God's People Show That He is Busy Amongst Them

Every country is different.

Some are hit hard, while others still have not been 

fully reached by this pandemic.

Zambia has just begun to see this virus.

A month ago President Edgar Lungu, 

announced that schools and churches are not allowed to meet. 

Our church started sending messages by phone to people 

to encourage them during this time.

Every Sunday, they send us a morning and afternoon sermon to listen to.

Not everyone, of course can listen, because many are poor 

and lack the type of phone to hear the messages 

(believe it or not, people here are still using the old Nokias).

In that case, Scriptures are sent for them to read 

and church people will visit them.

In fact, I am encouraged to hear how the faithful are praying more, reading their Bibles to find answers, and are taking time to call of visit others. 

Most people gather their family and 

neighbours on Sundays to listen together to the preaching.

They sing together, pray together, and listen together.

God is truly reaching people.

It has always been Him and not ourselves that makes people change.

This past Thursday was the first time we were allowed

 to have a small group gather for prayer meeting.

What a blessed time to sing and pray with God's people.

The sincere gratitude in their voices as they expressed praise to 

God for just these few brief moments.

I know God was moved by the hearts of His people.

We continue to only be allowed short, small meetings, but believe me,

 God is still busy.

Matthew 18:20

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, 

there am I in the midst of them.

Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

A Bumpy start to the 2020 School Year

BUMP - In the beginning of December 2019, one of our Zambian school teachers left our church and school.  Later the next week, our missionary pastor and his family left Zambia.

BUMP -That meant that our school went from having 4 full time teachers, to one.

Just me.

It also meant that we had to find a way to make school still available 

to the students we had invested in.

Months earlier, our pastor had decided to downsize from 4 classes, to 2 classes.

How can this be done with only 1 full time teacher?

I prayed and prayed and pleaded with the Lord to give me wisdom.  

BUMP- I could not see how He would allow me to make

 5 children that we had invested in leave.

4 of which, do not come to  our church, so I have been witnessing to their families for years.

After a week of interceeding about the solution to this problem,

God told me what to do. 

Those children would stay in our school.

I had a plan! (which I will share with you in a future post) 

Now that we knew our direction, it was time to plan for school. 

With only 2 of the 4 classrooms needed, we dismantled ALL of the classrooms,

sorted everything, and put everything into the two rooms we would be using.

Luckson and I did all the necessary paper work.

We wanted to make sure that all of our permits were up to date.

Luckson working on permits.

Day after day, we went in to the school preparing for the day when we could finally open.

Miss Jennipher sorting PACES

It was so exciting going in each day.

Alot was getting done and the people worked together as a team to lighten my load.

BUMP - I had so much work that needed to be done.

There were curriculum orders to place.

(FYI- school in Zambia starts in January.  We were a little behind, 

as we did not get permission to start school till January first.)

Files needed to be organized and updated.

PACEs needed to be sorted.

Tea and work make a nice combo

The church became an army of cleaners, organizers, and encouragers

(I honestly do not know how it would have all got done, if it wasnt for them).

Older students painting the desks

After weeks of work, I can say that I truly learned alot about God being my strength, giving me wisdom from above, and the encouragement of serving together as believers.

Classrooms ready for the first day of school.

Praise the Lord that we get to train these children in academics, 

as well as, the things of God!

BUMP - We started school on the first Monday in February, 

but without our school curriculum. It still hasn't arrived.

UPDATE: the school curriculum arrived 2 weeks later.

Spiritual Warfare

The Bible tells us, as Christians, that there will be spiritual warfare in our lives.

Things may come up that are out of our control.  

We may even wonder why circumstances happen.

We can know that God has a purpose for everything 

and that

purpose is that He might be glorified through it.

Trials may even come to strengthen our faith-

Romans 4:20 

" He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; 

but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;"

I find right now that my faith is being strengthened.

This is our church, 

Village Bible Baptist Church 

in Hillcrest, KZN South Africa.

We are a small church.

Our Sunday morning usually looks like this,

but there are only a few faithful families.

You can

PRAY FOR OUR CHURCH:

1. FACILITIES- while I was in the USA, the building was broken into.

-Praise the Lord, no one was there and that they only took minor things

- Pray for a NEW BUILDING: the rent for the one in the above picture

 has been raised almost 50%.

We do not currently have a facility, 

so we have been meeting in my & other's homes for Sunday AM services.

One of the homes we met for church in.

2. FAMILIES - we have 4 families that come most of the time.

In each face that you see,

there are separate trials that are faced.

Each person is at a differant stage in their spiritual growth.

Each has a battle going on inside between the flesh and the spirit.

You can also pray for their and our safety.

Hillcrest is a big place for crime. 

One of the older couples above had a break-in recently.

The robbers broke into their home,

tied her up and put her in the bathtub,

while they robbed her.

Praise the Lord, she and her husband were unharmed!

You can pray for our Zulu young men.

They have so many temptations that they are faced with each day.

Many Zulus use the "cultural" excuse to sin.

For example - drinking, drugs, immorailty are all permissable in the Zulu culture.

Please pray that these young men will stand strong in the Lord and if they fall, 

that they will be willing to confess their sins to God and walk right.

Also pray for the single ladies in our church.

Many are going through times of discouragement,

loneliness, depression, lies from satan to compromise in order not to be alone.

Busyness takes up the lives of some to fill the gap of loneliness,

but sadly, it is not busyness for the Lord,

but rather more worldliness.

As you know, I have a huge burden for the single woman, because I am one.

I praise God for putting me in a ministry where I can 

encourage others through personal experience.

He has been my very present help & joy!

I can encourage these ladies that He is ALL WE NEED!!!

3. FAITHFULNESS- please pray for the faithfulness of the people.

Not a week goes by when one or more people 

are not at church because of one reason or another.

Satan does his best to keep people from growing.

This is one of the hardest things for a missionary working 

amongst the people here in South Africa.

People do not see the importance of being faithful to church.

We know that they cannot grow in Christ unless

 they are under the preaching and teaching of His Word.

2 Peter 3:18 

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."

Missionaries : Robbin & Jeff Demarest

There is so much unfaithfulness.

It can get frustrating from a missionary's perspective, 

because we are giving our all 

to help them grow in love and obedience to God, 

but yet they don't want to.

"Have they lost their love for God, Do they have a heart of rebellion, Are they really saved?"

these questions have come through my mind.

Robbin & I

After a time of feeling very frustrated and discouraged,

God reminded me that His will for me as a spiritual leader/missionary

is just to do His will - 

love & obey Him in my personal walk,

study His Word,

teach what He asks,

in love confront those who are disobedient to His Word,

lead those who are willing to grow in their spiritual growth,

and leave the convicting & chastening to God.

A few verses of encouragement when going through spiritual warfare-

1Timothy 6:12 

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, 

whereunto thou art also called,

 and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."

Romans 4:20  

"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;

 but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;"

2Corinthians 10:4 

"(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, 

but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)"

 Ephesians 6:10

 "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, 

and in the power of His might."

Ephesians 6:12 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, 

but against principalities, against powers, 

against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

 against spiritual wickedness in high places."

My heart's desire is not to have my eyes on people,

but on the One who sent me to South Africa

to do the work He has called me to do.

May we each be Faithful to the one who is the Author & Finisher of our faith.

Hebrews 12:1a&2

"...Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

 Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; 

who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,

 despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Church People

Today, I would like to tell you about a few people from our church in Embo.

These are some of the people that you have already had a part in ministering the Gospel to.

Baba

Baba is the man sitting across the aisle, in the middle of this picture.

In our community, the people all know what he did.

He killed a family member, went to prison for it, and now he is out in the community again.

I first heard of him while on visitation one day. 

 We went out to visit one of the Gogos 

and on our way back stopped at a house to invite people to church.  

Baba's sister was home and told us that he was out of prison and that she was afraid of him.

Later that day, Don had a chance to see him and invite him to church.

He came that next week, but then left after church began. 

The next week, he returned and stayed.  

He has continued to come a bit more regularly now 

and you can tell he is becoming a bit more comfortable than at first.

Baba has still not accepted Christ as His Savior.

Please pray with us that he will soon be saved.

Clementine

Sadly, I do not have a better picture of this next person I want to introduce you to.

The lady sitting in the front, with the silver head scarf is Nhlanhla (or Clementine).

Just after I arrived in South Africa, we held a 5-day Bible Club at church.

The Saturday before club, the Kilmers, Londiwe, 

and I went out in the village to invite children to come.

During our visitation, the Kilmers met Clementine along the road and invited her to church.

We were excited when she came the next day.

After church, Pastor Don Kilmer spoke with her.

Clementine said that she was saved.

Pastor Don asked her what she based her salvation on.

She said that because she went to church she was saved.

Pastor Don, then took the time to show her from God's Word how to be saved.

That day, she accepted Christ as her personal Savior.

She was such a joy to have at church.

Clementine attended every service faithfully, brought her Bible,

 studied it at home on her own, and tried to follow along during the preaching.

A few weeks later, Londiwe and I went to visit her 

because she had not come to church that week.

We found out that she had moved to another area to help a family member who was sick.

Please continue to pray with us that Clementine would find a good church to attend there,

 continue to study God's Word on her own, and that she would grow spiritually.

Mnqobi

Mnqobi is the little boy in the red shirt.

He always dresses so nice for church with a nice shirt & tie, dress pants and shiny shoes.

Mnqobi is the only kid who comes for the 10am adult Sunday School.

He always walks in and sits right in the front.

Because he is there early, he learns so much more from God's Word than the other children.

Some of the children walk in here and there for the regular service, 

but Mnqobi is there before it starts.

Please pray for other children to have a hunger for God's Word.

They need to come faithfully, early/or at least on time, for all services, 

and with a hunger for God's Word.

Also pray for Mnqobi.  He has not been at church the last few weeks.

We are not sure why, but we know that God could use him as he grows in the Lord.

these children are the future of our ministry 

and we pray that God would raise up some faithful and teacheable people.

It is my joy to share with you some of these people from our church.

I know that you are praying and that you want to know more about these people 

that you have a part in ministering to.