Southeast Africa Cluster Prayer Letter - July 08

Basotho Evangelism Team: The Word of God is powerful and changes lives. Since attending the “salvation church” and hearing the truth of God’s Word, a young mother of four in the village of Ha Tsilonyane has made the decision to no longer pray to the ancestors. The witchdoctor in her village is taunting her and mocking her belief in the One True God, saying that she will return to her old life when problems arise. Pray that this mother, along with others who are choosing to follow Christ in her village, will stand firm in their new found faith and that God will glorify Himself in their lives. http://www.basotho.org/ Deaf Evangelism Team So many are living and dying without Jesus. A few Deaf believers are trying to reach out to them. This is not an easy task as many are unemployed and struggling to live the way God desires for them. Pray that God will raise up more believers with passion for Christ and a burden for the Deaf of Johannesburg. fsmoran@iafrica.com Durban Evangelism Team: During the month of July Westville Baptist, Phoenix Baptist, Highway Baptist, and many other local churches from the Durban area will send teams of church members to the areas of Southern Mozambique on mission outreach trips. They work with the smaller Mozambiquan churches in evangelism, outreach, medical and feeding schemes to bring the love of Jesus to people in tangible ways. Ask God for wisdom for the many leaders of these groups as well as for safety as they travel. Pray that they may bring Him glory as they spread His word and seek to do His work among the various peoples living in Southern Mozambique. Eastern Gauteng Evangelism Team: Please pray for the new “hands on” teams that will be coming out in August. Pray for them as they prepare to come and for their loved ones they’ll be leaving. Pray for the areas they will be working in for God to prepare the peoples’ hearts to hear His good news. Pray that accommodations will be found for the team going to inner city Johannesburg. cabarrett@iafrica.com Eastern Metropolitan Evangelism Team: Please be in prayer for the many displaced people who have had to flee their homes due to the racial violence due to xenophobia. Pray for our missionaries in and around these families as they seek to know how to meet their immediate needs, and how to best “represent Christ” to them. Pray also the SA government will know how to best deal with this situation. mmnaude@gmail.com KwaZulu Natal Evangelism Team: Another article appeared in the paper of Pietermaritzburg telling of another baby dumped in the bushes of a township. Many babies are born to very young girls and they do not want to keep them so many are killed or dumped somewhere where hopefully someone will find them. Tabitha Ministries has a Moses box in one area and do school presentations telling girls to leave their babies in the box and the ministry will care for them. Currently they have thirty orphans most of whom are HIV positive. Pray as these volunteers raise these children God will provide for their needs. Pray for them to continue to receive antiretroviral drugs so they may remain as healthy as possible for as long as possible. CRT5@telkomsa.net Mpumalanga Evangelism Team: The Mpumalanga Evangelism Team received a new team member last month. Micah Quarterson was born on the 4th of June. Pray for the Quarterson family as they continue to minister in the White River community in South Africa. Pray Micah will grow to be a strong and healthy child. http://members.aol.com/mpumalangateam/index/htm Swazi Evangelism Team: July 17-29, a volunteer team from the Canton/Tyler area of Texas arrives in Swaziland to minister in the Shiselweni region. Ministries include dental clinics, evangelistic ministries that especially targets youth including a youth revival and retreat and speaking in schools. Pray these ministries will lead to many Swazis committing their lives totally to Jesus. Pray the youth in Swazi Baptist churches of the Shiselweni region will seek the Lord’s face and will allow Him to control every area of their lives. http://www.swazimissions.org/ Tshwane Evangelism Team: Please pray in 2008 the Tshwane Team will be blessed with more personnel to help reach the many in the Pretoria area who do not know Jesus as their Savior. cvick@pobox.com Western Gauteng Evangelism Team: As Alan and Beth Locke shared the gospel with a lady in Thulane, Soweto two men came into the yard, one with a gun and robbed them. No one was injured and only a few items were taken. Recently, career missionary Kurt Holiday had 8 people in a Bible study that was started the same morning as the robbery took place. Although there is crime, there is also hope in Thulane! Please pray for the missionaries’ safety, but also pray for the hearts of the people in Thulane. Pray God will speak mightily to them through His Word and the 3 Bible studies in that part of Soweto. Also, the missionaries have been encouraging members of churches outside Soweto to go with them into Soweto and witness. Pray that the members of these churches will not be afraid to continue ministry in Thulani. http://www.missionaryteams.com/ 2008 Spiritual Retreat : “He is Worthy of Worship” is this year’s theme for the Southeastern Africa Cluster (SEAC) Spiritual Retreat August 22-25. The schedule includes worship through preaching and study of God’s Word led by SEAC missionaries, prayer triplets, silent retreat and testimonies. Pray for the volunteer team that has committed to lead in the teaching of missionary youth and children as well as music for the worship time. Pray also each missionary planning to attend will begin now to receive many blessings. LMCO: Thank you for your contribution to the 2007 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. You have helped a lost world have a chance to know Jesus, the Savior of the world. *************************** HELLO J **The Durban Urban Evangelism Team welcomes new team members in July! Pray for J and J as they work alongside another DUET couple seeking to reach out to 100,000 Indian Ms in Durban. Pray for their adjustment to go smoothly, and pray that God will open doors for them to build life-changing relationships with those in their people group that He is calling to Himself. **The Eastern Gauteng Evangelism Team welcomes Sarah Maddox, journeyman coming to help in the Guest House Office. Pray for her family as she prepares to come, especially for her father who has cancer. Pray that she will have quality time with her family before coming to South Africa. **Thank you for your prayer support this last month. Things are beginning to quiet down in Johannesburg. The refugees have all been moved to refugee camps for the time being. Many are still afraid to leave the camps, so they just stay there. The government is busy trying to make a plan to get them back into the formal settlements, but they are still meeting with much resistance from some of the local people. Pray the displaced people will try to find a way to get on with their lives. Pray for healing to begin for the country of South Africa. Central, Eastern and Southern Africa: http://www.cesafrica.org/; www.imb.org/cesa International Mission Board: http://www.imb.org/ To receive a daily list of prayer needs of IMB missionaries around the world subscribe to http://www.subscribe.imb.org/ or imb@imb.org.

Coker Chronicles - July 08

Coker Chronicles July, 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2 Hello to you, after a long silence... You probably thought we fell off a cliff, but in reality it feels more like we’ve gotten on a rollercoaster and don’t often get off. When we do get off, we stand around trying to catch our breath and regain our strength! (Thanks to a true friend who jokingly chided us for our lack of updates – You know who you are.) Up to Now Besides the regular hustle and bustle of living and having a school-age child in a mega-city, here are some of the highlights over the past several months. *Weekly Mom’s prayer group at Nathan’s school. *Central, Eastern & Southern Africa Leadership Training *Drew in Music at university and enjoying work at Baptist camp with after-school kids. *Orientating new missionaries as they arrive. *Michelle plays soccer and Dee goes to help at her Junior Banquet in Kenya *Hosting guests in our home for fellowship, meals, and accommodation. *Wade and admin team work through, adjust & approve 35+ individual missionary budgets *Nathan’s guitar lessons and concert. *Dee Ann formulates a budget, orders books for the BIMS homeschool resource room, gets approval to renovate a space for the resource center and waits, waits, waits…it’s finally complete! ( well, just a few things to go) *Southern Section Annual Missionary Training Meeting- Wade speaks on urgan church planting, Dee Ann offers a homeschool workshop *Westview volunteers in Tukoza, Soweto, and Limpopo with the Shangaan people. *Wade travels to Durban, Nelspruit, Limpopo, Pretoria, Petermeiritzeburg, Margate to work with our missionaries. *Dee Ann’s mentoring meetings. *Michelle’s dorm parents and best friend visit us in Jo’burg during April school break. *Exit interviews with missionaries as they depart for their stateside assignments. *Attending & leading in Wednesday night worship at BIMS guesthouse. *Women’s Bible study *Michelle plays varsity volleyball. *Xenophobia crisis flares. Help given to victims. *Drew arrived June 6th! Will stay through mid-August. Today’s News ~Drew’s BACK! You can only imagine the JOY of our having Drew back with us after 1 ½ years. Nathan is making up for lost time, joking, laughing, wrestling and just doing stuff together. Pray our 2 ½ months together will be RICH in quality. ~Drew is helping lead a Baptist Day Camp for 200+ South African children and youth this week at Baptist Union camp about an hour away. He’s enjoying small group times, recreation and craft activities. Pray for him to have meaningful one-on-one conversations and for many to trust in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. ~Wade is helping to lead some of the sessions in the 3-week Strategy Leader Training Course in the West Rand area of Jo’burg. Pray that many will receive the training, seeing fresh, helpful approaches to reach more people for Christ. ~Pray for new missionaries arriving next week to reach out to people of another major world religion living within our country. ~Nathan’s in the midst of mid-year exams. Pray for continued motivation & quick progress in Afrikaans language lessons. ~Pray as Michelle will be taking end-of-term exams next week. ~Pray for safety & meaningful moments as Drew travels to Kenya to attend his high-school alumni weekend, enjoy a few days with friends at the beach, as well as graduation ceremonies. ~As the Homeschool Resource room is ready, pray that we’ll be able to quickly and efficiently organize, set up and catalog all our resources. CLUSTER PRAYER ITEMS – We’ve attached our Southeast Cluster July Prayer Guide. If you like, this guide will help you get a closer look at the missionaries in our area of responibility and their respective ministries. If you see particular items of interest and want to know more, we can put you in touch with that missionary for further updates on those items.

Michelle's Junior Banquet

February 11 found me flying through the air to be a part of one of the most exciting events at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. "What's that?" you may ask. Junior/Senior Banquet, of course! Michelle is a Junior this year, so it was her class's responsibility to plan and prepare every detail. They've raised money over the last several years and separated into committees to plan everything from theme to drama to dinner to table decorations. The theme was Morroco and the hall was transformed with sand dunes, camels, fountains, palm trees, a market place and a palace! Michelle was in charge of all the entertainment (music - singing & instrumental pieces) for the times in between the drama acts. She was also chosen to sing. Banquet day finally arrived, with Michelle's dorm lounge becoming a beauty parlor for manicures, pedicures and hair styling. It was a night to remember!

Vision Trip #2

We were very pleased to recently have 6 volunteer missionaries with us from Westview Baptist Church, Opp, Alabama. One year ago, a Westview team came on their 1st vision trip...to Zambia. And then guess what happened? WE MOVED! Praise the Lord, they decided to move with us and came for vision trip #2 to see how God would have them be on mission for Him in South Africa.

This team of 3 men and 3 ladies worshiped in a shanty town church with one missionary and also visited a small local preschool. The next day they walked with two missionaries around a section of the huge Soweto area witnessing to folks. Finally they traveled a few hours to Limpopo province, to meet with local mission personnel and look around the area where the unreached Tsonga-Shangaan people live.

For a short trip, these guys experienced a lot. Pray that as they've now returned to the U.S, that they can decide specifically how Westview should partner with South Africa.

MK Camp

It's that time of year again. Time for MK Camp! Missionary families from across Central, Eastern, & Southern Africa have traveled down to South Africa to attend this annual highlight. These kids know that there's nothing like being with people like themselves, who understand what it's like to live in a different culture, among people who are so different from them. Pray they are enjoying reconnecting with friends. Pray also that this will be a spiritually uplifting time, with many making commitments to the Lord and strengthening their walk. Pray for them as they leave camp and return with families to their "normal" lives.

Family Fun

During the school breaks, we try our best to get away for a little R & R, as well as enjoy family fun at home. Here are some pics from fun on the South coast, Christmas candy making, Risk playing, and maybe some more.

50th Anniversary

Dee Ann had the great privilege of travelling back to the U.S. for 12 days to celebrate her parents' 50th wedding anniversary! WOW - it was a very special time culminating with a family celebration lunch at a seafood restaurant. Family came, as well as some friends, and even the two witnesses from their wedding. We talked about their journey from meeting, to dating, to marriage, to kids, to 50 years together. They gave testimony of the secret to their 50 year success story, which was mainly the Lord and lots of flexibility with one another. My brother and I also gave them surprise Shotgun Wedding, since of course, their 50 year license had expired! :-) I've been very blessed by my parents and was thankful for the opportunity to honor them.