"Sowing" in the Rain

" . . . as the rain cometh down from heaven and . . . watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth . . . it shall accomplish that which I please." Isaiah 55:10-11

The ceiling in Tony's study now has a hole caused by a leak near the chimney and standing on the garage floor are boxes of water-damaged Sunday school materials. Yes, it's been raining in Cape Town!! Seven straight days of cold, gale force winds and winter rains totalling up to 170mm of rainfall caused flooding in some areas of the peninsula and curtailed some of our door-to-door ministry during the second week of July, but the Lord gave us many other opportunities to keep our days full and rewarding.

Tony preached at a church plant in Fish Hoek down on the southern peninsula on July 13, where South African Wayne Jardine has been labouring in that valley to make Christ known the past 3 years. That evening he preached at the "gemeenskapaand"(fellowship evening) at Immanuel Baptiste Kerk, where Kevin Simpson is faithfully serving as their national pastor. Chris, the young father, that Tony is discipling was able to attend that service and meet many of the believers whom the Lord allowed us to win and train while planting Immanuel Baptiste Kerk from 1993-2007. Pictured above, Lawrence, Andries and Chris (l-r) share fellowship together.

On July 1 Tony completed 8 weeks of teaching Oostenberg Bybel Instituut's winter course on hermeneutics. Eric Graham is taking the final 4 weeks of the course to teach the men about the actual preparation of their messages, while I am teaching the pastors' wives and other laymen's wives a 4 week course on the inductive method of Bible study. We are studying the book of Titus together as they learn how to do a book study.

Tony and I continue doing door-to-door in Delft on Thursdays. On Wednesdays, he and Jason witness from house-to-house and on Sundays, he and Jeremy go out. Yesterday's beautiful sunny weather gave them many opportunities to witness on the streets as well, since so many people were outside soaking up the warmth of a winter sun before the next cold front. Since mid-April we've been able to personally share the message of the gospel with nearly 150 adults and teens in Eindhoven, Delft. We are praying for the seed sown to fall on good soil and bring forth much fruit.

We are thankful for the fruit we are seeing from week to week in the lives of those who attend the two Bible studies in Delft and in Chris and Natasha's lives as we teach them in 2 weekly discipleship classes. We enjoyed having them in our home last Friday along with the Pillays, a Christian family from Northpine.