Mission's Conferece - Fisher's of Men

    

Mission's Conference was always a highlight of the year for me.

It was mostly because God was bringing me to the place where I am now.

He placed that burden for souls upon me and led me to serve here in South Africa.

I never imagined that I would be part of a Mission's Conference on my mission field.

Not that people across the world should not be burdened for souls, 

but because I guess I never really thought about it.

It was so exciting, as we decorated the church in anticipation for the week ahead.

In our church library, Pastor Jeff had a bunch of Bibles in other languages.  

We placed them among flags from countries around the world to remind us to pray for those taking the Gospel around the world.

Even the Junior Church room was decorate for the theme: Fishers of Men.

(To see how the fish are made click here.)

Our Mission's Conference was Wed- Sun August 21-25th.

We met each night for a shared meal together 

and then preaching from Ron Bragg (BIMI Africa director) via Skype.

Children showing their international costumes to Bro. Bragg

We heard some great & challenging messages about sharing the Gospel

 and being involved in world wide missions.

FRIDAY NIGHT : International Dinner

Friday night, each family decorated a table for our international dinner.

We had tables representing-

Mexico,

Greece,

and

China.

We all brought food from these countries - YUM!!!

(my favorite food was from Greece!)

Mexico table

Greek Table

China table (sorry, no pics with people sitting here)
To see how I made the China Lady click here.

Mission's conference was so much fun!

We had a great time of fellowship and were fed physically, 

but the best part is the spiritual food we received!

SATURDAY: To Every Creature Visitation

This was a special Saturday visitation

and we had another church join us to take the Gospel to Hillcrest.

(To read more about this visitaion day click here.)

In the afternoon, just as we finished the last street in Hillcrest,

the whole group sat down for a meal together.

You know, we are Baptists and that is what we do!

It was a blessing to serve the Lord together 

and then to have some time of fellowship together before the group left for home.

SUNDAY: Faith Promise Sunday & Junior Church Sings

As Sunday rolled around, we understood the great need for our faith promise giving.

Envelopes were passed out and prayed over all week.

We are thankful that our people learned this important principle of giving.

~~~

While I was on deputation, I found that many churches that I went to that did not have faith promise giving, were not able to support new missionaries and were themselves struggling to support the ones they already committed to.

Faith Promise Giving is a sign of a growing church.

A church that follows this principle will be a church with people who grow in their own personal faith in God, while becoming more and more burdened for the lost around them.

So many churches that do not follow this Biblical principle

 are slowly dying in faith and in attendance.

I am thankful to be working with missionaries who are teaching others 

that the Great Commission is a command for ALL of us!

~~~

Our Faith Promise Giving this year will cover all of the missionaries we currently support,

as well as, helping a little in some "one time" gifts to others that the Lord sends our way.

Below are videos of the Junior Church singing their Mission's songs

for the congregation on Sunday morning.

"Fishers of Men" in English & Zulu

"Tell me what a Missionary is" in English

To Every Creature

"And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

Mark 16:15

This was our theme verse for our "To Every Creature" soulwinning program.

In April, we had a special banquet to kick-off our new program.

After all, soulwinning is something to celebrate!

(to see how to make some of the banquet decor click here.)

Pastor Jeff, Robbin, Peter, & I practicing out theme song for the banquet.

The church came together to partake of a delicious meal,...

... and then we were fed spirtually.

Pastor Jeff shared soul winning quotes to stir our hearts for the lost 

and then he gave us a challenge from the Word of God.

As the quotes flashed across the screen, my eyes began to well up with tears. 

 It again brought back that "missionary's" burden for lost souls.

"To Every Creature" had three parts :

1- Instruction

2- Preparation

3- Presentation

Every Sunday night we would come together for evening service

 and "instruction" on how to win souls to Christ.

As a missionary, I have been through tons of these 

class type sessions on soulwinning.  

I am so thankful for my church and how they invested in teaching me.  

Now it was exciting to be teaching others on the opposite side of the world. 

 What a blessing to see new believers begin to grasp Bible truth 

and to hear newly memorized soul winning verses pass their lips!

Every Saturday around 10am,

the church would be busy with the "preparation" part.

We made so many memories together by putting together packets 

to hand out door-to-door in Hillcrest.

Then came the "presentation" part.

Our first goal was to reach people in our "Jerusalem"/Hillcrest.

Witnessing to a gardener

We went house to house taking the gospel to "every creature".

While some went door-to-door,

...others stayed behind preparing more packets to be sent out.

Each packet included:

 a New Testament,

 tracts in Zulu, English, & Afrikans,

  a map and letter from our church.

South Africa is diffarent from America,

we cannot go up to each house and knock on the door.

No, each house has a fenced yard with a huge gate surrounding it.

We were however, able to hand deliver each gospel packet 

into the mail box at every home.

Can't do this in America, but praise God, we can do it here!

The children helped.

Us ladies worked.

Pastor Jeff delivering packets

It was exciting to go to church every week to see the number on the wall to know how many homes we were able to get the gospel into.

As we reached our "Jerusalem", 

another church from an hour away came to help us reach their "Samaria".

We would highlight the map every time we finished a new road,

making sure we covered all of Hillcrest.

The number started at 1,319 in July,

grew to 1,718,

then grew more to 2,480 in August,

and finished at over 4,200 homes by September.

We are still praying that the Lord would bring people to the saving knowledge of Christ and that they would be added to the church.

 Acts 2:47 "Praising God, and having favour with all the people.

 And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."

Prayers for Protection and Saftey

To all of you who pray for your missionaries, thier protection, and the protection of the people in thier ministry - THANK YOU!!!

Today, as I took some of the children home in the car God protected us. It was a beautiful day, so the windows were rolled down and we were chatting in Zulu and English. A slight breeze came through the car as I turned a corner and out the window went one of the work sheets that one of the kids had colored in church.
Yes, I felt sorry for him and saw where it landed, so I turned around to go back for it. I said a few times in English and in Zulu for him to wait until the car stops, to be careful, and when I am stopped he can get out and get his paper in the middle of the street.
What you need to know, is that the Zulu kids are not used to riding in cars, except to church. Many times they get out and never close the door because they are just not used to a car.
My car has automatic locks, so the doors were locked. BUT, children are children. As we got close to the paper, he unlocked his door and started to jump out. I slammed my brakes on because my little brother did something like that before and was badly injured. Thankfully the boy did not get out because he heard the panic in my voice. Meanwhile, a car zoomed up behind us and blarred his horn. Drivers in South Africa are very rude and impatient (and that is all I had better say right now). Praise the Lord he did not decide to ram into my car.
I was able to park like I wanted to and the little boy got out of the car and picked his paper off of the middle of the street. We praise the Lord for His protection for that little boy and all of us. The rest of the way to thier homes I tried to explain why it was dangerous. the Zulu lady with me said, it was good it happened, because the children will learn a lesson from it. I never want anything to happen to our kids, but sometimes things do happen. I praise the Lord for giving me wisdom and for His safety today. Thanks again for everything you pray for!