Rev Hendrik Du Plessis
Motopi
On Thursday evening 15 September we overnight at Dorette Cronjé in Maun, she is planning to move back to Motopi by the end of the year. Motopi is a matter close to her heart where she always wants to be involved until the day when she is no longer able to. She can’t and won’t go anywhere else. On her plot there that legally belongs to her, she would love to see a Bible school emerge. On the church plot itself there is the church and other buildings where lectures can be held. (For those who don’t know, the church plot with the buildings are not part of her plot.) Her plot is next to the river but the plot where the church is built on is in the village and belongs to the Reformed church.
As far as the Bible School is concerned, it sounds like a very good idea but should be carefully considered. First of all, there will be students who will graduate, but not sow back their knowledge into the Reformed church. They will go back to their own ZCC church, old Apostle church or whatever false church. Secondly, it will be a Bible school that will not train ministers of faith, but rather church leaders, elders and deacons. Our own ministers are being sent to Mukhanyo Bible College. They can also be connected via internet to a satellite campus of Mukhanyo. Thirdly, as far as such a Bible school is concerned, there is the question of money. There will always be monetary implications, whether with full-time or part-time training. As far as housing is concerned, Dorette is willing to make her plot available for it.
Part-time training would mean that you have to bring the group together to be trained certain weeks in a year. That’s all well and good, but the question that still remains is, for whom do you train them, in other words, in whom are you investing? Is it a good strategy to train other churches’ ministers for them — so that they can Christianize their own churches from within? So you hope. Has it happened yet somewhere? These are all questions one asks.
I recently spoke to someone from Mukhanyo. Their satellite campus in Rustenburg this year has 25 new students enrolled. I wanted to know how many of that number belongs to the Reformed Church and can sow back their knowledge? According to him, there is none. This brings one back to the question: For whom do you train them? To make their own church walls or church structures stronger? Of course, one cannot turn them away if they want to study at a Reformed institution. After all, they pay for it, and we believe that the Lord has put them on our path, but it then becomes a problem later on when you spend so much time on them that you no longer have time to invest in your own denomination. These are all questions that haunt a person and one prays for the Lord for wisdom: “What do you want us to do?”
On the Friday we went to Motopi for the weekend. Saturday, Hendrick Keitatotse and his wife visited us the whole day. They are some of our faithful members there and we would like to train him as an elder. Even though, like most in Botswana, he does not have matric (Form 5), but he can be trained as an elder or a deacon. Hendrick is very diligent and attends the services regularly. The training basically works like this: I give him a little radio with a memory stick (as I did with our chiefs of Bere). Then every time when I visit Motopi, I will bring new material. They are encouraged to start their own Bible study groups as well. He and his wife were very excited about that idea. Hendrick immediately mentioned names of people who would certainly be interested.
At 10 o’clock the next morning, I lead the worship service at the church. There were certainly many more adults attending the worship services than in the past. For that, we are very grateful. After the service, many of the older people shared their testimonies with the congregation how the Lord Jesus had saved them from occult activities.
It was very good to see how they were touched by the preaching of the Word and how spontaneously they shared their experiences with us. Many Tswana people are desperate for help at some point in their lives. The mistake they then make is doing what most do. They go to seek help from a sangoma (a traditional healer), who begins to get a spiritual grip on them. After that, he or she begins to dream and experience their occult consequences.
A Bushman girl once told us about her experiences. On our way to a Bible study, she told us about forces that threw her against the wall at night where she sleeps. She died not long after that. Many of the black people who come into contact with the occult see their ancestors in dreams, which then leads to the worship and veneration of demons that appear to them in the guise of their ancestors.
Mababe
Monday, September 19, we went to Mababe. This time we put a lot of emphasis on Bible studies at peoples homes. People spontaneously invited us to come and visit them to share the Word of God with them. The first person we invited was someone named OT. He sits at the far right back.
He is an electrician by profession whose specialty it is to install solar wildlife devices at Safari camps to keep elephants out. He not only attended our Bible studies, but also organized them. His request to me was that we should not forget or leave him out in the future because he is now part of us. He ended up in Mababe because it was the only place where there was room for his children in a school. All the other schools were full. He and his wife were then obliged to move to Mababe. He has a laptop and asked me to download the Bible study material for him on it. We were in Mababe from Monday to Sunday and were able to visit a lot of people.
To conclude: I’m still in the process of putting together material. Me and my colleague, Rev. Gabolelwe, then place it on a memory stick to be shared. This is the beginning of an attempt and we hope will reach people everywhere. He also uses it at his visiting sites. One can train people where you don’t come regularly via audio material and you don’t have to be educated to listen.
In my previous reports, I mentioned about Africa having a listening culture versus the western reading culture. I believe that in the future one will even be able to train ministers or pastors in this way. The material itself is not only Bible study, but also apologetic in nature aimed at addressing and refuting the false teachings of churches and the African religions. In Tswana there is very little Bible study material available and no apologetic material – apologetic in the sense that it illuminates and refutes heresies and the false African faith from the Bible. Tswana is a language that is most widely spoken and understood in Southern Africa. I don’t know how much longer the Lord will spare me, but with the gifts He has given me regarding languages, I realize more and more the urgency to publish. I especially realized this after a conversation with brother Tiddo Voogd. “The day when you are no longer there, what will you leave behind,” were his words to me? With this, I once again ask for your intercession.
My colleague and I regularly pray the words of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:1 and 2: 31Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured, as happened among you, 2and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. This prayer request is also addressed to you in all humility.
Your brother in Christ,
Hendrik du Plessis.