The Whole Gospel To the Whole World

Dear Friends and Family,

Every year, Frontline Fellowship has a Great Commission Course to equip those who are interested in missions. This course is three weeks long, and is for those who are interested in learning more, as well as those who want to become missionaries. This year we had participants from all over the world including Canada, the United States, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Our mornings begin early with regular physical training. After a good breakfast we have a number of lectures dealing with different aspects of missions. Although the lectures deal with missions theory, great effort is made to make them as practical as possible. On most afternoons, we would go down town or to one of the townships for various outreaches. On these outreaches we’d distribute tracts and engage in one-on-one evangelism. We also do children’s ministry, prison ministry, pro-life demonstrations, and film evangelism. Later in the evenings, around ten p.m., we would hike up mountains in the rain to help people appreciate some of the rigors of missionary life. Although the hikes can finish very late, it doesn’t stop us from waking up early again for the next morning’s exercises… By the time the course is over, it is clear who is called to missions and who isn’t. Everyone who joins Frontline is required to complete this course before being allowed to go to the field.

At one of the special services during the course, the Frontline Board and Committee commissioned me as Field Director. I was previously the Sudan Team leader. This means that I am now responsible for all the Frontline field activities on the continent. This of course doesn’t affect my income, as I have always been dependent on donations of those who God has called to support my work. Please pray that the Lord supplies me with sufficient wisdom as I undertake this great responsibility.

Soon after the course was finished, I led a team of two others on two trips into Zambia and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is still in a desperate situation and is in need of much prayer. Robert Mugabe’s Marxist government has sponsored violent confiscations of white-owned farms. These acts of murder and mayhem have led to lawlessness and oppression.

There are an estimated 5 million people who will starve this year unless there is some sort of miraculous intervention. Food that is brought in is very carefully regulated and is often only given to the government that is causing the famine. This makes any assistance that we provide very risky and dangerous, and roadblocks and borders must be crossed with great caution and prayer. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to bring in over 55 love boxes containing tinned food and basic necessities as well as over 1.6 tons of food. With this we’ve brought in large amounts of literature and evangelistic materials. Although this is only a small amount in terms of the overall need, we do our best to assist and bring hope to those who need it most.
There is also a major cash problem in Zimbabwe at the moment, which also contributes to the trouble that people face. The inflation rate has caused the Zim dollar to go from 60 per US dollar a few years ago, to being over 3000 Zim dollars to one US dollar more recently. This is a dramatic change as the currency in Zimbabwe was three times stronger than the US dollar back in 1976. As a result of this inflation, the cash supply has now dwindled so much that now the government has to heavily regulate it. A person is only allowed to withdraw small amounts per day from the bank regardless how much a he may have in the bank. The rules for carrying cash change everyday - and if you are found with too much cash, you will be accused of hording and your money will be confiscated.

Fuel is still a big problem in Zimbabwe. The garages haven’t had any fuel since May. This is because fuel on the regular market is sold at a fixed price so the country hasn’t been able to pay the companies that supply the fuel, so now there is none at the stations.

The only fuel that is available is to be bought on the black market, which recently has been made legal. Many people are buying fuel in neighboring countries and bringing it in to be sold and the price changes on a daily basis. While we were there, we bought fuel from a man who had it in his car. For us to use it we had to siphon it out. This resulted in me getting a nice diesel shower in the process. Not a very glamorous moment.
Zambia is far more stable than Zimbabwe, yet is still in great need of missionaries. Zambia has committed itself to being a Christian nation after having many years of socialist oppression. We praise God for their commitment in this direction, yet at the same time we realize that much of the church leadership remains ignorant. On one occasion, we were on an outreach with some of the local pastors doing hut-to-hut evangelism. While observing one pastor, I noticed that he was unable to explain some of the most basic fundamentals of the Gospel message, such as sin and repentance. Others have told me that their Pastors will only teach from one or two books from the Bible because they don’t understand enough about the other to preach from them. Clearly there is a great need for discipleship. Much of the work that we’ve done there has been focused to meet this need for leadership training.

In central and eastern Zambia we conducted Worldview training workshops for youth and pastors. We also conducted a workshop to train Christian teachers. We’ve recently started a project to meet the educational needs by supplying Christian textbooks for community schools throughout the Eastern province. We also had assisted our Covenant College Bible school that has been going strong for three years now. On this last trip, we participated in the first graduation of the school. Sixteen students celebrated the completion of their three-year training. Members of the student’s congregations attended as well as some distinguished community leaders, which made for a very exciting time.

We have also distributed vast amounts of literature to disciple the nation of Zambia. We’ve distributed over 105,000 World Missionary Press Gospel booklets so far this year. These 50 page booklets are filled with Scriptures proclaiming the Gospel message. We’ve also distributed over 1000 of Peter’s newest book Biblical Principles for Africa. We trust the Lord to use this book and the many hundreds of other Christian books to have a great impact on the people of Zambia.

We can praise God that we were able to carry out these trips with minimal complications and complete safety. I would have to rate these trips as being amongst the least complicated that I’ve ever done. This is a great testimony to God’s wondrous graces. I am very grateful to all those who diligently keep my team members and me in your prayers. Keep up the good work!

Yours for the Fulfilling of the Great Commission,

Timothy Keller