2 February 2021~Signs of Life
Signs of Life at Grace Bible
There are quite a few examples in history of men who began preaching shortly after they were baptized: William Carey and his first son Felix, Spurgeon and his twin boys, and of course Saul of Tarsus. Two years after Mugove came to the light, he preached at Grace Bible Church. Last Sunday, he delivered his third sermon from Ephesians 1. As you listen, remember that he has no commentaries (that I know of), no desk, and no computer: The content of his sermon came from looking carefully at the passage, praying, and asking other church members. He passed Martyn Lloyd Jones’ test of good preaching which was “to give men and women a sense of God.”
He hopes to leave our little church by June or July to evangelize his family in Zimbabwe though that means he must leave a good job and return to a financially devastated economy. Wouldn’t you do the same if your young children did not know Christ?
Regarding Grace Bible (our English church plant in Louis Trichardt), we were uncertain what would happen in 2021 since our strongest members have been moving away. Yet in January during lockdown, seven new adults began coming consistently as well as others who had been attending sporadically over the past few years. Their attendance was remarkable because it was illegal for churches to meet during that month, and two of them were police officers. Last Tuesday night as our theology class continues through Revelation, our average 8 increased to 13. We had told them in November that if they are not interested in the gospel, we may shake the dust off our feet in this town.
In light of this, please pray that God would grant to these 10-15 adults to lay hold of Christ and commit to the church. We are hoping to baptize some converts and receive new members on Easter Sunday, 4 April. Though I am increasingly interested in preaching to the Tsongas and reaching the rural areas, I am willing to devote more time to an English ministry in this town if God will be pleased to convert sinners through our labors. It weighs heavily on my heart that we have not because we ask not with effective, fervent prayers. Do pray for us not to grieve the Holy Spirit, and pray for all the first-generation, new believers that they would walk so as to be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God.
Signs of Life in Valdezia
As I type, my hands still have Thursday’s cement sheen on them. We have been building in Valdezia, the site of our evangelism since August 2015. Young men from Valdezia (about 5) and Elim (about 5) along with my boys and I have ploughed through phase 1—cleaning the stand, fence, toilet, and temporary tent and phase 2—building the foundation walls, filling the inside with soil, and pouring the cement slab. We now toil on phase 3—walls, doorframes, window frames.
Throughout our ministry, Paul and I have labored to avoid the “patron-client” relationship so that we would avoid “rice Christians.” To that end, Paul coined the phrase, “let them feel the weight.” Money for cement has come from outside sources as well as our invaluable pickup truck. But the labor has come from young men while they still balance school with work and church. I have uploaded some 30-second clips of the work days.
So far, rather than bricks we have used rocks scattered in the area for only the cost of sweat. Sand can be purchased with the same currency from the river. If the rocks look small in the pictures, I can assure you they do not feel small when being lifted into place. Each work day, I remind them how much money we have saved by gathering the rocks and digging the sand, and we close by quoting Revelation 22:12 to inspire personal responsibility and anticipation of our Lord’s Return.
Yesterday, at youth group a 16-year-old who is showing signs of new life asked, “Pastor, is there any hope for someone who wants to be a Christian, but then keeps falling into sin?” As we closed the adult Bible study on the same day with prayer, a woman asked for prayer that more people in her village would see the light as she had.
The believers at this churchplant show a teachable spirit, honesty, and willingness to work. Please pray first that these graces would endure and multiply, and secondly that they would gain a zeal for evangelism.
Looking for Life in Two Other Places
Further to the east, Paul has begun calling sinners to repent in the village of Tiyani where he now conducts services each Lord’s Day, and I have trolled for a catch in the villages of Nwamatatani and Bungeni. In Nwamatatani last Wednesday, 11 adults listened for the fourth week to evangelistic preaching. In Bungeni, a community center has providentially opened for us to gather sinners and lead them to the Savior. Please pray that we would find our Lord’s other sheep in each of these areas.
Looking and Laboring for New Life,
Seth and Amy
5 May 2021~A Glimpse into Tsonga Churchplanting
No Safe Spaces
After youth group on Friday night 3 weeks ago, a young lady I’ll call Mihloti related to me her fear of returning to her home. As a 12-year-old whose mother works in a town 20 k’s away, she stays by herself with her baby sister. Her fear arose from a relative living nearby who had threatened and assaulted her.
She might speak to her father if he even knew her name. But several months ago when she asked for my advice after a boy advanced threateningly on her as she walked home from school I gained certainty that she lives like many—perhaps the majority—of other young girls who have no security, support, or stability from the males who sired them.
My children came with me as I spoke to the grandmother and then phoned the mother who was away working. The mother told me that she knew of these threats and even previous beatings. “Once your daughter told you about being beaten, did you ask if the uncle has ever done this to her before?”
“No,” said the mother.
I asked, “In my eyes, this is a great problem, but it seems like in your eyes this is a small problem. Do I understand that correctly? Is this small in your eyes?” This question still hangs in the air unanswered by the girl’s mother.
I told the woman that I was planning to go to the uncle’s house, rebuke him, and threaten him with the police. The mother asked me not to do that fearing the girl’s life might be made more difficult when I was not there.
What would you do at this point after the sun has set with all 5 of your children with you? Last Friday with 14 teenagers present (6 girls and 8 boys), I asked them if they have ever been threatened by boys either to be struck or to be violated. Five of the 6 girls said, “Yes.” Several said it is common. The young men agreed with this informal social study.
Pray that God would protect these young girls and that the gospel would so thoroughly transform a Tsonga village that men would see their good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.
“We Have a Great High Priest”
Currently 9 adults and teenagers have been consistently attending in Valdezia along with the 5 believers. Sunday after church, I addressed a group of the attending non-members and asked what is holding them back. When one 16-year-old said that her fear of falling back into sin kept her from publicly claiming to be a Christian, our one adult member who was baptized in December immediately answered her.
As if the cat had been waiting for this mouse, she shot out Heb. 4:14, “We have a great high priest… so let us hold fast our confession.” Five things about that response encouraged me.
- She memorized the church’s weekly verses.
- She went beyond the requirement because 4:14 is actually this coming Sunday’s verse.
- She applied the verse to the situation accurately.
- She chose a verse that pointed to Christ and urged believers to persevere.
- She quoted the verse immediately without any delay or direction.
Please pray for the Word to dwell richly in the hearts of the believers and that the unbelievers would lay hold of Christ through these verses and sermons.
Lord-willing, on 23 May, we will host a Friend Day in Valdezia, Louis Trichardt, Elim, and Jimmy Jones. Please pray that God would awaken sinners through these labors.
At the Muslim Shop
Each Lord’s Day, our family worships at the English churchplant in town and the Tsonga churchplant in Valdezia. A few months ago, I began evangelizing in the next two areas on the map. In one of those areas, a Muslim opened his hardware store to me to preach each Wednesday. Of the 10 adults who usually attend, 2 men and 2 women have been showing real interest and commitment.
Each Wednesday, I arrange the empty hardware pallets under a tree for our seating. Then with 2-3 songs the guitar attracts whoever will come that day. We learn a pair of catechism questions before turning to the book of John where we are studying verse-by-verse the Last Words of the Lord (John 13-17).
After finishing at the Muslim shop, we move about 2 k’s away in the same village, repeating this same process with a dozen or more women. On the 10th week that someone attends without any absence, he receives a free Bible. Please pray that this would change from the caterpillar of a Bible study into the butterfly of a church.
If you are getting confused with the places and villages, there are basically four: Two on Sunday and two in the week. The first two are closer to becoming churches. The latter two are more like Bible studies right now.
Last week, I summarized Charles Spurgeon’s amazing life and ministry in the English church if you would like to hear that biography. And on Tuesday nights, Paul and I have been teaching through Church History if you would like to familiarize yourself with some of the giants of the faith.
Preaching the gospel to the poor,
Seth and Amy
7 July 2021~Judge Righteous Judgment
Are there any words of our Lord less remembered in this age of postmodern truth-carving than, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24)? For the ninth year, I offer a list of ethical dilemmas from the past 12 months.
- Should I build a house and move my family back to a village for evangelism?
The town where we have now lived since 2015 has about 50,000 people and no church that I know of which preaches Christ and conversion. Here we are with 7 members, 5 of whom we led to Christ. Another 10-15 adults come most Sundays. And yet they speak English and have jobs. Didn’t we come here for those with less opportunity? Should I move back to the village though that would require another house building project? Or should I stay in town and drive out to the villages? Or should I commit a decade of my brief life to evangelizing in English in this town?
- Should I continue to evangelize and meet for church services when religious and social gatherings are illegal?
This coming Lord’s Day, all worship services of any size have again been declared strictly illegal. Government officials are ministers placed over us by God, but Daniel, John the Baptist, and Peter disobeyed. A criminal charge on my record may jeopardize my currently pending visa application, but God never gave a president authority over the church’s meeting schedule.
- Should I evangelize at a home where women are immodest?
In Valdezia, I arrived at a home where two women covered only from the midsection downwards were resting under the shade of a tree. A few months earlier, I had met one of them through a church member, and he had tried to evangelize her. Should I speak to them about their souls, or take their current costumes as a “Do Not Disturb” sign?
- Should I counsel two people who have been living together but are now studying the Bible weekly with me to get married or to break up?
Presently, I am meeting each week with two different couples for Bible studies. Neither couple is married, and yet each one is showing interest in the gospel. Since it often takes months or years of studies before a profession of faith, should I tell them to separate or get married? If I tell them to separate, they may stop studying. If I tell them to get married, one may eventually become a Christian and the other not.
- Should I count a man as a true Christian who says he believes the Bible and loves Jesus, yet he continues to live with a woman without marrying her?
While Caleb was selling Bibles he introduced me to a Tsonga man who is preaching consistently at his church, yet living with his girlfriend and their children. During our studies, he is soaking in the teaching, and even texting questions at night. His words are teachable and agreeable with all I say. He keeps returning for more. Yet “whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” Should I count him as a weak, untaught fellow believer, or a man who must repent or perish?
- Should I go into a new village stating my intention to plant a church or merely to preach the gospel?
In Nwamatatani, 20 adults again listened to the preaching yesterday. Should I simply plead with men to come to Christ and let the Spirit of God draw the sheep out of the thief’s fold? Or, should I tell them up front that I came to this place at this time to find God’s sheep and organize them into a NT church like the Philippians?
- Should I encourage people who are not yet converted to pray in the church’s prayer meetings?
Since conversions are generally preceded by years of Bible studies and church attendance, new disciples are often present during prayer meetings. They need to learn how to pray, and what better way than practicing? But if they are not yet changed, how could God even hear them? Could participation in a prayer meeting confirm them in Christless Christianity? Or, is this a practical example of Blaise Pascal’s idea that non-Christians should “act as if” they believe in order to learn how to believe?
- Should I require that all prayers be in the same language?
In the English church in town, only the pastor’s family and one other new member from Canada speak English as their first language. On an average Lord’s Day, there are Venda, Tsonga, Shona, Sotho, Swati, and Afrikaans-speaking people present. Some of them struggle greatly with English. Should I allow them to pray in the prayer meetings in their mother tongue though the rest of us may not understand? Or should we require English for prayers so that all can understand?
- Should I encourage a man to leave our church, return to his village, and plant a church if his wife is not yet converted?
Nearly each month, I see further evidences of one brother’s growth in godliness. He told me tonight that he would like to be a Shona-speaking Puritan. Perhaps by the end of the year, he hopes to leave this town and return to his home where he can preach to his family and friends. His wife is a kind and consistent attender, but she is not yet converted. Is he qualified to pastor? If not, is he qualified to evangelize?
- Should I with Paul the Apostle call myself the chief of sinners and really believe it to be true?
It is unsufferable pride to claim any ground higher than that first great Missionary. Yet how can there be two—or 2 million—chiefs of the sinners? Is lack of humility that great grief to the Spirit that holds back an awakening among these villages? Or must we stop looking at all to ourselves either as the worthy or unworthy ones and patiently carry on until the wind of the Spirit blows where He wishes?
Rather than get the right answers, the goals of these yearly lists are to instruct in missions philosophy, stimulate meditation, and encourage your prayers for us. But if you are inclined to offer some answers, we are glad to read the replies each year from the one or two who do so.
Praying for knowledge and all judgment,
Seth and Amy
9 September 2021
It is sweetly persuasive to the unbeliever and constantly strengthening to the believer to see a free flow of grace given in response to prayer. Over the last year, I have seen unusual spiritual interest that appears to be the work of God’s Spirit. These examples of spiritual interest appear to me to be answers to your prayers for the Tsongas.
Since January this year, we have been laboring in two new villages while we continue the English and Tsonga churchplants in Louis Trichardt and Valdezia. The Schlehlein’s have been evangelizing in two new places as well. In each of those six places, there is evidence of God’s Spirit blowing as He wishes. Each week for several months, I have been commonly preaching to 40 unconverted adults and 20 teens. Compared with these numbers and added to them, only 11 adults are baptized in the new works.
In Nwamatatani, I have given out 34 Bibles for attending 10 weeks in a row. About 20 of those people are still coming each week for the preaching services held outside under the shade of some trees. Here we have no building, and the adults bring their own chairs from nearby houses when they hear the guitar playing. Our “services” include 10 minutes of singing, 10 minutes of teaching the catechism, 10 minutes of studying memory verses, and 30 minutes of preaching.
What impulse has brought these people back over the weeks and months? Perhaps the novelty of white skin could account for a few weeks, but an ongoing pattern of interest in Bible preaching sounds like a work of God. Last Wednesday, I asked them each publicly about their own soul’s spiritual condition regarding the new birth. Here you may meet a few of them and hear their answers.
Many Wednesdays as I near the place we meet, I pass Jomo Kubayi as he limps from a stroke toward our meetings. He walks slowly for 30 minutes to arrive at the yard in which we gather rejecting my offer for a lift so that he can exercise. Trained as a teacher, his English is good enough that he was able to read John Bunyan’s Holy War last month and has agreed to host a men’s meeting in his home beginning this coming Wednesday after the preaching service. He told me he was not sure that God had saved him yet, but he was trying to get in the gate (from our memory verse in Luke 13:24).
Kennedy Maluleke first heard the gospel proclaimed on the street near his house. Since February he has been consistent in attending even inviting his wife and other friends. When I arrived a few weeks ago he presented about $7 to me that he had gathered from the people during the week to pay for travel (about $5 per gallon for petrol). He was unsure but testified that every week he feels like he gets closer to salvation.
Sam Makondo arrives early most weeks from 15 minutes away. Wednesday he declared that he is now a sheep after spending too long as a goat.
Twisisa (“Understand”) Baloyi attends avidly and despite nearing 60, she has been memorizing the verses and the catechism. Wednesday she answered that she was now “hiding in Jesus,” a phrase she has learned from the preaching. She often asks us to pray that she would not fall away.
Ndaduleni Phadziri’s name means “Deny me,” and he has been actively attending each week for months. After finding a few days’ work, he told me happily Monday that he paid for transport to worship at Paul’s church in Mbhokota on the Lord’s Day. Today he told me that he is now seeing his sin, and he needs the Spirit’s help to hate it.
Around 10 young people from 13 to 21 are seriously studying in Valdezia. They all walk 30-45 minutes to get to the church building on the hill for Friday’s youth meeting. Usually, we take about 60 minutes to go verse by verse through a chapter of a book, and then we close with prayer in a group. Their commitment to come to such a meeting as the world calls “boring” and the growing maturity of their prayers is like a weekly Christmas bonus.
Last Lord’s Day, we had a new member’s class at Grace Bible Church. When we reviewed what it means to be a church member (born again, baptized, and committed to the church), Tapiwa asked, “Can you review again how we are born again?” In the discussion that followed, 10 men and women raised their hands in answer to the question, “Does anyone here desire prayer that they would be born again?” After encouraging everyone to look around at the raised hands and commit to praying for one another in the week, we are hoping tomorrow (19 September) to hear testimonies of someone who received new desires from God in answer to prayer this week.
As the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, so we wait for the Lord of the harvest anticipating that in October, we may have the joy of baptizing some of these you have just met and others though unknown to you, yet known by the Father before the foundation of the earth.
Do pray for the Tsongas! If your exercise has grown infrequent, I ask that you would restore your previous habit of interceding for poor lost sinners whose only hope is to hear the gospel through our thick accents. I am convinced that this new interest by adults in several places is a work of God’s Spirit, and may this slight beginning make us zealous to hope for more and ask for much more.
Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring.
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.
~John Newton
Hoping and praying,
Seth and Amy
4 November 2021~God’s Diverse Ways of Turning Goats into Sheep
For the last two weeks, the angel has stirred the waters where we have been ministering. In both Valdezia and Louis Trichardt, 4 more were added to the membership bringing the totals to 9 and 10 respectively. And that is only half the glory because in both places, there are others whose branches appear to have the promising buds of spiritual fruit as well. Perhaps, another group of 5 may declare what God has done for their souls by Christmas.
Here are some remarkable circumstances around these testimonies and a solid reminder that God has innumerable ways to call His sheep to His fold.
Saved by free Bibles and free Bible teaching
Rofhiwa (“We have been given”) said that she began coming only to receive the free Bible after 10 consecutive weeks. By the end of the time, she thought she needed to continue while she learned the Bible. Specifically, God used verse-by-verse commenting through Revelation, one chapter per week every Friday afternoon with a group of 10-15 young people, to bring her and her friend Ndalama to Christ. These two girls were so taken with the doctrines of John in that book that they began—even before their baptisms and without telling me—to teach a dozen or so children 4-5 days per week verse by verse from Revelation.
Before getting in the water, Ndalama said in her testimony, “I am not perfect, but I do believe in Jesus and I want to follow Him.”
Saved by work days
Thabo originally came to our church on a work day even before he visited a service. At that time, we had to clear the land to put up a fence, then our shack, and eventually the rock walls. For two years, this young man has consistently worked up a sweat with us. Over that time, he has brought half a dozen young men with him, but they have all fallen away. However, Thabo saw something they didn’t, and we gained our real end from these work days: a burgeoning work ethic and a manful testimony from Thabo.
Saved by pleading
In my 18th year as a missionary, I had not yet seen anyone converted who admitted to having been a believer in African voodoo. Sunday (31 October), Sheila testified that in her family there had been a heritage of witch doctors and fear of curses. However, during a sermon she heard, “Come, come to Jesus. What is holding you back?” In her heart she answered that there was nothing stopping her, and so after 3 years of prayers, she testified that she had found peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is Loyd’s wife whom I have mentioned in other prayer letters. Lord-willing, they will soon return to Zimbabwe to evangelize their family, and now they will have spiritual unity in that pursuit.
Saved by a stroke
My Afrikaans neighbor, Marius, is 54. Though he had gone to church, he knew nothing of the new birth. When his body was incapacitated through a stroke in March 2020, the Lord opened a door for us to help him with exercises and get in and out with his wheel chair. He and his mother are very poor, but Sunday, he blessed God for the stroke that brought the gospel to him. “Without this stroke, I would be heading to Hell. So, it is God’s grace that this happened,” he said in his testimony. Please pray for his 76-year old mother who comes with him, but is not yet saved.
Saved by a friend
Andrew brought his brother to Jesus, and the little maid pointed her master Naaman to Jehovah. It is my greatest joy to see that my children walk in truth. Since 2017, Hlulani has been attending our church. But several times he fell away only to be brought back by incessant prayers and visits from Caleb. Many times in devotions, his name was brought up for prayer, and I now see God’s wisdom in making us persevere in pleading for this boy my son’s age. All my children saw this young man’s life slowly but inexorably changed, and no one in our family worship would deny that there is a God who answers consistent prayer—“Just look at Hlulani”. For the last 10 months or so, Hlulani has brought his brother and both parents, and so the cycle of evangelism and prayer goes on.
Stirred by the waters of baptism
In Valdezia, there is a beautiful sight at the river where we decided to baptize. However, I made a mistake when I allowed my son Colin to test the place in the river for the baptisms rather than getting in myself. What is “fine” to a 12-year old may not be so judged by those of riper discernment. It took Pastor Nyalungu from Elim Baptist Church, a bit of wrist-wrenching to get each of the four safely in and out of the flowing waters positioned a few feet from a minor waterfall. One of the women who was watching the baptisms said, “I think I am ready now to be baptized, but not in these waters!” But we had checked carefully for crocs since the village boys swore that there is one (albeit a small one) who sometimes haunts that dam.
Before we baptize a professing believer, we watch their lives for some mark of the Holy Spirit’s activity. Can we say this person is showing a hunger for Scripture, a hatred of sin, and a heart for Christ? Over the years, we have seen too many fall away after baptism, but in each of those now immersed I can say that their baskets each had some fruit. After so few in the last few years, we rejoice in these answers to prayer. In his 18th year as a missionary, Adoniram Judson also experienced sudden spiritual interest among the Burmese. Is it not because of the persistence in prayer, the obedience of many of you to the command to pray without ceasing, that these ones have crossed from death to life and others now wait in the wings?
Hopefully soon I will be writing to you of two other villages where some linger even tonight at the wicket gate, and who by God’s grace delivered in answer to your unflagging prayers, will join us in the great choir so that our joy will be full.
Still pressed by burdens, but more excellently relieved by blessings,
Seth and Amy
