13 January 2022
New Sunday Services
For the last two Sundays, we have met in the village of Nwamatatani with about a dozen people attending. Meeting in the shade of two scrubby trees, there is an art to choosing where to place your chair at the beginning so that you need not move again as the sun travels.
I have mentioned this village before having begun there in January 2021 with open air preaching. Over the last 12 months, just under 50 people have earned a Bible by attending for 10 consecutive weeks. Of those, about 12 are still attending each week.
I commonly ask, “Are you ready to confess publicly that you have entered through the narrow gate or do you still need time to be sure that you are following Christ?” Several appear to be close, but we have not yet heard a single, clear profession of faith in Christ. Last Sunday, all of them had used the Bible reading chart that we made for the other churches.
Since 2004 when I began ministering among the Tsongas, I have never seen so many consistent, interested adults. Even more encouraging, 5 of the dozen are men.
Paul is also preaching each Sunday in the village of Tiyani after he finishes the first churchplant in Mbhokota. I have tried to plot all these on the map to help you see more clearly where we have been working.
How can you pray? Please ask God to give us a church in this village. Please ask God to open the eyes of their hearts so that Christ would dwell their by faith.
New Village
On a hillside several miles off in the distance from where we meet in Nwamatatani, 3 other villages call out to any Christians who may be near. Having heard that call, 30 or more have gathered for the last few weeks when they heard the guitar.
The village, known as Makasa, has no cement roads, very few jobs, and most urgently, no Biblical churches. It is situated within walking distance of 2 other villages referenced in the paragraph above.
Walls Nearly Done
For 24 months, we have been building about once per week in Valdezia. Probably in one or two more work days, we hope to finish the walls. I have uploaded a few brief videos if you would like to see the work. So far, we have spent around $1,250 on both the foundation and the walls since we gather the sand from the river, the rocks from the hillside, and the sweat from the membership. The average offering is about $30 per month, and the other Tsonga churches pastored by Paul and Alpheus have given offerings as well.
Currently, there are 9 believers with another half dozen or so whom we hope will be baptized soon. As Amy and I have been leading services in Nwamatatani, Alpheus has carried the Valdezia churchplant by himself (after he and Shoni worship in Elim).
Interestingly, a few weeks ago in Valdezia, we met a young man who was giving out fliers for a prosperity “church” in the area. When I asked the young man what they will teach at this event, he eventually replied in Tsonga something like, “We know your church. It is different from all of our churches. You tell men about repentance and Jesus Christ.”
From the maps, you can see first, Limpopo Province in relation to South Africa. Then you can see the churchplants we have labored with among the Tsongas marked by red dots.
Trying Again in Town
Since 2015, we have lived in Louis Trichardt a town of about 50,000 people. Grace Bible Church is the name of our English churchplant. Twice already, I have distributed fliers to most of the homes and businesses. In a number of places we have preached on the streets.
A few weeks ago our dear brother Loyd Kamutimbe whose wife was baptized in November 2021, moved back to Zimbabwe. The attendance at the church has been discouraging even though we have seen a few people converted. For the rest of this year we are making extra efforts here to evangelize. But the lack of visible fruit has made us wonder if we ought to shake the dust off our feet.
Please pray that a spiritual awakening would come to this town. It weighs on my soul to think of such a developed place with so much nominal Christianity and yet no room for 100-200 dedicated believers.
Family News
We have heard from the government that our visas have been processed. Unfortunately, we cannot see the results of their decision until their website is working. But hopefully, soon we will find that our new visas have been approved. If so, we hope to begin scheduling our next furlough.
My greatest earthly joy celebrates another birthday today, and all the children’s noses have returned to their books. My book of the year for 2021 deserves to be read by everyone, and I so firmly believe that, I purchased more than 20 copies for others. It has 114 chapters, but most of them are 1-3 pages long. Can you guess? Thomas A Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ. If you serve yourself so well as to read it, would you kindly let me know?
Walking by faith,
Seth and Amy
7 March 2022
The Joy of the Lord
Many missionaries know the empty room which they had hoped would be filled with men and women desperate to find the Way that leads to Life. Perhaps a previous generation could count on external factors such as novelty to produce a crowd. But the listeners who come to hear some new thing like the Athenians rarely continue and even more rarely bear the fruit of the fourth soil.
Nwamatatani—14 months
As I mentioned in the last letter, a group of about a dozen adults in Nwamatatani—yesterday it was 13—plus a few teens and children, gathered to hear the gospel again as they have since January. This group had first formed on Wednesdays during 2022, but now we are meeting on the Lord’s Day with a smaller, but more eager core.
Here are some of the things I repeat nearly each week at some time during the service.
- “Our village is full of goats who think they are sheep.”
- “You will know the sheep because they are hiding in Christ.”
- “The three marks of a born again man are a hunger for the Bible, a hatred of his sin, and a love for Christ.”
- “The name of the church does not matter so much as the teaching of the church. If they teach Christ Alone through Faith Alone by Grace Alone, then you may have found a true church. Is there anything like that in Nwamatatani outside our little group?”
Please pray that the 6 men and 7 women who are consistent will soon confess Christ publicly. We are hoping to baptize on Easter Sunday with some other new Tsonga converts from the other churches.
Makasa—3 months
That is the village of Nwamatatani. About 6 k’s to the north lies Makasa where 20-30 adults have been meeting since January each Wednesday. So far, I have given out 5 Bibles there, and some seem greatly affected. Pray for roots that go down deep. There also, 4 men have joined the women and children.
Madubi—1 month
For two weeks, I have also been meeting at a little shop in the village of Madubi 4 k’s further down the road. Several of the adults from Nwamatatani have climbed in the bakkie to go with me. They have often invited others as we pass them to join us at the services even though they have not yet given public testimony of faith in Christ.
Valdezia—78 months
In Valdezia, the initiative and generosity of Christians in Tampa, FL, has purchased the materials for a roof on the church building that has so far been built of rocks. The members of Elim and Valdezia will supply the labor. Lord-willing before April we will meet inside a building that can hold everyone for the first time since we began in 2015.
There are scattered blessings in the English churchplant in town, the Elim church, and other places as well. Plus, the constant labors of Paul Schlehlein in Mbhokota and Tiyani.
For all these works, please pray for the Tsongas.
- The believers will walk carefully.
- The Word of God would produce the new birth over and over.
- Soon we would baptize in each of these places.
The Care of All the Churches
And yet there is another side. The weight of so few turning to Christ among 5 million presses my heart, tempts me to doubt, and pulls the new believers down. A Sunday with solid attendance is followed by a Sunday where a little rain kept a dozen believers at home. As I read through John Wesley’s journals right now, I was amazed to see, “Sunday 28 October, The violent rains did not hinder more, I believe, than ten thousand from earnestly attending to what I spoke…” And this in a field after the morning church service was done! May God send His Spirit to the Tsonga people and to these little churchplants in particular.
Rehearsing All that God Has Done
I could scarcely have been more surprised had an axe head floated than I was last week when a government employee called me to tell me that our family’s visas were finalized. In keeping with Paul’s pattern in Acts, we plan to return to the USA in May to report what God has done among the Tsongas.
- If you would like to see us, please let me know. We would be glad to visit with as many families and friends as possible.
- We are in need of either a motorcycle with 6 side cars or a minivan. If you know of one that we could rent or buy and then resell, we would be grateful to hear from you.
- This evening, I began a Telegram “channel” to post pictures, brief videos (usually 20-30 seconds), evangelistic anecdotes, and other information regarding God’s work among the Tsonga people group. If you are interested in following, click the link above or search for “Grace to the Tsongas” if you have the Telegram app already. I also have a YouTube channel with a few, short videos, and a website with English sermons. For years, Forrest McPhail’s posts on the Khmer people on FaceBook have helped others understand and pray for that ethnic group. May God raise up a great army of pleaders for the Tsongas too.
That the Tsongas Might Sing in the Choir,
Seth and Amy
5 May 2018~Estimation
It seems that our Lord was estimating when he said that 5,000 (Mark 8:19) ate the bread He had made for them. Many round numbers in Scripture send the message clearly even though they are not precise. Here are a few precise numbers and a few round numbers to help you understand what we have been doing for the last few years.
1 Number of times bitten by geese while preaching.
500,000 Kilometers on pickup truck. This Toyota has carted people to church, hoisted rocks and cement up the mountain, taught a good number of young men to drive, and helped numerous hitchhikers to hear the gospel.
5,000 US dollars (75,000 South African Rands) spent on the stone building in Valdezia.
50 African believers in the various churchplants in the area who show consistent fruit.
12 Our supporting churches.
18 Years spent in South Africa.
41 Those people still attending weekly Bible studies out of 82 who have received Bibles for free after 10 weeks of attendance. We have used this method since 2020. 5 of these 41 have been baptized.
700 US dollars spent on free Bibles over the last 3 years.
8 Average weekly preaching engagements. This includes 3 Sunday sermons, 2 theology lectures, 2 open air sermons, and a youth sermon on Friday. At least 4 other times in the week, we have private Bible studies.
7 Tsonga villages with a proven gospel witness. We know of Baptist churches in a few other villages, but I have not had much fellowship with them. Please pray that these sermons would be delivered with love, accuracy, and results.
15 Students enrolled at the Schlehlein’s Miseve Classical School in Mbhokota village.
0 Fear we have of COVID. Remember these are just approximate numbers. Precise calculations might show the total even lower.
14 Those baptized in this last term (since 2018).
1,400 US dollars spent for our most recent visa renewal.
20 Pages in each reading assignment for a men’s book group. About 10 Africans have joined in reading books like Lectures to My Students and Foxes Book of Martyrs. We meet twice per month for 2-3 hours and discuss page-by-page what we have read. It is a local, reproducible kind of training seminar where each student reaps as much as he sows.
12 Hours till we leave for the airport for our next furlough.
And here are some highlights from the prayer letter I sent before past furloughs.
Excerpts from 2018’s Estimations
17 Months Amy has been in the US since she finished college in 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.
8 Broken bones among our children. Honorable mention to Cameron for stitches and a 2nd degree burn.
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.
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.
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)
Some Numbers From 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.
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
Praying that our God would count us worthy of our calling,
Seth and Amy
7 July 2022~Abounding in Discernment
Because sin complicates the world, Paul prayed for the churches he planted in Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae that they would have a spirit of wisdom, abound in wisdom, and be filled with wisdom. Here is the 10th and possibly last list of ethical dilemmas that we have found as missionaries.
- Should I encourage a man to lead who has not professed faith in Christ?
Since January each Lord’s Day we have been meeting with 6-10 adults under a tree in the village of Nwamatatani. As we prepared to leave for our furlough in May, we wanted them to continue to meet each week. But no one had made a profession of faith in Christ. Should we ask a man to lead the Bible studies each week even though he has not yet confessed his faith? Or should we pause the services until we return in August?
- Should I accept a man for baptism if the words of his testimony are weak, but the evidence of his life looks like conversion?
A certain woman has been attending one of the churchplants for years now. She reads her Bible almost every day, attends the prayer meeting consistently, and confesses her sin in public, but she struggles to speak clearly about faith in Christ. She will agree if I ask, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” But if the question is, “What has God done for your soul?” (Psalm 66:16), her answer is mushy. Yet now she wants to be baptized. Should we baptize her or wait until she can more clearly put her faith into words?
- Should I leave a larger area without an indigenous church in order to evangelize in a smaller but more rural and poorer area?
For 7 years we have lived in the town of Louis Trichardt where we have been laboring to plant an English church. God has given us 10 evident conversions, but after several deaths and family moves, we are left with 6 church members. Should I shake the dust of my feet in this town and give all my energy to evangelism among the Tsonga villages? Or should I stay longer here in hopes of a real Antioch-style church in this town?
- Should I stay at a church until it has a durable Christian culture, or leave for the next churchplant once the basic matters of personal responsibility are in place among the new believers?
So far in 18 years, we have planted a single “selfish” church—self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. At our second churchplant in Valdezia, the believers have finished (or nearly so) their building, and 16 people have professed their faith in Christ. Our dear brother Alpheus Nyalungu and his wife have been serving as pastor there each Sunday afternoon once they have finished the services in Elim (the first church referred to above). Should we stay longer in Valdezia until they have mature children’s teachers, a choir, and male leaders from their own village? Or should we move on to the next village because “not all have faith”?
- Should I write and translate into an indigenous language even if the speakers of that language would rather read English?
Tsonga culture does not have a heritage of reading. But when Tsongas want to grow, I have seen that they prefer learning in English rather than Tsonga. Should I translate, for example, The Pilgrim’s Progress even though I know that few Tsongas would choose to read it in their language? Or should I translate good books for a time in the future when Tsongas will read in their mother tongue?
- Should I invest my time into ministries that help other Christians even if it is not directly targeted at the plight of the people groups among whom I live and work?
Correspondence, teaching at other churches, writing books, spending time with needy Christians who do not live nearby, and other ministries like this have been very profitable down through history. Yet these efforts may not have a direct effect on the Tsongas in the villages that I am trying to reach. Should I go about doing good like our Lord? Or should I channel my efforts to the Tsongas?
- Should I accept more support in order to increase the standard of living for my family?
Most men aim at greater financial stability as they climb through their decades. Many Christians carrying the weight of investing their money wisely are eager to invest in a missionary they can trust. But when missionaries have smaller salaries it allows others to get more quickly to the field along with other salubrious benefits. Should I accept more support or reject it?
- Should I help start businesses for the good of the poor?
Would you find it easy to read your Bible each day if your income was lower than $300 per month and inconsistent? Should I help new Christians the way a father helps his son to get started in life? Or should I stick to preaching and spiritual ministry knowing that “he who handles the world can very hardly come away with clean fingers”? (Thomas Boston, The Art of Man-Fishing)
- Should my attitude be marked more with rejoicing because Tsongas have been converted or sobriety because so few have come to Christ?
When I look at the Tsongas, Vendas, and Shonas who have professed faith and are now bearing fruit, I am able to make a list of about 50 names over all the churchplants and preaching points between Paul, Alpheus, and myself. There are others, but these give us joy and confidence that God is at work. Of course, I should have both attitudes, but which should mark my life more: Joy at answered prayer or a great heaviness and continual sorrow for how few have come to Christ?
- Should I pray in faith for revival if I believe that the world will spiral downward into sin before Christ comes?
Revelation presents a world spiraling downward in tribulation before the 19th chapter where our Lord returns on a White Horse to destroy His enemies. But the prophets speak often of all nations, all kings, and all peoples worshipping the Lord—the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea! Should I hope for a massive conversion of the Tsongas? Or should I be content with meager results because few will find the way to life? The other night in family devotions my 11-year-old prayed, “Please Christianize the world.” Should I correct her or copy her?
Each year, some of you offer answers which I enjoy reading. But my main reason for sending these lists is to inspire you to pray and enter into the complex difficulties of planting churches in poorer cultures. If you can only do one of those, please pray for us according to Paul’s patterns in the first chapters of each of the letters mentioned above.
As we have visited churches, a number have asked about joining the “Grace to the Tsongas” group. We send out pictures and videos from time to time regarding evangelism and churchplanting to those on the group. Download the Telegram app, and then follow this link.
In search of both mercy and truth,
Seth and Amy
16 September 2022
An Hour of Testimonies
The line of new believers Sunday stretched across the church platform as their testimonies filled our morning. For over an hour, we heard about God’s grace drawing sinners.
Perhaps the most encouraging was Mr. Shisana whom Paul led to Christ. Not only is he a man, but having passed his 62nd birthday—if my memory is correct, he is the oldest Tsonga whom we have ever seen converted. He spoke of going on in drunkenness until grace opened his eyes through the missionary.
Another man baptized was the first fruits from one of our new preaching points, Nwamatatani. Jomo Kubayi suffered a stroke, but he thanked God on Sunday for the calamity that took his health and his job. Why? Because of the stroke, he was now at home without work. When he heard of a preacher in his village, he walked over to hear. After several months of listening, he was born again. Without the stroke, he would have been at school teaching according to his profession when those afternoon sermons were sounding through that quiet corner.
Two teenaged girls, neither of whom has met their fathers, began coming over 4 years ago with a gaggle of their friends. Month by month, different friends dropped off, but Xiluva (Flower) and Hlavutelo (Revelation) kept coming. Both of them have been consistently reading and memorizing for years now. These girls are special because they have the chance to grow up as Christians rather than as the adults who have been so damaged by decades of false religion.
Two women professed Christ and went down into the water having been evangelized by the pastor and members at Elim Baptist Church. Seeing previous converts do the work of the ministry may have been the most encouraging part of the day.
Also included in the baptisms were three more women joining the Valdezia Baptist Church bringing the total membership to 13. As parents, our hearts were full when my son Colin and Paul’s daughter Audrey testified of their faith in Christ.
Sunday’s combined service was a joy as we saw so many uncommon colors in the painting. Adults, men, over 60, unusual circumstances, first converts in a new village, and fruit from previous fruit. Considering that in our entire last term (2018-2022), we had seen 18 baptisms, those 11 testimonies after just returning were especially sweet. Wouldn’t you enjoy a Sunday morning service with an hour like that?
A Look at the Map
As we mentioned to the churches on our furlough, there are roughly 6 million Tsongas. Taking an estimated 10,000 per village, that means there are 600 villages of this people group spread out across South Africa and Mozambique with a sprinkling in Zimbabwe. Up to this point, we have had a significant, evangelistic presence in less than a dozen of them.
Thursday and Friday, Paul and I have preaching points now in another 6 places. Lord-willing 2 more will be added by October. Please pray that these villages would respond, that our audiences would be made of more than sermon-tasters and white-man-gazers.
Currently, our method aims roughly at these stages.
- Drive through a new village.
- Greet the chief and the owners of any little shops.
- Choose a high traffic area like a shop, hopefully with some shade.
- Call the people at nearby homes with the guitar and a raised voice.
- Preach the gospel and explain our purpose.
- Offer free Bibles for those who attend for 10 weeks.
- Return each week adding verse memory, books of the Bible, and catechism to the songs and sermon.
- Ask the people, “Has God saved you while you are listening? Are you ready now to tell us what God has done for your soul, or do you still need time to think? (Ps. 66:16)”
- Move the meeting to a time on the Lord’s Day.
Both Paul and I are now meeting at preaching points that have begun meeting Sunday afternoons. Though our Sundays are filled, as you pray in the Holy Spirit for us, we hope to be…
…Advancing the spiritual war on the Tsonga front,
Seth and Amy
12 December 2022~The Dragnet in Use
Preaching Points
As I mentioned in our last letter, Paul and I have been laboring at open air preaching if by any means we may see a harvest of souls. Our weeks currently find us in 11 different villages with at least 150 adults and scores of young people who return each week. My records say we have given away 170 Tsonga Bibles for those who attend for 10 weeks. Our hope is that the dragnet having taken in both good and bad will allow the good fish to form a happy hatchery.
To that end, we often ask them to stand and tell us what God has done for their souls (Ps. 66:16). Last Thursday, a 72-year-old man named Scotch Vukeya said before I preached, “I read my Bible seven days this week. Now I am understanding the Bible, and I want to read it every day. I don’t feel satisfied unless I have the Bible. This is different from how I was before I heard the preaching.” I followed this with a question about whether he found that he was now believing in Christ and loving Him? He replied that this was growing as well.
After him, another woman who has been faithful for 6 months or more said something similar. For the first time in her life, she has been reading a Bible. Over and over, she is trying to understand 1 Timothy. That was her book of choice because we have begun studying verse-by-verse through it at each of the preaching points once they pass 10 or 12 weeks.
Probably half a dozen times now I have heard testimonies like this. By grace, we hope to see these infantile Bible-hunger testimonies mature by degrees into Christ-loving testimonies. Pray that both adults and children would have their eyes opened. Pray that they would gladly testify what God has done for their souls. Pray that they would be willing to be immersed, to sign a church covenant, and to form themselves into bodies in each place. We aim at nothing less, and so will be content with nothing less.
Men’s Book Group
Since 2018, as many men as we are able to assemble meet twice per month for what at times reaches seminary level, but most commonly is simply fatherly advice. When the discussion is lively, this group is sweeter than brownies. Currently, we are reading Bunyan’s The Holy War with a dozen or more African men in their teens and adulthood. Please pray that they would develop integrity and conviction and so be fit to be godly fathers and church leaders.
Belated Thanksgiving
Back in 2008, when I purchased my Toyota bakkie (pick up truck), the exchange rate was $1 purchases R7. Today as I type, the rate is over $1 to R17. The main reason for that shift in purchasing power has been the South African government’s theft through corruption, inflation, and unjust taxation. But since government policies have a major effect on costs, vehicle prices have grown faster than the exchange rate. In short, we needed twice as many dollars to replace the vehicle we’d been using for 15 years.
Though we did not speak of money and though many Christians were noble on our recent furlough, two churches and two families excelled them all enabling us to replace not only my work bakkie, but also our family SUV. The salesman was surprised when Amy and I immediately began counting how many people we could fit in for transporting to church before we looked at the “extras” he had hoped would entice us. May these expensive hunks of metal serve the Lord with gladness and help us bring many before His presence with thanksgiving.
As Christmas approaches, do not think lightly of what we remember on the 25th.
“Let us get it fixed on our souls and in our minds, that this glory of Christ [in His incarnation] is the best, the most noble, useful, beneficial object that we can be conversant about in our thoughts, or cleave unto in our affections.” John Owen, The Glory of Christ
With gratitude, gladness, and hope,
Seth and Amy
26 December 2022~A Merry Christmas Day
A Seat in the Shade
Like drops in a filling bucket, the people kept squeezing into the shade of three trees last Thursday in the village of Makhasa. Eventually—though later than the published start time, 64 unconverted adults and many children from 4 different village preaching points gathered where we sit each week for our Bible study. Believers from Elim and Valdezia came as well in hopes of imitating this method in 2023. Thirteen new hands received printed copies of that word forever settled in Heaven where the Son sits at the right hand of the Father. These numbers reflect people who have been coming each week, most of them for months. But the saga continued 3 days later.
Muggy Christmas
Several years ago, we celebrated a Muddy Christmas by pulling 4 vehicles out of the mud at a rainy service on December 25. This year, we enjoyed a refreshing 92 degrees as the Tsonga churches combined. People from the villages mentioned above were willing to come to the combined meeting in Elim, so we offered them transport in the bakkie. That meant a 7:30 AM departure time for the 9:30 service, but the drive was worth it as 13 unconverted adults, including 5 men, came with their Bibles. We eventually returned home by 3:30 PM, and Carson was excited to have the rest of the day off.
The service—as all the combined services are—was very encouraging with two deacons being publicly chosen for Trinity Baptist in Mbhokota. One of them was converted through children’s evangelism over a decade ago. The other was converted from alcohol as an old man.
Three women were baptized. Their testimonies were weak Sunday morning, but their lives have given us reason to believe that they are true Christians. One of the women married a church member, and since she was unconverted we removed him as a member. But both husband (now ex member) and wife (unconverted, newly married) continued to come. After nearly 2 years, it seems that she has been truly saved. We thank God for giving the man a humble spirit and the woman a new heart.
Another woman testified that her daughter who was baptized in 2021 had such a changed life, that she knew God had changed her. The third woman became the second church member in the churchplant in N’wamantatani. We were comforted that her neighbors who came with her that day said she now has a reputation for living a different life.
Perhaps the best part of the day was the ride home. With a dozen people in the vehicle, I asked them what we can do to begin a true church in the villages where now we only have preaching points. Members of three different villages agreed that we should meet in Makhasa and the surrounding areas could walk there. The difficulty now is moving from a low-commitment Bible study to a Sunday service where the people will admit that they have been in the darkness until now, sign a church covenant, and submit to baptism.
Can you conceive from among these village people Watts’ image fulfilled in the last day?
He that distributes crowns and thrones
Calls from the poor, His sheep He owns.
But see the wonders of His power:
The dead awake and demons cower.
Since He arose and reigns above,
He conquers sinners by His love.
Please pray for 2 things. First, that we would have wisdom so that we neither move to slowly nor to quickly. We do not want to accept goats as members, but we do not want to stand still if our Lord says, “Go forward.” Second, please pray for evidences of grace, signs of life. Too often we have baptized those who later gave up.
As the year ends, wouldn’t you like to read “the most amazing record of human exertion ever penned or endured”? For 2022, The Journal of John Wesley was my book of the year, and I recommend you not to read it if you prefer your religion to sit tamely on your lap to be petted at night. I also wrote a brief review of his life.
Finally, if you are in South Carolina, Paul Schlehlein will be speaking at a missions conference called Advance the Gospel next week from 4-7 January.
With remaining Christmas joy,
Seth and Amy
