{"id":620,"date":"2020-06-01T09:15:49","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T07:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=620"},"modified":"2020-06-01T13:27:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:27:52","slug":"test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=620","title":{"rendered":"Conversation with Abdul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWS FROM D\u2019KAR 30th<\/sup> MAY 2020: COVERSATIONS\nWITH ABDUL<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Pastor Hendrik Du Plessis<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE STORY OF ABDUL<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Abdul is a \u201cbushman\u201d who helps in our garden from time to time. He was\nnamed after his grandfather, who was supposedly an Indian, but looking at him\nit is hard to believe. Where most San people have traditional names, Abdul only\nhas one name and it is Abdul. His mother was a Qg\u00f5o-San. He was still young\nwhen she passed away. She was bitten by a mamba that slid into their hut one\nnight. Unfortunately she didn\u2019t make it. He was raised as a Naro-San by his\nfather from then on. When he was around 15 years old his father decided to go\nand work for the late Willie Engelbrecht, a notorious big game hunter, on his\nfarm near the Sonop Hills, adjacent to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Abdul\nwent with. Abdul still has the greatest respect for Willie and according to him\nhe was a very brave man that never showed fear. He still vividly remembers\nbeing charged by a lion that stopped inches away from them whilst clinging onto\nWillie\u2019s trousers. He accompanied Willie on numerous elephant hunting\nexpeditions. It was his responsibility to scout the elephant herd for the\nbiggest tusks at dawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am always amazed when I question him on his ability to track a spoor so fast\nand effortlessly. When Abdul tracks a spoor that person can be assured that he\nwill be found. Recently the borehole pump was sabotaged in D\u2019kar.  Abdul tracked the culprit within half an hour\nand retrieved all the stolen equipment. Abdul insists that the secret to his\nsuccess on quick tracking is to follow the spoor to their origin instead of\nfollowing it in the direction the assailant went after the crime. You will then\nmore than likely find the house of the assailant or somebody that knows him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My encounters with\nAbdul<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We met in D\u2019kar and from time to time he helps me with chores around the\nyard. This way we started talking about life. We often discuss his family, but\nmore than often our discussions revolve around one son in particular. This son\nof his joined a spiritual denomination called the \u201dtoutjieskerk\u201d loosely\ntranslated as a church that binds one with strings. They are a splinter group\nof the apostle churches and have a tremendous hold on the young people here. If\nyou are sick or suffering from depression, you go to the local bishop who will\ntreat you with his ceremonies or rituals. During the treatment a string is\nbound to your wrists or waist. This will then change your health condition or\nyour state of mind. You are not allowed to remove the string, because then you\nwill be cursed and the disease will return to you. Soon after Abdul’s son\nbecame involved with these people, his behavior started to change. Seeking help\nfrom the hospital and the clinic did not help. Another option was to consult a\nwitch doctor. At times his child is crazy like a rabbit and he laughs at everything.\nLiving with such a person is a huge challenge. I suggested taking his son to\nour local doctor, dr. Bredenkamp. He examined him and concluded that he is\nusing some or other kind of drug, like marijuana. The doctor referred us to the\nlocal hospital in Gantsi which came to the same conclusion. Somebody introduced\nhim to cannabis. This presumption was confirmed when Abdul found cannabis seeds\nin this son\u2019s trouser pocket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Abdul and his family this battle continues and is still far from\nresolved. The positive of it all are the spiritual conversations we had and\nstill have. One often sees in the mission field the way the Lord opens doors when\nyou are confronted by problems like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I illustrated one day to Abdul the way the Lord works by drawing two\ncircles in the sand. I explained what the implication will be if he is going to\nsee a witch doctor or sangoma and how the devil works through these people. I\nsaid: “These two circles you see here Abdul, are two \u201ckraals\u201d. You are or\nin the devil’s fold, or you are in the Lord Jesus fold. There is no middle way.\nIf you are in the Lord Jesus  fold, you\nhave a shepherd who loves you, who knows you personally and no one can pull you\nout of his hand, not even the devil.\u201d I explained to him what the Lord Jesus\nsays in John 10 of his sheep. The problem comes in when you are in the wrong\nfold where all these \u2018\u201dsangomas\u201d and false churches wait for you. You are\ndefenseless because your shepherd in that fold is the devil. These sangomas’s supposed\nhelp may seem to offer relief, but it is just temporary. The big problem is, as\nsomeone rightfully said, that the devil never helps you for free. The more you are\ndrawn in, the more superstitious you become. Later you become a nervous wreck,\nespecially when you think of what could go wrong. At night you are not\nsleeping, because you are plagued by demonic powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A daughter of one of our congregation members was involved in this “toutjieskerk”\nmany years ago. She told me and an elder, Fritz, how she was plagued by demonic\nforces in her room at night. She said she was literally tossed back and forth\nat night. Not long afterwards I buried her. By contrast,   in the other circle you belong to the Lord Jesus\nand no one can cast spells on you, but then don\u2019t crawl under the fence to seek\nhelp at the devil’s fold. The devil will never allow you to return to our Lord\nJesus Christ\u2019s fold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step by step our conversations with time progressed. Abdul began to come to\nchurch regularly. He started attending the bible classes twice a week. When he\nmissed a class, you knew there was a very good reason for it. After years of\nregular attendance, he expressed his desire to make confession of faith. Had it\nnot been for the covid-19 restrictions, he would have already professed his faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many missionaries will agree that an individual approach in many cases\nproduces more fruit than the masses you want to bring to repentance. Philip led\none Ethiopian to the Lord, and that was the beginning of the church in\nEthiopia. Do some effort with the individual and you have won him forever for the Lord Jesus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book, “The Seven Laws of The Learner” writes Bruce\nWilkenson of someone who wanted to start a Sunday school class. The man’s name\nwas Walt. He saw some boys play marbles and start playing with them. After a\nfew days, he asked them them to want to join his Sunday school class. “We\ndidn’t know you had a Sunday school class,” The boys answered. “No, I\ndon’t have one, but I want to start one,” he answered. The boys then came\nto church and attended regularly uncle Walt Sunday School classes. They became\nmore than his marble friends friends. Never had Walt realized that amongt those\nboys sat the famous Prof. Howard Hendricks who will later touch thousands of\npeople’s lives. Eleven of those boys later went into full-time Christian ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEWS FROM D\u2019KAR 30th MAY 2020: COVERSATIONS WITH ABDUL By Pastor Hendrik Du Plessis THE STORY OF ABDUL Abdul is a \u201cbushman\u201d who helps in our garden from time to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":624,"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\/620"}],"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=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}