2012 Easter Evangelistic & Missions Outreach

2012 Cape & Karoo Evangelistic and Missions Outreach

As you may know, we’ve just returned from our 20th consecutive, annual evangelistic and missions outreach to the Karoo and Western, Southern and Eastern Cape Provinces. The Lord was gracious and enabled us to reach a great many, needy, Coloured and some Xhosa speaking people with the gospel. As ever our priority in terms of mission outreach was the needy children and destitute old folks. The gospel ministry was accomplished by word of mouth and the use of gospel tracts in the people’s own languages. We were blessed to have been able to assist the poorest among those the Lord brought across our path, by providing them with high protein food hampers. Crisis relief funds were given to the destitute aged and some individuals who were very ill and destitute, with a view to helping to ease their suffering. This is one of five major outreaches nation-wide that Rose of Sharon undertakes here each year. We covered over four thousand kilometres on the round trip and launched our boat, The Sharon Rose, on the Breede and Knysna rivers in order to access areas that cannot easily be reached by road. We also reconnoitred the Sundays and Bushman’s Rivers between Port Elizabeth and Kenton-on-Sea, with a view to using the boat on them for outreach during our next Cape Outreach, God willing.

THE KAROO
Ministry commenced in the Karoo, where the towns of Colesberg, Beaufort West, Three Sisters, Laingsberg, and Leeugamka were visited. Destitute old folks and many desperately needy children and young people were reached with the gospel in these towns. Sweet hampers and soft toys given to the children were a great blessing to them and high protein food hampers and crisis relief funds were gratefully received by very hungry, gaunt looking, old folks. Small impoverished family groups and very ill individuals, obviously all of Koi San descent, (apparent because of their short stature and light yellow complexion), were found begging at the roadside. Children who would normally ask for a few Rand, are now just pleading for a ‘broodjie’ (a little piece of bread), as the hunger pangs press in, and the cost of a loaf of bread skyrocketed largely due to the steep increases in the price of fuel. In certain areas designated ‘water crisis areas’, people also pleaded with us for water to drink. The only means of earning a few Rand for these people, is by making and selling small windmills at the roadside, replicas of the real windmills that are dotted around the dusty, dry, semi-desert regions of the Karoo, and are of course used for pumping water, when it is available from underground. Selling these replicas however is a precarious lifeline, as very few passers-by purchase the miniature windmills. The abject state of poverty of these people is shocking and shameful. Some live great distances from towns and churches away from any possible sources of help and we were unable to find anyone among them who has received a visit from a missionary, evangelist, minister or pastor, apart from ourselves during the past fifteen years. We are therefore glad that the Lord laid their suffering on our hearts and that we’ve been able to include them in our outreaches.

THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE
In the Western Cape, the same methods were employed. This area of outreach included such places as Fishoek, Masiphumelele, Muizenberg, The Strand, Mitchell’s Plein, Lwandlwe, Somerset West, Gordon’s Bay and Sir Lowrey’s Village. First we shared the gospel, wherever possible, by chatting to the old folks and needy children and young people, and we enquired about their personal circumstances and dreadful living conditions. Thereafter we resorted to providing gospel tracts as back up material. You wish you could speak personally to everyone you meet, but because of sheer weight of numbers, this is impossible. The accounts that some of the people, especially the oldies, shared with us were heart-rending. For most it’s a struggle just to survive from day to day. The poverty we encountered defies description. Why are there so many desperately poor people in our country, while government and other officials live like kings and wantonly squander multi-millions of Rand on veritable mansions, german sports cars, high living, business class air travel and five star hotel accommodation, not to mention the corruption that has already put our previous Commissioner of Police and erstwhile head of Interpol, Jackie Selebi, behind bars. His successor General Cele too has been suspended and is under investigation. It’s a disgrace and there is obviously little if any accountability. So we gladly continue to sacrifice and do as much as we can to help the worst off of our people who we seek out at the roadside, riverside and in impoverished communities. To make things somewhat difficult, we experienced costly mechanical and electrical problems with our vehicle (Now over 300 000 kilometres and 12 years old) and trailer and again suffered severe pain at times from arthritis and backache that occasionally slowed us down a little. To say we weren’t overjoyed with a substantial increase in the price of fuel the day before we departed from Pretoria, and another huge increase the day before we left to return to our home base, would be something of an understatement. The increases added hugely to the cost of this outreach. Nevertheless, the Lord graciously kept his hand upon us, provided the required resources through the auspices of the likes of yourselves, his kind-hearted, caring and generous people and hugely blessed every aspect of the outreach abundantly. We found the heat extremely oppressive, 36+ degrees C and the humidity factor between 85 and 90%. When you see the indigenous population wilting in the heat and humidity, with the men folk rolling up their shirts to just under their chins, beware. In spite of the fuel price, extreme heat, breakdowns and aches and pains, we survived and managed to complete all the work that we had thus far planned to do and were, by the grace of God, enormously blessed in the doing thereof. Many among the poor were blessed, many challenged about their standing before and relationship with God, and all extremely grateful, as we explained to them that God did not forget them in their distress. Our annual visit to the Sir Lowrey’s Pass Village day-care was, as ever, a delightful time spent with the sweetest, most adorable Coloured children. We again provided aid resources in the form of groceries, clothing, soft toys, sweet hampers and toddler seats and arranged for the roof at the centre that leaked so badly last year, to be repaired. The children are being wonderfully nurtured in the love and knowledge of Jesus and look on us as Grandparents. After this joyful, uplifting visit and time of ministry with the children, as we are wont to do, we headed east along the Cape Coast to the Southern and Eastern Cape Provinces.

THE SOUTHERN & EASTERN CAPE
The third, and perhaps the region we intended to focus on most intensively on this year’s Cape evangelistic outreach lay ahead; the Southern and Eastern Cape Province, between Witsand, at the mouth of the Breede River, near Swellendam, through George, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Jeffry’s Bay, Port Elizabeth, (which we only passed through), as far as the Sunday’s River and Boesman’s River Mouth in the east. One of our opposition political parties had a survey done to ascertain the exact levels of unemployment in this region. It revealed that the unemployment rate in the Sedgefield and Knysna area now exceeded an astonishing 60%. We didn’t need a survey to tell us that the situation in these parts is dire indeed because we’ve witnessed it for ourselves. Matchstick thin people scrounge through rubbish bins and eat rotting scraps of food or beg and plead in desperation at the roadside for food. It makes us want to cry out with the Lord’s prophet, Habbakuk, “How long O Lord?” These towns have also seen a dramatic increase in people becoming Rastafarians. Why this is so popular remains a mystery, other than that the smoking of hashish dulls the mind and perhaps helps to blot out the misery of a life locked in dire, debilitating poverty. This is a very good motivating factor indeed for us to increase our efforts to proclaim the gospel good news of salvation to them. In Knysna at any time of the day large groups of unemployed men can be found sitting on the sidewalks, hoping for a few hours of work without much success. This stretch of coastline is also one where addiction to the drug, crystal meth amphetamine is prevalent among the youth and alcohol dependence is rife also among adults. Sadly such problems are not confined to these towns alone, but are evident everywhere one turns, including Jeffrys Bay and Graaf Reinette, One huge, negative outcome of this substance abuse is that wealthier residents of these towns will not support the needy locals, because they tell us that they just waste what money they are given on cheap wine. Working parents, who usually don’t earn very much as they are employed largely as gardeners, domestic servants or general labourers, are threatened and often physically assaulted by their teen-aged children and forced to hand over their salaries so that the youths can buy the drug, tic, and alcohol. These terrible socio-economic problems seem insurmountable and perhaps in the natural they are. But we will continue to trust the Lord that he will, through the proclamation of his gospel, and the demonstration of his love, turn the lives of those around that are his. To this end we prayerfully labour in the Power of God’s Holy Spirit to see the name of Jesus lifted high and glorified. So having been reminded in no uncertain terms about the situation in these parts yet again, we prayerfully doubled our efforts at reaching the people. Generally the old folks and younger children are not locked into this negative lifestyle of substance abuse. Their lifestyle is negative only in the sense that they are as poor as proverbial church mice, with nowhere to turn for relief and the children are often neglected and left to fend for themselves. We committed ourselves to concentrate our efforts on Sedgefield, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Witsand, Jeffreys Bay and Graaf Reinette and undertook to use the boat for our Gospel River Ministry on the Breede and Knysna Rivers and to reconnoitre the Sundays and Boesman’s rivers for attention on our next Cape Outreach, God willing. The Sharon Rose had to undergo its annual seaworthy certificate tests in Knysna and in order to comply with new safety regulations, had to be fitted with floatation devices. These were installed below the deck in the hull under four inspection ports that had to be cut into the deck. Although we find it frustrating and costly that almost each year now, new laws regarding marine safety regulations are promulgated, we have to concede that ultimately they do provide additional safety and protection for boat skippers and their passengers. There are occasions when we receive stark reminders of the dangers that exist in our waters, not the least of which the fierce and hungry ‘critters’ that inhabit our waterways here in South Africa. Occasionally these beasties make a meal of the odd person who ventures into their territory and fails to afford them the respect they deserve.

Record Breede River Shark Caught.

We did launch our boat, The Sharon Rose, on the Breede River in order to access areas that are not always easily reached by road. We have shared with you on previous deputation visits, that some of the Cape rivers and estuaries are the hunting grounds of some really big and aggressive sharks. This necessitates our having to proceed with extreme caution when entering these waters. Well this particular outreach certainly fleshed out, in no uncertain terms, the thus far skeletal rumours of giant Zambezi (Bull) sharks in Cape Rivers like the Breede (Wide) River. Rumours had been circulating among the locals at Witsand, where the Breede River mouths out into the ocean, that a huge ‘monster’ had been seen in the river and that it simply slashed enormous fish of over 50kg's in weight off the lines of fishermen that were reeling the fish in, leaving just the severely lacerated, severed head of the fish on the hook. The following two links detail the outcome of the hunt for, and capture of, this 'monster' by a team of scientists that were investigating the rumours and a professional game fish fisherman. We'd heard talk of the 'monster' but Des was quite shaken when we watched the documentary of the capture of this ‘monster’, that turned out to be the biggest Zambezi/Bull shark ever caught. See the following links for reports on the capture, tagging and release of this huge predator.

World record Zambezi 'Bull' shark caught in the Breede River and tagged and released. http://www.wavescape.co.za/environment/sharks/bizarre-bull-shark-record.html

Largest shark known to science caught - South Africa | IOL News | IOL.co.za
www.iol.co.za
South Africa's Premier Online News

Thank you dear Christian friends for your faithful prayers for our protection and safety. Thankfully we didn’t end up like a pair of contemporary Jonahs. My skin still crawls when I think of having stood waist deep in the Breede River while launching and later uploading the boat from the water, with this monster shark and its kin cruising about.

By God’s grace, we were, as in the Karoo and Western Cape, also able to reach a great many needy children and young people and old folks with the gospel in the various towns in the Southern and Eastern Cape Province mentioned above. The photos included here will attest to their joy and appreciation. We again blessed the children with sweet hampers and toys and helped a good many of the destitute old folks by presenting them with the high protein grocery hampers and crisis relief funds mentioned before. It is always encouraging to meet up with some of the needy people we’d ministered to on previous outreaches, who were excited and glad to see us again. One old Coloured man in Jeffry’s Bay, named William Scott, who, though he could hardly walk, was trying to direct drivers into parking bays in the hope of earning a few rand. He had worked as a fisherman all his life. When I asked him if he knew Jesus, a huge smile creased his face and reaching into his pocket he produced numerous scripture verses jotted down on a pile of well-worn bits of paper. “Yes, I do”, he said, "but it’s so sad that you don’t hear God’s word spoken about much these days.” We were able to add to his ‘treasure trove’ of scripture thanks to our beloved Christian friends on Shetland and to provide him with a grocery hamper and some crisis relief funds. You could see the relief on his face and he expressed sincere gratitude for God’s providence. “I can now go home to sit down and rest my aching legs”. We wondered what constituted ‘home’ for this dear old man. With that he shuffled off, leaving us hugely blessed by the encounter. Another of the many needy old folks we met and ministered to was Norman. We found him on the banks of the Boesman's River. Norman was downcast and confided in us that he had not been able to find a steady job for over fifteen years and could not support his family. We shared the gospel with him and gave him a grocery hamper and some crisis relief funds. The expression on his face shows the extent to which God’s word and providence encouraged and blessed him. Norman, like William Scott and many other oldies that we ministered to, went on his way rejoicing. God loved him and remembered him. After all, did he not send Rose of Sharon all the way from Lyttelton in Pretoria to the Boesman's River mouth to find him and bless him there. May God bless his word as it was shared across the vast expanse of the Cape Province and Karoo. We thank the Lord for his assurance that his word that goes forth out of his mouth will not return to him void, but will accomplish the purpose for which he sends it out. Isa 55:11. To God be the glory and to you our most sincere and hearfelt thanks. PLEASE SEE PHOTOGRAPHS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.