Written by David & Helen McKillen
Gospel Poster Calendar for 2013.
Helen and I are now by ourselves, as Sarah and Daniel both relocated back to Northern Ireland towards the end of 2012. We are living on the very north side of the city, beyond Tyger Valley and are happily in fellowship with the believers in the small assembly in Northpine, close to us.
There are over twenty assemblies within the city limits, some now small in number and quite weak. Pray for Crawford and Elim which are two of the smallest and closest to the centre of town. Much of the assembly activity is now in the eastern half of the city - from Bellville down to Mitchell's Plain - as well as in the Southern Peninsula. As we have time, we visit some of these smaller assemblies and seek to encourage and exhort the few believers that still remain.
There are a number of conferences in the area which we support with a bookstall of 'Christian Publications.' We have travelled a little further outside the city to places where we are able to set up the book tables and have been much encouraged by the growing interest in Bible commentaries and sound literature, especially Study Bibles which are increasingly popular.
MINISTRY AND GOSPEL: At the end of 2011, after much interest and prayer, we prepared a large four-metre full-colour chart on "End Time Events," based on H. Ironside's Revelation Chart. The Lord has used this tool in a way that we could not have anticipated. We also provide leaflets for door-to-door invitation and study notes for each night - whether a two, three or four-week series. This became the main focus of our movements in the Province in 2012. We have touched over fifteen assemblies to date, with these subjects, as many of the smaller meetings combine for this ministry which has a clear gospel message as well. Numbers attending from outside the assemblies have been quite significant and it has been humbling to see on more than one occasion the hand of the Lord blessing in salvation. In one series, in Michell's Plain area, an older man trusted the Lord on the first Sunday of the meetings, and his wife also on the last Lord's Day. We rejoice to see the Spirit of God at work, and acknowledge the prayers and burdens of local saints as being so influential in this activity.
We visited the Overstrand, a coastal area about an hour-and-a-half from the city - for four weeks last August. This area, centred in Hermanus, needs much prayer. Of the nine assemblies, many are small and the numbers few, yet the interest, both in ministry and literature, was sustained. Some believers travelled over two-hundred kilometers nightly to be at the meetings and on many occasions the discussion after, went on very late. We are continuing to visit this area - one weekend a month - as we can. The desire for growth among some of the younger believers is a real joy to see, as well as the consistency of older sisters, who are most faithful, some with unsaved families.
CALENDAR DISTRIBUTION: We continue to provide Gospel Poster Calendars, in a number of formats, for distribution by the assemblies in South Africa, and further afield. The system of printing allows for a variety of languages to be used as demand dictates and each assembly can have contact details included. These are simple cardboard posters but have proved most effective in taking the gospel into homes and areas where otherwise it would not penetrate. Not only English and Afrikaans, but many vernacular languages have been printed for 2013 Setswana, Xhosa, Zulu, Herero, Swahili, Lunda and Luvale, among others. Over 120,000 have already been distributed in door-to-door work, nursing homes, bus and train terminals and government offices of every kind; locally in the provinces of South Africa and through parts of Botswana and much of Namibia as well. We rejoiced to hear of souls being saved in 2012 through the power of the Word of God on the calendars, some who were in very isolated circumstances. We pray for such blessing - most likely unknown down here - to follow the distribution of the Word in these early months of 2013 as well, to the glory of the Lord Jesus.
Loading the literature for NW Zambia.
NAMIBIAN OUTREACH: Helen and I had been praying for some time about an outreach trip to Namibia and the way opened up at the end of last year. We packed and loaded almost 500,000 tracts and calendars for N.W. Zambia (via Paul & Eunice Poidevin and their new trailer). We loaded up the next day with 35,000 calendars for Botswana and Namibia. Along with Dan & Stella Nguluka from the Maun assembly, we gave out over 10,000 Herero and English calendars, over 20,000 tracts and had many opportunities to present the gospel. It was not unusual to have an "open air meeting" in a filling station forecourt, with attendants and customers gathered around the Land Rover to hear the gospel message told out from the verses on the different calendars.
Please pray for the land of Namibia. Lying to the north and west of us, easily accessible, with English now the official language, a land of welcoming people with a ready ear for the gospel among the African tribes, yet it is a land with no assembly workers or testimony. We hope to visit again at the end of the year, and print other additional languages for 2014
Spring 2013
Written by David & Helen McKillen - South Africa
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