Dear brethren,
Please find herewith a ministry update from Antipas Church in Pretoria.
Update and Prayer Items
Our vision and mission has everything do to with moving with the gospel in Pretoria as a body being sent (John 20:21).
In the light of that please pray for and thank the Lord for the following:
- Our Pretoria West outreach amongst poor Afrikaner people. These people are spiritually in a desperate state.
- Praise God for the increase in numbers at the Sunday services held every Sunday in Pretoria West by one of our elders and a helper.
- Thank God for a wonderful outreached camp held for the Pretoria West people in April. Within a few weeks’ time R33,000 was raised from voluntary giving within our church for the camp. At least three people sought the Lord for salvation after the Sunday service at the camp. Many were moved.
- Thank God for the two courses on parenting held on Sunday nights at Antipas. We had about ten couples from outside our church attending! What a wonderful outreach opportunity.
- Thank the Lord for a few new families that joined the church recently.
Just Love? Mission—A testimony by Mark Hill
Changing Attitudes through Love
Why love? Firstly, because God commands it and secondly, the world searches for it. However due to the great deception there are two types of love, God’s and Satan’s (the world’s). God’s love is to treat others as you would have them treat you and the world’s is to feign love to get what you want and if you don’t, then just stop loving that person (your neighbour?) and find someone who will. “Love” is at the heart of all the world’s problems since the beginning of man and his fall.
I have piloted both aeroplanes and helicopters for the past 32 years throughout Africa and have had the privilege of flying around some of the most influential people in the world to the poorest of the poor. I have witnessed scenes from extreme beauty to the most horrendous atrocities which have stemmed from greed and gross corruption. It appears that the root cause of the problem has not been a lack of love per se, but a deceptive concept of love. By the grace of God I experienced this self-sacrificial love first hand and saw the impact it made on those lives it touched. People when exposed to genuine love grab this life line.
A friend of mine mentioned my vision to serve the orphans, widows, poor and needy as well as the sojourner through aviation with the CEO of a Russian airline. He decided to donate an Antonov AN-2 aircraft for the charity on one proviso that it had to be flown from the Arctic sea to Cape Town and the Atlantic sea. The trip itself was approximately 20,000 kilometres, covered 19 countries, used 21 500 litres of avgas fuel, 550 litres of oil, took two and half months and 120 hours of flying time at a cost of R2 million! The trip should have only taken 15 days, however due to weather (European winter), route clearances and corruption it eventually took 77 days!
I recently joined the Antipas Church when this project was activated and due to the nature of the mission I knew that I would face severe opposition from the devil. I called upon my new family in Christ at Antipas and other brothers and sisters to pray for us and we received journey mercies throughout despite all the adversity. The plane, christened “Little Annie” because she will be working primarily with orphans, landed safely at Cape Town on 20 February 2013. God willing we hope to reposition her to her new home in Pretoria. I don’t have money for an aeroplane or the funds to operate one but God has provided and, if it is his will, he will continue to do so. We believe that by serving others in genuine love, which can only emanate from God, lives will be positively affected and an eternal difference made not only in families but communities as well. I just want to thank God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit for giving me a new family of true believers and the opportunity to serve him and his children faithfully. Glory be to God.
Drive by love and a care to share.
Contributions of Mike and Hilda Stolk to the Hospital Building Programme in Nampula
Back in 2009 Mike and Hilda Stolk were instrumental to significantly progress the building of the Grace Hospital in Nampula (Mozambique), a project of missionary-doctor Charles Woodrow and his family (Fellowship of Believers in Christ, a Sola 5 member church in Nampula).
Early in 2012 Charles indicated to Mike that they received funds that would probably enable finishing the hospital buildings. At the time Mike and Hilda were doing missionary work in the Northern Cape; they subsequently returned and Mike went to Nampula to establish what would be needed. He purchased the necessary in Pretoria and shipped it in a twelve-metre container by rail via Durban and Nacala to Mozambique.
The container was expected in Mozambique by May and Mike and Hilda accordingly flew to Nampula. Unfortunately the Mozambican authorities delayed releasing the container for several weeks and Mike decided, after employing almost the same team assisting him in 2009 (they immediately “reported for duty” when they heard Mike and Hilda were in Nampula) to build an entrance road to the hospital as well as two septic tanks and two French drains. Also, two American brothers Roger Clark and Chris Dighton could assist with the electrical wiring. During the waiting period plastering of the hospital walls was completed and the floors prepared to be tiled. Mike from the outset manufactured onsite the needed concrete block bricks, paving and kerbstones.
Once the container arrived, the following could be tackled and completed:
- electrical wiring by the Mozambicans after the Americans left;
- hospital curtains by Hilda and an assistant, as well as making new covers for 20 second hand mattresses;
- cold and hot water supply;
- underground drain pipes;
- bedhead units carrying supplies to hospital beds;
- suspension of ceilings and plastering it with rhinolite (a first for Mozambique);
- fitting of lights and fans;
- service pipes carrying various gases to the beds;
- the central plant room supplying the gases;
- bumper rails in the corridors ;
- covering the walls and floors of the two theatres with vinyl and welding the vinyl sheets together;
- installation of the special hinges for the swing doors and hanging the doors after being vinyl cladded;
- installation of the pendants (bringing electrical, vacuum and gas services to the operating-tables) in the theatres;
- equipping the central plant room with a compressor, vacuum pump, oxygen manifold for the theatres and wards, nitrogen oxide for the theatres; and
- lastly, conclusion of resettling in the hospital buildings of the FIEL Bookroom which had been moved from downtown Nampula.
Future work entails the fitting and installation of the following, which have already been acquired: two sets of theatre lights, two lights for the minor surgery rooms; the shipping of twenty additional hospital beds (ten are already in Nampula), operating-table and large compressor.
The funds were sufficient to complete the building as outlined above; outstanding still are furniture, instruments and equipment. The final challenge of staffing the hospital is maybe not too far in the future!
The pictures following provide a glimpse of the work.
