monthly focus ~ holiday ministry unwrapped

In South Africa, Tim and Barbara Mowers are involved in Church Planting in the outlying cities around CapeTown. This year they write about several visitors who were confronted with the claims of Christ. Pray that the message of Christmas will continue to work on the hearts of those who have not come to Him for salvation:

Every Christmas day in South Africa we have a worship service. It does not matter if it is a Sunday or not, in fact it is one of the best attended services of the year. We were able to have our Christmas service in our new building. What a joy and blessing it was. We had 144 in attendance for our celebration of Jesus birth. Some of our neigbours attended as well as many others that have been invited by a loved one to join them on this special day that was set aside to remember the time when Christ took our flesh. Our theme was not just the birth of Christ, but it was "Christ Came and Died for All."

Note: the day after Christmas in South Africa is Boxing Day and is celebrated as the "Day of Reconciliation." How appropriate.

Also in South Africa, the camp season has been active in December. Matt and Kristy Gilliland are leading the ministry in the absence of Scott & Sharyl Roloson who are in the States on furlough. Matt reports that they had many opportunities to impact young people with the gospel at the camps. Pray that they would see a harvest from their hard and faithful labor.

The last week of November we had a camp with about 15 kids from a local township called Shayamoya. Most of the kids come from to Sunday school at the church in Kokstad (local church Gillilands are working with), and it was nice to get to know them better…The first week in December we had junior Adventure camp with several kids between the ages of 10-15. We spent time hiking and camping in the mountains, paddling boats on the water, playing games, and learned from the Word of God. I spoke from the life of Joshua and how he adventured to follow the Lord. At this camp there was a large variety of kids… On the 15-16 of this month (December) we had two back to back day camps. .. These kids knew very little English, but we had a good time loving them up for the day. Anthony shared a Bible story with them in Xhosa. The second day…we had no idea how many kids would come, but we ended up with about 50…"

In northern Mali, which is so prominently Muslim, Christ’s birth brought about many such opportunities for our missionaries. Dan and Marsha Haynes report:

This is the beginning of our Christmas weekend. Announcements have gone out over public radio and through the voice of the town crier inviting young and old to our open-air evangelistic rally tonight. We are pleased to have in our hands the FIRST Songhai version of the life of Jesus film, tested and ready to project. Service starts at 8 pm. Church folk will sing, Pastor will preach, the children will present their program before the film.

The open-air rally was the largest attendance ever (500 to 800 people). However, the true cause of satisfaction was that people heard and understood in their own mother tongue. Throughout the evening, responses could be heard throughout the crowd. One time, a man stood up shouting "this is a big lie," walked to the edge of the crowd but seeing that his antics did not gain a following, promptly returned to his seat. The majority was indeed captivated by the message of Christ. A large group of around 200 stayed to mingle and talk after the program. This was unusual and we hope was an indication of receptive hearts.

Ken and Sarah Beckley also work in Mali in another area. They also used the Christmas holiday to share Jesus message of love and salvation. They showed the JESUS film in Songhai in Dire and had over 300 attend the showing. Ken writes:

But for us, the amazing part was not the size of the crowds, but the silence of the crowd! For most of the 2 hours the film was showing, you could have heard a pin drop. …The people were hearing the Gospel IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE, and they were hanging on every word! I would venture to say that for two-thirds of the people, this was the first time they had heard a clear presentation of the Life of Christ that they were able to fully understand! At one point in the evening, a young man came up to me and said, "Wasn’t Jesus a Jew? Well, now He is a Songhai, because He is speaking our language!" …There were no public decisions that night, which is usually the case in our local cultural context. However, many stayed afterwards for the questions and answer session. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in the hearts of all those who heard.

Ron Self requested prayer for the Christmas Musical in the Municipal Plaza near their church in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they are missionaries. Ron sent the following update:

"Thank you for praying about our Christmas Musical… We had perfect weather, and all of the technical details went exactly as planned (i.e., the sound system worked well, you could hear the choirs well, we finished right at dusk according to plan, etc.) Thank you for your prayers! Of course the most important aspect of this ministry may not be known until eternity. There were many people in the plaza at that hour…a good number moved closer and listened intently to both the Musical and to the gospel message. Others "feigned" disinterest, but stayed within listening distance for the entire presentation. When we were finished we then went around to each person with gospel tracts and talked to many of them. Because if was Christmas day, I have not yet had an opportunity to "debrief" our counselors to find out what the response was, but we are continuing to pray that the Holy Spirit would be working in the lives of those who heard the gospel. Please pray with us for eternal results for the glory of God!"

Missionaries in Japan enjoyed a Christmas treat of a white Christmas. Phil and Debbie Melton serve in Seki and Pat and Wanda Melton (Phil’s parents) serve a few miles away in Yamagata City. Both are leading church plants. Despite the unusual weather, folks turned out for the special Christmas activities. Phil reports:

Just a quick note as we close out this another FABULOUS Christmas day. We had snow until yesterday and although the whole church area was covered with snow, we had about 40 here for the children’s Christmas meeting, and about 35 from our church had a part in the Christmas concert at the nursing home, and there were over 50 who came for the evening Christmas caroling and fellowship time later that evening. Today (Christmas) we drove up to Raphayada (camp facility) where our churches were meeting for a combined worship service and in spite of the snow and the frozen roads—we normally NEVER get snow in December but have already more than the combined total snowfall from last year’s record—there were almost 120 who attended the special worship service and Christmas fellowship dinner that followed.