Outreaches at the end of November 2024
By the grace of God, things are going well here in D’kar. Man and animal are suffering greatly under this scorching heat and drought. Despite all this, we are confident that this season will be different for us.
Our catechism and Sunday school are going well. Currently, we have 10 in the confession class who attend classes twice a week and 60 who are in the Sunday school class on Sundays. Their names are marked Sunday by Sunday. Sometimes the numbers are over 100. With the confession class, emphasis is placed on the catechism and the booklet, “Thuto ya Bokeresete” (Christian lesson or teaching) is studied. With the children in the Sunday school class, the booklet “Loeto lo logolo” (the greatest journey) is studied. The booklet deals with various Bible stories.
Home visits and Bible studies are combined except for the personal home visits before the Lord’s Supper. Our members are visited with the instruction to minister to their neighbors and people around them and invite them to Bible studies. In this way, we teach our members to be involved in evangelism. Next time we visit the next family together with the previous family that we visited the previous time. Because we repeat the Bible study a few times, we allow the previous families to provide their input during the Bible study. In this way, we visit from family to family. We are grateful to see people who never come to church before in church on Sunday. The following week we visit another family again and we are accompanied by the previous families.
Our Bere, Motopi, and Mababe outreach was very inspiring, especially when you were accompanied by students.
Luan van Heerden, Lindie Pieterse, Anika du Plessis, and Hardus Stapelberg stayed with us in D’kar the night before we went to Bere. We camped there that night in the open air. In the distance there were thunderclouds on the horizon, we never thought that those clouds would come with wind to put our tents to the test. The next night it was like that again, but our tents were more prepared for it. Before the wind came up, we were able to show a film to the people there, before whom they sat glued to the screen for the umpteenth time as usual. As I mentioned in my previous reports, there are so many quotes from the Bible in the film that have to stick somewhere. Repetition is a very good thing, especially when it later becomes common knowledge.
Mereyabone, our Sunday school teacher in Bere, was especially grateful for the Bibles she received. She received English and Tswana Bibles that the students brought with them and a special Study Bible for herself. She is in the front center of the photo.
On Friday morning we left for Motopi to spend the weekend with Dorette. We slept luxuriously at her place compared to the previous two nights.
Dorette recently turned 80, but despite her age, she is still healthy and feels that she wants to live out her calling there until she can no longer. She says, this is where she wants to be, where she feels the Lord has called her. She was an inspiration to the students, especially when she began to tell how she landed on Motopi.
On Saturday and Sunday evenings, the students held a Bible study for the young people of the church. The turnout was very good. I was surprised by the turnout on Saturday evening after such short notice. We did not have the opportunity to invite people. We just asked people along the way on the way to church to invite their friends. It was not until half an hour that there were enough people who had come from everywhere.
On Sunday morning during the service, the church was full and we were grateful for so many young people gathered.
On Monday we left for Mababe. Tuesday morning we visited the nearby Mogotlho Lodge and distributed Bibles. After that Luan led us in a Bible study with the staff who were present. At sunset, we held a Bible study with one of our families in Mababe.
The next day we left for Khwai where we were also able to distribute Bibles. It was good and uplifting to see people excited about the Bible. The interaction between the students and the people there was very uplifting, especially for those who received Bibles.
These are impressions that will always stay with you.
How privileged we are here at the southern tip of Africa to be able to distribute Bibles. In many other countries we would have ended up in prison and how many people have already paid for it with their lives.
On Thursday morning we got up early to head back home. In Maun, we went our separate ways. My vehicle barely made it because of the bad road. The previous night it had rained a lot and the way back was impassable in places. At one point I got stuck and a big truck towed me out. Luckily it didn’t just drive past like the previous truck did. Hardus was with me in the bakkie and patiently guided me through the mud and water. Without his advice, I believe I would have been stuck much longer.
After this outreach, I would like to say a big thank you to Luan, Hardus, Anika, and Lindie for making this outreach possible for us. They were all equally skilled in front of the Bible as they were behind the food pots. They were an excellent team.
Tswana Bible Study Materials and Sermons
Some time ago, Brother Tiddo Voogt pointed out to me that there is very little Bible material available in the Tswana language, and the number of people in South Africa and Botswana who speak Tswana is around 12 million. This is when we include the Pedi and Sotho groups. I immediately saw it as a calling and challenge to translate, compile, and provide more such material. I am not thinking primarily of translating large and thick books, but of booklets that are more convenient and easier to read.
I am currently working on a lecture that I am translating that Dr. R.C. Sproul presented several years ago. The lecture is around 15 pages. Brilliantly he succeeds in presenting the theme of his lecture: “If God is sovereign how can man be free?” The lecture is available on YouTube. From the history of Joseph, he explains how the Lord fulfills his sovereign plan in and through the course of all human decisions. This includes African people with all their superstitions. The African person struggles deeply with what Paul writes in Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The reason for all the misfortunes that befall them is attributed to someone who practices witchcraft. Hence the tendency to visit witch doctors who in the end make the same diagnosis and confirm that so and so has indeed bewitched you.
I thought of writing something introductory in this regard and then having Dr. Sproul speak. Of course, one would first have to get permission to translate any material from anyone.
I have already received two sermons from Professor Flip Buys to translate. A website would work ideally to store all the material like a library.
We are still working through the book of Genesis. These lessons can also be stored in it. We can make all the sermons and lectures available to preachers, whether preachers or lay preachers in Southern Africa. More and more, the need for lay preachers is coming to the fore, who find themselves somewhere in a settlement in the field or the city and do not know what to say to their group of people on Sunday.
Paul reached more people through his writings or letters than he could ever have dreamed of in person. In this way, you can reach people you would not normally meet. It does not have to be just a website for African languages. No, there are millions of people who have Afrikaans and English as their first and second language, and Reformed sermons can be made available language-wise.
One often underestimates the power of the Word through the working of the Holy Spirit. It reminds me of a minister from France who came to visit a village in Africa by invitation. He always broadcast his messages or sermons about Africa in French. He then received an invitation to preach at a certain church in Africa. Then he would realize that the church had its origin in his sermons on Sundays that he broadcast about Africa. There was only one person who regularly listened to his sermons on Sundays. Later another one joined, and the numbers began to increase until they were able to build a building and a pulpit. On Sundays, they would put the radio on the pulpit and wait for the service to start at 09:00 or whenever. The French pastor was amazed to see what had happened in his absence.
I believe that a website with sermons and study material will achieve more in Southern Africa than personal visits. Of course, it is not about one at the expense of the other. No, Paul not only wrote, but also visited the congregations personally where he could.
Closing Remark
I imagine Paul’s attitude toward evangelism and mission in Acts 18:9 and 10. It says: “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.’” Paul was not given the names of those who would come to repentance. He did not have to go and find anyone, but through the working of the Holy Spirit, these people would be present wherever he preached, because they belonged to the Lord. All Paul had to do was preach the Word, and through the preaching of the Word those who belonged to the Lord Jesus came to repentance. In Acts 13:48 and 49 it says: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.” So you go to a place and you don’t know who has been chosen for eternal life, and it is not the will of the Lord to make it known to us in advance, but the comfort is their existence and they will come to faith because they belong to the Lord Jesus. The power or omnipotence behind all this is the Father Himself who gave them as a gift to His Son. We read this in John 6:37 where the Lord Jesus Himself says: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”, and in John 6:44 the Lord Jesus further says: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ”
Your brother in Christ,
Hendrik du Plessis.