Lake Tanganyika News - May 2008

Since Div is back from South Africa, the work on the boot is in full force. Michael Stemmet came for 10 days to share his knowledge with Div and the other men. They basically have to rebuild the whole inside of the boat and then wrap it with fiberglass.

As soon as the boat is finished, Div will look for appropriate dates to explore the rest of the lake and will then apply his recent "reseach"knowledge. This will provide INSERV with the necessary information that they require to produce a map of the area.

Jetty

Work on the jetty is going forward, although not very fast. Less than a meter under ground level they found a rock boulder. This will have to be removed piece by piece. We want to make sure that the jetty is at least 2 meters deep so that the boat can be anchored with ease. The water level is at its highest at the moment due to all the rain we've had the past couple of months and we expect the water level to drop a meter. Luckily Tanganyika is a deep lake and the ground level declines fast once you're a couple of meters into the water, but there is still a lot of rock and soil that have to be removed and all of that by hand!

Riaan's Exams

Riaan says that it went well with his exams. He was one of 10 people in the examination room, all from different nationalities. The results will be available via internet in a couple of weeks. He's currently busy preparing for the Zambian grade 12 exams. He's on a strict schedule as the "mock exams" as the Zambians call it will be next month and the finale exams in late October.

Mwanangwa Village Outreach

We are focused on getting the 3 men that went on the discipleship training, more involved with our ministry. Laban is busy full time on our food preparation team for the prison ministry and delivers the message there regularly. The other two, Ringwell and Lewis, is involved with a village approximately 10km from us, where two years ago in September an outreach group from South Africa showed the Jesus film. They go there one afternoon a week. We are looking into sending them there more regularier so they can start with church planting. This is a desire they have revealed as neither of them have been involved in church planting before. This is quite a distance and we hope to provide bicycles for transportation in the near future.

Global Day of Prayer

The Christians in Mpulungu came together with the rest of the people in the world to pray for all the nations on the 11th May. The Good News II missionaries organized this day. In spite of the small percentage of Christians in the town, we still had a large group of people from different churches come together on the soccer field.

The Youth was eager to participate in this day of prayer and fasting. They started days before with fasting and prayer. Inspired by an international video about previous years of global prayer days, they made a banner and ran through the streets in Mpulungu to encourage people to attend the prayer. The message on the banner was "Youth Power, we are praying for Africa! Are you?"

3D-Outreach

We are really excited to say that we will be 5 people (men and women) stronger. A bunch of young people from South Africa will come to stay with us for practical missionary experience and internship. We are grateful for the extra hands! They will start their trip to us on the 14 June and will stay for 10 weeks.

Childrens commitment in the Community

Riaan does service every Monday in the clinic in Mpulungu. He works every Monday in a different section. He enjoys the exposure and is building relationships with the medical staff and other people that work there. They recently had a man with severe burns; due to a gas can that exploded. Riaan kept himself brave, but had to get some fresh air after a while. This week he assisted with a man that needed to receive stitches for wounds on his head and face that he received from a fight with another man with a rock. Riaan says that the patient was definitely the loser in the fight. The patient wasn't completely awake, but it still took a couple of men to keep him down so they could give him stitches. He was taken to a better equipped clinic in Mbala later that day.

Mariska is involved with the children's ministry. She walks every Wednesday afternoon with Ethel to a village approximately half an hour from us. There she helps with the teaching of the lesson, singing and playing with the kids.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for general protection of our health
• Pray for the 3D-Outreach groups financial arrangements and trip to us - Thank the Lord for the help that he's sending, but also pray that we will give them the correct support and guidance.
• Pray for Ringwell, Lewis and Laban's relationship with the Lord. Also pray for their families.
• Pray for Riaan's preparation for his exams
• Pray that we will always look to the Lord for guidance in each situation

We always thank the Lord for each of you, for your support and prayers!!

Blessings

Div, Eleanor, Riaan en Mariska

Lake Tanganyika News - April 2008

Greetings form a sunny Zambia!! The rainy season is drawing to a close and we are entering the time of year when it can become really hot during most hours of the day. People's energy levels are low and the best time to do physical work is early in the morning, just after sunrise. With few people having eletricity, going to bed early at night and getting up before sunrise, is the normal way of life. Lack of a good nutritious diet also contributes to low energy levels and that is why you see people resting in the shad of trees around midday. We might think that people are unproductive, but they are just ordering their working hours in a day differently that us, and that for practical reasons.

Div is in South Africa receiving training at a company call INSERV. They collect data on the location of different tribes and people groups, specifically for the use of missions and prayer. Div is planning to do more research along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, this time in the areas outside of Zambia. While he will travel many miles, he might as well collect the date in a proper way so that the information can be complete and usable by the people updating books like Operation World and other publications. INSERV covers Southern African and all information is available for anyone, in particular for mission organizations needing it to know where unreached people groups are in order to focus their church planting projects, evangelism, prayer, ect.

For a long time now, we have been searching for a detailed map of the Lake Tanganyika area, and finally came upon people who can help us. INSERV is busy compiling one for us and Div will get it from them when he finishes his traning.

We managed to hand in our paperwork, on all the items brought into the country, on time and are now waiting for the reply from the Ministry of Finance. Thank your for all your prayers!

Please continue praying for Riaan who will travel to Lusaka by bus to write his SAT exams on the 3rd May.

Day Care Centre

We started with a playgroup at the Day Care Centre. Our focus is on orphan children and our intent is to have no more than 15 children in the class. Our missionaries, working in the dirrerent Children's Ministry groups will assess the situation of each child and through them we will invite the ones who are truly orphaned and vulnerable. We do not have sufficient funds at this time and therefore want to start small and let it grow as time progresses. We already identified 10 children of which 8 reported for school. Ethel is the lady who is currently teaching the children. She is one of the Good News Missionaries. Althouh she has no formal traning, she has an excellent ability to work with children.

We recently received a visit from 4 ladies who assisted us with curriculum and lesson plans for the school. They also made apparatus and decorated the classroom for us. Two of the girls were from Germany, one from England and one from New Zealand. We were blessed that two of them were preschool teachers! We are very grateful to the Lord for their willingness to come and help us for 10 days.

Discipleship

Three of the local families in Mpulungu, recently finsished a 90-day discipleship traning at our training base in Kabwe. The three men have been working with us for almost two years now. We have built into their lives and they are in thruth showing a great deal of potential. We know that the Lord wants us to use them to shine His light in Mpulungu. We decided to send them for extra exposure and traning in the Word of God. While they were out, we cared for their older children who had to stay behind and attend school, making sure that they at least had enought to eat.

After their return, all of them testified about God's goodness in allowing them to learn so many things which are not heard in the local churches. We are excited to see the growth in their lives and how eager they now are to spread the wonderful truths they had learned. One of the ladies already cooked a meal for her neighbours and invited the women so she could share with them what she had learned.

Please pray for these families as it will not be easy for them. The enemy is not happy over what has happened and will do anything in his power to stop the good news of Jesus Christ from being spread further. Some of the people in their home churches already treat them with suspicion (typical of a witchcraft culture).

We, however, are very positive. They are not strangers in the town or the culture. When they go out and spread the message, it is much easier form people to relate to them, rather than to us, because they share it from within their cultural wordview. They know which examples to use to make the message more understandable. Africa believes that Christianity is the religion of the white people and that it is not meant for them. If their fellow brothers, who are Christains, bring the message and live Jesus out in the workplace, it has a much bigger impact. Please pray that God will protect these 3 families and that they will stay committed to their calling. From our side we would like to assist them as far as possible, so please pray for strategies on how that should be done.

Youth Camp

During the weekend of 10-13 April the Good News II missionaries hosted a camp for the youth. We invited youth from all the churches in and around Mpulungu. It was held at a camping site 30 km outside of town. Riaan and Mariska joined in. The missionaries teamed up two-two and presented different subjects relevant to young people. The Good News II missionaries did an excellent job in presenting truths from the bible and witnessed through the way they conducted themselves throughout the weekend in and out of class. The youth are positive and eager to learn more. Please pray that the youth will grow in their walk with the Lord and that they will really learn how to have a true relationship with the living God.

One of the missionaries, Callen, has been invited to attend a youth gathering this coming Saturday at one of the churches where more thatn 300 youth will gather. They heard about the teachings on the camp and also want to learn more. These young people are hungry!

Boat

The rainy season is almost someting of the past. A team of 3 men are currently working on the jetty on our property. Because of winds that occur on the lake, Div has decided that the jetty will not be build out onto the water, but that a trench will be dug inland, so that the anchored boat will have some protection form the waves.

On Div's return from South Africa, work on the boat will start. In the mean time, the hull of the boat has been moved onto the grounds of the Day Care Centre. All the wood, for putting in the ribs and for building the framework of the boat, has already been bought. The term "buying of wood" has quite a different meaning to what it has in town. We send someone to move from village to village, finding out where people are chopping down trees and cutting them into planks. Our carpenter was way for more than 2 weeks "buying wood" in the villages along the shores of the lake. When the planks reached Mpulungu it had to be reported to the Ministry of Agriculture for paying of taxes.

Prayer

Nothing we do here happens without resistance from the enemy. We therefore need a lot of prayer covering. Amongst ourselves we have started with an extra hour of prayer each day. This involves all the missionaries and each person prays as an individual at the time that suites him/her best. We are very encouraged by the commitment that Riaan and Mariska are showing in keeping their hour of prayer each day.

Please continue praying for us, also accourding to the points mentioned above.

Thank you and may God bless you richly.

Div, Eleanor, Riaan and Mariska

Prayer Request for Lake Tanganyika

Day Care Centre

We recently started a playgroup with orphan children, every Thursday morning. Pray that God will touch the hearts and minds of these children and that they will grow to love Him and live for Him. Pray that they will break with the lies of their culture and tradition, which has a witchcraft foundation. Pray for Ethel and Uncle Joe that is currently involved with the work. Pray Numbers 6:24-26 for the children.

Villages

Pray for the villages along the shores of Lake Tanganyika where the Good News II missionaries are planting churches; Gift and Judicious in Nzovwe village, Lewis and Muhandu in Tongwa Village and Peter, Kennedy and Donald in Katete. Peter and his team are mobilizing the existing churches of Nsumbu to reach out to the lost. Pray for the local people who have never heard or made a choice for Jesus. Pray for the work that is done in Mpulungu village where Uncle Joe, Callen and Lucy and Ether are working in the local churches with the children and youth. Callen and Lucy were recently blessed with a baby boy. Pray John 5:24

Global Day of Prayer

Please pray for the arrangements for the Global day of Prayer on the 11th May. Pray that the leaders from the different denominations will understand this united day of prayer and that God will open their hearts and minds that the body can pray in unity in Mpulungu. Pray also for the prayer room that we opened. Pray that God will raise up committed and serious people to pray for His Kingdom to come in this area.

Good News II

Three local families, working with the Good News II team, have just finished the two month discipleship training in Kabwe (ProChristo training base, Zambia). Pray for them as they are settling back into their community and living out the biblical principles they have been taught. Pray that God will protect their hearts and minds against the onslaught of the enemy. Pray that they will stand frim and keep their eyes on the Lord Jesus. Pray that God will bless them and that they will be salt and light in Mpulungu.

People of Lake Tanganyika

Pray for the lost people of Lake Tanganyika who are living in the bondages of darkness. Pray that the children of God will spread the good news about salvation and that their ears will be opened and that they will turn from their wicked ways. Drunkenness, immorality, practicing of wichcraft, ect. is a lifestyle associated with the local people. Thank God for His love and mercy for them and pray Rom 10:13.