Newsletter no. 62 October 2019

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Published: Monday, 01 June 2020 00:00

Newsletter no. 62 October 2019

Newsletter Steef and Tineke van 't Slot

Dear friends,
 
Our love and greetings to you. Three weeks ago we arrived in South Africa. It is Springtime! We are enjoying the sunny weather, the flowers and the masked weavers that build their nests right before our window...  Just praying for rain... weird thing to pray for rain, as Dutch people have learned to dislike the rain, because we usually have too much of it... but here nature is crying out for some water, as are the farmers. 

This time we have decided to stay a bit longer in Gauteng, so Steef can finish the video recordings of his book, and to visit friends. Some of them we already know for 22 years! It is not always easy to live in South Africa with all the crime and violence, but the stories we hear from friends on what the Lord has been doing in their lives is really uplifting!  Underneath you will find one of those stories...

Darren

A friend of ours was busy working on some trees on his plot when suddenly a tree of about 20.000 kg fell right on top of him. Debbie, his wife called 112 and asked many others to pray. A crane lifted the tree off of him. They found a branch had impaled itself through his chest and lung, leaving a big hole.  When the ambulance came they could do nothing for him. He was declared dead on the spot. The tree had fallen on top of his head. Blood came out of his nose and mouth.

They took him to hospital. Darren just lay there, bleeding and not breathing for 17 minutes.  At arrival in the hospital however, Darren showed some vital signs and they could not find any damage, but a few scratches. The hole in his chest had been totally gone! They made an MRI of his head, but no damage there either! Darren was in coma for two days, then he woke up and after another 2 days he was discharged: completely healed! Now, you might think: No way! That's impossible... and yes, it is unbelievable! But his wife, his son and all the paramedics have seen the tree, the wounds and seen Darren stop breathing, and now see him completely restored. They will testify: Jesus is alive! He has done a great miracle for us!!

Benin: 26 July to 10 August Steef has visited Benin. Benin is a small country in West Africa. It has a reasonable amount of freedom, but is also actively practicing Voodoo. Steef has taught his course 'That all may hear' in two different cities. Above, you see some photos and ... oops... a few hours delay... as a truck completely blocked the way...  

Tanzania: In May Steef has been teaching Old Testament Theology of Missions at the East Africa School of missions in Dar es Salam. End of August he went again and did two weeks of teaching on New Testament Theology of Missions.  There are 23 students this year: 13 from Tanzania, 8 from Burundi and 2 from Congo DRC. All of them have a heart for the unreached and want to be sent out. They have not taken on an easy assignment. At the school they are well trained in Bible teaching, as well as in practical skills. 

Brandon: Last week we were able to meet Brandon again. He is 21 now and studies Tourism. He is doing well, getting good marks and hopes to be finished by the end of 2021. He then would like to work at the airport. We believe for a miracle so he will get there. Unemployment is high among the young people.	We were also able to meet the Mathe family again. They are a beautiful family with many challenges, but keeping strong. They live in Springs-Endicott. On the right you see Bongani. We have known him since he was a baby. He is now 17 years old, doing well at his school and very talented in drawing!

Project Children's Manual  The last 8 years I, Tineke, have been teaching a course on children's ministry and on counseling children in grief. I have been teaching Sunday School teachers and pastors, mainly in South Africa. The course was only on PowerPoint, so although others wanted to teach this course as well, they did not know the stories behind the PP slides. The requests for me teaching this course in other African countries came in regularly. Pastors wanted me to teach in their churches. It was too much. That is why in the last 4 months I have been writing a manual.

This manual leads you step by step through the PowerPoint and will enable others to teach this interactive course with its case studies, videos and discussion groups. The book is 79 pages A4 and comes with a DVD on which you will find the PowerPoints, the manual, the hand-outs and the videos.  We want to donate these books to the BBM students in Barberton, so they can take it to their churches. This way the course will go into 20 African countries and will help many children to finally find counseling after losing a parent. In Sub-Sahara-Africa there are 57 million orphans and they are usually not being heard. These young pastors want to change this by making others aware of their needs and showing them, by teaching this course, how to counsel these children in need. When you want to contribute to this project or order a copy for teaching it yourself, the costs are 6 Euros or 100 SA rand per book. You can either use the Bank Account mentioned below, or our SA Standard bank account:  Account number: 10086963463;  Branch: 013042. VAN'T SLOT SLH. Please write 'Donation for...' or  'Buying Children's Manual'.

Translations Steef's missions book is now translated into 5 languages: French, Kirundi, Spanish, Swahili (almost finished) and in Portuguese. Steef will travel into Mozambique this weekend together with the translator. He will present the book in a meeting of 200 pastors. Mozambique still has 9 unreached people groups. We would like to see, by teaching this course, more missionaries sent out to the north. It will be Steef's first trip into Mozambique. Please pray with us for solid contacts to build on in the future.

Plans:

When Steef returns form Mozambique we hope to travel on to Barberton, where we will both be teaching at the Back to the Bible Mission school. I will teach the children's course in chapel and Steef will teach on Judges and Philippians during the lesson hours.We will be at BBM for two weeks. We hope to return to the Netherlands on 30 October.

Brazil:

In December Steef will fly to Brazil to attend a Worldwide Conference for Mission Mobilizers. He will present his books in Spanish and Portuguese, so that this course can be used to support and motivate the already existing missions movement from Latin America into Northern Africa.

Party! 

On May 25 we celebrated our 125th birthday... Steef is now 65 and I have turned 60. We were all together: children, our 9 grandchildren, family and some close friends. It was a real joy!   In December you can expect another issue of our newsletters. For now we wish you and your family our love and health!

Steef en Tineke van ‘t Slot