Msindsi Monthly – May 2009

MSINDISI MONTHLY
NUMBER: 58 MAY 2009

PO BOX 1481
VRYHEID 3100
KWAZULU NATAL
SOUTH AFRICA
+27 (0) 728311008

Email: msindisi@gmail.com , salv.di@gmail.com
Moriel KwaZulu Mission Website: http://morielkzn.googlepages.com
Personal Website: http://msindisi.googlepages.com

Here we are, at the auction yard where Salvador used to live. An extension lead comes out of the kitchen area where there is power and we are typing this newsletter from the comfort of our truck. The sound of wind blowing through the trees can be heard and behind, tree littered mountains surround us. As you can tell we are not in Gauteng anymore.

We arrived in KwaZulu on the 16th of April after two weeks of staying at Allen and Sue’s place. During that time we visited friends in various areas, such as Mujuru and Morne and Doret Lombard. On the Sunday, Salvador visited Elijah ministries to hear PJ Contat speak on the Loving kindness of the Lord. While Salvador was there, Di stayed with Sue to set up for the Passover meal that we were celebrating in the afternoon. It was a wonderful time of communion with a number of people coming together; some from the old Aletheia group and Mujuru with a number of people from Elijah Ministries and Lina and Marijke who are working as missionaries at Ebyown. It was an occasion where participation was encouraged. Riaan, Mujuru and Mujuru’s friend, Abel, read Scripture. Allen read the Maggid. Sue read a devotion, Morne Rabie lead communion, and Lina and Marijke played Amazing Grace, with Lina playing guitar and Marijke singing. It was lovely and tearful for us to be sent out to KwaZulu with their prayers as that was our last Sunday in Gauteng.

Arriving in KwaZulu has been a matter of unloading our stuff and keeping bits stored in boxes until our hut is built. At the moment we are staying in Phumulani’s hut and we are grateful for the dry weather. Although evangelistic ministry is set to start once our hut is built, Salvador has been organizing a couple of Bible studies that have and are starting this week and Di has started doing some of the Sunday school lessons using the material that Wendy Thome, from Elijah Ministries, has given. (We think that Celani wants a holiday from it).

One of the bible studies Salvador is doing is with the people that work for Mondi and the other is at Khambi with the some of the same people who attended it when he took it with Caleb. Aside from the organization of these studies we have visited the local clinic and local TB hospital for Di to get a feel of what there is out there medical-wise. In fact, Salvi had to take one boy to the clinic as he had scraped his side when falling from a tree and hadn’t had it seen to. Salvi met him at the communal tap while filling up our water containers and his side was all infected. It looked like a white bubbly mess. The clinic cleaned him up, though the kid cried with pain and gave him a course of antibiotics.

During this first couple of weeks, Di had been struggling with adjusting to her new surroundings. Salvi has been using this opportunity to get more study done for his Bible College course. It was a lonely experience as Di doesn’t speak Zulu. So conversations were very short and unmeaningful. However the Lord is gracious and after a few tears she received encouragement from His Word. God also has been using Edith Schaeffer’s book The Apestry to gain a perspective of the reality of missionary life on a day-to-day basis. This is not as a happy-ever-after experience but a knowledge that God is walking with us when things are ‘clear as fog’ and with knowledge that He is working His purposes. God will not necessarily change the circumstances around us but we will be changed from within.

What was an encouragement was the visit of our friend Riaan and his daughter Bianca who brought so much building supplies for our hut. He also helped us shop for other building material, as he knew what we will need. The Lord has been so good to us in moving the hearts of various people to contribute to the building of our hut and the timing of their help has made us rejoice in the Lord. The way in which the Lord has provided has eassured us of God’s hand in bringing us to KwaZulu at this time for however long or however short He would have us here for. It was great to have them visit us and to share fellowship with us and Phumulani. Riaan used to live around this area and would love to come back again. At the moment he is looking for more stable work to meet the needs of his family. Please pray for him and his family as we are, that God would bless them as they obey Him.

Around this time of the Lord ministering to Di we got news from Sue that her father had died. He wasn’t a believer but Sue managed to share the Gospel one last time before his death. We decided to go to Springs to be with Allen and Sue for three days. During this time we also visited Vita Nova and Salvi visited home affairs to check on his extension of visa application in vain. He waited from 8 am – 3pm for them to find out that his application hadn’t yet been taken to be approved! But while he was there he was able to chat with a Muslim lady who was claiming that the Qur’an was similar to the Bible and that the differences were minute. Salvi had to explain that the differences were what made the difference because the teaching that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross was the crux of the Gospel message.

We also managed to visit Lorraine on the settlement and Morne and Vicky too. It was also good to see Masesi at Allen and Sue’s enjoying her schooling. Sue’s step mother didn’t want a funeral service and so there was a gathering in Allen and Sue’s home. In attendance were Sue’s two brothers, one of which flew in from the States, her step mother, other family members, Riaan and his family, Morne and Vicky, and us. Allen and Sue’s son flew in from the UK and their daughter Roxanne with her husband Braam were also there. The support and love of the brethren at the occasion was a testimony to Sue’s family and Sue took the opportunity to share the Gospel with her family.

Please pray that the Lord might touch their hearts to hear and respond to that message. The day finished off with Allen, Sue, we and Riaan with his family having fellowship and watching an interview with Francis and Edith Schaeffer. This was a huge encouragement to have a godly perspective in the midst of adversity and by the end of the evening we knew that God had brought us together for that time.

So in the last week of us coming back to KwaZulu our outlook has been quite positive. Di has peace and is looking forward to her 2 Zulu lessons a week with Celani’s daughter, Khetiwe. Di is enjoying teaching kids club, though this week we will be attending the funeral of an elderly lady that Salvi used to visit regularly at the Xulu Kraal. One of the past short-term missionaries, Marion Milne, also visited her once and had her photo taken with her. The family has decided to enlarge that photo and display it for the funeral. The lady died at a ripe old age of 102. Whenever we visited she would always speak about Jesus and said that the ancestral spirits are not the truth, Jesus is the truth. So we hope and trust that that was the belief and cry of her heart and trust that we may see her one day with a redeemed body that will never ail nor age.

Yesterday a young lad, who used to attend the kid’s club, called Mesuli came to the church meeting. Salvi has been asked to preach the last couple of Sundays which he has done so on James. After the meeting Mesuli shared that he had been attending a Bible study at school and seeking to share the Gospel with others but saw the need to know the Bible for himself. What an encouragement that was. Among other things, no doubt, God had used the years of attendance at Kid’s club to feed into his life which includes the labours of all those short term missionaries that participated in its teaching over the last 5 years.

Today the builder was supposed to arrive to start work on our hut but alas, he hasn’t completed his current job so we will have to wait another week. Salvi will visit him on Saturday to make sure he is still coming on Monday or we will have to wait even longer for the hut to be started.

Lastly, we would like to recommend a book edited by the principal of Salvi’s Bible college. Please read the following and feel free to check out the website.

Hi

My new book, The Jews, Modern Israel and the New Supercessionism: Resources for Christians will be available from5 May. We’ve set up a website to promote it at http://www.thechurchandisrael.com. There you’ll find biographical notes about the contributors (who include Tony Pearce and Jacob Prasch), sample pages (including the introduction and Mitch Glaser’s foreword), contents, and endorsements. We are blessed to have received endorsement from leading Evangelical scholars such as Darrell Bock and Walter C. Kaiser.

The main priority right now, before the book is released, is to create as much publicity as possible to build momentum so as to promote the book’s message. Therefore, I would be grateful if you would consider helping by passing details of the book and website on to as many Christians as possible. Also, the more websites linking in to the site, the higher we can push the site up the web rankings.

Every blessing

Calvin

God bless you all for your love and prayers.
Salvi and Di

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Devotional 9

TEXT:
Daniel 9 v 20:
“I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and making my cry fall before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God.”

How amazing it is when we see someone put himself under the guilt of someone else. We would see such action as over the top. Here Daniel has read the book of Jeremiah, he recognized that they were in exile for the sins of his nation, but yet while being righteous himself he mourns the sins of his people and confesses them as his sins. Such modern advice to Daniel would tell him not to put himself down; he couldn’t be put to blame for what his nation had done. Daniel, however, sees that he is much to blame as everyone else and this brings him on his knees before God. Daniel was sharing in his people’s punishment as an exile and the reality of God’s perfect holiness showed him his own sin as well as everyone else’s.

The first thing to note is that the conviction of sin came from God’s word. In verse 4 we see that the first revelation he receives from Scripture is of God’s nature, which is one “keeping the covenant and mercy of those who love Him, and to those who keep His commandments“. If we compare ourselves to other people, with all their flaws and sin, we can feel quite good about ourselves and think we are OK; we’re not as bad as they are. However, when we compare ourselves with the living God, perfect in all His ways, there is no comparison. Next to Him we are depraved sinners and have transgressed His perfect law. Thus Daniel put himself in the guilt of his people and interceded for them.

A friend of mine once said, “The more holy you become the more sin you see in yourself”. The nearer you get to God, the further away you realize you are. Do we see ourselves as alright in our spiritual walk or do we have the same yearning as Daniel did to be counted righteous? We are righteous by faith because of Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection and yet the man of God is not only content to confess faith but he longs to see the out working of that faith in his life. He longs for the day that he will be like his Savior, Jesus Christ in nature as well as by faith. If we lack such conviction let us be like Daniel and search the word until we get revelation of God’s holiness and then we will never be complacent about our sin, as we will know how much God abhors sin. Today seek God for a revelation of His holiness with a determination that such a revelation will not remain in the halls of memory but applied to your life by the enabling of His Spirit.

A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation, as a miserable world – and might even be more difficult to save. – C.S Lewis

Bible Texts taken from Green’s Literal Translation