Pause... to Marvel

Greetings again from Nelspruit from where once again we invite you to PAUSE to PRAY.

THANKS for praying for Geraldine. There has been MUCH improvement and while doing the exercises and enduring the physio can still be painful, we are grateful for steady progress.

Last weekend was  one of the more 'special' weekends of the year. The attached photo's were taken at our annual 'ZEBS TEACHERS MEETING'. ZEMA's monthly 'formal' classes for teaching AmaZioni Church leaders began in 1996 with 1 teacher and 12 students. Now we have just under 40 teachers, 66 venues and about 2300 Church leaders attending each month. We marvel at what God has done ! What I was particularly encouraged by was the 'age spread' of the teachers, and to see how enthusiastic even the relatively younger teachers are for this format of impacting upon the amaZioni movement !

One of the teachers related how he had been invited onto a panel of church leaders  at a large South African university to address the 2nd year medical students about 'what happens when a person dies'. He relates how there were speakers from the Jewish, Muslim and other faiths and as he was known to be an amaZioni, this ZEBS teacher was invited to represent 'African Traditional Beliefs'. Well when he stood to speak and began to relate the BIBLICAL TEACHING about 'Life after Death' the organisers became a little agitated. No, they said, we wanted you to speak about the ancestors and how you believe those who die go to be among the ancestors.....after all, you are an amaZioni  ! Well, he was able to boldly explain, Indeed I am an AmaZioni but I have received Jesus and preach the Bible !

On the same weekend, about 60 Sunday School teachers from KZN and Swaziland attended a training seminar. The lessons from the book of Daniel challenged everyone, and the teachers left with ideas and resources, and a huge amount of enthusiasm to go back and teach in their Sunday Schools. We were encouraged by the number of young men attending the course - Sunday School is not just something for women and children.

When we arrived home, we realised that, healthwise, we should have stayed at home. Richard is battling with bronchitis and Geraldine's arm was painful, but the weekend was such a great time of teaching and encouragement, it was worth being there.

God is doing something among the amaZioni, and we invite you to pray with us that God would sweep through the amaZioni with TRUTH - it would change this nation ! As they say in Afrikaans 'Hier kom 'n ding' (literally 'Something is coming' or something is stirring'.)

This coming weekend these teachers 'spread throughout the country' once again with the opportunity to teach and evangelise.

We'll be teaching at Jeppes Reef, about 80 km from Nelspruit, and our main focus is on Baptism and the Church in the Community.

Every Blessing,

Richard and Geraldine