* JUST A THOUGHT - Hope against hope - Sometimes when we find ourselves in impossible situations we say we hope against hope. If our hope is the living hope in Christ then our peace is even more profound because for Christ there's no impossible situation.
(By Fano Sibisi, 21 Oct 2009, www.cft.org.za) (to index)

* LIFE CHAIN CHALLENGES PRO-ABORTION CONGRESS - Up to a million Christians in approximately 1400 locations worldwide took part in the various Life Chains this 4 October, International Life Chain Sunday.

By God's providential timing, the Cape Town Life Chain coincided with the opening of a pro-abortion medical congress.

The FIGO World Congress of Gynaecology and Obstetrics is taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre - directly opposite to where the Life Chain was held. According to the FIGO website, over 6 000 delegates were expected at this congress. Lecture topics at this congress include "Why Misoprostil is Essential for Reproductive Health", " Reaching Women with Medical Abortion Services ",

"Innovative Reproductive Health Service Delivery Models for Underserved Communities", and "Prevention of Unsafe Abortion: Expanding Women's Access to Safe Abortion". Most of these lectures have/will be given by pro-abortion organisations such as the World Health Organisation, Marie Stopes and IPAS.

Some delegates visiting the Waterfront received our Pro-life leaflets and we trust the Lord that many others driving past were impacted by the messages on the placards.

The 200 Christians at the Cape Town Life Chain prayerfully stood holding placards proclaiming "Abortion kills babies", "Abortion: one heart stops, another heart breaks", "Take my hand not my life", "Abortion: the ultimate child abuse", "A person is a person, no matter how small."

Over 5 000 pro-life leaflets and Gospel tracts were distributed to passing motorists and pedestrians.

Interestingly, in an article about the Congress published on www.EyewitnessNews.co.za the Department of Health reacted to the Life Chain by urging "anti-abortion lobbyists not to judge women who choose to terminate their pregnancies."

In a letter to the Editor of Eyewitness News, Christian Action Network co-ordinator Taryn Hodgson responded, "In your article you claim that the Health Department is urging anti-abortion lobbyists not to judge women who choose to terminate their pregnancies." What about the pro-abortion lobbyists who are "judging" pre-born babies, deeming them not worthy of the Right to Life? Your article did not mention anything about the extensive positive work being done by pro-lifers to help women facing crisis pregnancies."

Please also write a Letter to the Editor of Eyewitness News at editor@ewn.co.za and urge them to publish the pro-life viewpoint.

The Life Chain is an international prayer vigil and peaceful placard witness against the abortion holocaust.

Over 900 000 babies have been legally killed through abortion in South Africa, since 1 February 1997.

The slaughter of over 900 000 pre-born babies is nothing less than a holocaust. When a nation devalues its most helpless and innocent citizens and allows them to be slaughtered in their thousands, it is no wonder that all other life is treated as cheap. It is an urgent priority for the Church to expose, oppose, and end this war against children made in the image of God.

Since 1987 Life Chains have been held in the USA, and since 1992 Africa Christian Action has organised Life Chains in South Africa. This was the 17^th Life Chain held in Cape Town. Life Chains were also held in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth, and East London.

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves." Proverbs 31:8
(Christian Action, Oct 2009) (to index)

* THE BIBLE IN THE LANGUAGES OF OUR PEOPLE - The Bible Society of South Africa recently celebrated three major historical landmarks: the 150th anniversary of the first Bible translation in a South African language, the Bible in Tswana, the centenary of the Tsonga Bible and the 75th anniversary of the Bible in Afrikaans. In 2009, we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Bible in Xhosa!

Making the Bible’s message accessible and understood has always been an integral part of Bible Society work, and translating the Bible into the languages of South Africa’s many language groups remains one of the key means of achieving that goal.

Although the New Testament is available in Southern Ndebele, it remains the only official language in South Africa that does not yet have a complete Bible. Translators are currently working on the Old Testament and it is hoped that it will be completed by 2010.

The source-text-orientated translation in Afrikaans which was initiated in 2006 is well underway. Proof translations of several Bible portions are available from your nearest Bible House.
(Bible Society of South Africa, Oct 2009) (to index)

* FIRST LARGE SCALE VISIT FROM KSB TO MAQHOGO MISSION - Erlo Stegen, director of Kwasizabantu Mission, arranged for KSB staff and helpers to visit the new Maqhogo mission. This new mission opportunity is placed close to the Tugela river (the largest river in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal).

Two large buses as well as other vehicles arrived late morning on the 17th November 2009. It was an opportunity for KSB staff to see the new ministry and for them to be introduced to the local people. The Brass Band played, choirs sang, and after a service a barbeque (known as "Braai" in South Africa) lunch was enjoyed by all and sundry.

The official inauguration of the mission, with various tribal authorities, took place Saturday 27 June 2009.

A missionary couple - Rev Don and Nettie Douma - who have returned to Canada, handed over their mission to Kwasizabantu, early May. The Doumas had run the mission for the past 15 years. We are very grateful to them for their wonderful ministry in this area and for entrusting the mission to Kwasizabantu. Robert Maphanga and some others have been helping there since the handover in May 2009.

Maqhogo is ideally placed for outreach in the Tugela Valley. Various agricultural projects are being tested for soil and climate appropriateness. In the meantime, vegetable patches are growing very successfully. Don Douma had a water-pump which pushes water into a tank and is also used for irrigation.

A hastily made airstip (of about 500 metres in length) is very suitable for the mission plane to land on. By vehicle it takes about 2 hours to get to Maqhogo. But by plane it's just over 5 minutes!

Maqhogo is the name of the whole neighbourhood.

Other projects for agricultural and social development are being put into place. We value your prayers for this new possibility of outreach. Our goal is always the spreading of the Kingdom - that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ would be uplifted.
(KwaSizabantu News, 17 Oct 2009) (to index)

* BOTTOM-UP SCIENCE - Evolutionary philosophy is a bottom-up storytelling project: particles, planets, people. Naturalists (those who say nature is all there is) believe they can invent explanations that are free of miracles, but in practice, miracles pop up everywhere in their stories. This was satirized by Sidney Harris years ago in a cartoon that showed a grad student filling a blackboard with equations. His adviser called attention to one step that needed some elaboration: It said, "Then a miracle happens." Examples of miracles in evolutionary philosophy include the sudden appearance of the universe without cause or explanation, the origin of life, the origin of sex, the origin of animal and plant body plans, and the origin of human consciousness.

If this were the only example of appealing to a miracle in secular cosmology, it might be forgiven. But miracles are rampant in the evolutionary story. The literature of biological evolution is replete with statements that this or that animal "evolved" whatever complex systems are needed along the way, as if stating it makes it so. It's time to call this what it is: an appeal to miracles, the very concept that Enlightenment science was invented to avoid. It has become the caricature stated in Finagle's 6th Rule of Science: "Do not believe in miracles. Rely on them."

Fred Hoyle used to respond to critics--who regarded his "steady-state" cosmology as unscientific because it required the continuous creation of matter out of nothing--by pointing out that Big Bang cosmology does the same thing; it just creates it all at once. Deduction: everyone believes in miracles. Instead of needing to invoke continual bottom-up miracles in the evolutionary story, creationists get the world right by a top-down miracle of creation. The difference is that the creation miracle was intelligently designed for a purpose.

The top-down approach leads to superior science in two ways. For one, it matches the laws of nature we know. We see asteroids proceeding from the top down--colliding and grinding down into dust, not leaping from dust into planetesimals by some "unknown process." For another, creation science provides the basis for rationality. For science to succeed, it needs a philosophical anchor for the belief that the world is rational and can be understood. The Genesis account of man being created in the image of God provides that anchor.

* PLANNED PARENTHOOD DIRECTOR QUITS ABORTION BUSINESS, EXPERIENCES CONVERSION AT STARTING PLACE OF 40 DAYS FOR LIFE - The director of the Planned Parenthood abortion center in Bryan/College Station, Texas has resigned her job. Abby Johnson had worked at the clinic for eight years, but departed from the facility following a profound change of heart about abortion. The Planned Parenthood clinic was the location of the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign in the fall of 2004, and the prayer and fasting initiative has been held outside the doors of Johnson's former workplace five additional times since 40 Days for Life began its rapid spread to 282 cities across all 50 states and several other countries.

"This amazing conversion demonstrates the importance of a constant, peaceful prayer presence in front of abortion facilities," said David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life. "From that first campaign in 2004, we've prayed for Abby – and for all abortion workers – that they would come to see what abortion really is, and that they would leave the deadly business. In this case, those prayers have been answered. We are so proud of Abby's courage to leave the abortion industry and publicly announce her reasons for leaving."

Johnson said, "I left on good terms and simply had a change of heart on this issue. Over the past few months I had seen a change in motivation regarding the financial impact of abortions and really reached my breaking point after witnessing a particular kind of abortion on an ultrasound."

In the wake of her departure, Planned Parenthood has gone to court to seek a restraining order against both Johnson and the Coalition for Life, the local group that originated 40 Days for Life and continued regular prayer vigils in front of the clinic for the past five years. A court hearing on the order, which addresses disclosure of confidential information, is scheduled in a Texas court on November 10.

Shawn Carney, the director of the Coalition for Life and a 40 Days for Life board member, has been working with Johnson since she left her job last month. The former clinic director has even begun to pray outside the clinic where she formerly worked. "It's truly been a testament to the power of prayer and the courage of Abby to leave a job she felt she could no longer do in good conscience," Carney said. "It has been a joy for all of our volunteers who have prayed outside of the clinic for the conversion of the clinic workers to witness that conversion actually happen."

Johnson is one of eight abortion industry workers who left their jobs during the fifth coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign that concluded yesterday in 212 cities. She was the highest-ranking of the eight. Others who quit their clinic jobs included nurses, office staffers and security personnel.

In addition, a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Kalispell, Montana announced that it will close its doors on November 20, citing a decline in business as the reason for the closure. That clinic was the site of a 40 Days for Life prayer vigil this past spring.
(Christian Newswire, 2 Nov 2009) (to index)

* "THE TRICK ABOUT HALLOWEEN – THE TREAT HAS CONSEQUENCES" - There is contention about the origins of Halloween. The reality today is that it is connected to demonic images and symbols. Though some contend that it has some "Christian roots" because of "All Hallows Eve" which commemorated Christian martyrs, there is nothing Biblical in it worth salvaging. Images used across the world are focused on death, hell, horror movies, fear, terror, spirits and all manner of evil. In North America it is common for children to knock on doors and ask the occupants "Trick or treat?" (effectively threatening them with a curse if they don't give them a "treat" like sweets). It may appear to be funny and harmless but all occult connections have bad spiritual consequences. The worst consequence is the hardening of hearts towards the Gospel of Jesus Christ whilst softening attitudes towards the devil.

Ironically, many non-christian parents in the USA and Canada have stopped sending their children out to celebrate Halloween because of recent cases of sexual abuse. Perhaps it is not ironic but simply a result of associating with the occult. The trick about Halloween is that the treat has evil consequences. The devil has the last laugh when we willingly befriend him and his associates. Our Lord Jesus Christ disconnects us from hell, sin, demons and the devil, by His grace.

What matters is that the Bible forbids any contact with the occult. In Deuteronomy 18:13 & 14 the Lord clearly states: "Be completely loyal to God, your God. These nations ... consort with sorcerers and witches. But not you. God, your God, forbids it." and 1 Corinthians 10:21 declares: "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot eat at the table of the Lord and at the table of demons."
(CFT News, Oct 2009) (to index)

* ON A LIGHTER NOTE: "Socialism – a simple analogy" - An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

It could not be any simpler than that.

What a profound short little paragraph that says it all

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 (to index)