistry with his nice shorts and t-shirt on ready to get wet. Well, I turned to check something and when I looked back Anathi was pulling his shirt off with style right in front of the church. I was a little caught of guard but just so we didin’t make a scene I continued on and just figured we would correct the problem next time. Well, Lubabalo was taking pictures and wasn’t paying attention at the time. When he turned and saw Anathi in the water without a shirt, he said from the pulpit, “What in the world?” Then grabbed the shirt and handed it to Anathi in the water. Anathi simply assured him that he didn’t need it, that he was okay. Hah! You might have had to have been there to enjoy it. Anyways Anathi, and Nokuzola both have been baptized now and they are both working toward being Sunday school teachers for us.