Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Below, you will find some the latest update from Grace Baptist Church in Daveyton, South Africa.
I am grateful for your faithful support and your prayers. I always remember you in my prayers that the God of all grace may meet all of your needs according to his riches and glory.
We welcome your feedback and, as we covet your prayers, we count it a privilege to lift your ministries to the Lord in prayer. Please let us know how we can do so.
Personal and Family
This month has been very busy for me personally. I have been working through the paperwork of registering the church, opening the bank account and getting the South African Revenue Services (SARS) number. By God’s grace, we managed to register the church and to open the bank account. We are still waiting for a response concerning SARS number.
My wife has been doing well with the kids. They are all in good health. Our son is so welcoming to visitors. He shakes people’s hands when they visit. He was taught by his grandfather to shake hands. He always runs to me and shakes my hand as well when I come home. That is how he welcomes me home. Our five-month-old daughter is also growing fast and welcomes me with smiles now. It is such a blessing and joy to be raising them.
My spiritual life has been full of ups and downs. With the lot of paperwork that I have to do, and spending most of my time traveling to banks, SARS offices and meeting with the agent who is selling us the land, it has been really exhausting. On top of that, I still need to prepare for the Bible class, Sunday sermon, and preaching class after church. I am feeling like I need a break. But the Lord has been sustaining me.
Ministry
Last month, we were blessed by Sean Reece’s visit. I asked him to teach the group of men that we meet with twice a month, to discuss what it means to be a godly man. He challenged us on being faithful men. He reminded us that many men who were disqualified in ministry were disqualified, not because they moved away from their theological position, but they because of their moral failure.
The Lord has provided funds to purchase land that is closer to our previous place. We were worried that we may find a place that is far, but God has provided one that is still within walking distance for our people and central. We have paused our open-air meetings for a Bible study. We are still having few of the people who were coming to the open-air attending our Bible study. We’ve been focusing on what is salvation. The people have been asking good questions.
The clinic ministry has been encouraging. One lady approached me after preaching and told me that she’s been looking for me. She told me that she decided to commit her life to Christ. And she told me that her older daughter didn’t believe her. Even when I went to visit her home, I found her daughter there. She told me that she was supposed to go somewhere but she stayed, because she just wanted to confirm if her mother was telling the truth—that a pastor will be visiting her.
I have started a preaching class to train the men from our church. Also, four other leaders from different churches gained interest in it and asked to join us. We’ve been working on preparing sermons from the book of Philippians.
On the school ministry front, we have started on a bit of a slow pace since the schools just opened. Some of the kids are not back in the Student Christian Organisation (SCO) group. We have one young man who is an active leader in the SCO. He started coming to church. He told us that his problem is that he speaks in tongues, and when he comes to church he realised that he is the only one who believes in tongues. I have encouraged him to study the Scripture and to evaluate the tongues that he is speaking. He was encouraged by our meeting.
The Lord has sent a young believer by the name of Johannes. He loves the Bible and is very teachable. I have made time to disciple him. His desire is to see the gospel being preached in his home village. I am praying that, after we have trained him, the Lord will send him back to his home village and share the gospel. He goes home once every month. In our Bible study, he was thanking God that he got the opportunity to share the gospel there.
Prayer Requests
- Pray for our family to be a God-glorifying family and to be faithful in our daily devotions as a family.
- We are planning to meet with the leaders of the area where we have purchased the land to ask what is their expectation of us and what kind of a temporal structure that is allowed there. Please pray that we will find favour with them. We really don’t want to upset them before we get opportunity to share the gospel with them.
- Pray that the Lord will give me strength as I am preaching every day in schools and clinics, and we are planning to resume our door-to-door evangelism as well. Pray that the Lord will save his people.
- Pray for the Lord to raise strong leaders from the men I am training.