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Prayer
& Praise Update
Missionaries
Mobilised through the Great Commission Course
By
God's grace, Frontline Fellowship has completed the Great
Commission Course in Cape Town. Pastors, evangelists and
missionaries came from Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Canada,
South Africa and the USA to participate in this uniquely
practical, hands-on missions training seminar.
At
the end of the Great Commission Camp, 19 participants came
forward to be prayed for in a Commissioning service. Each
of these were going out on various short or long-term mission
outreaches, including to Bangladesh, Nigeria, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Spain, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The
Great Commission Course involved daily outreaches and practicals,
starting with daily physical training every morning, intense
lectures and multiple outreaches to railway stations, taxi
ranks, bus stations, market places, door-to-door, prison
ministry, film evangelism and visits to other missions.
The programme often went on till after midnight with numerous
night hikes.
The
GCC participants distributed 40 000 Gospel booklets, primarily
in Xhosa, English and Afrikaans and showed Christian films
including the Jesus film in Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.
In Khayelitsha, Guguletu, Dunoon, Msipumulele, Wellington,
Velddrift, Villiersdorp and Philippi.
One
Saturday aftenoon, GCC participants and Frontline missionaries
engaged in soccer evangelism in Khayelitsha. There is a
huge settlement of mostly Xhosa people. The missionaries
beat the home team 5-0. That evening the church was packed
out for the film evangelism and it was even more overflowing
the next morning as I took a communion service and preached
on Jesus – the lamb of God Who takes away the sins
of the world (John 1:29). The next week the missionaries
beat the Khayelitsha home team at Volleyball: 3-1.
Many
of our GCC outreaches were to assist church planting projects.
One church planting project in Khayelitsha, which last year
was meeting in a home, for which we had rented a tent to
hold the special outreaches in, this year had moved into
a fine new building, including their pre-school and a large
church hall - which was full on Sunday mornings.
The
GCC participants took part in night-time prayer vigils and
street outreaches outside several night-clubs, brothels
and pornography shops in the sleazy part of the city; and
prayer vigils, protests and side-walk counseling on Saturday
mornings outside a Marie Stopes Abortion Clinic. Some of
the participants had the joy of leading people to Christ
in prisons and outside brothels and night- clubs.
One
of the 5 hikes included a 7-hour climb up and over the full
length and breadth of Table Mountain. The descent was accomplished
in the dark. As with the other hikes, participants carried
back- packs, each laden with over a thousand Scripture booklets
in Arabic. Some of the hikes ran up and down river- beds
so we had the Scripture booklets securely water- proofed.
Aside
from daily PT, outreaches, lectures and hikes, there were
several exams written as well. At the end of the course,
while vast quantities of Gospel Literature, Bibles, books
and audio-visual evangelistic equipment were being prepared
for mission outreaches and teams to go across the boarder,
some of the written responses from GCC participants included:
“Outstanding. Completely amazing. The content of the
lectures was incredible and inspiring. Different from what
I have previously known or expected” ; “I have
been challenged to only accept God’s best for my life.
Mediocrity and complacency will not be tolerated in any
area of my life”; “I have attended many missions
conferences, but I have never been so inspired or practically
equipped before”; “Boldness has been built within
me; fear removed”; “I want to be completely obedient
to God in every are of my life – to be faithful in
all circumstances despite the consequences.”
Please
do pray for all these pastors, evangelists and missionaries,
and for our own field workers now that they have returned
to their fields of service or are launching out across new
boarders for Christ.
Missions
Conference in Mpumalanga
The
Great Commission Course was no sooner over, then I was preparing
to travel up to Mpumalanga, where a Dutch Reformed Church
had invited me to be the key-note speaker at their Missions
Week. This was a very well organised Missions Conference.
The flags of many nations were hanging from the rafters.
A huge world map with the 10-40 Window highlighted dominated
the front of the Church. Displays and literature tables
of numerous missions lined the walls around the Church.
And there were numerous missionaries from the United States,
Canada, Egypt and South Africa participating.
One
afternoon we had a consultation with those missionaries
involved in the Muslim world. This included an Arabic-speaking
official of the Bible Society working in the Middle-East,
American missionaries dedicated to reaching the Beja people
of Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan, a Missionary focussed on the
church reaching the Turks (the largest unreached people’s
group in the world) and an Irish missionary dedicated to
reaching Muslims. There were also Canadian missionaries
of Samaritan’s Purse who are working in Sudan, evangelists
dedicated to reaching the people in Pretoria, and numerous
other vital ministries represented.
What
was also remarkable about this dynamic Missions Conference,
was the amount of time dedicated to worship at the beginning
of each session, and how after the missionary reports and
presentations, the congregation would divide up into prayer
groups and pray for half an hour at the end of each evening.
There was a great hunger for missions books and literature,
and at one point I was running out of books. At that point,
a Frontline mission team, en-route to the field, was passing
nearby and I was able to call them and have them re-supply
me.
Missionaries
Sent Out
At
the end of the Great Commission Camp, Frontline Fellowship
Honourary Member, Dr Fritz Haus, committed new FF trainee
field workers from Canada and the USA to the Lord. He also
commissioned Charl van Wyk as Deputy Director of Frontline
Fellowship and Timothy Keller as a Field Director.
Tim
is at this time leading our new North American trainee field
workers on a series of outreaches across the border. Please
do pray for them. This is expected to include Literature
Evangelism, Film Evangelism, Bible distribution, outreaches
amongst refugees, lecturing at a Bible College, ministering
in Christian schools and conducting leadership- training
seminars.
New
Book Published
By
God's grace, Biblical
Principles for Africa is now available. Some years ago,
I was meeting with General Godfrey Miyanda in Lusaka, Zambia.
General Miyanda had also been a prisoner in Lusaka Central
Prison under the Kaunda regime. General Miyanda later served
as Vice-President of Zambia and as Minister of Education.
On this occasion I delivered to him a pile of great Christian
books to assist him in his ministry.
However,
as General Miyanda looked at the high pile of books, he
groaned: “Don’t you have a small book?” he
asked. “That summarises all of these?”
It
was in response to that challenge that Biblical Principles
for Africa has been compiled. This compact 100-page book
is a powerful discipleship tool and we are hoping to obtain
sufficient sponsorship, to entrust to editors, pastors,
teachers, businessmen and government officials throughout
South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi,
Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria
(in fact, any country in Africa which has English as their
official language).
If
you are able to sponsor copies of this new Biblical Principles
for Africa book for any of these countries, please contact
Frontline Fellowship. We are also praying for sponsorship
to have this book translated into French and Portuguese.
This
week, Biblical Principles for Africa will be launched with
a special book launch at Parliament, then a breakfast is
planned for those involved in the book industry and media
at Century City, and a Missions Rally will be held in the
Pineland’s town hall to which the public is invited
to on 22 August.
By
faith, the initial printing of Biblical Principles for Africa
has been 10 000. The book has been printed at Khanya Press,
KwaSizabantu Mission, in KwaZulu Natal.
Please
do pray for the impact of this strategic book. It is our
earnest prayer that the Lord would be gracious to use this
as a spiritual guided missile, as a patriot missile to intercept
the scuds of humanism, socialism and Islam; a manual for
blessings and a road map for Reformation and transformation
- on the road to progress and prosperity for Africa.
“Declare
His Glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all
peoples.” Psalm
96:3
Dr
Peter Hammond
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