107 Churches Receive Bibles!
Outreach and Bibles Placement Southern Malawi - July 2009
One hundred and seven churches received Bibles in Southern Malawi in July 2009 during the combined Outreach and Bible Placement/Delivery.
On a cold winter's evening a convoy of seven vehicles - loaded to the hilt - left Roodepoort for Bangula, Malawi. After a stopover in Harare, several long delays at border posts and 50 hours on the road, 40 very tired people arrived at the Chipembere campsite near Bangula - almost at the Southernmost tip of Malawi. A few hours later the American team arrived and by the next day the entire squad of 48 was assembled.
After an orientation meeting with the 20 visiting interpreters all qualified Hub leaders from the Central and Northern districts the teams went out to visit the 11 churches where they would be working for the next week.
On Sunday morning each team took part in the morning services at their assigned church and encouraged church members to come for training starting Monday morning. The joyful reception that our teams received was almost overwhelming particularly for first time participants.
From Monday to Saturday local believers were trained and mentored in evangelism. Each day started with team members teaching the local believers to use our “evangi-bandanas” the gospel message in picture form printed onto a cloth bandana. The team then took the church members out witnessing, showing them how to share their faith with others. By Thursday the teams sent out the locals on their own. This resulted in each of the new churches now having a team of their own members trained in evangelism.
While the outreach continued, the Bible team were delivering Bibles to the churches in the area in a systematic way. 
One hundred and seven churches received Bibles in six hubs. One of the churches that received Bibles is the Southern-most church in Malawi at Sanji. The Bible team faced severe challenges with roads (if you can call them that) often causing long delays as the bakkie had to be pushed out of sand, holes etc.
At night, after our team members returned to base, the churches held revival meetings with the visiting hub leaders/interpreters preaching. Many came to Christ through these meetings which often ended at midnight. These faithful men were up by 4am again for intercession. Each of the 11 churches also showed the Jesus film once at the sights where they wanted to plant new churches. The impact of this outreach will only really be measured in time. For now we know that our team members' lives have been challenged and changed. Testimonies abound. (See our website for some of the testimonies at www.biblesforbelievers.org) We also know that over 9 400 people accepted Christ as Saviour. Twenty four new churches were planted and hundreds of local believers were trained in evangelism. 
Thousands of people now have access to a Bible that did not have access before the outreach.
Now the follow up begins. The Bangula hub is only 6 months old. In those 6 months 11 churches had been planted. The 11 churches received teams and together they planted an additional 24 churches. Over the next months these new churches (believers) will be discipled. A leader will be identified for each church and by January 2010 the next cycle of Pastoral Training will start at the Bangula Hub Church. We hope that this hub will grow to 40+ churches, with 40+ trained pastors and up to 10,000 people in discipleship over the next 6 years.
Join us on the next Bible Placement later this year or the next outreach (In Zambia and Tanzania during June/July 2010). Contact our office for more information.
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Bible Placement - May 2009
We were THERE. What more can one say? I can tell stories and show photos, but that is all. The actual experience, the sentiment when you speak to these people and the emotion one can see in their eyes cannot be retold - you have to be there yourself to really understand it.
The biggest obstacle we experienced was of course going through the border posts. It took up a lot of time and administration and patience and patience and more patience!
The goal of this visit to Malawi was to distribute Bibles which was donated by Bibles for Believers and also to do preparation work for the outreach in July 2009 which is organized by Harvesters International Ministries. We had to travel with roads, without roads and across bridges in order to get to the churches. However we could enjoy beautiful scenery and sunrises...
Then there is the important reason, the people who hunger for the Word of God...
Above: This is a group of pastors from Zomba Sunuzi. They had only one Bible among them all. During the week they all had to go to the pastor who had the Bible to do their preparation for their Sunday sermons and to find answers to questions which their churches had asked them about the Word.
Above: Pastors from Mulanje. They had about 4 Bibles between 13 of them. Two of these Bibles were so worn that Genesis, Exodus and Revelation were missing. One of the greatest testimonies was from the pastor with the black shirt and jacket in the middle. He is 72 years old and testified that he had been a Christian for 50 years and a preacher for 30 years. When he began his studies to become a pastor, he prayed every morning and every evening for a Bible. Now after many years his prayers have been answered: He now could receive his own Bible for the first time in his life. Praise the Lord!
A group of pastors from Zomba Mayaka had an average of 4 - 6 Bibles per church.
Above: At Phalombe, church members and pastors from a few churches and from as far as Mozambique sat waiting for us from 11am until we arrived at 7pm that evening. The pastors from Mozambique who were there had to spend that night in the church because the border post closes at 6pm every day. They just decided that it was worth the wait because there are no Bibles where they came from.
Another pastor, Raphael Chikuma, who is the area leader for the Central Zomba - this area has a radius of 25km - received a bicycle to make his task a little easier. He didn't mind at all to come and collect his new bicycle at 21h30 in the evening.
I end off this testimony with Eph 6:23 and 24: “Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”
Renier Opperman, Sasolburg.
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Outreach to the Khomani san at Andriesvale, Northern Cape
The congregation of NG Elarduspark is involved with the ‡Khomani san community since 2006. This san community is situated in the Andriesvale area (near Askham in the Northern Cape) and it has a long history of neglect, physically as well as emotionally. Outreaches from the Elarduspark congregation usually take place twice a year and usually during April and September. The outreach during April consisted of various individual projects and 44 people (among them 26 young people) from different churches participated. These projects included: Renovation of the community hall in Andriesvale (painting and replacing windows with high impact perspex); shade netting for the pre-school; a sport day for the children (in connection with Living Ball); a puppet show with gospel messages; church service; praise and worship at Askham; handing out food parcels to families (together with Pioneer Foods); supplying clothes within families by connecting ‡Khomani san families with families in Pretoria; Supplying pre-school materials and handing out spiritual books and Bibles.
Supplying spiritual reading - especially Bibles - is seen as an integral part of the actions during these outreaches. This was the first time that Bibles for Believers participated. In total 100 used Afrikaans Bibles obtained from several churches were handed out. Thank you to these churches! Most of the Bibles were handed out in Andriesvale just after the church service on Good Friday and the rest through Bienta Jooste (the social worker at Askham). The community speaks Afrikaans so this participation of other Afrikaans churches is therefore wonderful. Contact with church leaders like pastors Ali and Johannes Witbooi serves as a huge help to place the Bibles. Some of the older people were extremely excited about the large print Bibles which made it possible for them to also read God's Word.
The Lord truly blessed the outreach. Although outreach teams can only sow seed, we know that He will ensure that his Word will not return to him empty (Isa 55:11). Thank you for your participation!
Japie van der Westhuizen
Delivering to Malawi
By the time you read this, three teams from Bibles for Believers and the Reformed Church in Sasolburg will be placing Chewa and English Bibles in Lilongwe, Malawi. The teams left on the 17th April to transport 3,000 to 4,000 Bibles to Lilongwe area for later distribution. While there, the teams will visit more than one hundred churches. Each church will receive Bibles according to their requisition. Up to forty people or families per church will get Bibles according to the priority list that the church set up. Pray for the teams' safe return.
Special Bibles for Special Men of God
Harvesters District Leaders in Malawi and Zambia received a special gift recently. These men who train the Hub Leaders who plant churches and train pastors are quality men of God. Bibles for Believers supplied them each with a Disciples Study Bible. This is a leather-bound Bible with extensive notes and aids which will help them prepare and teach. The Bibles were a part of a small consignment we received from the USA as a gift.
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