Banner day at Durban BEC

Friday, 16 January, was the busiest day on record for the Durban Bible Education Centre! Brother Norman Fadelle from America was visiting Durban for the week, and had the chance to look at most of the major 2010 projects in the area. It turned out he also had an active hand in our record day.

Daily operations at the BEC fall into 5 categories:

1. The main draw at this centre is the Bible bookstore. We are located in a very busy pedestrian lane, with lots of foot traffic—and many people stop in. We set a new record on Friday, with 69 people stopping in the shop. We sell Bibles and Bible related books, at very low prices. (We only carry stock that we can price low. The South African Bible Society supplies a wide range of Bibles at very reasonable cost.) We also set a new record for sales volume on Friday.

2. Three levels of Bible correspondence courses are offered. The introductory course, “God’s Master Plan”, was developed here in South Africa. On Friday, five new students signed up. This was not a record, but was above average. We are finding that many people have New Year’s resolutions to be more involved with their Bibles, and there have been quite a few new sign-ups.

3. When students return their lessons, we mark them – and if their answers and our answers don’t coincide, then we have something to talk about.

4. We sometimes have impromptu Bible discussions about any subject you can think of. At one point on Friday, all of the workers in the shop were involved in these, and we had to break away to help customers.

5. Twice a week, Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons, we have scheduled Bible studies. These almost always end up revolving around questions brought in by the students. On Friday, Norm and Paul led a class for the four women who came by. The class is supposed to run 45 minutes—but as usual it was almost 90 minutes before it was done!

Since reopening after the holidays, we have noticed that traffic and interest in Bible courses have both been at a higher level than before. We pray that this trend will continue, and that it will please God to grant increase from this planting and watering work in central Durban!

Paul & Jane Zilmer, USA

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