Charl van Wyk (September 2006)

Dear Friends

Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

We had a wonderful, though short, family vacation in September during which we first visited family then a mineral springs resort and met up with some friends at a hunting farm in the Eastern Cape where I shot a Blesbok, which made a really good roast.

The weekend of 14 October we invited leaders of various pro-firearm related organisations in South Africa to meet at our mission head quarters, to plan a way forward in the wake of the disarmament programme of the SA Government. The leaders have a plan of action that now needs implementation.  Our magazine Firearm News has in its year-end edition some superb articles, please let me know if you'd like a free copy posted to you.

You might remember me asking for prayer for a friend, Thobela, whom we know through our mission work in Khayelitsha, a black township near Cape Town. Thobela suffered from a virus causing him to become lame in his lower body - he thus ended up in a wheel chair.  He moved far away to live with his grandmother.  We were told that he was in the local hospital's ICU but, before we could send a colleague and one of his best friends, Sipho, to visit him, news of his death arrived.  Please pray for his unsaved family.

Our friends in Khayelitsha have some exciting changes with their church having out grown their small premises; they are looking forward to the opening of their new church hall.

Man Magnum, the most-read shooting magazine in South Africa, published a very positive review on my book "Shooting Back" in their November edition.

The weekend of 31 October we celebrated Reformation Weekend.  The new Luther movie was shown, and a day conference, with many guest speakers from various churches and ministries, formed part of the celebrations.  Besides chairing the afternoon session of the conference, I also spoke to our children's Sunday school classes on the Reformation.

I spent a week in Zambia to visit my good friend and fellow brother Rev John Jere.  John is a unique individual who runs an orphanage of 26 children, pastors a church, oversees 10 other churches and is director of Zambia United Christian Action.

I spent some time with the 26 orphans; got to buy them much needed food (and sweets) and told them a Bible story.  We also enjoyed a "night at the movies" which involved me photographing each one of them individually, and then showing them the enlarged photographs on the big screen via my laptop and video projector.  This appeared to be a very exciting time - as they cheered every time a new photo appeared.

I also had two newspaper interviews regarding an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to have Zambia's constitutional status as a Christian nation changed.  They also want the death penalty removed.  Apparently one newspaper report was so effective that Rev Jere received around one hundred phone calls in support of the news report based on our interview with the reporter.

I've helped Zambia United Christian Action with their formal submission to the Zambian Constitutional Review Committee regarding these issues.

In the evenings I taught at a Bible School started by Pastor John and also had the privilege of visiting Excellence Christian Academy in Kabwe.  Eugene Kalunga runs this private Christian school, which is an example to all in the community.

Due to the funds given by a German group to feed the orphans having been stopped, I'm at present working on a project plan to help the orphanage and church members with a locally made block/brick making machine which may be used to produce blocks for sale, which will help put food on the table for the orphans and complete their unfinished orphanage building and school class rooms for the children.  They need US$1040 to get the project started.

A lesbian couple successfully appealed to have their marriage legally recognised and registered in SA.  They challenged the definition of marriage under the SA common law.  I was interviewed by a radio station on this issue.  It will be interesting to see if the SA government will force churches to marry homosexual couples in the future.

Our family is doing well, John-Marc (2) has been appointed Batman by his older brother Jason (3), sorry I mean Superman.  They run through the house with much vigour as they beat and tie the baddies up.  This makes the rest of the family feel much safer - the only time the boys run in fear is when they see a small spider.

Our local church has joined with another in our congregation to form Durbanville Community Church - we are all very excited about what the Lord is doing in our local fellowship and look forward to serving Him together in 2005.

Sonja had Roberta's school class with mommies and teacher at our home for a year-end fellowship and fun.  Other guests at our home have been John Leach who runs a Christian community farm ministering to drug addicts, street children etc, Eugen Olsen of Doctors for Life and producer of the
challenging "In Your Face" HIV/Aids video and his sister Jerusha from True Love Waits SA.

Thank you very much for your support during 2004.  We have had an adventurous year of ministry mainly due to fund shortages.  The Rand has been strengthening against international currencies, but the ministry opportunities have increased incredibly.

Thank you very much for your partnership in the Gospel.  Without your support we would struggle to get much done.  We hope that you have a wonderful Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the King of kings.

Please pray for our Biblical Worldview youth camp, Summit, in January 2005. Should you like to sponsor youth from disadvantaged homes, please contact ITMI (1-888-918-4100) or Frontline Fellowship - we would love to be able to invite some to an experience in Biblical teaching that will impact their lives forever.

Yours in His service

Charl van Wyk

Frontline Fellowship
PO Box 74
Newlands
Cape Town
South Africa
Tel: 27-21-6894480
www.frontline.org.za

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." Colossians 2:8