Greetings from South Africa! 28 Apr. 2006
Whew! We have been busy! What, you might ask, have we been busy doing? Glad you asked!
Let me start off by telling you a bit about Wednesday:
6am - get up
7am - leave for radio station
8am - nation-wide radio broadcast, following up on the one of the day before
11am (at mall, trying to get some banking done) - arrange meeting with man
who heard us on the radio and is on the point of suicide and phones to
desperately request to meet with us NOW 12pm - meet with above individual
for 90 minutes - ministry seems to be a great success!
2:30pm - Louise leaves to take her mother to the doctor and to shop for
her father’s birthday gift (he turns 70 on the 29th)
3:30pm - Lary begins to draft this email [Also, from 8:30 today until now
the phone has been ringing with calls from people interested in our next
seminar (on the 7th).]
Last weekend we gave a seminar on the Spiritual Bride and were amazed
to find the hall we hired FULL of people (60)! [see attached pictures]
The seminar went extremely well, and we already have quite a few people
who definitely want to come to the next one. Wow! We prepared the
seminar book - which was almost 40 pages long - in English, but on the
day we asked which language would actually work best for the people who
came. All but three greatly preferred Afrikaans, and those three were
very comfortable with listening to Afrikaans - so, Louise did here
stuff in that language. I, of course, did my stuff in English. But the
result is that the CD's we intend to make from that will be of little
use to ya’ll in America. We intend to record our teachings in English
soon. Now, if only we knew what soon meant. . . . .
Louise has been teaching about the Spiritual Bride for several years,
but only just now does the door seem to be opening wide for people to
hear the message. One of the most exciting parts is that one of South
Africa’s leading, nation-wide Christian radio stations seems to be
opening their doors to us. We shall keep all of you informed as events
continue to transpire.
Another exciting event of this week - Tuesday, actually - is that we
started participating in the feeding scheme of St. Andrew's
Presbyterian Church in downtown Pretoria. They have developed a
wonderful infrastructure for their feeding scheme, and a number of
other ministries to 'the least of these' in their community, but all of
their programs have been severely under-supported. For their feeding
scheme they have people, kitchen facilities and dining facilities in
abundance - just almost no food. In the past they have been able to
provide only coffee and dried-bread biscuits for the 60 homeless
people who come every week. Well, yesterday they received a special
vitamin-enriched porridge that is made in South Africa especially for
malnourished people (and people with AIDS), eggs, apples, and a sweet.
One elderly homeless gentleman could hardly stop crying after receiving
his food. The workers there were ecstatic, because they had heard of
the porridge and knew that it was just what their people needed.
One of the wonderful aspects of this for Louise and me was that we did
not have to personally bring about the blessing described above. Our
congregation, Philadelphia, has been growing and INSISTING on taking
responsibility for the ministries that Louise and I are busy with. In
the seminar just past we were THRILLED to see so many people not only
helping, but INSISTING on their right to help us. We have been doing
everything by ourselves for so long that we actually forgot that there
was any other way for things to work. We both GLEEFULLY anticipate many
years of getting used to the business of actually having abundant,
eager, competent help. Hallelujah!! The result of this is that the work
that you in St Luke are supporting is being greatly multiplied by the
people of our congregation.
The 1st is the 1st anniversary of our wedding, and we are planning on
getting away for almost the entire week. A member of the congregation
has made the arrangements, so I don’t actually know where we are
going. I suppose someone will supply a map before we actually leave . .
. .
I returned a call this evening to an elderly lady who phoned after
hearing us on the radio and told me of her more than 20 years of
depression and always feeling guilty. She hoped 'we had counselors in
her area' who could help her. In lieu of that I arranged to speak with
her on the phone. Well, tonight she told me that she had a breakthrough
yesterday morning, and all that weight she has been carrying seems to
have lifted. Hallelujah! It is so wonderful that I don't have to feel
guilty for not 'having counselors in her area', because the Spirit is
in her area, in her home, and in her - and He is well able to do the
work that needs to be done!
There is an EXCELLENT chance that we won’t get an email out next
week, but we hope to go into town the week after and get some good
photos of the feeding scheme to include in the next one.
Thank you all so much for your prayers! We both feel exceedingly and
abundantly blessed, and that sort of thing does not come about by
accident. Those of you blessing us in your prayers should know that IT
IS WORKING!! Thank all of you SO MUCH!!
Love from Africa,Lary and Louise
