3 March 2025~ The Means of Grace
A Habit of Bible Reading
On Sunday, Hlulani (18) texted, “Evening, brothers, I just wanted to share by the grace of God I have finished reading His Word, but it is not enough for me to read it. I also want to see myself living according to His Words.” This young man completed a 3-year quest to finish all 66 books. He joins 4 other Tsongas who have reached Revelation from Genesis. One member has not missed a day of Bible reading since 2022.
To make disciples means to teach men to follow all that Christ commanded. How can they follow His commands if they have not read them? And how can they remember them without having read the stories of the old covenant, the laws of Moses, the songs of David, and the proverbs of his son?
To build the habit of Bible-reading, we have Bible reading charts, weekly memory verses, and prayers from different Bible verses.
Two days ago, Scotch Vukeya (70’s) asked to meet with myself and the other two men in the church in Makhasa after the Sunday service. He has not yet given a testimony of God’s grace, but he said that he has been reading his Bible at least 5 days per week. Over the last 3 years he has quit coming to the services twice, but Sunday he testified to the men that he wants to stand on God’s Word now and believe it. He asked me to pray for him that he would do that. I think his interest is a result of his Bible reading and the sermon that he had just heard from Hebrews 11:1-3. The Westminster Larger Catechism says, “The Word preached [should be received]… as the Word of God.” (Q. 160)
That sermon from Hebrews was preached by Matimba Siweya (50’s) who has been learning to look at the text and ask questions carefully. Sunday he said he finished reading the epistles, and has already begun rereading them for better understanding.
Jomo Kubayi (56) has completed the whole Bible and is now working through it a second time. He leads a prayer meeting with 3 people each Wednesday.
In the village of Bungeni, where there are 4 baptized believers meeting each Lord’s Day, I saw Martin Moyo’s Bible. He (40’s) has been diligently putting a green tick after each verse when he finishes it, and in this way has completed nearly half of the NT. We hope he will testify to saving grace on Easter and be baptized as the fifth member. Though he raises and sells chickens, he has been joining me for evangelism on Thursday because he said, “It’s not nice for you to go by yourself to reach the people.”
Monthly Prayers
When Phathu (14) was asked to close the service in prayer, he asked God, “Please open our eyes so that we would see the wonders from your Word.” This request was the church’s January prayer from Psalm 119:18.
In 2023, we chose 12 different prayers from our Lord, and the next year different prayers for each month from the apostles. This year David has been guiding us as we asked for “open eyes” (Ps. 119:18), “conversion of the nations” (Ps. 2:8), and “a true view of ourselves” (Ps. 22:6).
And the Lord has answered us. Vuako (15) told us on Friday that he is now reading a full chapter each day, but he is understanding what he reads. Lindiwe (40’s) said she had been praying for Thabiso (24) before he preached, and his preaching is evidently improving.
Are these brief anecdotes not answers to your prayers? If you have been praying for a work of grace among the Tsongas, here are some initial drops of rain. If you have been praying for spiritual hearts, here is a group of your brothers and sisters.
Church attendance
Currently, 8 little groups of Tsonga believers are meeting. For each assembly we are praying that they would increase in their devotion and numbers. Specifically, that ongoing prayer meetings would consistently be held—with our without the missionary, in Bungeni and Makhasa.
As of 2024, the Christians in Valdezia have been holding their own prayer meetings with nearly all the members attending each week. Three weeks ago in Makhasa, the singing on the Lord’s Day was so lively that two adults shouted out, “Let’s sing that again,” when we finished a song. In Elim I was told that they have run out of chairs more than once.
Another church meeting is the men’s meeting every other week. Recently we have averaged about 20 Tsongas, but sometimes up to 30. Outside of the pastor’s children, there are no second generation Christians in any of our churches.
The Bible, prayer, and the Church: these three are the means of grace, the channels or vehicles whereby God delivers such kindness to us. We would not boast save in the Lord and His work in building up His church. He knows the sins, the backslidings, the late arrivals, and the broken promises among those whom He has lately redeemed.
But I place these few examples as to say, Be not faithless but believing: Other sheep He has, and they will hear His voice. Therefore, ask the Father that He would give the Tsonga nation to the Son.
Please update your address book with our new email addresses: sethmeyers@mailbox.org and amymeyers@mailbox.org.
Laboring to enter His rest,
Seth and Amy
4 April 2025~ Preparing An Expository Preacher
How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?
It is a skill of unusual difficulty to craft a 45-minute speech that both accurately explains the meaning of a particular verse of the Bible while also touching the heart of the hearers. Desks help as do computers, printers, a well-stocked personal library, time for reflection, and at least a decade (hopefully several) of immersion in a culture where this kind of teaching has permeated into all the cracks of life. But these advantages are rare in rural areas, and yet we must make disciples and gather them into groups that practice this kind of Bible work.
Sunday, Thabiso Mashaba preached for about 30 minutes from Hebrews 11:23-29 on the faith of Moses. Owing to a full week at GYM Camp, he and I spent less time than usual, and yet he said Sunday morning (pardon my paraphrase from Tsonga), “My main point is that true faith sees the One who is invisible like Moses did. Then we can live like he did.” He did not get that thesis statement from me because when I did stop by to help him at his house on Saturday, I promptly fell asleep.
He also raised the question, though he did not have an answer for it, “How is it that Moses was reproached for Christ since he lived before Jesus?” Thanks to a study Bible that Paul gave him years ago, he showed 6 other cross references to explain the 7 verses that were his text.
After the sermon, we usually have a time of review and prayer from the passage. The prayer requests of the 20 people present makes me think they are growing in the knowledge of our Lord from the preaching of His Word. One woman told me, “Brother Thabiso is growing. God is answering our prayers because he was not able to preach before, but he is getting better.”
Yesterday morning he and I met before he started work at a business near our house.
Thabiso: “What counsel can you give sister Ntsako and mother Eunice with these problems they have brought to me?”
Seth: “When did they bring these problems to you?”
Thabiso: “I was visiting the members Saturday after the prayer meeting.”
Seth: “But those two women live about 45 minutes apart from each other. Were they both at the prayer meeting?”
Thabiso: “Ntsako was at the prayer meeting [since it is held near her house], but then I walked over to the other side to visit the others.”
While I have the next section of Hebrews 11 this Lord’s Day, he will return to the pulpit for the final section of the Faith Chapter. Please pray that his logic and rhetoric would grow along with his practical obedience. Please ask God to give conversions through his efforts.
Currently, he and two others have a Bible study with about 10 adults in Valdezia every Saturday afternoon, but he said he does not see any of them interested in repentance.
I have highlighted Thabiso here at Valdezia Rock Baptist Church, but do pray for Reginal Ntuli who was ordained at Trinity Baptist last year. Matimba Siweya is preaching once per month at Makhasa Baptist Church. For each of these men pray that they would do the work of evangelists. Pray that their lives would be louder and clearer than their words—we want no more Talkatives in this people group.
What hinders me from being baptized?”
Lord-willing, several from different church plants will be baptized on Easter Sunday. Two women from Valdezia were both evangelized by other women speaking to them in their homes. Two men from street evangelism in Elim have been attending for over a year. And a mother and her son in Tiyani have been counting the cost for several years now.
Even with this group of 6 on the 20th, from all 8 churchplants there are roughly 30-40 others who come each week and read their Bibles, but they are not ready to say what God has done for their souls (Psalm 66:16). Must I rephrase that into a prayer request? Certainly not for those who have read this far, but to quicken your faith in Him who is invisible, let these quotes water your prayers:
- “Before they call I will answer.” Is. 65:24
- “Ask and it shall be given.” Matt. 7:7
- “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he turn.” Ez. 33:11
- “Prayers [should] be made for all men… [for He] desires all men to be saved.” 1 Tim. 2:1, 4
- And for the candidates for baptism, “I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” Luke 22:32
Last week, about 80 men met for GYM Camp under Paul Schlehlein’s leadership. It was a joy to hear several earnest testimonies and numerous other spiritual conversations. May husbands, fathers, and missionaries come from this annual camp.
In service of the Word that saves,
Seth and Amy
Grace to the Tsongas | Photos and updates sent to your phone on Telegram, Search for @gracetothetsongas
Bring the Book | English audio sermons
Son of Carey | Reflections on theology, missions, and culture
Second Annual Missions Conference
6 June 2025~ Meeting for missions
“Kereke leyi nga phasiki, yi lava ku phasiwa,” said Alpheus Nyalungu at yesterday’s mission conference. “A church that does not evangelize needs to be evangelized.” In all of my years among this people group, I have never met a Tsonga who had either sent or was sent by Tsongas to learn a language and plant churches.
To correct this Great Omission, about 50 Tsongas met last year on 16 June, Youth Day in South Africa. Yesterday, around 100 met for the same purpose. May this become a habit until the church walls are decorated with the pictures of Tsonga missionaries sent out from each of the churchplants. Could the day be near when these believers send a man on his way in a manner worthy of God?
Prayer for missions
We started with some lively singing before a biography of David Jones who took the gospel to Madagascar. That was followed by a 15-minute presentation of the Shona people including bookmarks with Biblical prayers for missions. Then we broke into groups for 15-minutes of prayer.
That session was followed by similar sessions on the people groups speaking Tsonga, Venda, and Yao. After each brief presentation, prayer groups met and tried to intercede again. These groups stirred my heart though I have no pictures of the 20 or so little clusters spread around the premises. Has such a group of Tsonga Christians ever spent time praying for their own people group and others near them?
Indeed, on the way home, two women who have not yet been baptized told me that the prayer times surprised them because they could see the difference between this “way of doing church” and the other kinds of churches. The people did not shout over each other at the same time. The prayers were not vague, positive repetitions, but requests straight from Scripture. Perhaps most importantly, the prayers were expressions of a heavenly species of love since we were praying for conversions of our own people and languages near to us rather than for jobs or healing.
After a young man read “The Cry of the Blood” by Amy Carmichael, we listened to a sermon on Acts 13:1-3, “Four Necessary Marks in a Church that Will Send Missionaries.”
Visitors
So far in 2025, we had seen no fruit from our evangelistic efforts this year. Having given about 50 Bibles this year in 11 different places, no serious inquirers have turned up. Until 2 weeks ago, when 4 women began attending the Bungeni churchplant. At the missions conference, they listened, sang, and prayed with all of us. On the way home, one of the women said to me, “I am not saved. I am not a Christian. I had thought I was for all these years, but I now know that I have been lost.” Please pray for Tintswalo (Grace) to lay hold of eternal life.
On 29 June, Lucy Maceke and Mhana Chabalala are planning to give their testimonies before being dipped in water. These two women received their Bibles in 2022, and have been faithful since. A few weeks ago just before I preached, Lucy (50?) raised her hand and said, “I cannot doubt anymore. I need to say that Christ has saved me. I have been waiting too long.”
Lord-willing, the new visitors from Bungeni along with another 6 or 7 will watch their baptisms in Makhasa. Please pray that the men at Makhasa (2) and all the Tsonga men (9) and pastors (4) will be filled with the Spirit and wisdom to lead the churchplants.
A Church Outside the Kingdom
The most important things are most often least known. Mugove and Sheila Kamutimbe living in Harare, Zimbabwe have led two women to Christ, and Sunday they began afternoon services in Shona with a handful of adults and children in their subdivision called “The Kingdom Outside” or “Ushewokundze.”
For a brief week, we traveled through Zimbabwe and spoke with 6 faithful pastors of small churches. The world thinks much of the United Nations, but angels were more interested in seeing the multifaceted wisdom of God on display with those few, poor believers. Do ask God to increase their faith and give them skill to pull others out of the fire.
Since there is no greater joy than to see our children walk in truth, how happy can we be to welcome our son Caleb Thursday as he visits us for a few weeks. Please pray that he would sow in tears and reap in joy.
Going, teaching, and baptizing,
Seth and Amy
Grace to the Tsongas | Photos and updates sent to your phone on Telegram, Search for @gracetothetsongas
Bring the Book | English audio sermons
Son of Carey | Reflections on theology, missions, and culture
8 August 2025~ Evangelized Now Evangelizing
| Two Who Represent 50 On 2 August, Mpho turned 16. His neighbor Phathu who was baptized with him in 2024 turned 15 on our son Cameron’s birthday, 12 August. Both are Venda, but attend church in Tsonga. Neither stays with or sees their fathers. One is in a 3-room house with 4 other family members. The other stays in a 10-foot square room with his grandmother and a baby cousin, all three of whom share a bed. Mpho began attending the street preaching back in 2023 quickly inviting a number of other friends and family to church including his neighbor, Phathu. Both boys respond well to the preaching and are trying to read their Bibles. Phathu has finished the NT, and Mpho is close. Nearly every Saturday, they travel with me as we evangelize. Both of these young men have learned the 10 chords necessary to play most of the Tsonga hymns with the guitar. I think it was April when they agreed to try reading English books. After some struggle, they finished the first half of The Pilgrim’s Progress in modern English and even summarized it fairly well. An accurate summary is the currency whereby they can build their libraries. We are now starting the second half of the book, and some others at Valdezia asked if they can join us. Mpho and Phathu stand for 30 other young men and 20 other young ladies among 8 churchplants who are either a few years older, or perhaps a little younger, either baptized or still counting the cost, who consistently meet on the Lord’s Days. Thankfully, a number of the youth have adopted the practice of praying from Scripture. January’s prayer was, “Open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Will you use this prayer to intercede for these young people without converted parents? Other Answers to Prayer at Valdezia At Valdezia, about 6 of the 20 meet each Wednesday for Bible study and prayer. Another group meets on Friday, and then in a different part of the village, there is a Saturday prayer meeting. Thankfully, these groups have gone on without me being present for over a year. This coming Saturday, Thabiso will lead 4 others in street preaching. Mpho volunteered to play the guitar. They had begun last year but stopped around May ’25 since they were discouraged at the meager results. While we were gone in July, Thabiso preached on Jude 23, “Pulling Them Out of the Fire,” and they decided to start again. Please pray that they would come rejoicing bringing a harvest. One of the 8 converted women, Lindiwe Baloyi has been praying for her 4 sons and husband to listen to the gospel. This year 2 of her sons, Kulani (13) and Vuntshwa (6), agreed to join her for family devotions and brought their friend, Focus (14). Do pray for this woman that she might win her family by her chaste behavior and consistent teaching. 15 of the 20 members are the only Christians in their home. Other Churchplants In Bungeni, I mentioned in June’s letter that we saw the first serious interest from evangelism this year. About 5 women have consistently met each Sunday from the street preaching that began in January. On Wednesday, those women and a few others began studying Titus with me. Yesterday, Tiyani Chauke (58) told us that she has begun a children’s Bible Club at her home after being inspired by the Women’s Conference last Saturday, 9 August. Doers of the Word, and not hearers only! In Makhasa, the youth group has 12 consistent young people who meet for prayer and verse-by-verse study through Proverbs. There are 12 members—all adults—in this village. Lord-willing, I am hoping to begin several evangelistic meetings on Friday and Saturday beginning today through the end of the year to help this small group of believes most of whom are over 50. Please pray for life from the dead. In Tiyani, there are 4 believers, but several Shona adults (that means they are immigrants from Zimbabwe) have been studying with that little group recently. Please pray that these Shonas would understand Tsonga and be drawn by love and truth. In Mbhokota, Thabelo has been teaching children each week so that now a good group of little ones are listening and learning at her home. From another outreach, numerous young boys have been coming each Lord’s Day for months now, and one has even been baptized More money will not help us. Nor will the sweet fellowship of family and friends. We are wretched men trying to reach wretched men, and who is sufficient for these things? We ask only that you would take up these names of people or villages or preachers, and pray day by day or week by week without ceasing until the Father gives His Spirit. Standing in need every hour, Seth and Amy |
10 October 2025~ Things as They Are
A Serious Matter
On Sunday, before preaching, I announced to the members of the 3-year-old churchplant in Makhasa that a woman baptized in 2023 was being removed from membership. Though she began in 2022, testified publicly in 2023, and attended consistently through 2024, she lost all interest for months in 2025. Several of the 12 members spoke with her, but she kept saying, “I will come this Sunday.” Sadly, her husband and children’s attendance dribbled out at the same time regardless of our pleading and warning for their souls.
More Time Still Needed
In the same churchplant, two men have been coming since 2022, one in his 40’s and another passed 70. I saw them both this week—friendly, affable, and attending on Sundays but not yet “ready” to commit to the Lord Jesus. One had owned a money-making bar in Johannesburg decades ago, and he had brought the first car to Makhasa. The other has finished reading the New Testament, but alcohol, like the woman of Ecclesiastes, has ensnared, netted, and bound him. When will all things become new to these men? Time is running out. The night is spent, the day is at hand, and yet we cannot make them see this.
Simple, Sloth, and Presumption
Four young ladies had been walking for months to the Friday and Sunday services. Yet at the end of August, they missed a service, and then another. Now only one still comes, Xivono. She has received a Bible, but when we ask questions, she cannot answer. And yet last Friday, she asked us to pray for her that she would be a serious Christian. Shall it be 1 of 4? Or shall we lose even this one?
Disobedient Husbands
The first Lord’s Day in September, the husband of one of the church members in Makhasa arrived at church. Hoping he had smelled the savor of life from his wife’s new faith, we were cheered by his presence as we prepared for worship. But then he revealed his deep frustration with the church for not obtaining his permission before baptizing his 60-year-old wife. Though several men met with him, and though he seemed to soften, she has been absent. Yesterday she came to the prayer meeting, and said she would worship with us on Sunday. This woman had just been baptized in July after nearly 3 years of attendance.
Two months earlier, a woman baptized in 2024 from Bungeni was told, “U nga ha ngheni kerekeni!” (You not anymore go to church!) When we visited, she told us, “Oh, he will calm down, and I will come back. My faith is still strong.” We have not yet seen her with the believers. Has the Gospel been a sword dividing husband and wife? Or has she fallen away, and her husband is a convenient excuse?
Dead Ends
This year I have preached in 16 different villages on the roads, or at little shops and given out 52 Bibles. Kayivela, a 50-year-old man, came to church after listening for months, but he stopped because giving up alcohol was too difficult. In Caledon, Mhani Golele, a 50 year old woman, told the group of about 15 adults, “We have never heard this teaching of Christ Alone and Faith Alone before. And I am becoming a believer in it. I will follow this teaching so that I can be a true sheep.” Several added similar words in subsequent weeks. None came to church.
All our efforts at outreach have been fruitless this year save for 1 of the 16 spots. And that one looked like it had the least potential. From that house, 4 women began worshipping on Sunday in June. But these are merely a few leaves in the forest.
An Ecumenical Fundamentalist
I met a pastor here in Louis Trichardt where my family lives. He is pastoring in Bungeni where we have been plowing, planting, and watering. When he invited me to speak to his people on a Wednesday night in June, I agreed and preached the gospel to about 20 or so people. He was apparently pleased with my sermon enough to give another invitation. After a second sermon, an invitation for Sunday was offered, so I shared with him my views on the new birth and false Christianity. When I asked him if he and I could perhaps pray together the next week, our meeting ended with a vague, “Sure, sure.”
The next week, I texted him asking if we could meet for prayer. His response: “We shall make proper arrangements in future because the program does not allow me today.” I doubt I will hear from him again unless to reject yet another offer for prayer together. I could expand this story at length, and duplicate it with different names.
Yesterday after a prayer meeting, I gave my phone to Jomo Kubayi (56), the first member at the Makhasa churchplant. After reading my messages with this pastor, he laughed and said I would never hear from him again. He told me again what he and others have said before. Men like this do not teach the Bible, do not know conversion, and only want to be near me in hopes of what they can get.
Things as They Are
Amy Carmichael is a hero. After 10 years of evangelizing in India, she wrote a book about some of her evangelistic experiences, Things as They Are. The book is like—but better than—this letter: A minor key cantata of apathetic people, missionary failures, and apparently pointless efforts told with musical prose and punctuated with so many verses you would think she was a Puritan.
As I look back over my prayer letters, most of the records are positive, yet that is not the whole story. In fact, the majority of the story, things as they are, is tiring even to exhaustion were we not strengthened by the Spirit, and tempting even to bitterness were Christ not grounding us in love.
There is grace! Just last Sunday, our dear friend, Johana Simango saw us passing Sunday evening as we returned through her village and flagged down our vehicle. “If you had not come, where would we be?” she asked. Converted in 2015, she has kept going and seen her two sons saved at Elim Baptist Church under Alpheus and Shoni Nyalungu. But the whole story is both sides, and the negative side is more common.
Then why write such a letter? The subject line could be “Failures.” How will you feel compassion like our Lord if you do not see the crowds like He did?
From this prayer letter, please ask God to give you tears, compassion, a soft heart. Please pray that God would send other laborers. The ground is too hard for our picks, and the thorns are too numerous for our hope. Pray for us.
Faint yet pursuing,
Seth and Amy
Grace to the Tsongas | Photos and updates sent to your phone on Telegram, Search for @gracetothetsongas
Bring the Book | English audio sermons
Son of Carey | Reflections on theology, missions, and culture
11 November 2025~ The Family Factor
A Surprise Testimony
Recently, I asked Nhlavutelo, “What were the tools or the things that God used to bring you to salvation?” This young lady is 16 and was baptized the same day as my son, Colin, 3 years ago. She lives with her mother and sisters, but does not see her father who left long ago. In that house, she alone reads her Bible and attends church. Each week when we arrive at the building in Valdezia, Nhlavu has already completed the 20-minute walk and has the doors and windows open. Perhaps the most committed of the youth in that little group, she started a Wednesday prayer meeting. I have a list of “Tsongas Who Have Read the Whole Bible” and though there are only 5 names on that list so far, her name is just after Pastor Nyalungu’s. She had been in Amy’s Sunday school class for years, and now she is teaching that class. Many times, she has been in a group with me on evangelism. During her years in the church she has heard hundreds of expositional sermons.
But when I asked what were two or three things that God used to save you? she replied, “Your family. I had never seen a Christian family.”
Last week, two new converts, both 15, told me, “Your children inspire us. They have love for us.” A different young man on a different day said, “When I saw your child greeting people at church, I asked myself why I am not doing that.”
Over the last few days, other examples came to mind. A woman testified that Amy’s willingness to stay with the Tsongas after she saw a gun on her child’s head—that willingness, that Calvary love of a young mother proved to her that our gospel was true.
A number of weeks ago, I asked another church member, “Which Christian encourages you the most?” She said, “Mhana Kombi [Amy, lit. mother of Kombi Caleb’s Tsonga name] because she always comes to church, and she serves her children.”
Today, Colin evangelized a dozen unconverted Tsongas under a tree while the rest of us listened.
So I have concluded that I am not the only missionary, but rather my wife and children hold positions like the names Paul lists at the end of Romans or 1 Corinthians.
Objection: That Sounds Like Self Praise
Isn’t it self-praising to talk about your family? Maybe. May the One who keeps Israel without sleeping, lead me away from the rancid lust of self-seeking and the subtle pleasure of personal praise. I think it was Leonard Ravenhill who said, “If the old man is not dead and buried, his stench will drive lost souls away.” Would to God that I cared nothing for the praise of man, and only for seeing God at the last day.
And isn’t it naïve and too soon? Do you know the future, Seth? Can’t terrible things happen? I have even this year had cause to weep over sins in my family. And I often wonder how we will make it to the end. What happens if sins or problems come in the future? That terrifies me.
Because of those two dangers, why write at all on this topic? Because there is a danger both ways. Maybe it is wrong not to write.
Answer: Maybe It Will Expand Your Prayers
First, many of you have been praying for my wife and children. I know because you tell me so. According to what I hear from friends, family, and churches, my family is more frequently the object of your prayers than the conversion of the Tsongas. Ought you not to know when God has answered? Don’t I want you to continue to pray for them? Some of you have been praying for us since we announced our first child’s birth back in 2007. Should I give you some encouragement if I can so that as you walk by faith, you might go singing on the road?
As next Thursday draws near, I want to express my gratitude for answered prayers for my wife and children, for help from them at the churchplants, for a quiet but sweet aroma of life seemingly flowing from a Christian family, but actually from the Rose of Sharon. Please ask on my behalf that from our home a seed would serve God, that it would be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
Second, I want to urge you to pray for a young girl who never saw a Christian family before she met us. Can you pray that her children would see many Christian families? Pray for family godliness among the Tsongas. Pray for Second Generation Christianity. Pray for the young men who know not how to contract marriage and with whom. Pray for the young women who are cruelly pulled away by the “wisdom” of this world from the goal of building a house, serving their husbands, keeping the home, and being saved through child-bearing. If it is hard to avoid divorce in a place with more gospel light, how much more difficult in a place without?
Until the earth is full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
Seth and Amy
