Rev Hendrik du Plessis
By the Lord’s grace, we had good rains. It is something special to be able to have over 200mm of rain in our region. Everything around us is green and cheerful. However, we still need follow-up rain.
What is gratifying is the abundance of food that the Bushmen can now gather in the field and the stews that are prepared like spinach. Then there are also the wild fruits such as wild current and sour plums. Vitamins and minerals are now abundant in the field.
A week ago someone told us that there are plenty of the maramas or chestnuts in the field. I hope our harvest this year is like never before. Maramas are the Bushmen’s staple food that can last for months or even years if stored in bags. It is a nut that is very rich in proteins and vitamins. The shell is very hard which you have to crack open to be able to eat the contents which look like a nut. Before you can eat it, it must first roast it in the fire.
Our prayer is that the Lord will make this a special year because many Bushmen suffer from malnutrition.
Outreach
We look forward to our outreaches this year, and our prayer is that the Lord will make it a blessed year in terms of the expansion of his kingdom. Soon we want to visit Bere, Motopi, and Mababe. At our best, we can only sow the seed and the Lord makes it germinate. It reminds me of Paul’s outreach to the Corinthians. In Acts 18 from verse 8, it says: “8Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. 9And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,10for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”
This is the hope we all have when we preach the gospel. I go to a place and know for sure some belong to the Lord Jesus. After all, this is his promise in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Together with the words of our Lord Jesus in verse 44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
I am still working on translating Bible study materials that I would like to distribute with our next outreach. It takes long hours in front of the computer. I have already translated Sproul’s lecture about God’s sovereignty and man’s so-called freedom into Afrikaans and Tswana. The theme of his lecture is: “If God is sovereign how can man be free?”
This is one of the thoughts that people in Africa struggle with. We speak of a sovereign God and yet ugly and evil things happen around us and to us. Where does the will of man come in against the background of God’s sovereignty? Another verse they do not understand is 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 question then is, how evil things can work together for good? Dr. Sproul excels in explaining Joseph’s history in the light of God’s sovereignty. The African people are inclined to turn to witch doctors to counteract the forces that bring evil upon them. The logical conclusion then is that the Lord is absent where evil befalls you. In contrast, dr. Sproul points to Joseph’s words in Genesis 50:20: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
To conclude, we need catechism material, not only for D’kar but also for the mission field globally across Southern Africa. The Reformed Churches in Africa have published very little over the years. I am still working on Genesis, which I want to make available in book form later, as well as the sound recordings with it.
My other goal is to translate the Heidelberg Catechism into Tswana. We currently use the 1975 translation which was translated by the Dutch Reformed Church then. The problem, however, is that it is a literal translation, translated from English or Afrikaans. You therefore understand the translation more easily if you have the Afrikaans or the English edition at hand. I believe that in many cases the Heidelberg Catechism is not clearly understood by African language speakers because the questions are not explained.
Questions are asked in the Catechism, but the questions themselves are not always understandable. A brief explanation of each question will therefore help a lot in understanding the answer. The question, for example, what is your only comfort in life and death, will be better understood with an explanation of what is meant by comfort. What is logical for us is not necessarily logical for the Africans. So many questions can be explained before one gets to the answers, and so also regarding the answers, if you let the Catechism be spoken in Tswana, they will also understand it better.
May the Lord bless the proclamation and the explanation of his Word and we ask for your intercession for this great task.
Your brother in Christ,
Hendrik du Plessis.