Dear brothers and sisters in Partnership in this Ministry.

I pray your year is winding down gracefully and not a crazy scramble to get everything done before the Christmas holidays.

Thank you for the feedback on my last newsletter, I love keeping you informed, as partners with me, of what God is doing and growing His Church. However, I know I put in too many photos. Hopefully it will be better this time! I

As mentioned previously, we have experienced bad storms in July. Now, in August and September, the weather and storms have been the worst yet. Weather not seen for 20 years or more!  Worldwide, countries are experiencing unusual weather patterns with extreme weather conditions, either hot, cold, floods, fires etc.

AUGUST

The floods left thousands of people homeless and displaced, without food, clothing or bedding. God in His mercy gave us many generous concerned sponsors, who provided financially, to meet all these needs, helping scores of destitute folk. This giving is a wonderful witness. The Community sees God’s love and care for them in action. We   provided perishable [bread] and non-perishable food [tins and packets of soup], blankets and medicines, washing powder, toilet soap, towels and other urgently needed items. The funds provided the ingredients needed to make soup for the seniors at church each week, during this time.

SEPTEMBER

This month we experienced the most severe and violent gale force winds! Our church building was hit again; this time the entire roof of the balcony ripped off completely, and was blown it right over the church roof. The long metal sheets and supporting timbers landed behind the church, with some of the metal sheets damaging the neighbour’s fence, and cutting telephone lines. Thankfully, no one was injured. We saw it all coming too! The noise of the sheets being lifted and dropped was deafening, I moved the van [Kombi] parked in front of the balcony, to a safer spot, [so I thought}, right into the path of the flying metal sheets. I had parked the Van there only minutes before! The sheets barely missed me.  The container, parked next to the church, into which the sheets smashed, shielded the van. – Praise God for His protection.

CHILDREN.

The Kids Klub, held during the school holidays, was a tremendous blessing to me. I stepped back and let them run everything. To witness our young leaders organize programmes themselves, train their leaders to teach bible stories and verses, play games, prepare and serve food for their group, was a privilege to witness. God is growing His church. Several folk helped contribute warm clothing and food, so we could serve soup and bread to the 100 plus hungry children who attended. Thousands of children, here in South Africa, die every month of hunger. Most do not have food every day!

YOUTH

September is our youth month, and we try to focus on the young people in the Church, to encourage them to become more involved in how the Church operates. Under the watchful eye of their Minister Thozamile Toni, they run the Sunday services, doing the preaching, ushering, and Bible reading. Then at the end of September they organized an entire day of “celebration of their gifts and talents”. Over 200 youth attended, from all over Khayelitsha. The “celebration” was announced on the local radio, pamphlets were circulated, groups had to register beforehand for the programme to be compiled. It was wonderful to behold. Groups of young folk showing their talents, traditional and ballroom dancing, drama’s, skits, choirs. Very noisy! Very loud music – just being themselves, having a wonderful time, without us oldies! They set up their own PA system, had keyboards, where they got all this from was amazing in itself. There were also scores of younger children, in and out of the Church, which they did not even seem to notice! Lots to watch. Because of the damage to the church I was unable to run the bible study [soup kitchen ministry] in the prayer room, next to the Church hall. I had over 20 elderly ladies squashed in the Kitchen, just off the main church hall! We had our brains fried by their ‘music’, impossible to talk! However, after several tries we abandoned everything, with the reassurance to them that, we were thankful they were here, in church, rather than out doing drugs, crime or drinking! They all agreed so we prayed for them and then they went and watched at the back!

MINISTRY TO ORPHANS

We had a fantastic welcome from The Kuyasa Primary school staff and pupils when we delivered 320 pairs of school shoes for AIDS orphans. St. James the Less Church and Parish in U.K. collected funds for their Harvest Festival service for charity for us. This project took months to organize, to get the shoes from branches all over South Africa. Teachers had to supply us with sizes for every child. The blessing was seeing the children’s faces as they fitted their new shoes on! Many children do not possess any shoes, so did not know their size. It was a heart wrenching experience, when we have so much.

We noticed that they did not have socks either! God provided this too! A few weeks later we were able to give them this. To the children this was a wonderful gift to receive! Our Minister noticed that the “new shoes” were looking very dusty, and we decided to get polish for the shoes. We have managed to get this for them as well, and will be giving them polish as part of their Christmas gift. This will only be part of their gift; we will include a toy, and sweets with the polish!

The soup Kitchen started with just five ladies. After the first week the word spread! Now we have 20 ladies or more every week. These determined elderly ladies arrived in the midst of all the dreadful stormy weather for their soup. I have now started a bible study with them, with notes in Xhosa. The problem of them not being able to read the bible was solved however, by a donation of glasses, that a local church collected from their congregation.

Here, the ladies try on different pairs, until they find a pair they can read with.

This lady, looks after 3 grandchildren, the baby is only 8 months old. Both parents were killed. She has a meager pension to feed clothe and educate them all! When we were served our soup, I noticed she poured hers into a small container, obviously to take home to feed the other 2 children – aged 7 and 12 years. This broke my heart. Another bowl of soup was given to her and a large container of left over soup and bread. We now get food and clothes for them. The tremendous need overwhelms you, and humbling too, as they never complain!

OCTOBER

This month is the beginning of our busiest time of Year, October to February, when we plan for our Christmas and summer holiday activities. Organizing many children’s parties, and sorting and collecting thousands of gifts, [with their names on if possible - if for a boy or girl, and their age]. Plans are being made for the Youth, Men, Seniors, the congregation – gifts for all. Our Pastor Thozamile Toni was able to attend a Men’s Leadership Conference the middle of the month with our DCC church. Laymen and Pastors easily understood the guest speaker, Frans Hanke, a very gifted and focused teacher. This was of tremendous benefit to him. Thozamile has shared this information with his men’s group at the prayer breakfast meetings on Saturdays. These men have benefited the most, being taught God’s Word, and how apply it to daily Christian living.

Our congregation is growing steadily, according to God’ plan. Some folk, who visit us out of curiosity, leave when they the gospel preaching and teachings make them uncomfortable, but God keeps sending others. These folk who accept the gospel and find salvation, grow and change. Everyone is always warmly welcomed. After the service, the Elders greet the Minister after he has finished preaching and closed the service with prayer, in front of the church, then they line up next to him. The congregation do the same, first greeting the Minister then the Elders, and the line continues until everyone has been greeted and (and also hugged).  They are then at the back of the Church, where coffee is served and fellowship is rich. More ladies are becoming involved, preparing and serving the coffee and tea. This confirms their acceptance as being part of this Church, and as their Spiritual home. This all takes time to develop, and very encouraging for us.

We had a special guest visit both the Sunday school and Church. Michael Lush from down under - Australia. He has visited us many times before, the last time with his wife Noel. She worked in the preschool for 3 weeks alongside the teachers, and was able to teach them many skills.

Michael is a favourite with small children. He effectively used his Koala Bear to get his story from the bible across to them in a fun way. In the church service he used humor that got his message across

GIFTS

Lastly, let me show you a few of the items in the children’s wonderful gift packages I have already received for Christmas this year, Left – pencil pouches [made by a husband] containing, pencils, pens, crayons, glue, ruler, and an eraser. This pouch was put into a drawstring bag [made from beautiful off cuts of material], together with toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, sweets. The girls had tops or skirts, the boys t-shirts or beanies, all these items made by the group – plus hair items for girls, and for boys a tennis ball or yo-yo.  Every package is different. Thank you Creative friends for all your hard work, shopping, making and packing hundreds of parcels for the Children of Khayelitsha – Lyn, Colleen, Barbara, Jennifer, Laraine, Carol, Bernadette, Irene, Lorraine, to name a few, there are many more who helped these children get a gift for Christmas. This year, as mentioned above, the 300plus AIDS orphans will also receive lovely gifts, thanks to additional funds received from St. Matts. Church Australia. Next year, we will organize that the orphans recently orphaned [more are orphaned every month due to AIDS] will get shoes socks and stationery, and uniforms if needed. Funds were also raised for the Kids Klub, a meal for the kids for a year as well as food supplies to make soup for the elderly for a year! Praise God for His worldwide family of concerned sponsors. The elderly will also receive a gift for Christmas of tea, sugar, biscuits and sweets. This is only the end of October! Many many more gifts are expected, from Grove Primary School, and our faithful Motorbikers, who do a “toy run” the end of November, collecting thousands of mainly soft toys for many Charities. I will tell you about them next time – with photos of course. Now I am just focusing everything that needs to be completed by the end of November.

COURT CASE We continue to covet your prayer support for the Court Case the tenants of the preschool have brought against me. As many of you will know, this situation is a ploy of Satan, to try to destroy God’s work, however he will never succeed. The problem with the tenants has been in progress for 2 years, as they refuse to pay rent and have stopped all Christian input. The tenants even tried to prevent us having Sunday school. They have tried to get rid of the Church, Pastor and myself, in many ways, curses by Witchdoctors, death threats etc. Now, they have filed a case of Fraud against me.

 The Court case, had it’s first hearing on 20th October. I was cross-examined for 3 hours, and the delay tactics worked, as it had to be postponed, as their Lawyer has more “questions” for me. Mostly their accusations are lies and full of deceit.

The experience was very stressful and traumatic for me, especially never having been to Court or cross-examined before. I was humiliated, shocked and overwhelmed by the deceit, it completely devastated me. How a friend of almost 20 years, could turn from, and worse still, remove herself totally from God, and to her new god – Mammon. I am so saddened and my heart is broken.

I ask you to please pray for wisdom for our lawyer and for the lies to be exposed. God is totally in control, and the only person who can solve this sad situation. Pray for repentance for the tenants, and that God’s will be done. He has allowed this to happen; we think to expose their corrupt ways to the community, all according to His perfect plan. I do not have the time to focus on this. God’s work takes priority. Thank you all, who called, sent email, text [sms] messages of encouragement in letters and cards. Your support and love shown to me at this challenging time, was both a comfort and a real blessing to me.

I wish you all a Blessed Christmas holiday celebration. May Christ be foremost and above all else in all you do at this time. He is the greatest gift ever given to mankind, and we thank our Heavenly Father for sending Him to save us.

Please continue to pray for all aspects of His work, for wisdom guidance and protection against evil, I love you all.

Your Missionary in Africa – Laura