On Tuesday 23 September a man we love and respect,
Onkel Heino Stegen, turned 80. Only eternity will reveal how much his life and ministry
have impacted on many of us. We know him for his passion for souls.
Our family has a special attachment to Onkel Heino. He was
the bearer of the Good News to my father and the family in 1970. Thereafter he took a lot
of time to disciple us along the way.
We thank God for His servant and wish him, Tante Alida and the
family His blessing.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the brethren who
are at Malelane, Mpumalanga, for the Youth Conference this weekend. Spiritually and
logistically it is a mammoth task.
We are also thinking of Radio Khwezi and the Masibumbane
Listeners' Club who are doing a presentation in Entembisweni, Greytown, today.
It was good to hear from Mario Rocha. Considering his health, it
is amazing to see how he makes himself available for the Lord's work.
This week Mario joined Dutch DFL friends, the construction leader
Gerrit-Jan Viehuizen and Hessel and Iety van der Sluis, on a working trip to DFL's Zavora
Clinic in Mozambique. They are scheduled to be in Zavora for 3 weeks. Your prayer support
will be valued.
Greetings from Jan de Bruin (He, Iris and Daniel Schobben from
Belgium have just returned from South Africa) and the brethren in the northern part of the
Netherlands. These days they are hosting a group of young people from Lindach, Germany.
Juerg Laederach has shared that they have a CFT evening in
Kaltbrunn tonight. The main aim is to share about the CFT Conference in South Africa and
to look into current issues that affect CFT-Switzerland. Our prayers are with our
brethren.
TAK Radio in Berlin request our prayers for their programmes today
and tomorrow. Today they will be reporting on the pro-life action
'1000-Kreuze-Marsch' (1 000-Crosses-March) which took place in Berlin last
week. Their guest for tomorrow's programme will be Dr Lothar Gassman on the theme
'Diktatur Europa?' (Dictatorship Europe?).
Wednesday 1 October is the International Day For Old People. We
thank God for our dear old people, especially those who have soldiered on before us in our
precious faith.
Harald Thiede sent me a beautiful poem 'The Bridge Builder.' I
read it over a few times in order to appreciate the richness and the symbolism of the
language that is used and to grasp its profound message.
The Bridge Builder
An old
man, going a lone highway, came at evening, cold and gray,
To a
chasm, vast and deep and wide, through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old
man crossed in the twilight dim; the sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he
turned when safe on the other side and built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old
man," said a fellow pilgrim near, "You are wasting strength with building here;
Your
journey will end with the ending day; you never again must pass this way;
You have
crossed the chasm, deep and wide - why build you the bridge at the eventide?"
-
The
builder lifted his old gray head: "Good friend, in the path I have come," he
said,
"There
followeth after me today a youth whose feet must pass this way.
This
chasm that has been naught to me to that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too,
must cross in the twilight dim; good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
-Will
Allen Dromgoole
Have
a blessed weekend.
Pressing on!
In His love
Fano Sibisi
