South Africa: Unprecedented opportunities for ministry

SOUTH AFRICA

“Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, ‘You also were with Jesus of Galilee.’ But he denied it before them all, saying, ‘I do not know what you are saying’” (Matthew 26:69-70).

The “No Room” part of the Christmas story is well known to Christians, but what about the “No Room” part of the Easter story? Except for the women weeping at the cross the Lord’s defence is painfully quiet! Rather, His friends join ranks with the plaintiffs; His disciples are bored stiff with Jesus’ repeated plea for prayer and fall asleep; Judas switches allegiance for a handful of coins and betrays Him; Peter determines that his odds are better at impressing the girls.

Where does the matter of giving room to Jesus rank? He simply says, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). It would be fitting for us to take a moment during this season to ascertain that we intentionally decide on activities consistent with God’s expectations of His children.

For us New Year’s Day came in the middle of a missions conference. A special feature was that we held it with our Zimbabwean colleagues; we even had a partial lunar eclipse on New Year’s Eve and studied the sky as did the Wise Men, though for dissimilar reasons.

Our TEAM senior director, Ross McCordic, spent a couple of days with us after conference going over some ministry area matters.

Then David and Kathy Driedger from our home church, Blumenort EMC in Manitoba, visited for two weeks in mid-January. We organized our pastoral travels to coincide with this, which took us to two HIV/AIDS ministries in Northern KZN and to a church missions outreach in Mozambique, not to mention a strategic stop in Swaziland. We PHOTOS: JOE REIMER had missionaries coming and going, which gave them a picture of missionary family. We tied it toDavid and Kathy Driedger, Pastor Michael and Philisiwe gether with reflection and photos Manyanga of Ekuseni, Olga and Joe Reimer at a game reserve.

Swaziland necessitated a second Many people from countries trip in mid-February. A network was closed to the gospel will be where no formed with another HIV/AIDS agency law forbids them to hear of Jesus’ love. that a missionary couple will now Pray for South African churches to participate with. The trip also brought take advantage of this. If this interests opportunity for deeper involvement you, visit www.theultimategoal.co.za. with another HIV/AIDS initiative. Jesus Thank-you for praying for Olga’s said, “I will build my church” (Matthew back surgery; she still has some 16:18); community needs are creating nerve-related pain in her lower leg, an unprecedented opportunity. There but is mending. We have several are 1.8 million women with children health concerns among TEAM perunder two in South Africa. Sixty-four sonnel: one with a persistent cough percent of them are single moms since early January, one heart surgery, (www.eighty20.co.za). and another with a failed hip replace

South Africa is hosting the FIFA ment. Durban Bible College did not World Cup games in June. Building get its anticipated accreditation and and upgrading South Africa’s ten got few students. World Cup stadiums costs apJoe Reimer proximately R13.6 billion ($1.8 billion) (www.eighty20.co.za). SA breweries Joe and Olga Reimer (Blumenort) have hope to sell ten million litres of beer been involved in missions since 1973. then (Afrol News).