Ministry News: Trinity Baptist Church (South Africa)

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

John Calvin said, “Almost all men are infected with the disease of desiring to obtain useless knowledge.”

I trust that the following update will not fall into that category of “useless knowledge” but that it will spur you on towards prayer and praise for the work God has been doing in our midst.

We would like to highlight five ways the Lord has been blessing our ministry lately. You may also turn these praises into prayer requests.

Many moons ago, Seth Meyers and I established a three-year Bible Institute to teach men in the rural areas how to pastor, evangelise, and plant churches. The Institute is no more, but some of the fruit remains through the graduates that continue on in pastoral work.

One example is Shadreck Zireva, a humble Christian, husband, father, friend and graduate of the school in 2011. Our little church in the village partners with him as a missionary. Though he pastors a church south of Masvingo Zimbabwe, he has been travelling to Chingwizi as a preaching point. Recently, thirteen people accepted Christ and were baptised: ten adults and three teens.

Recently our church enjoyed the Ordination Service of Mr. Reginald Ntuli, installing him into the church as an elder. We first met Mr. Ntuli in our Tsonga village when he was ten years old. He came to Christ, became active in the church, studied biochemistry at the university and returned to serve as principal at Miseve Classical Christian School. He was married last year to his dear wife, Thabelo. He is a faithful man.

The Ordination Exam was in March, where a host of men gathered to test Mr. Ntuli’s theological acumen using the Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) as our guide. Several of the men on the Examination Council were Sola 5 pastors, including Ps Jono Klimek (Living Stone Bible Church), Ps Alpheus Nyalungu (Elim Baptist Church) and Ps Joseph Mahlaola and Ps Andrew Isiaho (Christ Baptist Church Polokwane).

Our family will now move on to the next church plant in Tiyani Village, thankful to leave Trinity in such capable hands. Please pray for the Ntulis.

We enjoyed another excellent Godly Young Men Camp at the end of March. We had 58 campers at GYM Camp Snr (16+ years old) on the theme of Discernment. Our motto is “Lead, Provide, Protect” and our goal is to teach young men to embrace their masculine role as Jesus Christ designed.

Don’t forget to register your church boys for GYM Camp Jnr (ages 8–15), coming up from 25-28 September.

Charles Spurgeon said: “If we never have headaches through rebuking our children now, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up.”

Our Christian school continues to grow each year. We have been blessed with excellent teachers that love Christ and his church. Bible stories and catechising is a part of their daily learning. Miseve is the Tsonga word for “arrows.” Children are arrows, Psalm 127:4 says.

But we need more hands to help support the work. Consider sending someone from your church or family to our village to assist in this crucial Great Commission task.

We are grateful for the pastors and Christian brothers from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and beyond that have contributed to The African Review in Five (TARIF). Many of the authors are Sola5 pastors. Twice a week, these men bring Scripture to bear upon African current events, such as abortion, voting, immigration, the ZCC, church planting, and witchcraft.

These 5–8 minute audio and written episodes are meant to help the church think carefully about Christian ethics so that they may be ready always to give an answer for their faith (1 Peter 3:15).

Thank you for your faithful prayers.

Your brother,

Paul Schlehlein