Moriel Missions Southern Africa October 2003 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Greetings in the lovely name of our Lord and Saviour Yeshua the Messiah.

It is with great joy AND thanksgiving that we are able to report back to our partners in mission. You will see that a lot has happened since our last Newsletter in July. God continues to work out His sovereign will here in Southern Africa and so we Glorify Him and thank you for your continued love, prayers and support.

Keep us update with our web site. www.morielmissions.org.za

Missions College

This month we had the privilege of Having DR Calvin Smith come over from the UK at the bequest of Moriel Ministries International. We want to thank Jacob and Allison who made this visit possible
While he was here we discussed and did the following.
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• Calvin brought some valuable training sessions for the College Board and helped us with our curriculum development.
• He taught two modules at the college enabling us to develop the access course further.
• Helped us with sound advice as we seek validation through SAQA
• We audited several areas of the ministry and Calvin’s missions background was a great help in solving several challenges
• We agreed to work closely together and Moriel Missions College and Midlands Bible College and Divinity School will be helping one another develop their work on the African continent.

If possible, I would like to have Calvin out here again next year to audit the college and record further lectures as well as provide training. Also I would like him to audit the mission stations as they grow.

The audit of these ministries is very important. First of all from an educational point of view it will help us with SAQA accreditation if we have someone of Calvin’s educational background auditing everything from paperwork to lectures. Also with the mission stations it is good to have some objective feedback as to how we are going and how we can improve our operation.

For those seeking further studies, why not choose Moriel Missions College just email [email protected] for a prospectus

Visitors

Along with Calvin we had the pleasure of Having George and Rosanna Brighton come across from the UK as our first short term (Three weeks) missionaries. George is a medical student and Rosanna is a nutritionist. Their help and advice was invaluable as they took clinics in Kwazulu as well as helped with evangelism. Also with their help we are able to use their visit as a learning curve for future visitors.

In December we have Ian and Beryl Collins coming over for a few months to help us with the initial setting up of Ebyown. Also we have several visitors on the way from Australia. We hope to have a team going to help with evangelism in Kwazulu and a building team to help at Ebyown.

If you desire to experience short term mission then we can help. From the UK a two week missions trip with a little taste of African sight seeing will cost approximately 750 pounds sterling including flight, accommodation and internal transport, all you will need to provide is personal toiletries and spending money. If you are interested give us an email on [email protected]

Gauteng Mission

You will have noticed that the work has now been regionalised to fit in with our vision of eventually having a Moriel Mission in each of the provinces.

Gauteng is our first mission and the church plant at New Era continues to give us encouragement with some steady growth. Bernard and Mabel with their team are also evangelising the N17 squatted camp and have shared with us some encouraging news. We hope to planting a church on the sight soon after we have had a series of open air meetings. Door to door evangelism is also taking place, or should I say shack to shack. One of the lovely things about African culture is that this avenue of sharing the gospel is still open to the church as people enjoy having people into their homes to share the good news. Bernard and Mabel have even been meeting regularly with the local witch doctors family and he has given his family permission to go to church. Please pray for the spiritual battle that continues between the gospel of Christ and the traditional African religions.

Kwazulu Mission

For this month Salvadore is away in the UK on deputisation as well as having a well earned rest with his family. When salvadore returns he will be heading up the evangelism side of the mission which will culminate with a church plant around Christmas. Caleb and Sophie will continue building the clinic and also managing the property for future visitors and events. Please continue to pray for Sophie who’s new baby is due early in the new year.

The mission had a two week outreach as we mentioned earlier. We had our regular team involved but also George and Rosanna from the UK and we also sent down our evangelist team of Bernard and Mabel. The Gospel was faithfully preached and it was agreed that a church must be planted very, very soon. We have to have an alternative to the ZCC and African traditional churches as soon as possible otherwise those touched by the gospel will be lost. To this end Caleb and Salvadore are taking regular bible studies with the local people.

Some other good news, the mission station has now been slightly up graded with the fitting of a hot water geyser and shower. This will enable all the team to keep fresh every day. We are also placing lights into Salvadores quarters. Caleb and the team have done a marvellous job upgrading the property and we have seen huge improvements with the addition of new rooms and now accommodation for visitors. We would like to continue to improve with the following.

• More accommodation for visitors and a shower block
• A Rondaaval for Salvadore
• A paint job for the whole building

Moriel International have just blessed us with some finances to finish the clinic and begin the extra rooms needed for Caleb and Sophie’s new baby. Thank you Moriel for you help in this area.

Limpopo Mission

We have had encouraging news that the Living Christ Bible Church continues to flourish and grow. Our children’s worker Flora has also reported that the children’s work is going fine although she asks we continue to pray.

We have not yet heard from the tribal council concerning the land the Royal family has promised the mission. Dave and Bernard will be visiting the station late in November and hope to chase up the tribal council concerning this issue.

On November the 20th a Pastors conference will be held in Petersburg to promote the work of CMA in Southern Africa. It will be held at the local Baptist church and already the response has been encouraging. Dave will be teaching on Pastoral issues as well as sharing about CMA and taking a question and answer session on the subject. We hope to have some good news to report in our next newsletter.

Ebyown Childrens Village

I can’t believe as I write this that I am actually writing Ebyowns’ first newsletter!!
It has seemed so long in coming and now everything seems to be snowballing-there is just so much being done and so much to do. So many things have happened and continue to happen that we are all amazed at how God is working and providing for the village.

One of the major things and a personal one for me is that I have resigned from nursing (after 19 years) and am now Ebyown’s first full time employee. This was a big step for us all at Moriel Missions Southern Africa, and we did not take it lightly. We thought and prayed long and hard about it and the implications to Ebyown.

One of the deciding factors was the amount of time and effort that needs to be put in to get the village up and running. With me working full time and moonlighting as well, and Lyn’s ministry with Ebyown’s pilot project and home schooling (and lets face it looking after a family of 8 is a full time job in its self!), there just wasn’t the time available to put in the effort that is needed at this set-up phase. When I started full time Lyn very gleefully handed me file upon file upon file” ¦. of paper work (that she had done) for me to continue with. I think her words were “OH! This can go to you now!” with a huge sigh of relief. Not that Lyn isn’t involved with Ebyown’s planning anymore, she is still the driving force, but now I can do more of the leg work. Lyn is owned a great debt of thanks because with out the outstanding effort that she has put in Ebyown would not exist even in these early stages.

Other things that are happening- I successfully (I hope) climbed the government paper work mountain! We have submitted what we hope is all the paper work that is needed to be registered for child fostering and claim for available grants. This will enable us to start taking in children quite soon. I eagerly anticipate what the next government mountain will be. At the moment I’m at the summit waiting to hear. Lyn says “Summit?! You’re at the first base camp on that one!!”

The villages paper work is almost in place now (another mountain climbed, this time with a partner- thanks again Lyn!). We have a lot of impressive looking, we think, paper work. Isn’t it amazing what you can do with a computer?

The computer leads to another story. I had a very old 486 computer that frustrated me no end. It would open the mission plan, run it for about 5 minutes, and then say “what am I doing? I can’t run this- it’s too big for me.” And promptly shut down. So Ebyown is now the proud owner and I’m the proud user of a brand new Pentium 4 that nothing seems too big for!

We are now at the point in time to start advertising for the 10 couples that will be our Ebyown Parents. This is a daunting task with a great responsibility. We really want to give the children that come in to our care something special- that’s why our logo says “A home forever”; we want the children to have a real family. Some thing many of them will not have had. The parents are the most important people in the village, next to the children. Please pray that God hand picks each of these special couples that will come and care for these children.

We have purchased a 7 acre Smallholding on the outskirts of Springs and are waiting to take transfer and move on site. The property has a huge 4 bed roomed house with two lounges, and lots of outbuildings that can be used for living quarters, temporarily, and school rooms. There is even a wooden climbing frame to start the play ground! It is just perfect. God truly has chosen well!!!

Christmas will prove to be interesting at Ebyown, last count there were seven people wanting to come out to help set up the village- including three builders, a nurse and a special needs teacher. There is lots of building to do, and the village will have a clinic and a school. Just another example of how God provides. If any others want a Christmas to remember, under African skies, you know where to come” ¦..

Of course none of this would be possible with out the blessing of our wonderful Lord. And the amazing support of His Children! We would like to say a million thanks to the churches from Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States who have helped considerably.

To leave you on an inspiring note, we have already been approached to take in our first child, Brandon, a little boy of six that is in an orphanage, with a couple that take him out on weekends. We have just heard that the orphanage wants Brandon to go to a boarding school, which means that he will have no family life at all. Lets pray that we wont have to wait too long before we can take in children and make a real difference to little ones like this little boy!

AND PLEASE- PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY AND PRAY SOME MORE!
Again many, many thanks. May God richly bless you as you have blessed us.

In Christ

Kate
Manager, Ebyown Children’s Village

Australia Visit

From a personal point of view Australia, along with New Zealand have been on my priority list of places to visit. We have family connections in Australia; my wife has two brothers who emigrated to start a new life in the 1960’s on the Ten-pound fair scheme operated by the British government.

When I received the invitation to speak in Australia from Moriel, I was excited and pleased, not only would I be visiting a beautiful country but also I would at last meet up with Moriel’s team down under – so to speak. It would also be an opportunity to share about the work the Lord has opened in Southern Africa and the way the Lord has been working in the lives of our children who suffer from HIV/AIDS.

It would also be a good opportunity to encourage the church in Australia. Like most western churches Australian brethren have had to put up with a lot in the last few years with the resurgence of heavy shepherding, the prosperity gospel, false spiritual warfare and the rise of the Hillsong cult. So when I can, in whatever church I visit I feel led to encourage and share the fact that the Lord is still sovereign and that even though we are heading towards a remnant church we still have a mission to fulfil.

Margaret Godwin, aided by her husband Ross and assisted by Pam and Vic who basically make up the Moriel admin team, put together a very challenging tour visiting Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne, with a stop over at Perth on the way home. Every place was uniquely different and the pride that every Australian seems to have in their home city is good to see. It was good to share in some diverse communities, for example I will always remember the Italian Evangelical Church. I had to speak with an interpreter which was fun. Plus the hospitality of these lovely people was tremendous. In fact wherever I went I have found this to be the hallmark of Aussies, genuine hospitality.

There were several things concerning the Kingdom of God that stuck with me when I arrived home. First of all I was not prepared for the impact that Hillsong is having. From South Africa unless you have TBN on cable you will see their CD’s on sale but very little about their theology. (Although a summary inspection of their style and lyrics will reveal this) Sydney hosts their new auditorium that I believe cost around $24m. Within the church and even politically they seem to have some influence. In fact, as with Rhema in South Africa, they have tainted most of the established church. Because of this huge money making machine that is Hillsong we see that mission has suffered as a whole. Finances that went to overseas missionary organisations are now placed into buying the latest Hillsong CD psychobabble.

Secondly, Because of the lack of real spiritual food we are seeing a famine in the land for the word of God. I was chatting to Vee and Tania from Adelaide, a city called ‘The City of Churches’ and I was shocked that people have to travel hundreds of kilometres to here the word of God taught correctly. In fact one elderly saint had travelled 250km to attend the meeting and in Melbourne one family travelled 9 hours by car. I couldn’t believe it but I should not be surprised, here in South Africa we have the same problem. Christians so into false worship that they are starved of the Word of God. With no sound doctrine to place biblical checks in people’s lives no wonder that such backslidden denominations are having leadership problems in the areas of sexual immorality. The Pentecostal church I am afraid to say is quickly catching up with the Roman Catholic Church in this area.

Thirdly, because the fight against error has now been going for many years (And it looks like there will be no let up) I found some brethren very discouraged. When week after week brethren are faced with confrontation and even kicked out of churches for making a biblical stand I can empathise with them. It can get so bad that believers stop looking for a fellowship and as my brother John Kidd said “to be content with sitting under a tree with just the word of God”.

My fourth point is also the remedy for those who find themselves discouraged or marginalized. My fourth point is MISSION. I am very grateful for those who have chosen to support Moriel in Southern Africa, I have drawn tremendous encouragement. But mission must begin on your own doorstep. You see the natural thing for confronted people to do is to hide or seek solace. Within Moriel type fellowships I have seen a lot of this, churches set up as almost self-help groups. This has been good in a sense because it has facilitated the healing of many a wounded saint. But life goes on! Whether we have been hurt or not, there comes a time when we have to walk again in the full council of God. And Gods council would be that we once again take up the great commission.

Now it can be easy for us to support mission from a distance, but it is harder to actually take up the call. I thank the Lord for every saint who has pledged to come over and help us in South Africa. But my main encouragement to the Australian churches is to recognise the mission field on your doorstep. I know that some are going out onto the highways and byways but they are relatively few. I believe every church has its Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the rest of the world and it would be the Lords call for His church to once again do the work of an evangelist, otherwise our churches will die. The problem is at the moment we have relatively few new disciples in our fellowship compared to those who have fled to us with their spiritual hurts, this can be unhealthy.

You see another thing mission does, it helps us take the focus of a hurting church onto a hurting world in need of the gospel. When that happens, people are trained and challenged and their whole outlook changes from being self or church cantered to being service and Christ centred.

Let me ask, where is our focus today? Do you recognise the need in your life to move on and let the chains of the past be laid aside?

Thank you Moriel Australia for giving me the opportunity to minister and share about the work in South Africa. If the Lord wills I hope to be back early next year.

From Staff to Sword

I have had several inquires concerning my new Book ‘From Staff to Sword’. I have been told that it will be available soon and also that it will be distributed along with my videos and tapes through Australia largest Christian book chain. If this happens then it will be a real blessing from the Lord. Can I again thank everyone involved with this project, my son Anthony who proof read the book before it went to the editor. The publishers in Australia and also Marg Godwin who has encouraged me tremendously.

For those who did not receive the last newsletter I have published once again Pastor Randles forward. If you want a copy of the book please email Marg on [email protected]

There is no doubt we live in the perilous times Paul the apostle warned about when he wrote Timothy that “…Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection….lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God…”(II Timothy 3:1-5). The shocking aspect of this passage is that the people Paul so described are not the un-churched but the so called churched! “Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof….”. What a day we live in ! It has been given to us to live in a time when the distinction between the professing evangelical and charismatic church and the world has been badly blurred, when the shepherds of God’s flock are daily being seduced into defection from the ” The faith ,Once and for all delivered unto us”, and the powerful and influential churches are the ones most daring in that defection! Never has there been such a need for the volume I now commend to you, FROM STAFF TO SWORD, by my friend David Royle. Pastor’s especially would greatly benefit from this fresh look at Jude’s timely and yet sadly overlooked epistle. I was struck as I read it how applicable the epistle is to the pastoral challenges of our day. The time of the apostles was uncannily like the time we live in now. The Roman world was also a highly mobile, religiously pluralistic, pagan society, much like our own post Christian western world. The church was challenged from without by rival false faith systems and even more ominously from within by serious distortions of the Christian gospel, such as Gnosticism, Antinomianism, Montanism, and the host of other mutations of the gospel. We now also face our own Gnostics, who would spiritualise the faith out of all recognition , promoting their own dreams, visions and fantasies as being modern “words of the Lord”. I think of people like Rick Joyner, who has sold hundreds of pages of his prophecies , his fantastic journey up “the holy mountain” his conversations with the Angel “Wisdom” , and his revelation that paradise is within all of us, this is same kind of thing Jude was warning about! Truly there is nothing new under the sun!

In FROM STAFF TO SWORD our brother David Royle calls all of us, but especially the pastors to take up the sword of God’s word and defend the “once and for all delivered faith”. In doing so, we are defending God’s flock, the ones Christ came to die for, and to “Keep us from stumbling and make us stand blameless before Him with great joy”. I wish this precious volume would make it’s way into the hands of every pastor out there, labouring for God’s flock in the face of the onslaught of error and apostasy. May it strengthen you to take your stand for Truth, as Jude says, “On some having compassion making a difference, others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh”. Thank you David for this labour of love and help. God says in Psalm 94 “Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?” May an army of God’s servants rise up and answer this challenge.

Pastor Bill Randles
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA

Royle Family News

Lyn had a really lovely visit to the UK on October the 8th. Lyn spent most of her time with her father and family members as well as reacquainting herself with good old Fish and Chips, ASDA Curry’s and Galaxy chocolate.
On the home front Lyn has been busy planning with Kate Kent the start up process on the children’s village (More about that later) and also the planting season is upon us for our organic vegetable garden that supplies us with most of our veggies during the summer.

Lyn has also been preparing for our next child who has been more difficult to obtain due to the pressures on social workers. They are so busy with the huge task of finding homes for the nations children, anyway the room is ready and we are actively searching.

Dave had a tremendous blessing with his visit to Australia (More about this later) but came home a little jet lagged. He now has to get over the shock to his system of looking after the home while Lyn was away.

Anthony is planning to move to the States early next year. He has had lots of encouragement on the writing front and has had several more articles published.

Christopher still continues with his Chemistry Diploma although we are finding the college a little slow to get back to us with some of our queries, which has held us up a little.

Aaron has finished his first season in senior soccer at Springs Football club. The club have their annual awards evening in November and we are hoping he will be up for young player of the year.

S’phewi, Jo and Paulina are all doing fine. Paulina has caught the news that we will be getting a sister for her and asks almost everyday as to where he new sister is. We have also been blessed with a small one off financial award toward food costs. As you know we are big believers in giving HIV children the right kind of food stuff’s that can act as a natural retroviral. Obviously this pushes our food bill up above the normal and so a group from the Netherlands in recognition of our work in this area have given us a well timed gift.

How You Can Help

Please continue to pray for the mission here in Southern Africa. Here are a few things to guide your prayers.

• For all our team members through out the world who make this ministry work.
• For the health of the Ebyown Children
• For Anthony, Chris and Aaron
• Dave and Lyn as they head up the work
• We need a minibus for the Ebyown Project soon
• For the continued finances needed to keep home and ministry together
• We have just lost a major supporter that will put a major hole in our personal finances. That the Lord will supply our needs.
• Pray for all the mission stations that missionaries will be attracted to them

For ministry support please contact your local Moriel Ministries office nearest you. Moriel USA has an online store where donations can be made as well.