Mack Update - March 2009 - South Africa

Dear Partners in Christ,

For your encouragement I want to share some thoughts from a passage of Scripture and also portions of two letters we recently received from two of our GSM students. We are unworthy and extremely inadequate servants and we are truly humbled, astonished and grateful that we along with you have a small part in serving Him and His people. Please join with us in giving God the glory for what is shared in this newsletter and be encouraged to know that God is hearing your prayers and using your sacrificial support for the benefit of His people.

Encouraging thoughts from a passage of Scripture:
 
In the past few days I've been thinking about and blessed by I Peter 1:13 - Therefore, gird your minds for action; be sober in spirit; fix hope on the grace of God brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What a great thought - our hope is not for the best life in this world. Our best hope is for the provisions of the grace of God, which will be ours when Jesus comes back. May God help us to set our minds on things above and not on the things of this world. I need that reminder constantly. Peter is writing to people who are suffering and aliens and encourages them to realize they have reason to be joyful in the midst of suffering because of the hope of the future grace of God to them in Christ Jesus when He returns. For us, the worst we'll ever have is now and the best is yet to come. We finished our last GSM course by going to heaven with the help of chapter 17 in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and what a wonderful prospect we saw lies before us.

Encouraging words from a GSM student who pastors in Zambia:

I am continually indebted to your church for the opportunity you have granted me to pursue the biblical counseling course. It is difficult to put in words the value I am drawing from this course. The first value is my own personal sanctification. A number of areas in my life are being changed. I am sure my wife is enjoying these benefits as she sees me become a better husband!

People here in Zambia will benefit from the counseling courses through the regular counseling that I carry on as a pastor. My counselees will stand to benefit profoundly from these courses.

But there are also other ways in which what I am learning from the counseling courses will assist thousands of people.

People in Africa will benefit from the counseling courses as they listen to the counseling related radio programs, which we feature. Currently we are running programs on a local community radio that reaches the town and its surroundings, a total population of more than 250 000 people. Then more recently I have been invited to do counseling programs on a Christian broadcast that covers East, Central and Southern Africa.

People will benefit from the counseling courses in that the Lord has also granted us a writing ministry. We have so far produced 7 booklets covering relationship related topics targeting young people. Providentially, these booklets have been adopted and approved by our ministry of education to be used in all schools in the country. God willing we intend to grow this list of titles.

We are therefore delighted that through Wayne's counseling course, the quality of the counseling material that we offer people at personal level, through radio broadcasts and through writing literature is all becoming better and better.

So be greatly encouraged dear brethren. Your efforts are not in vain and they will be greatly rewarded by the Lord Himself. 1 Corinth 15.58.


Encouraging words from a GSM student who ministers in South Africa:

Just a short note to thank you for the 4 weeks in which you taught us
diligently about God and about His Word.  The more I realize how big my sins are, the greater God's grace become.  Each of these weeks, I was mainly confronted with my sins.  What a frightful journey!  I feel terribly privileged to be able to sit at your feet and learn from you.  Thank you so much.  May God grant you health to carry on for many more years.  I am not exaggerating if I say that this course, was the most life changing
experience, so far in my life.
Know that we appreciate and love you very much.

Some requests for prayer:

Family Camp ministry in Sassolburg in March;

Conference ministry for two weeks in Zambia in April;

Shepherd's conferences in Johannesburg, Polokwane and Capetown (Son Josh, Joel James, Andy Snider, Carol Hargrove and I will be the main speakers at these conferences that are usually attended by about 500 pastors and other church leaders during the last week of May and the first week in June;

Pastor's conference in Mozambique during the second week in June.

Finances for personal support and also for the discipleship and orphan ministry carried on among the thousands of spiritually and physically needy people. Our church under the leadership of Josh is ministering to literally hundreds of these spiritually and physically needy people in Sunnyside, Stinkwater and Mapheus (formerly Mamelodi). One black brother who had done the two year program at Grace School of Ministry and the seminary program at Christ's Seminary is visiting and conducting Fundamentals of the Faith classes every week in Mapheus and also conducting a native language class for the 30 or more black people who are now attending our church. Some of these have only recently come to Christ. Many of the young adults in our church have become very actively involved in doing Bible classes for more than a hundred children at Stinkwater. Many of the people in the church also regularly provide food packages for people who lack physical provision.

Well, enough of that for this newsletter. Thanks again to everyone who supports us and prays for us. As Paul said to the Corinthians church so we say to you: “you also joining in helping us through your prayers so that thanks may be given by many persons … for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:11).

Blessings to all of you and SDG.

Wayne and Carol Mack from South Africa
Romans 14:7, 8

Walker Requests - March 9, 2009

Hi,

Before we begin a busy day, I want to ask your Jean to intercede for us this week.  We are faced with a very challenging task over the next 2 weeks.

1) To build capacity in a 3 person team (John, Nick, Kathryn) so they can teach CTC (Come Together through Conflict) after we leave.  They have 150 people to teach.  At 10-15 people per session, they will be teaching CTC 10-15 times.  So our investment in JNK is significant.  We don't yet know what their abilities are, and that adds to the complexity of our task.   They will help teach CTC next week.  So they need to prepare themselves this week.

2) In order to leave the team with a version of CTC that better fits the needs of our colleagues working together in this country we need to modify CTC this week .  This must be done this week in order for us all to teach CTC next week in other city.  We want to involve JNK as much as possible in the CTC re-design process, but that will take much longer to do than if Jean and I did it ourselves.  So there is a tension here and room for conflict this week.  I am thankful for this challenge, even though it means added stress and longer hours  for Jean and I.  We have already experienced the difficulty of making decisions as a team this week.  So we have the opportunity to practice the principles we teach in the conflicts that will inevitably occur this week and next.

We recognize our dependence of our Father in order to accomplish these tasks.  "Without me you can do nothing" (John 15.5) 

We so appreciate your partnership.

Blessings,

Roland (and for Jean)

Missionary dates in March

In an effort to further encourage our mission partners, I thought it might be nice to list their birthdays/anniversaries on the blog at the beginning of each month so you could send them an email or card/note around their special day.  Consult the missions prayer guide or contact me (link to my email is in my Blogger profile) or the church office for email or postal mail addresses. ~  Gina

March 15 (next Sunday)  - Bud Hart's birthday
March 30 - Carra C.'s birthday (daughter of Mark & Jill - attending college in the US)