A New Lightstand shines

A new ecclesia has been born. Mariannhill ecclesia started last week with our first breaking of bread service. We had our 7 members there and 14 visitors. Not a bad ratio for a first Sunday. We met in the home of Bro Phinda and Sister Sylvester. We sang Zulu and English songs together and broke bread together.

We have decided that once a month we will, God willing, join Westville ecclesia to allow for continued fellowship among all the members.

The Sunday School is being led by Sylvester and the teachers are Precious, Kheta and Dumisani. Ilse will do teacher training at our home with Sylvester during the week.

On Wednesday evening we have baptism classes at which eight people attend plus the five members of the ecclesia. We had our first one during the week under candle light thanks to Eskom (power utility company). It all felt very apostolic! During the class someone interrupted and said that ‘they wanted to be baptised too’. I’ve never had that before!

There is so much exciting work to be done. We are developing a Zulu statement of faith. We are also collecting a set of Zulu and English songs that we can sing. We will be sharing this with the newly formed Lamontville ecclesia so that we create a Zulu song book.

As Ilse and I engage on this journey it is so clear to us that a great foundation has been laid before us. The work Mitch and Miriam Hardy did at Mariannhill when they were here was immense. A big ‘thank you’ again to Mitch and Miri for all their labours here. I hope we can effectively water the seed that they have sown.

Tim & Ilse Genders

Body odor, cults and testimony of faith - All in an "uneventful" week at Durban BEC

Below is Sister Doreen Greene's report on what she calls an "uneventful two weeks" at the Durban BEC for the first two weeks of April. Wow, if this is uneventful just think what an eventful week is like.....

The past two weeks were uneventful. During this period there were 31 registrations on the 22 lesson course and 298 people visited the shop. A visit was made by Mary and I to Bro. Clement who has a stall in the flea market that is within walking distance from the BEC. We were concerned because he has not been attending the Meeting since his baptism at the Easter Fraternal Gathering.

Every effort will be made to contact those brothers and sisters who are products of the BEC, to come together at a time convenient to all for a weekly or monthly Breaking of Bread at the BEC In doing so it might meet the needs of those who may find it difficult to travel long distances on Sunday when transportation is more difficult.

We were forced to have our resident beggar removed from camping at our door, since the strong smell of body odor and smoke was upsetting to all.

One woman walked in, picked up our corespondence course and said “you see, that name Christadelphian, they are a cult.” I spent some time talking with her about us. She was adamant, stating that someone at the top was getting rich off of us. Fortunately for me she didn’t know that the nice looking lady who was speaking to her also chases drunks and maybe accusers with a cricket bat.

Later on in the day we again visited Bro. Clement at his stall. We engaged in conversation with him and his brother. During that period he gave a wonderful testimony of his faith and told of the many, many churches he has gone to, but none were able to back up what they were saying thought for thought, with the Word of God, as the brotherhood has.

Mature American takes on hundreds of students, thieves and drunks

The past 5 weeks have seen Sis. Doreen Greene at the helm of the Durban BEC. Doreen (who's age we will not publish as she's much older than she looks) shows that there is no-one who cannot come and help out with preaching. If you're below 100 and can walk (sort of) and talk...there are many willing ears as you'll see from her story below.

Doreen has been running the BEC in the heart of Durban and handling everything from drunk beggars to thieves to thousands of interested students. Below is her report for the month of March.....



It was a busy month with 582 people walking into the shop and 43 people being registered on the 22 Lesson course.


There were two unpleasant experiences. On one occassion two books were stolen from our stock by a customer. This was observed and reported by a store keeper across the street. There is need for emphasis that two volunteers be present as much as can be made possible. On another occassion a drunk person walked in and seated himself. He was followed by a youth who was jeering him. The drunk responded by running after the youth with a cricket bat which he grabbed from a neighboring store. The opportunity was used to close the BEC doors until the danger had passed.

Returning students have shown much interest in discussing errors made in their work book. Classes on “Learning to read the English” have been off to a slow start. New tactics are now being employed in the form of asking any who enter as to whether they know of anyone who may benefit from such a class.

We decided to offer the Free bible correspondence course to everyone who walked into the shop. This produced such a flood of responses, that the weeks following doing this, Mary and I were hard pressed to mark the many returning lessons. In doing so many opportunities to offer more people courses fell through the cracks. (This is Doreen's way of saying we need more "laborers" the harvest is plentiful).

As a result of God's wonderous blessings, there have been 3 baptisms, from students of the BEC, over the past month. May God continue to bring many more to His wonderous family.

KMPBEC business

Crazy busy time here in KMP the last two weeks. Since Dan and Leah arrived we’ve more than doubled up in activities at the BEC and at the Ubuhle Bezwe orphanage.

 

Renovations at the orphanage was resumed and a security gate installed, the roof of the boys room lifted for more space and for the rain water to run off the roof away from the house. Some computer classes were also given to 10 of the children. On Saturday night 12 April we visited the orphanage at night and took them all a meal, gave them a lot of stationary we bought them and showed them a DVD under the roof area. We all thoroughly enjoyed the night together with all the children.

 

All is ready and on standby to get the building of the foster village going as soon as we get the lease agreement finalised with the council. For know we wait patiently and pray that God will make things happen in his time.

 

The KMPEC has also had a face lift. The signage outside (for the Bible course) as well as inside to indicate where people should register has been improved and looks great. More shelves went into the kitchen and the bulk copier is getting its own smaller specialised table – all to create the most space possible in the small area available to us. Dan also added more light to the shop. Lunch time Bible Classes picked up again and we had an average of 5 interested friends for the last five days. Some of them expressed an interest to visit our ecclesia.

 

Our Saturday morning special activity class for the young ones saw 10 children turn up – much to the delight of Leah and Leona who had them all make a lovely toy puppet. Two of these children will now be joining our Sunday School next week – growth continues J !

 

This week, God willing, we will continue our renovation work at Ubuhle Bezwe, finalise the course on Crèche management that we want to present the week after, finish the last touch ups at the BEC, continue with the Bible classes, give further life skill courses at Ubuhle Bezwe (English , Maths and Bible Classes) and advertise the KMPBEC as much as we can.

 

We continue to thank God everyday for the wonderful opportunities he gives us as well as the health, energy and strength to work for him in this way.

 

The KMPBEC team

 

 

   

Durban BEC in American Hands

The Durban BEC has been getting a facelift over the past few weeks! The two of us (Alissa Sillars—California and Hailey Rankin—Virginia) have been working tirelessly to complete a new computer database. We’ve finally gotten the database together and it’s all ready to go for the next volunteers that get assigned to the BEC!

Alissa is also in the process of putting together an “Owner’s Manual”, if you will, to show volunteers the ropes of running the BEC on their own.

Each Friday, we’ve been holding a seminar, and generally, the topic is decided by what people have been most interested in throughout the week, such as Hell, the Kingdom of God, or the Devil. For a successful seminar, we’ll advertise a few days in advance and get between 6 and 15 people each week.

The shelves are well stocked, and hopefully we’ll be able to keep them that way—we have been ordering lots of new bibles and books. Everyday, 3 or 4 people will ask for ‘small Zulu bibles’, and finally, we can show them where we keep them on the shelves, rather than tell them that we’ll have them ‘next week’!

Every day, we have between 20 and 60 visitors here at the BEC! Sometimes people come in from the lure of the window display (which will soon be revamped), and sometimes they come in because they’ve heard about our Bible courses through friends or family members. Either way, we always try to reel them in with a free Bible course. Sometimes they get hooked and sometimes they keep on swimming—it’s all up to God what happens with each person.

Though our time here at the BEC (and in South Africa, for that matter) is coming to a close, we know that our efforts and the efforts of the Westville and Durban ecclesias will be continued through the new volunteers, one of which has already arrived—Doreen Greene from California.

Alissa and I, along with two other 2010 volunteers (Jessica Russell—Newcastle, Australia and Becky Brown—B.C., Canada), took last Thursday and Friday off from the Durban BEC and headed down to the ecclesia in Margate. Sis. Cecelia (from Margate) is more than prepared for the new crèche that opens there soon, as far as teaching supplies, toys, and storage go. Bro Nelson (Margate) has had a great start with the BEC that is now opening in Margate. All he needs is the manual Alissa is working on, and he’ll be ready to go!”

(Sis. Alissa Sillars and Sis Hailey Rankin)

KMPBEC - 7 March 2008

This week at the KMPBEC turned out to be a real “preparation” week. We met with the builders who did such a great job at the Lamontville crèche, and had a look at the land we are hoping to get on a lease basis from the government. The land has great potential and it would be a wonderful privilege to be able to build the first phase of a managed foster village by God’s grace.

 

Advertising for the new round of Lunch Time Bible Classes to start next week Monday, God willing, was also done by way of over 250 sms notifications going out to students and a poster at the BEC itself. We will “tackle” the book of Revelation and hope to get quite a few interested students.

 

Peter :Lamplough “stumbled” across our shop on Thursday and gave us very positive comments on the shop. Always great to have some unexpected visitors.

 

Our stock of Bibles also got a boost as we found some new Bibles on sale at one of our suppliers.

 

YbiC’ss

Lucas

 

KMPBEC

This week we saw Bro. Kyle Clopton return to the USA after a good two months worth of 2010 work here in SA. Thanks a stack Kyle for all your effort. We received the good news that the council supports our proposal to build and establish a managed foster home village. Our meeting with the city manager went well and now it is just a matter of the legal documents being finalise so that we can lease the land near the Ubuhle Bezwe orphanage and start building! Our prayers will be that God will continue to open doors for us as He has done so wonderfully in the recent past and that the process will not take to long.

 

Saturday 1 March was our Bible Truth Study day at the KMPBEC and three students attended. We discussed the topics of Tithing as well as the main reasons for going to church on a Sunday. During the class there was a power cut but we managed to still have a 2.5 hour class in the shop itself where there was still some daylight available.

 

Your brother by grace

Lucas