This sums up our day today as we spent 3 hours today with Dennis Nkosi traveling from Durban south area into a vast black township named Clermont and then out again. Dennis and his wife Violet and their 4 children serve as ABWE team members and Dennis is senior pastor of Crossroads Christian Community Church in Montclair, Durban. Dennis is actually Sotho, not Zulu, but he speaks it fluently and 9 other languages as well. He once worked for the government and helped to make some of the most dangerous parts of Clermont township less dangerous, though it took from 1993 to 1996 to make it happen. He eventually stopped working for the government and has been in full time ministry doing door to door evangelism in Clermont. He's quite knowledgable about these townships and the Zulu worldview and ways of life. He says their ancestor worship is the biggest barrier to belief in Christ for salvation, especially among Zulu men. He is very knowledgable about cults and false teachings that plague the Zulu population. At no time did we sense any danger there, but it would be much different if we weren't with Dennis or if we were there at night. Please pray for Dennis and Violet and their ministry at the church as well as among the Zulu population in Clermont township.
We also had time these last two days with Barnabas and Peggy Chung and therr 3 daughters who serve among the 4,000+ Chinese in Durban. They are a wonderful family who have had a lot to adjust to cross-culturally. They've moved from a flat in Hong Kong where all repairs were handled by the superintendent and workers to living in Durban where they must handle all repairs themselves. They only began to drive since their arrival in 2006 to Durban. They've also experienced first hand the prejudice of government officials towards Chinese. They have a vision to establish the ministry among the Cantonese and Mandarin speaking Chinese population through Peace Chinese Christian Church. Pray for strength to carry on as they have had to deal with a lot of challenging things, not the least of which was having their car windows smashed several months ago and assailants stealing valuables out of the car while they were stopped at a traffic light. We had an encouraging time of prayer with Barnabas and Peggy on Saturday morning related to all of this.
We also spent time on Friday with Des and Sharon Venter. Des is the senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Amanzimtoti, Durban. They have seen much growth in the church lately and are trying to begin a Zulu church in a nearby township next January. Des is a graduate of The Master's Seminary in 2004 and we have mutual friends who are professors at The Master's College. Des and Sharon just adopted a little abandoned black girl at 2 months old and named her Talitha (now 2 years). They are in the process of adopting a 3 year old boy named Ben and also have 3 biological children. Pray for the new adoption to be finalized in September. Pray too that they will continue to see growth among the youth in their area and the plans for a Zulu church plant.
Also on Friday we spent time with veteran ABWE missionaries of over 20 years, David and Virginia Morris. They were so helpful in answering questions and showing us the ministry at Grace Baptist Church in Amanzimtoti, which they helped establish as a church plant 20 years ago. Pray the Lord will lead them during a ministry transition time. A proposal is being considered for them to return to minister at GBC in a ministry to 25+ seniors. Jason and I really enjoyed our time at their home, which is nestled among giant trees next to a nature reserve. Their love and concern for the people of Durban and the other member of the ABWE Durban Team comes through as they shared with us about the work in this country.
Jason has been enjoying interacting with missionary kids these last two days. Having grown up a missionary kid, he is in his element as he has gone from playing with 4 little tykes on his lap all at once (all under 7 years old!), to playing ping pong (Chinese style) with the Chung girls (ages 19, 17 and 15). They also spent about an hour just playing guitar and singing worship songs together. Then today he hit it off with the Nkosi children (ages 21, 15, 13 and 11). Jason had a great time with Dennis's teenage boys, Nkululeko (Leko) and Neo Nkosi. They took us down to the harbor and showed us around, while explaining more details about the city. We all especially enjoyed driving around the World Cup 2010 stadium, which will be finished in September and tested in a soccer match, Japan vs. South Africa, in November.
Finally, please pray for me as I preach on Sunday at The Phoenix Fellowship. We will leave on Sunday at 5pm and arrive at LAX on Monday at 2:30pm. This return trip is longer through JFK so it will be 25 hours in the air! We praise the Lord for this trip and have seen His sovereign grace as we have interacted with some amazing folks ministering in a very difficult setting. In the days and weeks ahead I hope to make regular posts with snapshots related to our survey trip. That is, real pictures and also info and stories to go with it. It's been too short in some ways and I feel I didn't have enough time to get answers to some questions. However, it's been the right timing for interacting with the team members. Still the goals of enhancing our vision for the ministry here, strengthening relationship ties and getting firsthand exposure to the culture and real life concerns when serving here, have been accomplished to the extent that it is possible in 5 days time. Pray for the Lord to continue to confirm our intentions of serving here with the ABWE team and BBC. Finally, pray for Darryl and Casey Meekins and their little 2 year old Emma as they give leadership to the college and the students.
Communication with Kim and family back home has shown they are doing well. Tiffany returned to The Master's College on Thursday and everyone is missing us as we are missing them. Thank you for all your prayers.
Blessings, Robert and Jason for all the Clarks
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment