March is here!

It has been a crazy 3rd Quarter of school. So now I get a chance to sit down and write to you all.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

One of the hardest things for me here in Manila, is seeing all the animals at the side of the road without homes. One Saturday, while driving, there was a tiny kitten in the middle of the road. It was all confused and panicked and cars and trikes were just driving past. I knew I couldn’t rescue this kitten forever, but at least I could remove it from the middle of the road. So I stopped the car, got out and picked up the kitten. It was all muddy because it had fallen in a puddle so now I was all muddy. I put it down on the side of the road, looking around for its mother because it was such a little thing. When I got back to my car, I realized I had locked my keys in the car, with my bag and cell phone and, to top it all, the car was still running. Now what to do? I prayed that someone from Faith Academy would drive by, but unfortunately no one did. I had to abandon the car (still running) and walk the few kilometers home, praying all the time that my friends, with the spare key of my flat would be there. I arrived at their apartment 30 minutes later muddy, sweating, crying and just generally looking pathetic, but at least they were home. When I finally got back to my car, with its spare key, I was so grateful it was still there and still running. But the little kitty was also still there, and there was still no sign of Momma cat. I eventually made my way up to school, but was still feeling so emotional about all that had transpired and about the little lost kitten on the side of the road. But very gently God reminded me that not a single sparrow falls to the ground without him knowing. He knows and cares about the kitten and he certainly knows and cares about me. We all have bad days, but God sees these moments in our lives that are hard and gently reminds us of his love and care.

International Week

International Week is a big part of our 3rd Quarter at school. This year I was on the committee helping to organise it. Our theme this year was Around the World, Around the Throne. Our goal was to celebrate all the countries and cultures that our children are from, but also look towards one day where every tribe, tongue, people and nation will be around the throne of God praising and worshiping the Lamb of God. There are still people groups in the world, who need to hear the Good News and be part of the celebration around the throne one day. The 2nd Graders learn all about the continent of Africa. I love teaching about Africa to my class and sharing with them some of my heritage. Sadly, this is the last year I will be doing that, because I will be moving down and teaching 1st Grade next year. Next year I will be teaching North America.

Prayer and Praise

 Students are sent out to plant more churches

Joseph Banda has started off from his home going to Mwanza district to plant and start a church. He had already gone to Mwanza to survey the land and had found a house for rent where he will be residing. Another student who has been sent out in February is Joe Banda who has gone to Nsanje district in Southern Region of Malawi.

A member of Blantyre church gets healed from H.I.V.

Brother Wasili was once Moslem and he came to know Christ a year ago when James Chiumia, a member of Peace Ministries, who is studying at Polytechnique- the University of Malawi met him in the street and witnessed about Jesus to him. Mr Wasili received Christ and started attending Peace Ministries Church. After receiving Christ, he told James that he was H.I.V positive and that he was also on medication of A.R.V. After hearing that James started praying for the healing of this case to God and one day James boldly called Mr Wasili to come to college where James resides so that he could pray for him. James then prayed for him and told him that he should believe that God has healed him and that he should take the next step to go to the hospital so that the doctors should test him and verify that he is now negative of H.I.V. Mr Wasili came out of the hospital rejoicing when he was told that he was not found with the H.I.V virus. When James heard this, he could not believe and he thought he was lying to just please James. Then James checked his hospital book where the doctor had written the results. So for him to verify and really prove that he was healed, he demanded that they should again go to the hospital to be tested for the second time together with him. And the second results also showed that Mr Wasili who had the H.I.V. virus was now free of the virus because Jesus healed him. May God receive glory for this work of grace upon His people.

A new team of students join the church planter’s school

When the first group had finished their one year course of learning how to plant churches, others are also motivated and those who have sensed a call in their lives to serve God have joined the school and will start their course in April.

Prayer for upcoming events:

1. Easter is ahead of all of us. And during this time, the youth in Peace Ministries from Southern Region are gathering in Mulanje for a conference.

2. Some of our women will hold the Women’s Conference in Mozambique.

3. Soon after Easter, we will have a training for Pastor’s in Mzuzu and about 50 leaders will be theologically equipped with Gerhard Venter from RUC.

4. Do not forget that this year from 20 to 23 December we are cerebrating the goodness of God in our lives for the vision of planting churches for 25 years now. This Silver Jubilee cerebration will be held at Shelfer Conference hall in Lilongwe. Remember that we are also requesting you to plan to come and attend this cerebration besides praying for it.

Two students from the church planter’s school have started planting new churches. David and Shadreck have been sent to Thyolo and Ndirande in Blantyre to start new churches and they have already started the mission by witnessing and evangelising the Community. On Thursday this week I stood alongside Shadreck to help him with Evangelism in Ndirande by using the Jesus Film. Roughly 250 people attended the crusade which ended with the Jesus film in the evening and about 110 people gave their lives to Jesus. Pastor Shadreck is now busy following up the new converts and discipling them.                 

How do we plant new churches?

We usually send one person to a place where we want to plant a new church and the church planter will first survey the place and start building relationships with the people in the community as people do not join strangers. Then he starts witnessing and those who receive Jesus Christ are discipled. In most cases he starts the church as a home cell in his house with those who have received Jesus and have joined him and the church grows from there. The Jesus film equipment is the most effective tool of evangelism that makes church planting easy.

The Jesus Film attracts many people without advertising and in most cases it’s the whole family that comes to watch the movie. Besides watching the movie, the gospel is also preached and an altar call is made and those who do have a church are the people you start the church with.

News in the ministry and around our churches:

1. 2012 is a year of Jubillee and silver Jubillee to Alick

On 23 January Alick turned 50 and this day was celebrated with prayers and worship to God in his house. “I am as young as I was 25 years ago when I started the ministry. So I will pray like Caleb that God should give me grace to walk with Him and serve Him. I thank God for trusting me with the gospel, for his anointing, for spiritual gifts and family.”

2. The youth are holding another conference

After closing 2011 with a Youth Conference in Ntchisi in the Central Region of Malawi, the youth in the Southern Region also want to hold a youth conference from 6-8 April in the Mulanje District.

Upcoming Events

1. With a vision to equip leaders for the work of ministry we will have leadership training from 22 to 29 April in Mzuzu with Pastor Gerhard Venter from Rosebank Union Church.

2. This year from 20 to 23 December we will have the Silver Jubille in Lilongwe where all our Churches from Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi will celebrate the grace of planting churches.

Remember, the Bible tells us that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents. If heaven rejoices, we also need to rejoice here on earth for His saving grace. So plan to attend and join us as we celebrate and worship for what He has done amongst us.

What a mission!

“Missions”. Let me guess... you’re thinking that this sounds like a great idea but practically it’s not viable. What if I told you that through saving and support from individuals and the church we were all able to go? So you may say... well I’m not sure I can get the leave. What if I told you that God answered prayer and he helped in communications with the powers that be, to allow all of us the appropriate leave needed for the trip! Now I guess you’re thinking.... I don’t think I really have anything to offer, no specific talent or gift, what use would I be on a mission trip? Well then I tell you that God wants people with a willingness to help and get involved and he will provide the work you need to do.

We were each called in many different ways to join the trip to the Philippines. Some of us overcame great obstacles and hurdles to get there, yet God was with us in all the tiny details. The team included Joan Venter (team leader), Melissa Le Roux, Audessa Woods, Elrine Woods and Caz Shutte and we were joined later by Heidi Jackson.

As a group of teachers we had fun planning the lessons and coming up with the activities and songs. We went into the urban slums in Manila and began our ministry by connecting with the community members already established there. We shared our ideas and ministered in the playschool. We ventured into the slums and with the barrier of language began to play and make crafts with the children. These people have nothing, yet they rely on God fully and when we took clothing parcels to them they began to minister to us. Wherever we went God was there and his love abounded in every difficult situation. We lived from day to day on a rough schedule and where God needed us to be, we went.

We had the privilege of visiting the missionary kids’ school – Faith Academy. Their facilities are state of the art yet they need teachers willing to serve. Are you willing?

God did amazing work in each of us on the trip and we each learnt things that are hard to explain.  We had fun, we laughed, we worked hard, we bonded, and we grew deeper in relationship with the Lord. God needs your hands and feet! Go on... try it! You’ll never be the same again!

The church planter’s school           

The church planter’s school started in January 2011 with an aim of raising leaders who could be sent out to plant and pastor churches. We started with 12 students and 11 of them have finished their course. As soon as they finished their course, all of them said that they are ready to go anywhere they will be sent to start and plant new churches. So each one of them is already given a place where  he will go and serve God .Some of them are sent to start new churches amongst the Moslems in the Yao tribe in Mangochi and some are sent  out to go the villages where most people do not go. These students will start their work and report in their allocated places by January, 2012.

Who made the school possible?

For the school to take place, you need to find students, teachers and a place where they can learn. And again we also needed food to feed the students. And now we want to answer the above question that it’s the contribution of teachers from RUC who came on short term visits to teach these students and their financial support for food and printing of the learning materials that made it possible. And  again there have also been  financial support from Peace Ministries Executive Board,personal financial support from Crosby  Phiri who also gave us his house to use for  accommodation  and as learning hall for the students freely.

May god bless you for producing these church planters. It has not been in vain.

Where is Home?

This is one of the questions that we as a family and especially our kids have grappled with as we packed up our “home” in Thailand, then spent the past 6 weeks “at home” in South Africa, whilst preparing to make our new home in Singapore.

It’s been really awesome to be back, connecting with family and friends and meeting new people. But along with being home comes the challenge of transitioning back into our (Trish and my) culture. A lot has changed in the 42 months that we have been away and we have been both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised at some of those changes. But for Jonty, Emily and Nina, this is not the culture they were born into and not what they’re used to. So its been interesting watching how they have made the adjustment.

One of the first things I had to teach Jonty was how to shake hands. Then we had to teach all the kids the use of a knife and fork, how to use toilet paper (which according to Jonty is disgusting and very backward, as opposed to using a hand sprayer) and not taking off shoes every time we enter a building. We’ve spent a fortune on hand and body cream and lip balm as our skins have been subjected to the harsher, drier African climate. Not to mention getting used to temperatures below 26° C! Then there is the food. As delicious as Thai food is, other than the convenience of buying it cheaply and easily, Trish and I have not really missed it. Nina, however, when asked by her granny what she wanted for lunch, asked for “khaaw muu daeng” (which is red pork), and sticky rice, her two favourite Thai dishes. Emily came home from school one day and complained that her teacher “shouted” at the whole class. She was confused as to whether she had done wrong or not. (In Thailand, the teachers (a) don’t raise their voices and (b) address the offending child specifically and not the whole class generally). Jonty is particularly touched by the poverty he sees and insists that we give something to every beggar and vendor at every traffic light (or should I say “robot”) in Johannesburg. When we refuse to give something he carries on for the next 15 minutes about how sorry he feels for that particular guy or lady. The guilt is killing us, so we’re slowly being bankrupted as our 7 year old acts as our conscience.

So, where is home exactly? For us that’s a question we cannot really answer. But we have come to the conclusion that for now, we don’t really need a definitive answer. Our citizenship is in heaven and “home” is where we experience the love of family and friends. It also happens to be where-ever we lay our heads:-)

A week of evangelism at Nsanje district in the Lower Shire, reaching people through the Jesus film:

At night people came from other neighbouring villages which are 10 to 15 km far. We saw people coming in groups with torches which could provide light for them in the dark. About 800 people came to watch the film and after the alter call about 300 people surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ.  It was really amazing to see people flocking to watch the film, along with their children. Some were crying as they saw Christ being crucified at the cross.

Church Plant:

The church that was planted under a tree is now building a church. We must not forget that in church planting we start with people. When we planted this church at Nsanje they had no place where they could assemble for worship services so they started worshiping under a tree. Now that the church is growing, they took the initiative to mould and burn bricks and have already laid the foundation of the church.

Prayer items for up-coming events:

1. In the month of November, we are running a church planters school for one month. This means that the team of ten people are finishing their course by early December and will be sent out to plant churches in January 2012. Please pray for god’s provision of finances to feed the students and again pray for them to take up the challenge to go into Muslim places without fear of man in them.

2. The youth in all Peace Ministries churches will gather in December for their youth conference at Kasungu. Please pray for our youth to catch the fire of serving God and going out into missions.

Now that I’m in my 8th year at Faith Academy and my 6th year of teaching 2nd Grade, I find it difficult to think of new things to share with you about my life here in Manila and at Faith Academy. It seems that each year follows the same routine and my life is consumed with what happens at Faith Academy. But what DOES change from year to year is the CHILDREN God places in my classroom.

I love my class! I have 22 children representing 7 different countries (12 girls and 10 boys). They are enthusiastic about everything, yes - even handwriting. (We are learning to join our letters and that is very exciting for them.) They also have incredibly kind hearts. At the beginning of the 2^nd Quarter Joseph came to join our class. Their family had just arrived from Australia and I think all the ‘new’ just suddenly caught up with him and he just cried and cried and would not come into our classroom. Well, as his parents and our principal were dealing with him, 2nd grade were having our ‘Carpet Time’ and opening the day with prayer. I did not suggest it, but you should have heard them pray for Joseph. One after another prayed that he would be okay, that they would be good friends to him, that he would be brave enough to join us and that God would calm his heart.

Well needless to say, God answered those prayers beautifully and Joseph is part of our 2nd Grade family as though he has been with us all year round. Teaching is about the children and they are never the same. Each are fearfully and wonderfully made, with unique gifts and abilities.

The children are why I LOVE teaching!!!

March is now the month of the moment. For many people, cyclone Yasi is now old news, the troubles in Egypt are ‘behind’ us, the earthquake of Christchurch has been a tragedy and now the world is focused on Libya. What next? Probably Mt Vesuvius will blow up.

Meanwhile we trust that the low pressure system the Weather Bureau expects to become a cyclone early this week off Cairns will not be as memorable as Yasi.

We have a personal interest in the weather now because the Consultant Checking Workshop of the next lot of books will be occurring this week, from Wednesday March 8 to March 18. This follows on from the one we had in November last. This time we will be aiming to complete the checking of 8 books: 1 & 2 Timothy, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 & 2 & 3 John and Jude.

To all our friends and supporters

The news world moves on and the papers are now focused on Egypt. Cast your mind back to last week though

Most people in the world will still remember category 5 “Cyclone Yasi” that was heading for the north coast of Queensland last week. Many people were glued to the details coming from the news and the Bureau of Meteorology. All the reports showed it to become very severe and with its expected track as heading towards Cairns.