31 JANUARY 2018~ A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

In the village of Juweni about 200 homes cluster a thousand or so Tsongas with a sprinkling of Vendas and Shonas. The larger area known as Valdezia holds about eight of these smaller villages together. From this place, I met a young man I’ll call Xikombiso Kubayi in 2017. At 17 years old, he lives in a homestead with four different free standing rooms that house his mother, grandmother, and three siblings. His father has no influence in his life, but he has met the man before. He walks to school about 15 minutes away having just entered the 7^thgrade though my 10 months with him on Saturday and Sunday have discovered that he remembers facts and verses well. He is a good soccer player, a friendly conversationalist, and an average fatherless youth.

By his own admission, his life consists of attending school, a few house chores, and sitting with friends. School runs 180 days in the year, so 50% of the time, his daily routine has two main tasks rather than three. However, in March 2017, another leg was added to the table—studying the Bible. Saturday for about 2 hours and Sunday for about 3 hours (including travel time), he and his friends meet with me. On Saturday, we memorize Bible verses and catechism questions, practice reading, study an African map, and hear a 20-30 minute exposition of Luke. On Sunday, we gather for a “church” service though we only have one baptized believer.

When this young man first read a verse publicly around November 2017, he required a prolonged time to read that single sentence. But now as he and his peers voted to read 5 verses per day in 2018 and keep each other accountable, his reading has dramatically improved. Around Christmas time, he told me that he has entered the Narrow Gate, but he is not yet ready to be baptized. Why not? He told me he wanted to understand everything before hastily standing in front of others. Our Lord did tell us to count the cost to see if we can complete the task (Luke 14:28).

Over the past few weeks, I’ve introduced a new review game. After someone quotes a verse, I will paraphrase it in my own Tsonga words sometimes paraphrasing it accurately, and sometimes adding ideas that are not in the verse. The young people then have to tell me if my paraphrase is the same, not the same, or partly similar to the actual words of the verse. Another game following Mortimer Adler’s rules in How to Read a Book, requires them to state the main point in their own Tsonga words, or to translate the main point into Venda, or to give one example of a person who showed that main point. These tools have born fruit in just a few weeks as Xikombiso has already demonstrated that the ideas are penetrating both mind and heart now.

My point in this brief biography is two fold. First, since this little description summarizes the average child and home, you will hopefully be able to imagine something of the family life in rural areas. Second, I have written for you to intercede for the salvation of these souls. This is a real boy (though I changed his name) who had a darkened understanding, was excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that was in him as well as the hardness of his callous heart (Eph. 4:18-19). He and 6 others ranging in age from 13-17 have been studying faithfully with us for months. This group appears to be the nearest to salvation of those whom we have been evangelizing in Valdezia.

Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.Mark 11:24

Please pray for Langu, Masana, Thabiso, Themba, Hluleko, Tshedza, and Doni that they may join us in casting our crowns before His feet.

Over the past two years, we have been working to plant two churches at the same time. We are now in a position to ponder again where we should begin evangelizing. Please pray that we would wisely follow our Lord’s leading.

Sowing in tears that we may reap in joy,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com| Reflections on theology, missions, and culture

6 MARCH 2018~ NEW BEGINNINGS

THE CHURCH AT OUR HOME IN TOWN

For the past three Sundays, the church in town has met in our home, which only reduces our travel time if we are not helping to transport people to the services. My study is bursting at the seams during worship services, so we are hoping by the end of the month to have finished some construction on the back of our home where the church can meet in the future.

WhenPaul debated a Muslimback in 2015, a man named Steven came and was attracted to the gospel. For several years now he has been a member at the Elim Baptist Church, while his mother was still bound in fear to a prosperity church in the town of Louis Trichardt. Then in January this year, she stopped my vehicle on the road to say that she is now ready to leave her church. The “pastor” had threatened the people with car accidents, losing their jobs, attending a child’s funeral, or some other tragedy if they step out from under his “umbrella” by refusing to tithe or visiting another church. Alvina Maleti and her adult daughter Ndinewo have been worshipping with us for a few weeks now. Both ladies seem to be surprised each week by the difference between our church and their previous years of experience. They told my wife last week, “We would go and dance and do the other things [falling down, throwing money at the pastor’s feet, etc.], and then later ask, ‘Why did we do that?’” Please pray that both of these women and the other people coming would follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord-willing, on 1 April Easter Sunday, we will hold a testimony and baptism service for several like Alvina who are ready to confess their faith and join the church. We have made invitation cards and are struggling through a website in order to find Christ’s sheep lost in this network of self-aggrandizing wolves.

THE CHURCH AT HER HOME IN THE VILLAGE

Tinyiko Phaswani continues to be faithful to her profession and baptism that is now nearly a year old. The church in Mambedi meets on her property either in a tent or under the avocado tree depending on the weather. Two weeks ago, rivulets invaded our worship service rushing down the top of the tent and collecting in ranks at the bottom before unassumingly wandering across the dirt floor inside. Our children returned home from church that day with mud figurines they had formed and were hoping to bake in the oven. Since then, we have engineered a drainage ditch to avoid the experience of inches of mud caked to the shoes.

Last Sunday we began baptism classes with a row of young men who have been studying the Bible for several months with us. My last prayer letter introduced them to you. Our hope is to baptize new believers in the month of April. Do join us in prayer that Satan’s devices would be thwarted and that the young faith of these men and women would not fail.

NEWS FROM OUR FAMILY

We are planning to return to the US from 8 May to 4 September for a furlough in order to visit churches and rest as a family. For many years, God has answered your prayers for us, and we would be honored to speak together either when we visit your church or even in your homes. As we prepare to return, we are in need of a reliable vehicle to march our troop around the country. If you know of a minivan that we could rent during that time, please let me know.

Finally, though my book recommendations are late this year, I think I can still tempt you. In 2017, I read Foxe’s Book of Martyrscompletely after it languished on my shelves for many years. I can safely say this 450 year old book will inspire, interest, and often shock you. Secondly, last year I was surprised again by Christians who loved the gospel, but followed the world in areas of life such as economics, history, or politics. Having now read about 5 books of The Politically Incorrect Guidesseries, I can testify that they are both fun and informing. Try The PIG to Communismor Islamand you won’t be disappointed.

In hopes of a full harvest,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com| Reflections on theology, missions, and culture

10 APRIL 2018~ AN HOUR OF TESTIMONIES

Our First Baptism Service

As the Lord of the harvest causes the seeds sown by the evangelist to grow, angels watch in awe at God’s wisdom displayed in the local church. Sunday morning my wife and I enjoyed the sweet spiritual pleasure of hearing eight adults outside my wife, Caleb, and I profess their faith in Christ for nearly an hour. Six of those were people we have been evangelizing over the past years representing five different African languages. Four of them were baptized in a pool donated to our churchplant for that purpose.

Brief Introductions

Lesigo Sebola said, “I was a sinner in Adam and also because I broke God’s laws.” She is the wife of Justice who had been planting a church in Whunga, Zimbabwe. They have joined our church here in South Africa as he is attending Christ Baptist Seminary for the next few years. They are expecting their second baby in June and will help lead the new group of believers when we head back to the US for our furlough from May to September.

Frances Taylor, our only white member, quoted John 6:44 and said, “God drew me so that I would come to Jesus.” She was converted in Durban many years ago and has been looking for a Bible teaching church in this town for the last 7 years.

Alvina Maleti used to attend “All Nations Church” here in town. I visited it last yearconfirming that it too was no more Christian than a Buddhist temple. As she reflected on her previous “church,” she told me, “I have nothing after 8 years. No knowledge of the Bible. No salvation. No Nothing. Nothing. These churches are just like sangomas [witchdoctors].” Her son, Stevens, was converted back in 2016 and was baptized along with Caleb at Elim Baptist. Through his efforts at talking to her, she flagged down my vehicle on the road in January this year and asked if she could start learning the Bible. Another woman who had been on the “worship team” from the same church as Alvina has been coming and is showing signs of grace as well.

Dineo Maleti is Alvina’s 27-year old daughter. Sunday morning she too was baptized and has already been running an evangelistic Bible study with three other women in her home. Following the pattern that she is seeing on Sunday mornings, she is going verse-by-verse through 1 John.

Dorothy Matevani is a Tsonga woman who worked at a restaurant where Amy and I enjoyed our anniversary dinner last year. She and her co-worker Tintswalo responded to a gospel invitation at our table last June proving that if you love your wife God may just save someone. In her testimony she said that even though she had been in church all her life, she had never heard “teaching like this.”

Mugove Kamutimbe coming from Zimbabwe entered our church the first time in November with a tithe envelope. In 2016, a Baptist pastor gave him a flier. Mugove and the pastor met here in our town not five minutes from where I am typing, but the pastor, apparently an American missionary, was just passing through the town since his home and church were about 6 hours away. Mugove, not knowing this area well, eventually made it to one of our services, but his heart knew nothing of regeneration. On the 21^stof March, he came to our prayer meeting saying that he heard a voice in his heart that morning urging him to be a Christian that very day. When we asked for prayer requests the next week, he asked us to pray for his wife to be converted. She has been attending, but her English is very poor.

Ongoing Prayer Requests

In abiography of George Whitefield, Robert Philip lists five marks of the Great Awakening in America in the 1730’s.

1. A melting down of all classes and ages in concern for their salvation.

2. An absorbing sense of eternal realities which banished all vain and useless conversation.

3. Self-abasement and self-condemnation.

4. Secret and corporate prayer.

5. Concern for the souls of others.

Like the smallest green leaves of a new plant eager to get out of the soil, on Sunday we thought we saw some of those characteristics. We ask you to keep this list as a prayer list for the town of Louis Trichardt in which we are currently living and working.

In hopes of more rain before the great rain,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com| Reflections on theology, missions, and culture

4 MAY 2018~ THE NUMBERS

Numbers Talk

Since our previous attempts at a list like this have been greeted favorably, before this furlough we offer one more compilation. Having extended some effort at research for this letter, the numbers are as exact as I could reasonably get them. I am not tossing out exaggerated estimates.

• 150     Number of months I have been in South Africa. I returned for Amy after the first year.
• 17       Months Amy has been in the US since she finished college in 2005.
• 13 Years I have been blessed with Amy’s constant service, support, and friendship, starting June 25, 2005.
• 114     Pages for our current visa application. Please pray that the government would honor our application which would help us move toward permanent residence.
• 208    Percentage of increase in price of bread since I arrived.
• 49      Average life expectancy in South Africa.
• 4.50  Cost of gas per gallon in dollars. That is down from $5.50 in 2013.
• 8        Broken bones among our children. Honorable mention to Cameron for stitches and a 2^nddegree burn.
• 9        New churches or churchplants in the rural areas of Zimbabwe and South Africa over the last decade. This list includes churches that Paul and I have started or whose pastors we have had the privilege of influencing. One church from over an hour away was established years ago, but the pastor recently became converted and then began trying to pull the 40 or so people out of the prosperity religion. We met yesterday and he said that he knows of only two true believers at the church now, himself and his wife. Pray for the Word of God to run as it did in the days of Paul.
• 140     Church members in new Baptist churches in the rural areas over the last 10 years. We do our best not to rush people into baptism, and we use a church covenant as a tool to watch over the souls of those who confess faith. This number reminds us that our Father has been kind to poor sinners. And at the same time it shows us the tremendous need for laborers and the wind of the Spirit to blow in hearts.
• 2        Wives of the same man both of whom are in the new members class at Elim Baptist. As Alpheus said, “One of them shows fruits of repentance, and the other is close.”
• 33,000 Bricks in the Elim Baptist Church. The building project began with purchasing the land. That statistic was recorded in our last “Numbers” email in 2013, and the last brick was laid in December 2016. All the bricks were laid by the church members.
• 5        Years spent working on EBC’s building. For the first four and a half years, 88% of the cash came from the church members’ offerings and efforts to sell books, Bibles, and lip balm.
• 19      Months of Bible studies with Tinyiko Phaswani before she was baptized as the first believer in the collection of villages in which we began working in 2015. As I have mentioned repeatedly in these letters, do pray for a number of others who are near conversion right now. It would please us mightily if they were brought to Christ and baptized in our absence as Alpheus (the pastor at Elim) will be laboring there while we are gone.
• 10/23 Ratio of young people in EBC or the Valdezia churchplant who do not know their father. Some of these teens might have seen him once. One said, “I sometimes see him, but he does not know who I am.” Another 11 know who their father is, but he does not stay with them so he has a muted effect on their lives. Only 2 have a father who stays the majority of nights in the home. Paul has told me that of 40 young people he consistently ministers to, the percentage is the same.
• 3       Days until we leave our home to visit our dear friends who have held the ropes financially and in prayer.

Some Numbers From 2008

These are some highlights from the prayer letter I sent before furlough in 2008.

• 14 ½ Weeks we have been without a vehicle for repairs. We only tallied the days if they went past a week.
• 1 Man baptized
• 48 Months in SA
• 5 Trips to Mozambique
• 2 Times my back has been prayed for by a charismatic
• 6 Accidents and emergencies, including a girl that fell in a fire, a man shot in the leg, a teenage boy and girl falling out of our truck, and Daniel attacked by a crocodile.
• 6-9 The exchange rate—we used to get 6 rand for a dollar, now it’s 9 to 1. [In 2018 it is 12.5 to 1.]
• 14 Appliances broken—this is not counting multiple breaks on the same appliance.
• 4 Theft / break ins among the team
• 7 Termite nests on or near our property
• 6 Homes that make traditional beer near where we meet for church.
• 8 Snakes killed (One during a church service.)
• 32 Distinct phone numbers we called in an attempt to renew our visas
• 1,500 Approximate number of Tsonga words we use in everyday conversation

Some Numbers From 2013

• 1 Sunday school child saved from choking with the Heimlich maneuver
• 7 Minutes Amy was at the hospital before Carson showed up.
• 9 Average number of verses our church members are trying to memorize each month to quote the entire book of James.
• 9 Number of people who have been disciplined out of the church from 2009-2012. (usually for lack of attendance)
• 13 Number of people baptized from 2009-2012 who are still church members.
• 23 Unemployment rate in SA
• 75 Guests Amy has cooked for in 2013 (not counting group and church functions)

Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com| Reflections on theology, missions, and culture

8 AUGUST 2018~ ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

Entrance Requirements

Today I experienced less traffic than usual as I moved through Chicago’s Monday morning downtown traffic, navigating toward the huge, $10-per-20-minute parking garage where I have nearly spent a generous honorarium to park while attempting to lodge visa applications with the South African Consulate General. About two weeks ago, on our sixth visit, they finally accepted our visa application for perusal, but two days later over the phone they announced that “visitors’ visas are being discontinued.” Notice the passive verb as if no one is responsible.

This morning, we applied for a waiver from the South African Department of Home Affairs so that we will be able to apply for a work visa in order to return to our beloved friends, church members, and the thousands of Tsongas, Vendas, and Shonas who need the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Eventually, after the parking meter reached $31, they accepted the application.

Currently, our plane tickets are set for September 3, two weeks from today. The circumstances may change at the speed of Providence, but the most likely plan right now is that we will plan to return to South Africa on a 90-day visitor’s visa and then board the airplane again for the US once the waiver is in hand. Other options are available, but as many dear friends have been asking, we thought it best to give a public explanation of what has been happening so far.

Biblical Visiting

Following Paul’s example after each missionary journey (Acts 14:25-28; 18:22-23), we have been spending some time with the churches and Christians who have cared and prayed and supported us for 14 years. Since May we have visited 15 churches and enjoyed the generosity of God the Father embodied in God’s people at every turn. From the dear brother who gave the kids Legos, to late night games in Fremont, to “earnest conversation” in Maryland, to a refreshing drive and prayer with a couple of pastors from Dyer, to spending time with each of the pastors at Landmark in Louisville, to the free books at Tower Hill, IL, and the experienced counsel and friendly fellowship in Chariton, IA, we saw illustrated again and again the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God.

My family heard 15 different sermons from their father and a number from other pastors as we traveled roughly 10,000 miles.

Like a Mighty Army

Though we have been far from those to whom we have given our lives and hearts, yet God has seen to it that His Church advances. “And to one hope she presses, / With every grace endued.” Recently, Alpheus the pastor of Elim Baptist, wrote this letter to me (translated).

It is a joy to humble yourself before the Creator.

I’m running out of words to speak of the hand of God in our evangelism. Five boys, three girls and two women confessed their faith in Christ at EBC during our baptism class. Well, we will see as time goes by because I am afraid of rushing to conclusions.

Faithful Men [the men’s group] is a great joy. I’m training men in preaching, using those 50 questions you posted. They are trying very hard. In the near future we will have a number of men who can do well in exegesis. On a sad note, we might remove Mihloti and Fhatani [names changed] from church membership if they don’t repent of their sins. Pray for us to have wisdom in this as well as their repentance.

In Valdezia we will baptize before long. I think three to four boys are seeing the light now. Mhana Ndivhuwo is also showing great effort to memorize Scripture. Papa Mathye is also back, and I also talked to him about his age and death as well as for him to consider Christ in his life.

Papa Nyiko

Please pray that God would send His Spirit to specially help Alpheus and EBC as they labor in evangelism.

At Grace Bible Church, the church we started in our home, Justice and his wife Lesigo have seen two new adults who are prepared to follow Christ. They also saw the birth of a little girl in July! Do pray for the believers in town that many would come to Christ in a town saturated with little prosperity churches.

For our family this year, I have guided my prayers by the prayers of Scripture that I keep in a little card in my Bible. We would be glad if you would pray Colossians 1:11 for us that we would be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might.

Taking strength from the Almighty,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com | Reflections on theology, missions, and culture

9 SEPTEMBER 2018

Government Difficulties Nearly Solved

A new moon shines down on us again and yet our little blue books do not hold stamps allowing us to return happily to our country of service. For two weeks now, I have been in South Africa looking after the home and vehicles, visiting church members and ministries, and trying to obtain a few papers. It was a great test of our patience when the day after I arrived in SA, and though I was rebuffed repeatedly when I tried to find more information before I boarded the airplane, the consulate asked via email for me to return to their office in Chicago.

However, the One who works all things after the counsel of His will has divine purposes for this delay as well. The Jews waited 70 days in Esther’s time under fear of impending genocide and yet God was in it. Currently, we hope to apply for a visitor’s visa in early October. Then we anticipate returning to South Africa the first week of November.

Elim Baptist Church and the Churchplant in Valdezia

The pastor and believers from Elim have been consistently driving to Valdezia (about 25 k’s away) to hold a church service for the one believer and several others who attend. They began preaching verse by verse through John and the first Sunday back, Alpheus painted the glories of Christ from John 9:1-7. Though we wish there were more people than the one regular adult, seven youth, and children, the commitment of the Elim assembly strengthened my faith. Fourteen years ago, none of them were Christians! Now, they are practically laboring to plant a church after they have their morning worship service.

Further Up and Further In

Another 45 minutes down the same road that Valdezia is on, sits the little village of Jimmy Jones with an estimated population of about 10,000. About 6 years ago, Reginald Mabasa left the prosperity church he had been attending (and that still sits 200 yards from his house), and started a church in his home. Later that year, sitting on a bus beside a seminary student, he was directed to Christian books. The next year he began attending conferences held in Johannesburg about expository preaching. In 2017, I met him and asked how many people at his church were born again. “Two. Myself and my wife.” Sunday I preached at his home where about 15 adults and some youth came to hear the Word of God. He said since the last time I asked him there are now four that he believes are truly converted. Several left the church when he preached that belonging to a true church means being born again. He has started two businesses from his home to make ends meet and appears to be a true servant of God. Please pray for the church in Jimmy Jones that they would evangelize and the work of the gospel would grow there.

A Venda Effort

Back at Grace Bible Church which meets in the back room of our home, we found a signal joy. One of the eight believers who make up that body, has recently begun evangelizing in her home village about 35 k’s away. Dineo is the sister of Steven Maleti who was converted after hearing Paul’s debate in 2015 and then found my number through Google. Since then, he and his sister have grown in the Lord, and she was baptized in April. The home Bible study she began now has about 5 adults so she asked if her brother could start teaching there on Sunday afternoons. This village largely speaks Venda as do the brother and sister.

Waiting for a Man

In the village of Mbhokota, God has prospered Paul’s efforts to bring a serious group of Christians together. Their services are thoughtful, Biblical, and joyful. Slowly the membership has grown. Church discipline is faithfully handled. They have arranged numerous meetings for discipleship and training of young men. Their evangelism has advanced into several neighboring villages. Yet this body of believers still needs a qualified pastor. As is so common in the rural areas, the best men head off to the cities leaving churchplanters with a slow, difficult work.

Most of what I have learned has been encouraging to my heart and an answer to the prayers of God’s people, yet rarely does a missionary tell all the struggles with sin, church discipline cases, and numbers of people who fit the description of the stony soil or thorny ground. Please pray for men to be converted in all these villages. Please pray for young people to persevere though their culture pulls them to debauchery. Please pray for those who have professed faith that Satan could not sift them like wheat. Please pray for teachable men to be pastors.

Taking strength from the Almighty,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com | Reflections on theology, missions, and culture

10 OCTOBER 2018~RETURNING

Moses observed that a man’s usual life would span 70 years comprising 25,550 days. If God lets our book have that many pages, we have just received permission from the South African government to invest 4% of them (1,095 days or 3 years) within their republic. Lord-willing, our flight will arrive on Thursday November 8 so that we may return to our labors in the town of Louis Trichardt and among the Tsongas in the rural areas.

While we have born some tension from the government over the last 5 months, the Lord of the harvest has graciously blessed the new believers with whom we had been working. The church in Elim has a new members’ class. This group strengthens our faith because though Amy and I led most of the current church members to Christ, the first generation believers evangelized all these new candidates for baptism. Several young men from the churchplant in Valdezia will also join them. Spearheaded by two church members, Elim and Grace Bible have begun evangelizing in a Venda area.

Psalm 72 promises that He will rule from sea to sea (vs. 8), and again that all kings will bow down before him (vs. 11), and that the whole earth will be filled with His glory (vs. 19). I am filled with hope when I read these promises. Can it be too much that we would pray in faith for an unusual saving work among the Tsongas and Vendas after reading these prophecies?

With hope in final victory,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com | Reflections on theology, missions, and culture

12 DECEMBER 2018~ A GUIDE TO SOME OF GOD’S GOOD WORKS

In October a friend responded to our prayer letter with a pleasant string of questions.

When I read your letters, I must admit to some confusion keeping up with all the groups you reference. I would love to see a chart or list of all the various works you, Paul, and the South African disciples are serving. When did these works start? Who helped start them? Where are they located on a map? What state is the church? Does it have a local pastor or leadership established? What language is the church using for worshipping? How close are these groups to each other? No rush on this but it would be helpful.

Though my friend who wrote is also a churchplanter, it occurred to me that many people who read about our ministry would also like a clearer overview of what we are doing. Here are some of the churchplants in the rural areas (and a bonus churchplant in the town) where God has been pleased to save sinners. A starred map of this list awaits any dedicated readers who can make it to the end.

1. Elim Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 30-40; This category only lists those 13 and above.
• Membership: 20
• Pastor: Alpheus Nyalungu
• Location: Elim, South Africa; 20 k’s from Louis Trichardt where we live now.
• Language: Tsonga
• History: Our family started this church in our home in 2007. In 2017 Alpheus became the pastor and we stopped attending.
• Prayer requests: Pray that God would give them faithful men as they have numerous young men who have gone through church discipline.

2. Trinity Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 40-50
• Membership: 25
• Pastor: Paul Schlehlein
• Location: Mbhokota, South Africa; 10 k’s from Elim
• Language: Tsonga
• History: When Paul moved here in 2006, he immediately found a place to stay in this village. From that time he started the long process of making disciples some of whom make up the current membership at Trinity. Though the church members completed the church building, the Schlehlein’s are still eagerly waiting for national leadership.
• Prayer requests: Pray that God would give them godly and mature men whether through their patient effort or through new people joining.

3. Valdezia Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 6-10
• Membership: 1; This village has only one baptized believer, yet we are consistently evangelizing and clinging to hope in divine grace that a mere seedling will become a tree in due time.
• Pastor: Seth and Alpheus; both of us come each week and share the preaching.
• Location: Valdezia, South Africa; 30 k’s from Elim
• Language: Tsonga
• History: In 2015, we began evangelizing in Valdezia anticipating the time when Elim would be a “selfish” church. In 2017, we began meeting every Sunday afternoon at Tinyiko Phaswani’s house who was baptized in April that year. We have a tent now on her property, but it is usually too hot to worship inside so we typically sit under the avocado trees.
• Prayer requests: Pray that adults would be drawn, convicted, and comforted by Christ alone.

4. Old Gospel Church

• Average attendance: 20; They meet in a shaded area behind his house.
• Membership: 2; The pastor and his wife are members, and they have a number of people who have been attending since the days when the pastor was following prosperity theology.
• Pastor: Reginald Mabasa
• Location: Jimmy Jones, South Africa; 75 k’s from Elim
• Language: Tsonga
• History: Reginald began it as a split from a prosperity church, but over the last few years the light has been dawning more and more so that he is now trying to reform the church. A number of people have left since he cut certain songs and began preaching verse-by-verse.
• Prayer requests: Pray that the pastor would be able to explain the gospel so that the false assurance of longstanding attendees would be broken up and a new foundation on Christ would take its place.

5. Mashamba Bible Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 10-20
• Membership: 10
• Pastor: Godfrey Ngomane
• Location: Mashamba, South Africa; 30 k’s from Elim
• Language: Tsonga
• History: In 1994, Godfrey started this church in his home after having been trained by American missionaries in Johannesburg. Both Paul and I began working with this church when we first arrived.
• Prayer requests: Pray for the people in Mashamba to be interested in the gospel.

6. Rock Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 60-70
• Membership: 42
• Pastor: Wastemore Sarireni
• Location: Dzingira, Zimbabwe; 350 k’s north of Elim
• Language: Shona
• History: Wastemore finished studying theology with Paul and I in 2011 and by the end of 2012, he was back in the village where he had lived for many years before coming to SA. Though the village lacks running water or electricity, he has done a good job giving the gospel.
• Prayer requests: Pray that the pastor’s son John would become a pastor as his heart is devoted to the Lord. Pray that God would meet their needs to send their children back to school in 2019.

7. Somerton Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 20
• Membership: This church has been relocated by government edict and restarted twice over the last 7 years.
• Pastor: Shadreck Zireva
• Location: Somerton, Zimbabwe; 450 k’s north of Elim
• Language: Shona
• History: Shadreck also came to Limpopo Bible Institute from 2009-2011. After finishing the course, he returned to his rural village in Zimbabwe. The government opposition has made their lives very difficult and scattered their hard won church members to other areas.
• Prayer requests: The pastor needs grace to see people genuinely converted again as well as spiritual eyes to take encouragement in the Lord.

8. Hope Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 20
• Membership: 12
• Pastor: None currently
• Location: Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe; 800 k’s north of Elim
• Language: Shona
• History: Sam Meda graduated along with Shadreck and Wastemore from LBI. He then started this church in his home, but sadly, family problems have caused him to step down from serving as the pastor of this little group of believers. Two young men who have recently been converted have helped Sam at this churchplant as they try to honor the Lord with preaching and evangelism.
• Prayer requests: Pray that the church would have a godly pastor.

9. Whunga Baptist Church

• Average attendance: 20
• Membership: 15
• Pastor: Jastone Sebola
• Location: Whunga, Zimbabwe; 250 k’s north of Elim
• Language: Venda
• History: Justice Sebola, the twin brother of Jastone, moved to this village in 2011 after finishing at LBI. We met both of them during youth evangelism back in 2005 in SA. Jastone is continuing the work that Justice began.
• Prayer requests: About 5 teenaged boys have been coming for a number of months. Pray that they would persevere to become godly men.

10. Grace Bible Church

• Average attendance: 15-20
• Membership: 11
• Pastor: Seth Meyers
• Location: Louis Trichardt, South Africa; 20 k’s from Elim where we had lived for 8 years.
• Language: English; At the prayer meeting, four African languages are commonly used.
• History: Our family started this church in our home in 2018 after having evangelizing in the town for several years. We moved to Louis Trichardt in 2015 because of crime.
• Prayer requests: Pray that God would save sinners in the town so that the church could stand on its own. Pray that soon we could direct all of our time back to the villages.

Some of these “churches” are mere churchplants representing the gospel labors of at least one servant of God for years. If you looked at any of these assemblies you may see shades of the church at Corinth, but Paul still called them saints. Pray that a great work of revival and conversion would come to the rural areas. It is not beyond the power or mercy of the Lord of the harvest to triple those numbers in the next 10 years. Hopefully, this list and the maps and photos will help you imagine the scenes and pray for them.

For the glory of God among the poorest people,

Seth and Amy

sonofcarey.com | Reflections on theology, missions, and culture