Daniel's Newsletter

JUNE -- AUGUST

DANIEL DE VILLIERS’s

2011

Mission Update

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” ~Acts 20:24

ABOVE: STEPHEN AND I WITH THE MCM KITCHEN CREW (MALAWI) LEFT: VIEW OF CAPE TOWN IN CLOUDS FROM THE TOP OF TABLE MOUNTAIN (SA)

longer live, but that Christ would live in “May the mind of Christ, my Savior, me; that His presence would be what Live in me from day to day,

By His love and power controlling Thank you so very much for the others see, not my own.

All I do and say. amazing support you've been in God has been so gracious to me providing me with both powerful prayer support and abundant finances to be able throughout this journey, from Malawi, to “May the Word of God dwell richly to partake in the adventures I have! It training my with Frontline, to Zambia, In my heart from hour to hour, was such a blessing to go on the Malawi and even in seeing family each week while So that all may see I triumph mission with King's. God worked in stationed in South Africa. He has kept Only through His power. ways I was not at all expecting and me safe, and has been molding my life by showed over and over that His way is far pounding the areas I least want to give “May His beauty rest upon me, greater than our understanding and up. I thank God that through any testing As I seek the lost to win, theorization of it. "The mind of man we face, He is always right by our side, And may they forget the channel, Seeing only Him.” plans his way, but the LORD directs his supporting us, and carrying us further. steps" (Prov.16:9). It was also such a privilege to get to go on this recent trip into Zambia, involving such eye-opening experiences into the power and majesty of God. Dear family and friends,

The Lord has been showing me new insights each day, and making me realize just how much of a sinner i truly am, not only in the things I do, but even more so in those areas I don't follow the clear commands He has given us. Please pray for a further awareness of and obedience to the Lord’s promptings within my life. Pray that I would no

KYARD ABOVE: IN THE CHEETAH’S BAC (SOUTH AFRICA)

OM TOP RIGHT: RESIDENTIAL BATHRO WER SHO AL RIGHT: RESIDENTI (ZAMBIA)

Malawi Mission with The King’s June 6-18

CHANGED HEART Going into our Malawi trip, I, unlike most on the team, was actually looking forward to the time for discussions I would be able to spend with the adults who were there at the children's center, and was far more compelled to go on the trip with that in mind than for necessarily spending all my time with the children there. However as we pulled into MCM (the center) to meet the huddles of children swarming around, I developed a very different sort of feeling and absolutely fell in love with them; especially as I got to spend more time interacting with them, their personalities all flourishing and manifesting themselves in such different, unique ways.

Allen Phiri, Daniel Julius, Hanileck George, Benson Henry, Peter, Timvenji, and so many other boys and girls, whom our righteous Lord has intricately made and cares for.

VBS PROGRAM The team had the opportunity of coming each day to hold a VBS program. We had crafts, skits (acted out with translated narration), games, and free time, as well as a lunch break in the middle. Our focus through the program was the fruit of the Spirit, each new day adding another part with lessons from the story pertaining to it.

Academy

several of the wards with gifts and pray for those with sickness and disease. There are so many people in need of our prayers! One of the mothers I met had a very young child with a head the size of a basketball. Another child had a malignant tumor on his head. Another heart problems---on and on. We take far too many things for granted; one of the most common being the mere existence of life in itself, with legs to walk, arms and hands to work, and a functioning mind to run it all.

Pray for both the healthy and the sick in Malawi; as they are equally in need of the Gospel of Salvation!

VILLAGE VISITS In addition to the hospital visits, we had a chance to visit some of the villages; villages from which children at the center walked each day; a trip that was round 15 minutes by car. These people are such hardworking folk! And though one grandma we visited had next to nothing, she cheerfully insisted we sat on her grass mat, laughing along with our leader as they talked with one another. In what true quality her joy came through, when there was nothing earthly left for her to cling to. The Lord is doing a mighty work in Malawi, and it was very exciting to be able to go and see it firsthand!

ALLEN, MY FAIT HFUL AIRPLAN E PILOT

ONE OF THE CLASSROOMS AT MCM

I so appreciate your generous But the children's mission wasn't the contributions to the trip; it wouldn't have only ministry opportunity that we had. We been possible without them. May all the glory were also able to visit a hospital and go into and praise from it go to our Father, who has orchestrated it all!

HOSPITAL VISITS

BENSON HARD AT WORK

LISA AND I WITH OUR CRAFT GROUP, SUCH AN ARTISTIC BUNCH!

EARNES T

Training June 24-July 14

There were a few days after the Malawi trip that I was able to see family in South Africa, after which I headed off again; this time to my training with Frontline Fellowship.

Biblical Worldview Summit

P R O L I F E R A L LY One morning, we gathered together in front of Marie Stopes, an abortion clinic, with signs and handouts to protest the murder of children. We were able to pass out a whole load of pamphlets better informing people of the seriousness of abortion, in addition to having a few discussions with people going in and out of the clinic itself. One of the women even changed her decision right then!

The First week of training was held at a camp in Simonstown, South Africa, against a mountain, yet walking distance from the ocean. Extensive lectures, workshops, physical training, and practical exercises were a norm throughout. From PT (PE) at 6:30, until 23:00 each day, we were presented with lots of material covering a variety of different topics, including Creation/Evolution, pop culture today, Church history, going into the field, and more...

Great Commission Course Then continuing on for another 2 weeks, a team of 8 of us carried on, and were placed in much more hands-on learning experiences, with lots of street ministry, speaking on the radio, talking to Muslims, giving brief talks in church; these along with continued lectures, films, and discussions back at the Mission house. We did far more hikes and outdoor activities than the BWS, with the focus of the GCC being concentrated on mobilizing and training people for the missions field.

Those 3 weeks provided me with such good insights and studies that will be useful as I continue on the various missions throughout Africa, as well as providing extensive training of the body, mind, and soul.

NIGHT HIKES On 3 occasions during the GCC, we headed off round 22:00 to venture on a night hike through a forest with a river running through it (used as a fire station). The idea was to create the possible scenario of evading armed Arab soldiers such as in Sudan or other such countries. We would hike up fire station path for a while, then return via the stream (or vise versa), the water at times coming up past our waist; all this without being seen or heard.

But in addition to just the hiking, we all had to carry a back- pack loaded with a few boxes of tracts (again for the simulation of being in the field). It was a great exercise and we pulled it off quite well over our 3 hikes. On the last night, we covered some interesting obstacles such as going through a meter-wide tunnel flowing with water; so we had to work a plan to get all the backpacks through, then the people, due to not fitting with our backpacks.

PRISON OUTREACH

On the GCC, the team had an opportunity to visit a prison and minister to the inmates there. We split up into groups of three, each group spending round half an hour per cell. We started in song with Amazing Grace, Alive Alive, King of Kings, and a few others, to which the whole crowd of inmates enthusiastically piped along. Then we read and discussed the parable of the prodigal son, followed by two of us giving our testimonies. We then discussed the weight of 1 John 2:15-16, and the radical change of lifestyle it called us to.

After that we went around and individually prayed for the inmates who wanted it (a large majority). It was amazing to see how open they were in sharing what they had done and what they wanted prayer for--had some very good discussions with a few of them. After each group had visited two cells we headed back. I know that the Lord was working in that jail; praise be to God!

Zambia Mission with Frontline July 24 -August 11

ON THE ROAD It has been such a privilege to get to go on this recent mission to Zambia.

A group of four of us left the 18th in a loaded bakkie (truck), filled with our supplies and material we’d be handing out for the next 3 weeks. There were about 9 days of full driving which proved to be very fruitful time to read the Word and pray. Alongside reading the Bible, I’ve been working through Shadow of the Almighty, a biography of Jim Elliott, which has been greatly challenging me in several different aspects and I would highly recommend for folk to read. We also listened through nearly the entirety of The Pineapple Story by Otto Koning, about his missions experience amoung the tribes of Guinea. On route we saw several kinds of animals, such as elephants, zebra, warthogs, giraffe, and buffalo; buck such as eland, waterbuck, red hartebeest, & impala; as well as hearing lion and hippo during the evenings and nights.

Typ

Getting the bakkie stuck in a muddy stream for 7 hrs.

Sunset along the Zambezi

MISSION BASE Once we passed into Zambia, there was an immediate change in the quality of roads, resulting in a total of 8 punctures throughout the trip. In Zambia we stayed for just under a week at a Mission, where we were able to help in a more hands on/practical way, fixing up vehicles and doing odd jobs around the place. And how encouraging

it was for all of us to see the example of servitude shown so fully by the couple who owned the Mission! Even in their old age, they were constantly looking for ways to help and take care of the people they interacted with. On Sunday, there were 3 people who had wanted to be baptized, so we drove down the winding road to the edge of the Zambezi, had a time of prayer and singing followed by the baptisms. It was a beautiful experience to see! In the following Church service, all four of us were able to give a short devotional which was translated into Luvali, the local language. Then nearing the end of our stay there, we took a day to go into Angola to drop off one of the workers and visit a few of the villages. The bridges there were usually a puzzle of about 50 pieces of cut down trees with others nearby to add to the bridge if need be.

One of Angola’s sturdier bridges

RIVER MINISTRY After our stay at the Mission, the team continued across the Zambezi River onto the Lungwebungu River (one of its tributaries). For the first few days, John, our leader, Lastone, our translator, and I, worked our way upstream, ministering to the villages on the shores as we went, while the other part of the team took the bakkie to the inland villages. After watching John preach to the first two villages, I had my first opportunity given from the boat to the 50 or so people from that village gathered on shore. Starting with Creation, we established a commonality between them and ourselves, the umzungu’s (white man), that we are no different to them. Then from there it progressed into the Fall of man and the problem of sin, ending with the Gospel

Fellowship

message and the Lord’s call of discipleship to follow Him. Afterwards, everyone on the beach was eager to ask the Lord into their hearts. But pray that it will sink deeper than the immediate emotional response, which can merely be a seed misplanted. Pray that the message would sink deeper and take root as they grow in their fervor for the Lord rather than letting it diminish and returning to their usual lifestyle, unchanged.

Cooking tigerfish along the Zambezi SWIMMING WITH THE CROCS Then we continued up the river, and the villages we couldn’t spend time at, we waypointed with the GPS for the the other team to get. On Sunday afternoon, we spent some time at one of the many sandbanks in the river. We were able to wash up, swim, and splash around. It was only the next morning that we found a croc’s pad directly opposite the river to where we were.

The wildlife was incredible! We got some great footage of a croc sliding off the bank and splashing into the water, as well as seeing several monitor lizards on the banks and even a few families of river otters swimming down the river.

In the sky were several kingfishers and fish eagles, as well as the occasional Yellow-billed Kite, hornbill, and vulture. Each night, we chose a spot along the edge of the river, and set up camp for the night. The intricate beauty around us was so incredibly stunning!

Lastone and I swimming by a sandbank on the Zambezi

VILLAGE MINISTRY The teams then switched round, and we continued on the land while they took the boat back down the river, spending time in new villages. While on land, we used the bakkie’s inverter to power a computer and projector. So on several of the nights, when it started to get dark, as the village gathered, we would preach a brief sermon to them as an introduction to the film along with a couple of short clips of the ocean and different animals they had never seen.

This drew people within earshot to come, and from there we all watched the film.

John and Lastone giving a talk before showing the Jesus film

A watu: common means of water transportation STIRRING OF THE PEOPLE One of the days, our translator and I walked the whole day from village to village and ministered along the way.

The first village we visited was quite a large crowd; we shared the Creation message with them and continued on to questions, to which they kept us busy for a while answering and conversing over different issues, such as “What all is required for Salvation?” “Which church is the right one?” and several others. At the end of our discussion, they all wanted us to pray individually for them.

But by their tone of voice and expression in asking, it was difficult to tell whether the ones who had initially asked actually wanted prayer, or whether they were trying to put God to the test as the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. However we went around person by person, and in the end it was quite amazing to see how the Lord was working, because several of

the people were in tears (even through PRAYING FOR THE SICK they couldn’t understand English prayers) as the Holy Spirit was working in them!

FALSE TEACHINGS AND DRUNKARDNESS One of the biggest blocks we came upon was the teachings of the New Apostolic church, which permits an individual to immediately continue sinning and disobeying God after their salvation, because they teach that salvation is merely the spiritual aspect of one’s relationship with God; and since their spirit is sealed once they are laid upon by the hands of an apostle, one need not concern himself with a changed life of obedience to Him! As a result there was a lot of drunkardness amoung the villages. The next village we came to, there were 3 men sitting in the middle of the village, 2 of whom were drunk. I addressed the one who was sober by asking him whether he thought he was a good person, then worked through the Ten Commandments, ending up in a realization of his sin.

However his desire to change seemed dampened by the mocking of his friends and laughter from the side. But the Lord worked in such a way that one of these men became sober and actually joined the conversation, and the other left. God created such an exciting opportunity to share with these men, one of whom I thought was a lost cause being drunk. Pray for their ministry amoung their village and the ones nearby. Pray for their excitement for the Gospel to turn into a fulfillment of the Great Commission in that region. Pray for strength to stand up against the the devil’s fiery darts, coming with arrows of drunkardness and debauchery, darts of placidity and laziness.

along the I talked with andZambezi men Lastone The 3Sunset

The man God miraculously healed!

Having spent over an hour and a half at each of the previous villages, more time than we had planned, we decided to make up ground before stopping at another village; but on the way one of the women from the next village met us on the path and asked us for medicine for her tooth (as many of the villagers have tooth problems and pains). Seeing that we didn’t have any with us, we told them we couldn’t offer any, but what we had was far greater than physical medicine. At this they became exited and told us that we must then pray for a man who is very sick in one of the nearby grass huts; so we went into the village and sure enough, inside, there was a man lying down who had scarcely any abdomen at all, with lungs that looked almost completely deflated. The best they could figure, the man had TB, as he couldn’t breath with any ease. After explained that it wasn’t anything of the umzungu that the man would be healed by, but rather by God alone; we prayed over him and his lungs. At that time God saw fit to heal the man and fill up his lungs...right there as we were praying!!! And his voice became cleared, so he could talk.

He replied that he felt much better, but that his legs weren’t allowing him to walk. So we prayed this time over his legs, and told him in the Name of the Lord Jesus to walk. That man walked!

Issue and ache one after the other the Lord was working so strongly in that man. Pray that that man will lead others to Christ; that when people look at him and the miracles he experienced, they would see God and follow Him. Praise Him that one of the devil’s strongholds has become a vessel for God’s work to progress. That through the very things that disabled that man, he can now return to fight against Satan. How full of irony are the ways the Lord will bring the devil to an end!

WITCHCRAFT

GOD OF WONDERS

Another of the issues faced there is the widespread problem of witch doctors taking hold of the village, gripped with fear for their lives. They buy pendants (generally white, made of bone or other imitated material) to wear round their necks and wrists. This is to protect them from any sickness and harm; but yet they live in a constant fear of spirits and demons. At the next village, after we told them about the Lord and His might and warned them against the things of the witch doctor; they gave us their necklaces and bracelets to throw into the fire.

To say that God does not work in miracles now is an utter falsehood. I have attested to the working of the Spirit and the power of God. But why do we think that a miracle of healing is the greatest and most intense thing known? Is not the saving and transforming of the soul far greater than that.

Psalm 73:26 declares: “My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion FOREVER.” We limit God’s greatness and power in discounting miracles, for in so doing we put God into the mold we want Him to be, not holding the power to heal someone within seconds, not holding the power to utterly transform a man’s life. The Spirit is alive!

SUDAN OVERLAND MISSION Lord-willing, our team will be leaving for a three month Sudan trip in under a week, with a focus on discipling the Christians of South Sudan. However we will also be ministering along the way and holding several conferences and workshops as we travel through over 8 different countries. Please pray for guidance with the final preparation. Pray that with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we would be seeking the Lord’s will and not just making our own plans. Pray for those in South Sudan, who are still undergoing persecution, that they would come to a greater understanding of the knowledge of God and would be used in a revival of their country for Christ!

What a great and mighty God we serve! To think that He can use us even as such undeserving sinners to accomplish such great work. With ease we can say we love God, yet with ease also we show such reluctance toward giving up our own desires. May God break us and make us stronger vessels, who are more obedient to His calling with each new day. Let us not be snared by Satan’s subtle deceits and tricks; but by the mighty hand of God, overcome them. In His almighty Name we go!

Footbridge over the Zambezi

He must increase

l@frontline.org.za Frontline email: danie ev93@gmail.com Personal email: dand

Lion tracks from the previous night just outside our camp

ntline): Mailing address (at Fro P.O. Box 74 Newlands, Capetown Western Province 7725 South Africa

...but I must decrease

Blog: http://dansgapyearupdates.blogspot.com/ Facebook: Daniel de Villiers' Gap Year Updates Artwork/Photos: http://bit.ly/nOnLIc