English Newsletter May 2013

Dearest Mission friends, We glorify the Lord who is good and faithful. In His grace He uses people who is in themselves nothing en too weak to do the work of Eternity. We experience so much blessing from the Lord and His merciful assistance who gives power and ability to do His work! We know that it has a lot to do with your prayers. The Lord uses you in such a wonderful way to uphold our hands. We and our workers cannot be on the mission field without you. May the Lord richly bless you. You are a great encouragement! We want to assure you of our gratitude. Thank you very much!

“Pray then the Lord of the

harvest that He will send la-bourers

into His field” Matthew 9:31

“Enlarge the place of your

tent, stretch your tent cur-tains wide, do not hold back;

lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For

you will spread out to the right and to the left: your de-scendants will dispossess nations and settle in their

desolate cities” Isaiah 54:2-3

A NEW VISION FOR FURTHER WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES A while back there has been speculation about further extension of our mis-sion work in the Philippines. On the map you will see that most of the work at this stage that has been done is in a certain part of the island Luzon which is

also the biggest island in the Philippines. From Ba-guio and higher up in the mountains there are many good workers involved, and lots of good work is done there. Also from Baguio to Tarlac there is also good work on the go, but from Tarlac to Manila we don’t have anyone. That does not want mean that no one is working there, but we do not really know the full ex-tent of the impact of the work there. There may be people busy with some work but we do not know if there are anybody doing real discipleship or maybe there’s no work at all! On top of it all we don’t know how much time there is left,

maybe only a few years, maybe just a few months – who can say? Well, for this sort of extension, to find suitable places for training, to find new people who can be trained, etc. etc. there’s a LOT OF PRAYER needed! Please pray that the Lord will lead us to the right places and the right people. Secondly we must ask our friends to pray like never before, for abundance of finance. So please pray fervently and without ceasing for this matter, and for the funds!

Ludy and his co-pastors have a whole team of workers who is heading up their discipleship-bible studies. We place a photo of them. Ludy sits in front with the light blue shirt Yvonne sits in front .

ENCOURAGING REPORTS OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES

This month we have received some very significant reports from many of our workers. Ludy writes to us about certain matters which make us jump for joy. We quote from his report: “Thank God for His faithfulness and goodness in our everyday living. God is good in sustaining our health and everyday needs. My wife and I were so happy when we heard that our daughter, Essel Grace main-tained 2nd place in her class. About our son Vinzel we are also so grate-ful because he became active in campus ministry in their school. One time his group mates in the campus ministry visited us here in our house. We had sharing time and we heard that one of their group mates is an Iglesia ni Cristo member (one of the real cultic churches in the Philip-pines.) According to her she is still attending their church, but during weekdays she’s actively attending the Discipleship Group in the Campus Ministry and she boldly admitted that though she’s still attending INC, she’s already a born again child of God. Glory to God.” (This can easily happen because of the pressure her parents place on her).

Further on he also writes: “God has given us an opportunity to minister among 115 fourth year students and 15 teachers from the Pugo High school by conducting their recollection program. The first session most of the teachers were reluctant because most of them were Catholics but after I shared about the wonder Plan of God, the atmosphere became different. I was ap-proached by the Guidance Counsellor and he told me that they’re so happy about the message.” Together with Dr Sharon’s report she sent a photo of a young boy who appears with an old man. Now, this reminds us about the remarkable things that happened in the Cosalan family. In 2008 when Pieter and Yvonne once again returned to the Philippines they got to know Joel, Imelda and Bryden Cosalan. The family came to the Conradies’ house at the campus of the seminary once a week there do to a Bible study on a regular basis. Soon the Cosalans realised that there is only one way and that is to be born again and to follow Jesus Christ with your whole life. They said goodbye to the wrong road they were on and chose to serve the Lord wholeheartedly in a real Evangelical church. They are also now busy making disciples. The photo shows us Bry-den (who is about 15 years old) where he lays his hand on his grandfa-ther ’s shoulder who turned 78 years old. He stands with his hand on his shoulder to pray the Lord’s blessing on him for his birthday. Bryden is a teenager, but on fire for the Lord and also the Lord’s work. The grandfa-ther has also became born again a few years back and he is a fervent witness for the Lord!

Yvonne Mercy (covered for safety) & Linda when they were in the Philippines

THE WORKIN CHINA Our dearest Mercy, also a Filipino who has been working for more than 10 years in a an underground Bible school also sent us a very interest-ing report. It sounds like this: “January 1, three of our co-workers and I had to visit the Booglebug trainees in Yiling, a two hours drive. Now for those of you who don’t know a booglebug it’s an artificial fly used in fishing and this business is done through guys in charge of the bible school. On the photo you will see what a booglebug looks like). Some time ago, Bob, Joanne and I celebrated the Chinese New Year’s Eve with our staff who live at the Centre and some of the students who stayed for the break. They pre-

pared a feast that we all enjoyed. We watched the village fireworks be-fore we left for the city where we live. Here in the city, fire crackers are non-stop Saturday night. Chunjie or Chinese New Year is a time for fami-lies to be together. This is the reason why travel-ling before and after Chunjie is difficult. Air-plane and train tickets were sold out one month

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BOOGLEBUGS?

Standard Bank: Montana Branch Account No: 020175876 IBT Code: 015945

Design by ear2hear Ministries - website: www.ear2hearministries.za.org

ABSA Bank: Kempton Park Branch Account No: 9064970731 IBT Code: 50444244

E-mail:

asia2000@global.co.za (South African Mission Office)

conradiesbaguio@gmail.com

(Philipines Mission Office)

Support Mission Work Today!

Telephone:

(012) 332 2601 or (012) 332 2602

Fax: (012) 332 3665

Postal Address: P.O. Box 31192, Waverley, 0135

before Chunjie. Some of our teachers who went to their hometown could not get train tickets to come back in time for our second Alumni meeting. Chunjie runs for two weeks. To the Chinese, especially the non - believers, fire crack-ers are to drive out the evil spirits and end ‘unlucky circumstances’ for that year. So, it is not only to party or for fun. Some village churches like the Lisu Minority according to our Lisu co-worker, pray, fast and have multiple Church services at the Chinese New Year’s eve through the following day.”

We also want to thank our mission friends once again from our hearts for all your love, support through praying and giving. You are precious to us, and we thank the Lord for all of you. We heard from different places that people would rather receive no letter of thanks if they make/give a donation. That is an acceptable matter, because that cuts our costs in these difficult times where finances are sometimes quite difficult.

Once again we just want to close by asking you to pray seriously for the points which have mentioned and for every worker who is working in the Phil-ippines, Cambodia (where it’s going very well) as well as for Mercy who is working in China.

Lots of love in Christ, from Ben, Yvonne, Gretna and the two teams...