Good News for the New Year!

With each New Year we have been able to share good news with you due to the many blessings experienced during the previous year.

Praise the Lord that with the start of this year we can once again share good news. There has been an allocation of funds to inject fifty complete audio discipleship programmes on cassette into the suffering Russian church. We thank the brothers concerned for their enormous generosity. From the mission’s side, we trust the Lord for another 50, thus totalling 100 programmes in all! Although we have already been satisfying the needs as far as our resources allow, we feel led with this opportunity to implement the ‘Gospel Belt’.

The Gospel Belt is a band that we are creating along the volatile and densely populated southernmost borders of Russia – an area with a large number of nationalities under the Russian umbrella. As we proceed, we trust that others will be encouraged and mobilised to share this vision and assist in closing the gaps. As the church must first be prepared to receive the fruits from the radio work, the Discipleship Programme into the churches will be the forerunner to broadcasting it.

So that a beach head can be established to Evangelise not only Southwards into Buddhist China as well as Mongolia, Islamic Turky and other Arabic countries, but also Northwards into Russia to serve the many forgotten peoples there ( not only the Russians) - the Evenks, Buryat,Yakuts and Tungus in Siberia. Because of their position there they are better suited to evangelise their own peoples and for them it will be much more practical than sending missionaries from the West, or even from Moscow, which is also thousands of kilometres away from these mission fields.

Of course, as we proceed and as the Lord leads, we will also satisfy other ministry needs in the heart of Russian society itself.

Together we have been in this for so long - together we must see this through to the end. Let us together share this vision with others, mobilising many into real, fruitful and lasting evangelism for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Together we are running the good race – much has

been achieved – and if we wait and tarry on this earth a bit longer we will see our Lord Jesus coming in on the clouds just as is said in the epistle to the Thessalonians. So let us together feel warm in the knowledge that He will then say : "Well done, my good and faithful servants!"

May the Lord bless you with many Blessings throughout the year ahead,

Our present supply of the blue reply envelopes is dwindling fast and we request that you kindly supply your own as we will not be reprinting again soon. The major reason for this is that the postal services are not currently as secure as they used to be (we have had numerous instances where the mission has been intercepted because of the distinct colour of the envelope).

We were privileged to have had Ds. Kriel - a missionary working amongst the Zulus - together with two Zulu missionaries staying with us for a few days. This kind brother has offered to oversee the translation into the Zulu language.

When you read this, translation work will already have begun. The essence of Zulu evangelism has many aspects which are similar to those experienced in Russia. With the experience gained in the Russian arena we are expecting that the Zulu translation will go smoothly.

Please pray for this project, its finances and for more computer-literate translators.

Thank you to all those who were able to extend their Debit Orders to help meet the new challenging economical situation we all have to deal with.

And a special thank you to all those who, not being able to afford the increase, have left their existing debit orders in force as is. We are doubly grateful as we understand how pressed you also are. The Debit order support system is of immense importance to the ministry, because at times, such as last year, when we are overloaded, the knowledge that costs can be met systematically is indeed a great comfort.

We thank all those who have helped sending in postage stamps (new and used) from all over the world . The revenue from this exceeded R7000.00 last year. We also thank Dr de Villiers

who has so faithfully supported us in this way. Some have been from albums collected since childhood and it is realised when such are given there must be a pang of remembrances with the parting. Thank you.

Often we receive such powerful letters telling us that someone or some group is praying for us. One sister from Ottosdal in the Free State could only afford R40.00 towards the costs of recording the discipleship programme, but the prayer letter that accompanied her offering was so poignantly powerful: that others who did have the resources would catch the vision and see to the needs. There is no doubt in our minds that those sensitive to the Spirit heard that prayer (and others!). It is true that times are tough and while we may not be able to support the Lord’s work financially, we can always pray. Please do not stop praying. The Lord’s arithmetic works somewhat differently to ours – such as in the case of Friedel Knobel who offered his studio and services free of charge to do the recording last year.

While we cannot reply to all letters due to a shortage in staff please be assured that when we do receive letters of encouragement and prayer, how joyfully they are read here at the mission. They are most welcome.

We ask those who make donations directly into the mission account to write clearly from whom it comes. Please send a copy of the deposit slip through to the mission by post, so that receipts can be posted out. When submitting contributions by post, please include the slip on the back of the Letterhead - this facilitates the mission’s administrative work - by tearing it off along the perforation on the red line.

The Lord has blessed us so abundantly, recently raising up a young and brilliant Russian computer engineer to do the final audio edit. Being a Christian, he offered to do the work free of charge, but we believe that the worker is worth his wages and that the Lord will make it possible for a suitable payment to be made when it is finished later this month so that he can take all the required subjects to complete his degree this year. (At the age of thirteen he was given six months to complete his matric in Russia before the family emigrated to South Africa. Now seventeen years old, he is in his final year BSc computer sciences). Unable to afford taking more subjects per year prevented earlier completion of his degree. What we would have done without this young believer is hard to imagine.

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