Rev Hendrik du Plessis
MOTOPI
It was good to see Dorette again. Apart from the normal ailments that come with age, she is still strong and diligent to conduct the services on Sundays. She turns 80 in September and is very grateful for such a spared life, especially for the fact that she can still stay on Motopi, because that is where she wants to be and where she feels she is called.
We arrived there on Saturday.
On Sunday I conducted the worship service there. Once again the church was full of young people, and one is grateful for that, because this is the future of the church. I explained Matthew 11 from verse 28 with them, the well-known words of our Lord Jesus, to come to Him when we are labour and havy laden. Every word in that verse is so loaded and rich in meaning. “Come” is a command and an invitation coming from our Lord Jesus Self. This is “come” and not “go”. It is “come to me” and not go to a certain office or to Peter or whoever.
We live in a world where you don’t have direct access to the president or the highest authority in the land. You have to work your way up from office to office until maybe one day you can sit in the minister’s office and discuss your problems with him. Then you are bound to only certain hours. How many people have not had the unpleasant experience, when you get there and someone tells you that unfortunately he or whoever is not in the office today. You made all the effort to come and had an appointment with him or her. How different it is with our Lord Jesus. He the King of kings and the Creator of the universe invites us to Him personally. He says “Come to Me”, even if it is 1 o’clock in the night. Unlike the earthly leaders, he is meek and humble of heart. Even children were welcome in his presence and he did not want the disciples to hinder them. It is important, says the Lord Jesus, to get to know Him that He is meek and humble of heart, and the promise with it, and you will find rest for your mind. In a simple way I treated the passage with them. We all have many problems and there are many things that make us tired and have laden, but there is one great burden that we must not leave out, and that is the burden of our sins, the cause of all our problems on earth.
On Sunday after the sermon, we were also able to have a wonderful visit with Dorette. We have so much in common and were able to recharge our batteries in our conversations around the Word, so to speak. You often go to cheer someone else up and come back just as enriched.
MABABE
On Monday we left for Mababe for the week. We didn’t get there until seven in the evening. We didn’t leave Motopi early and stayed longer in Maun than we had planned. Arriving in Mababe, one of our friends who was sitting next to a fire immediately recognized us and ran to meet us and asked if we could please come and set up camp in his yard this time. It was a welcome addition to us to make that part of town our home, because many in that part of town we had not met yet on such a personal level.
The next day we arranged a meeting with those to whom we distribute the memory sticks on a regular basis. We again encouraged them to recruit people to complete the course. We are currently working through the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is the window through which you look at the New Testament. We are trying to compile something of what the Lord Jesus presented to the Emmaus pilgrims in writing and audio. It says in Luke 24:27: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” The book of Genesis and the other books after Genesis are then not only treated as history, but as revelatory history that points to Christ and what He accomplished for us on the cross.
We once again showed the film, “Walking with Jesus” at different houses in the town. There were many people who had not seen the film yet, but there were also people who had seen the film several times and wanted to see it again and again and still enjoyed it. It’s like a song you’ve listened to so many times and still listen to.
The visual is very important for the African, especially if he can identify himself with his own people who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour. They really live in the scenes that unfold before them. For me, who sits between them and understands what they say to each other, it is gratifying and so inspiring. It is like a Bible study that they hold among themselves. For many it is a discovery of what it really means to be a Christian, but also how you are and behave when you are not a Christian. Forgiveness of sin and that we all stand before God worthy of doom is central to the entire film. In the film, they took pains to refute ancestor worship and the work of sangomas (witch doctors).
Afterwards, several people came to us and asked for Bibles that we could give them. For the next few days, people from far and wide walked to where we camped for Bibles. This is one of the successes of the video, people become desperate for Bibles. We were also able to hand out audio Bibles, as among others to this woman in the photo on the right.
They were struck and touched by the film and now they want Bibles, and we were grateful we could provide them. There are so many films that we plan to show later. There are films about the creation, the fall, Babel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson and so on, which clearly outline the picture of the Old and New Testament.
A rare and bad experience with a lion
During our visit there I made an effort to visit old Kopano. Kopano is someone who was attacked years ago by a lioness on the side of the road before you drive into Mababe. Every time I drive past the big camel thorn trees along the road around the big water hole, I think of him. The lioness bit him by the head and broke his right elbow. In the process, Kopano got hold of her tongue and clung to it tenaciously. The lioness immediately lost interest in him and lay down beside him. The next moment Kopano said, his phone rang, but in the lion’s belly. The lion must have seen it for a piece of bone or meat, and then swallowed it, because it was full of blood, said Kopano.
One of our friends there, KP is his name, who came across Kopano, said the phone was still ringing even the next day when you dial the number. One does not know whether the lion vomited the phone later or whether it was still in the lion’s belly. It was indeed a nasty and a weird experience. At the moment, Kopano is not doing well. He is not very old, but is emaciated like someone who has TB. I was grateful I could visit him and pray for him. When I asked him, he admitted that he believes in the Lord Jesus, but I still explained the Gospel to him, because one can just as easily believe in the Lord Jesus for the wrong reasons as the people in John 6 after the increase of the loaves.
To conclude, I would like to thank you sincerely, each and every one for the Bibles and Audio Bibles that we hand out boldly but with great caution. We all know that you hand out a Bible with great wisdom and care. The people there often walk far for a Bible. This is lion, buffalo and elephant country. You can’t just walk there as you like. You are always on the lookout. In the evenings the buffaloes graze here next to your tent. So if someone walks that far for a Bible, you give it to him or her with a song in your heart.
We still ask for your intercession for our congregation here in D’kar and all our mission points. We also ask for your intercession for our Bible studies. At our best, we can only sow, but it is God who causes growth.
Clothing
When we arrived back from Mababe, br. Tiddo Voogt sent us clothes that came from different congregations.
One feels small and very grateful for such a great gift. Also in this regard we lack a lot of wisdom to distribute it correctly, for which we also pray.
Your brother in Christ,
Hendrik du Plessis