By the grace of the Lord we found someone who serves the Sunday school\nchildren of Bere, as mentioned in my previous report. She is affiliated with\nthe local school there. Her need was Bibles and Sunday School material, which I\nwas able to provide. We are very grateful for someone like her, who is humble\nand meek. She is a Tswana-speaking lady who unfortunately can not speak the local\nBushman language, but it is a huge start. If we can train someone locally\nthrough her it would be great. We dedicate her to the protection and blessing\nof the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Visits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This time we focused on home visits. Many people ask for audio bibles, which we only give after careful consideration. Some people can read. For them we only give ordinary Bibles. We were able to hand out pamphlets that the people just started reading there and then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This old woman was particularly excited to hear the Word of the Lord in her own language, the Qg\u00f5o language. Initially, of course, she had to be instructed to press the right buttons, how to turn it on or off by pressing the red button for a long period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \nIn the past we waited for the people to come and ask\nfor Bibles, but then you have the problem that only those who can walk or are\nmobile came to us. Large numbers of people showed up, but what about the people\nwho can not walk that far? This time we did not tell anyone that we had Bibles.\nThey only realized this with our personal visits to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Old Ncoobiri was very excited about his Bible. He laughed\nwith excitement and kept telling us: “This is my language.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is really our prayer that\nthe Lord will change people in spreading His Word in this way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I always think of the words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nature forms<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sin deforms<\/p>\n\n\n\n School informs<\/p>\n\n\n\n But only Christ transforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Funeral at Khacgae<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Abdul, who was with me and faithfully accompanied me on all my outreaches,\nheard a week or so ago about a relative who had died in Khacgae. The funeral\nwas initially scheduled for Saturday, but later moved to Sunday morning. Early\nSunday morning round about five o\u2019clock we left Bere. It was Abdul, and the two\nchiefs of Bere and I. Khacgae is about 70 or 80 kilometers from Bere. Arriving\nthere at sunrise, it was first customary to view the corpse. Then comes the\nperson who reports on the illness of the deceased. He then explains when the\ndeceased began to fall ill up to and including his death. His friends also had\na chance to speak. An uncle on the mother’s side then spoke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we left for the grave, a word of comfort was brought after which\nthey asked me to say a prayer. When they arrived at the grave, according to\ntheir custom, they first threw soil into the grave with the words \u201cdust you are\nand to dust you will return\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Later I objected and said that they have uttered the curse that the Lord\ninitially pronounced on mankind over their beloved without mentioning the\nresurrection in Christ. They spoke of the names, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,\nbut Matthew 28 says it is only one Name,\nthough three Persons. The disciples are instructed to baptize the people in the\nName of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and not names, because God is one. At\nmany funerals I have reprimanded people and most of them appreciate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To conclude, we were grateful for the outreach. Apart from the Bibles we\nhave handed out and the personal Bible studies with the people at home, one\nmeet so many people with whom you create bonds of friendship that are extremely\nimportant in spreading the Gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chiefs of Bere<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bere has four chiefs (or traditional captains) who serve the entire village.\nThere is the chief and his three deputies. The town’s affairs are heard by the\ndeputy chiefs and the more important matters are then referred to the chief.\nThe cases range from marital problems to violence and theft where the local\npolice are also involved. When a case cannot be settled locally, it is referred\nto the higher courts such as the magistrate and further on. I am very good\nfriends with the chief (David) and two of his deputy chiefs (Cgara and\nSetantsho). During our outreaches we spent a lot of time together. Cgara though\nmember of the ZCC church loves to accompany us on our home visits and Bible\nstudies. He has a very good memory and remembers exactly who last got audio\nbibles. I have already met and talked to the fourth deputy chief but do not\nknow him very well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is in fact David and Cgara who accompanied us to the funeral at\nKhacgae. After the funeral, David emphasized it again and said to me: \u201cYou must\nrealize that I do not have a church. Your church is now my church.\u201d I mentioned\nto him that I would like to teach him as to become an elder. He was very\nexcited about that. He as chief together with his three deputy chiefs has a lot\nof influence in the village. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \nI have talked to Cgara several times about his\nassociation with the ZCC church and syncristism. He’s very receptive to\neverything you teach him, but he’s not at that stage yet to leave the ZCC\nchurch. I do not want to force him either. He has to make the decision on his\nown. He has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the ZCC church and\nits customs. My prayer is that he will repent and realize that his church is on\nthe wrong path because you can not worship with people who still believe in\ntheir ancestors and call on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My request is that you keep this town and its captains in your prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your brother in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hendrik du Plessis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rev Hendrik du Plessis Sunday School Material By the grace of the Lord we found someone who serves the Sunday school children of Bere, as mentioned in my previous report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bere-1-march-22.jpg\")
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