| My dear friends Greetings in the new year.
Here is an excerpt from my brief New Year greetings to Radio
Khwezi listeners:
"What does 2007 have in store for us? I wish I could
tell you that only good things will come your way but then I would be withholding the
truth from you. The fact is that both good and bad are awaiting you in the new year.
Having said that, let me quickly add that even though we all have our smooth and difficult
moments in life something will make a difference in respect of how we cope with various
situations.
Is it not wonderful that the New Year is only a week away
from Christmas? At Christmas, we are reminded that for our lost dark world God has
provided a solution; Christ the Saviour and Light has come. Christ is God's Christmas gift
to each and everyone of us. The bad news is that some grab every other gift, but Christ.
The good news is that those who accept the Christ-gift are well-equipped for whatever they
will be faced with in 2007.
Dear Khwezi friends I plead with you - Take Christ with you
into the New Year."
Our prayers have followed up Onkel Friedel Stegen and team
from the conference in Switzerland to the next one in Druhwald, Northern Germany. The
Druhwald conference started on Thursday and ends tomorrow.
We are thinking of Prof Peter and Mrs Ingegaerd Beyerhaus in
a special way today. It was exactly 50 years ago at the Epiphany Feast that they were sent
out to South Africa as missionaries. Between 1957 and 1965 they ministered in Blauberg,
Northern Transvaal and then moved to give theological training at the Lutheran Theological
Seminary in Oskarberg and Umphumulo in Natal/Zululand.
This Epiphany Day, 6 January, is also Thanksgiving Day for
the Beyerhauses. Prof Beyerhaus will first preach at the main service in Gomaringen; in
the afternoon the Beyerhauses will meet with friends in Stockach for fellowship, thanking
and sharing.
In our hearts we join them in their 'Hymn of Praise' to the Lord.
We rejoice with George Ochse and the brethren at KSB Moreson
in Malmesbury, Western Cape. For the first time they will be hosting a weeklong youth camp
which starts tomorrow, 7 January. The youth camp is a follow-up on visits to schools in
the area. There are practical challenges, like limited accommodation, but the brethren are
looking to the Lord and pressing on. Your prayer support will be appreciated.
Today, I had a moving visit by a Portuguese-speaking couple
from Cape Town, Fernando and Aletta da Conceicao, together with their 14-year old son,
Samuel. Samuel, an only child, suffers from a cruel disease, Peripheral Neuropathy, since
2002. PN destroys nerves progressively, leading to paralysis. As in my case with MND, the
family was told that the medical world has no cure for the disease. The Conceicaos are
praying for a miracle. As the Lord reminds you pray for them.
"Lord, if you are willing, you can make
me clean." (Matthew 8:2)
Have a blessed weekend.
Pressing on!
In His love
Fano Sibisi |