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“I will make you a light to the nations”

Isaiah 49:6c

 

        One of the songs of Heaven recorded in Revelation is one that praises the Lamb who was slain to make redemption possible. “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on earth” (Revelation 5:9-10). Another song of Heaven is one sung by an innumerable company of the saved. Drawn from “every people and tribe, dressed in the white robes of salvation,” they join in offering praise and glory to God (Revelation 7:9-17). Heaven is filled with praises—praises for the Lamb, for the One born in order to die, to purchase with His own blood “men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

        From “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” God has children! In a remarkable way, He has opened doors for JGHM to minister in fifty-eight nations on six continents: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia (including the Pacific Rim, Fiji Islands, New Zealand), basically through prayer seminars although there have been opportunities to preach and to provide leadership seminars (including an evangelism clinic to teach people how to share their faith through their personal testimonies and through Scripture). An effort has been made to work primarily with the indigenous church wherever we have gone and to provide the prayer seminar in the respective native languages. The prayer seminar workbook has been translated into many languages including German, Hausa, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Thai, Urdu, Swahili, Luganda, and others.

 

SOUTH AFRICA 2014

South Africa 2014 Report

[Friday, February 14--Saturday, February 22]

 

        For some months, I have prayed that Leslie Motsalane would be able to carry on the prayer seminar ministry that was started in 1998. God has blessed Leslie and Tabitha, his wife, in many ways. When we first started working with them in 1996, they were living in two small rooms in a black township. Their dream was to establish a church and build a house right in Thabong, a very large township. They started their church in a small tent that had to be put up on Saturday and taken down on Sunday night for security reasons. Slowly, their house began to take shape using bricks from the closed gold mines that cost a penny a brick. The church moved from a corrugated tin unit to a nice brick building. We provided funds for Leslie to get on his feet, including funds for a van and funds to travel to conduct seminars. We have provided funds to print workbooks and have been able to provide thousands.

        Leslie, his team and I (sometimes with Sue and sometimes with Tabitha) provided prayer seminars in each province and in surrounding southern African nations. At one point, Leslie said that several million have been impacted by the prayer seminar. The workbook is translated into Sueto, Zulu, and Xhosa.

        For the 2014 seminars, Leslie's strategy was to revisit provinces, but go into areas where we have never been. When we first started, pastors were reluctant to encourage their people to attend a prayer seminar thinking that it was simply a vehicle for stealing their sheep. There has been a remarkable change with pastors joining together to plan for a prayer seminar in their area. Our theme this year is establishing Lighthouses of Prayer using the model learned in Pakistan. 

        There have been six prayer seminars (five full seminars and one mini-seminar that was only two hours). There have been seminars in two provinces with two additional provinces scheduled for next week. The attendance for three of the six seminars has been the largest we have had in South Africa. In each seminar, we have been explaining that Leslie and his team are equipped to come back for further teaching. Twenty-four has made professions of faith.

        PERSONAL. Many of you have told me that you would be praying for me personally (for health, for vitality, for spiritual discernment). There are always challenges in doing work in other cultures but I have had great health and ample patience. Of course, I am tired at the end of a day, but there is renewed strength the next morning. More and more I feel unworthy to have been entrusted with a ministry that God has blessed and used to touch so many lives. My zeal for the seminar remains strong. One pastor who attended the Carltonville seminar (one of six present) said that he learned many points about effective praying that he had never known, but, he said, the prayer seminar workbook itself was the most helpful tool that had ever been placed in his hand. In one of the seminars, I used the Placetas, Cuba story. I shared fifty years after my initial visit in 1960, I returned for the first time in 2010. Nine of the seventy saved in 1960 were present for the 2010 seminar. Leslie said that he watched the faces of the young people and saw amazement that there was still fruit after fifty years. It is little incidents like that that makes me want to keep on keeping on. The torch must be passed to the youth. When the young people respond, it is encouraging.

        Thanks for your prayer covering. Many of you gave liberally to have the budget met before I left home. Ten more days, the Lord willing, I will be home. Sunday, February 23 is the middle day of the nineteen trip.