B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #211
B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #211
I Cor.. 16:9 ‘For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.’
March 2, 2012
Greetings from teacher Ibrahim (A preacher in southern part of Zambia).
I am very happy to write to you this mail because in the Christ we are one therefore we need to know each other in spiritual life and physical as well.
It is by the grace of God to communicate to you through mail but in spirit we communicate every day through prayer as the Bible commands us (praying without ceasing).Through your prayers the CLC Zambia is growing and many people are coming to learn the word of God after being reached by the gospel.
The following is the testimony which I faced last week when we reached one tribe in Zambia called Tonga Lea (Tonga) Most of this tribe lives out of developments and most of them are living in houses which are built with grass from foundation of the house up to the roof (But others are living in town and they are rich). Most of them don’t know things called good house, good food, good clothes, Television etc. We remember we were with evangelist Peter Mwerwa, the one who is working as a Timothy and with two brothers in that area. We approached some families but it was difficult because whatever we spoke needed to be translated. But we thank God for those two brothers to help us to translate (the people can’t speak English well, especially the old people).
One family asked us this question “are you speaking words of Jesus, where is he? Can we welcome him to visit us? And if these words which you are speaking to us are true, where were you since we were young until today? They concluded by saying we were selfish for hiding these good news”. These questions made us to sit down and start crying in the heart because many preachers in Zambia forget this area by the gospel. They like to preach in the town and like having nice cars.
We shared with them the word of God and having discussion for two days and we returned back to the place where we stayed to collect more power to visit them again for a seminar one week on this month or December this year(2011) . We can say that this people are really hungry for the word of God but few people sacrifice their lives to preach to them. This is because of the distance from the town. This tribe is living in Southern part of Zambia. You need to drive almost three to four hours from town.
Please keep this tribe in your prayer and our effort to reach them. Also we will need your help while we are arranging the seminar for them. I need to spend time with them and to plant a CLC congregation there.
May the Lord bless you as you share with others about this mail. Thanks.
From Zambia (Central Africa).
Pastor Ibrahim karioki
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The following is a report from Pastor Nolting on CLC work in Peru. Read with prayer of thanks. Regarding the work in Peru. Daniel Pfeiffer(member of CLC Mankato, Mn.) is back in Lima until Thanksgiving. He will be working full-time in mission outreach and teaching. He had begun the instruction of about 20 adults before coming back last October. He has an additional ten or so that were interested in starting, so he should have about 30 adults in class. He will also be instructing the elementary students at Stella Maris School, owned and operated by Dimas Vivanco and his wife, Blanca. There were about 35 children last year and it looks like the enrollment may be up to about 45 this year. He will be instructing the students in Religion and English. I will be making a twelve day trip down to Lima in April. It is hoped that the weekly Bible Study of last year will be turned into a weekly worship service this year. Dimas would like to plan a conference for the summer of 2013, in which a number of people from the US would come to present various Biblical topics. I have talked to four or five people with some Spanish fluency to participate in such a conference, but we will have to wait and see whether the Lord permits it to develop and proceed.
Encounters of a Spiritual Kind
The Third Party-Acts 13:5-12
This is what could be called a spiritual tug of war. With Paul on one end, Elymas on the other and Sergius in the middle. It is also confrontational. The confrontation though is not with Sergius, the object of the witnessing, but with the opponent Elymas. Here Paul must hurl the law at Elymas who is interfering with Sergius who “sought to hear the Word of God.” In a way this reminds one of the Leipzig Debate where Luther was not so much trying to win over his opponent at the opposite podium as to influence those observing the debate.
Sergius was a man of intelligence who truly was interested in Paul and Barnabas’ message. Elymas tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. We of course do not have apostolic power to do as Paul did. But we do have the law to refute and condemn the modern day Elymas. There are those times when in a very small group of three or so we may have one individual who we are trying to witness to, but are hindered by someone else. Then it is that we must turn to that opponent and direct the Word on what he is saying.
I can remember discussions in college in small groups when I would have to refute a Mormon in the discussion to get through to another listening.
The beauty of this encounter of Paul and Sergius is that the proconsul did believe, “astonished at the teaching of the Lord.” It was the Gospel that Paul then preached that won him over after the interference was eliminated.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————It is not death to die in the Lord.
In the BELC – Pastor Anand Rao of the Chenna Dist. went to be with the Lord in Nov. He had joined us in ’09.
In the NCLC – I have just learned that Pastor Antai’s spirit returned home very recently. This brother was with us from the beginning of our work in Nigeria with Pastor Essien’s group back over 30 years. He was a pharmacist and upon retiring attended our Bible Institute for five years and became pastor in Mbokpu Oduobo where he had started a congregation.
Both of these men whether with us for a long time or a short time we rejoice over, that we could work together for Him. Blessed(happy) are the dead who die in the Lord.
SHOULD WE
by Waltraud
Should we find it hard to sleep tonight, just remember the homeless family who has no bed to be in!
Should we have a bad day at work, think of the man who has been out of work for the last three months!
Should we despair over a relationship gone bad, think of the person who has never known what it is like to love and be loved in return! Should we grieve the passing of another weekend, think of the person in dire straight working twelve hours a day, seven days each week for $ 15 a day just to feed the family!
Should our car break down, leaving us miles away from assistance, think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk! Should we notice a new gray hair in the mirror, think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine!
Should we find ourselves the victims of other people’s bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities, re- member things could be worse — we could be them! And finally, should we be treated like an outcast, think of Jesus who loved us even to the death at the cross—He came as a servant, can we do less?
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Pastor Koenig