There have been hundreds of souls baptised in the last 3 months and I give up trying to keep track, but it's very encouraging. The brethren are networking and becoming more
creative with their plans as they roll those chariot wheels. Lord willing,
2,000 souls can be reached this year, a number of congregations planted and
many souls taught through the short term schools and leadership training.
I am very excited because this is truly a ministry overseen and run by the brethren of the great continent. The leaders we are working with are so effective, so competent and so willing and the momentum is building. Thank you Lord. I like to say it this way, "We can't help everyone with a Gospel Chariot, but every Gospel Chariot can help someone". AMEN
I am very excited because this is truly a ministry overseen and run by the brethren of the great continent. The leaders we are working with are so effective, so competent and so willing and the momentum is building. Thank you Lord. I like to say it this way, "We can't help everyone with a Gospel Chariot, but every Gospel Chariot can help someone". AMEN
The new mini chariot in the Western Cape is up and running
and the Namibian mini chariot will be completed in a month or so and should be
working by September - that will make it 11 Gospel Chariots. Liberia, Big Chariot Ghana, Togo, Benin,
Malawi, Zimbabwe, Venda, Cape, Big Chariot 1, Big Chariot 2 and then Namibia
coming soon.
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL FOR MAKING IT SO HARD TO KEEP TRACK
OF ALL THE SOULS BEING SAVED....That is why God adds and God knows.
ZAMBIA
During April and May the Chariot 2 team in Zambia reported that 57 souls were baptised and there have been 25 restorations. All credit to the Zambian brethren and their teamwork with the Gospel Chariot.
There is a lot of wear and tear on the vehicles and
equipment as they travel and preach every day. The generator needed a service
along the way, that is after being serviced in January. AMEN.
Preach the word brethren.
Below: Kanchele,
Kalomo - three tent meetings resulting in 6 baptisms
Below: Njezya, Kalomo. As you can see the brethren welcome the chariots and the children love the evening bible movie before the preaching starts.
Below:
Tara, Kalomo
Below left, right and centre: Nazilonga,
Kalomo
In mid-May Layman and Robert unfortunately had a blow out on
one of the back tyres of Chariot 2 as they were working their way through
Zambia. No one was hurt but it reminds
us to continuously pray for God to keep our teams safe as they travel away from
their families to share the gospel throughout the African continent. Please keep the safety of all our teams in
your prayers.
At the end of May Chariot 2 had moved on and was in Kaphika,
Sinda and they reported another 42 baptisms as the local brethren united and
reached out using the Gospel Chariot.
Below: Chimunsi in
Sinda District, Zambia. To God be the Glory as brethren preach and souls
repent.
SOUTH AFRICA
WESTERN CAPE
The newest mini Gospel Chariot is up and running and is
working in the Western Cape of South Africa under the oversight of Lazarus
Munetsi, who is based out of our Plettenberg Bay office. This chariot is currently working in the
Garden Route and has now crossed over into the Eastern Cape for 3 weeks of
networking and outreach. This design is
so much better and more durable than the last couple we built, but also a
little more expensive.
Above and below shows Lazarus teaching from the mini chariot
in Kranshoek and Kwanokuthula. The team then did some door knocking and this
open air teaching resulted in one baptism.
During my travels in June I visited Plettenberg Bay and I
was joined by Mike Knappier and Joel Lewis from Benton, Arkansas. When we arrived we went straight to a home
Bible study (below - top left) and it was great - prayers, hugs, laughs and
plans for the week. Plett is my home
church when in South Africa (below - top right). We were all very impressed with the new mini
chariot. God is Good.
We started out with rain, rain and more rain but, we kept
ourselves busy with the printing and folding of bible introduction lessons
(above - bottom left and right). During this time the ladies in Kwanokuthula
fed us. It was so good and they are so
hospitable.
PRETORIA
Below shows Mike Knappier preaching at the Downtown Church
of Christ in Pretoria before heading back to the US. Thank you Mike and Joel for campaigning once
again with us. You can also see the GCM
Short Term Bible School in Pretoria with Dimpo Motimele. Every year GCM brings new converts into our
schools to be trained up for 6 months and then go back home, but then also have
the option to continue studying through Nations University. Mike and Joel also did some teaching in
Atteridgeville, Pretoria. The Downtown
Church of Christ was started by us some 12 years ago and has a membership of
350, all young professionals working in the big city.
Above shows Joel Lewis doing some teaching in
Atteridgeville, Pretoria. Joel and Mike
campaign with me every year from the US.
Above, to the left of Joel, you can also see Machona Monyamane who was
home from Harding University. Machona was our first Chariot driver evangelist
and is today an amazing preacher and leader in the Church. God really develops these young men when they
work on the Gospel Chariot.
PRETORIA DOWNTOWN OUTREACH
Below shows Dimpo Motimele and Zonge Xoshe from our Gospel
Chariot Missions office in Pretoria where they had a drive to collect 100 pairs
of shoes for an orphanage in town. The kids were so grateful and Zonge and
Dimpo got to work with the children and staff regarding the love of Jesus.
CHARIOT ONE with Bongani
During May and June Bongani and his team on Gospel Chariot
One travelled around the North-West region of South Africa and visited
Lehurutse, Tlokweng and Musina. They
have baptised over 200 souls in the last 3 months and that is amazing for
people to come forward like this in the winter.
God is working and Bongani is just a "mission machine". What is exciting, is that when he is not on
the truck and he rotates, he then teaches at the short term school in Pretoria
and so he gets to know the students and when they go back home all fired up, he
follows them up with a campaign, and is it working? Amen.
Lehurutse - Shakes, one of our former Short Term Bible
School students (pictured below - top right), teamed up with Bongani to
evangelise his area. They visited
schools, preached in open areas, visited homes, gave out tracts and bible
correspondence courses and the result of all their hard work were 21 baptisms
and a new church planted which will be meeting at our old student Shakes'
house.
Tlokweng - Chariot One then moved on to another area of the
North West for some preaching in the villages of Pella, Vrede, Relotu and
Tlokweng. Again Bongani met up with a
WBS convert and worked his area. This
convert has even bought a piece of land to build a church building on. He has been teaching and preaching in his
area since our last visit with him and this chariot visit yielded 31 baptisms.
Musina - Bongani worked this area before the chariot moved
on to Venda. I managed to join him with
the group of 15 US and local campaigners as we were on our way to
Zimbabwe. We helped set up the big
Gospel Chariot so it would be ready for the gospel meeting Bongani was hosting
over the weekend.
Above shows myself with Bongani before we headed on to
Zimbabwe for a week and stopped off in Musina again on our way back. We joined in on a great worship service with
the Musina Church of Christ, with Dimpo Motimele preaching (above right), and
then we were fed by the sisters (below) and sent on our way to the Western Cape
to visit with Lazarus and the mini chariot (as seen above). Chariot 1 has baptised over 200 souls this
year. Thank you Lord.
Above shows the fellowship and wonderful African food the
ladies prepared for us - that is chicken stew and the white food with tomato
gravy is not mashed potatoes! It is a
thick porridge made from maize that is finely ground and then cooked in boiling
water.
Above shows Bongani and Chariot 1 continuing to baptise
souls in Venda. They will continue
working in Venda through the month of July.
Remember, years back GCM built a Bible School in Venda and it's these
brethren that help us teach new converts further, but it's also the Venda
brethren that now help us do mission work across the borders in Zimbabwe and
Mozambique. More about that under
Zimbabwe below. It is exciting as we take
Africans to evangelise Africa.
ZIMBABWE
In 2013 we built a mini chariot for Zimbabwe and we are now
seeing the fruits. Churches are being planted and hundreds and hundreds have
been baptised. John Reese, who heads up
World Bible School in Austin, also helped in advising us with who to get to
oversee the chariot. John was born in
Zimbabwe and is very close to Washington and Alice Mhlanga who head up the WBS
office in Harare, so they have been really helpful with the other elders. It is very important that we use the best
brethren possible to network with other congregations. That is what makes this work so
powerful. God works through people and
the more we work with, the better.
ZIMBABWE BEITBRIDGE CAMPAIGN
Fifteen of us put our efforts together and campaigned and
assisted the mini chariot in planting a congregation in the South of Zimbabwe
in the border town called Beitbridge.
It's the "Corinth" of Zimbabwe due to the prostitution and the
millions of people travelling through due to it being the border where people and
goods have to pass through going to countries North of it.
The mini chariot baptised 18 souls before we got there and
planted the only Church of Christ in Beitbridge. We then arrived and campaigned for a week
baptising another 12 souls. There were
about 20 of us working together.
Remember, I told you about Venda just across the border who we are
teaching to do mission work? Well, we
had 6 of them with us, also 4 Americans and another 10 Zimbabweans from all
over Zimbabwe. Talk about working
together. This was it!
Above shows a beautiful Zimbabwean African sunset. Below shows the "Welcome to
Zimbabwe" sign.
It took us 5 hours to get through the border post! You can also see a map of Zimbabwe.
Our Gospel Chariot Missions plan is to help the Venda brethren, who are mature and just South of the border, to cross over and work with us everywhere from Beitbridge to Masvingo and they have already started by training a young Zimbabwean man up at the short term school and sending him back to Ngundu to plant 2 congregations. The Venda brethren are supporting him fully.
It took us 5 hours to get through the border post! You can also see a map of Zimbabwe.
Our Gospel Chariot Missions plan is to help the Venda brethren, who are mature and just South of the border, to cross over and work with us everywhere from Beitbridge to Masvingo and they have already started by training a young Zimbabwean man up at the short term school and sending him back to Ngundu to plant 2 congregations. The Venda brethren are supporting him fully.
Above and below shows 20 of us praying before heading out
going house to house and having bible studies. 12 were baptised adding to the
18 baptised two weeks before we got there.
Just a quick story....The mini gospel chariot was also
involved and part of baptising 269 souls in the Harare prison and another 126
in the Masvingo prison. The mini chariot driver evangelist, Chris Magadu, told
me this when with him and he was concerned that the portable baptisteries that
we make were taking stress when baptising at times. I asked how that could be. He then explained that when they baptise 2 at
a time it bulges out and bends the supports.
Ha, ha! I had to be nice and
explain, Chris please don't do that.
Enjoy the moment and baptise 1 at a time, otherwise you will break the
baptistery. Bless his heart. Gospel Chariot Missions helps where we can -
prisons, hospitals, orphanages, schools, highways, byways, you name it, we will
try our best to proclaim God's word.
VENDA
The Venda team reports that they have baptised three
students from their short term school this quarter.
I was able to travel to Venda with my US campaigners. We visited the short term bible school and
day care and then the next day we held our Leadership Seminar in
Thsidimbini. Then on the Monday we
crossed over into Zimbabwe and worked with the Zimbabwean gospel chariot for a
week.
Below shows Don Noles encouraging the Venda brethren in
Thsidimbini. Don is from Tulsa and has
played a big part in finding the funding for the GCM short term bible school
and also in assisting with the new mini chariot. He has been a blessing and has worked with me
in getting the Vendans to cross borders doing mission work. Taking Africans to evangelise Africa.
Then pictured below you see Dale and Kent Bresee, also from Tulsa. Dale will be taking over from Don and has been part of the Venda work for many years. They are also involved in the Bibles for Africa program that provides the Bibles which we distribute throughout Africa. See section on Bibles below. Thank you brethren.
Below shows Machona (left), Malindi (right) and Mike
Knappier (bottom left) all teaching at the Leadership Seminar.
Below shows De Villiers (red top) and Owen (yellow shirt) in
the school library. Both these men are working with GCM. De Villiers is a teacher and Owen helps to
teach, but is more involved in being trained up to be the driver/evangelist on
the mini chariot. You can also see some
of the students being taught.
Below shows Machona Monyamane and his wife, Thabelo. It was so good to see them. Machona was our first driver evangelist on a Gospel Chariot and has moved on and become a well know brother in the brotherhood speaking at many lectureships throughout the world. He is currently finishing off a degree at Harding in the US and we pray he comes home in 2017 and continues to work with us in some way as we take a continent for Jesus. Thabelo is pregnant and we are all so excited for them. Machona was a WBS student that I followed up on in 1996, baptised him and the rest is history and we give God the Glory.
Below shows the big Gospel Chariot working in Venda for 6
weeks. Every year we return and work
with the congregations in the region, planting congregations, helping
struggling congregations and firing up congregations to do mission work across
the borders. There are 65 congregations
in Venda and they work very well together.
You can read more about what's happening in Venda under
Bongani Chariot One. They are still
working in Venda and have baptised over 50 in the last 4 weeks.
GHANA
Evans Larty reports that the Chariot is still working in the
Central region of Ghana, more precisely, the Assin Traditional area. As reported in the first quarter report,
about thirty churches in the area have been contacted and all have prepared to
host the chariot. The minimum days the
chariot spent with a congregation is three days and the maximum is six days. Many of these churches have no paid preacher
but the church leaders organise and direct church affairs. One of these
congregations has a member who is Queen Mother of a town. She does her best to organise the church
women for training in church work. Heritage Bible Institute has seen the need
and will organise leadership training for these churches to train leaders for
ministry and missions. During the period
there was night street preaching with an average attendance of about 400
people. The team visited high schools to
enrol students and share bibles. Some
schools have an attendance of about six hundred students who received
bibles. The word of God is daily gaining
ground in the hearts of men and women and many are being converted to Christ.
A group of Church of Christ University students, code named
COCSU, organised a week long evangelism.
This evangelism was in collaboration with Heritage Bible Institute
students and the Gospel Chariot and three churches in the area. It was a well co-ordinated mission effort
that yielded 27 baptisms. The gospel was
preached to every household and many asked why we have delayed to share the
gospel with them. Evans was involved in
an accident with his vehicle when attending this program from Accra. A commercial vehicle crossed his path and
abruptly stopped at a traffic light.
There was nothing he could do other than to hit the rear of the
commercial vehicle which damaged his vehicle.
There were no casualties. After
the program the Gospel Chariot was due for a service and was brought to Accra
for servicing but has since gone back to the central region to evangelize.
Evans reports that 1,100 students were enrolled to World
Bible School and 32 souls were added to the church.
Thank you, Lord. You
don't get better than this. Marching for
Jesus, handing out bibles, reaching the young at school and baptising those
being touched by His word. May God
continue to work in Ghana this way.
BENIN
The Benin team getting ready to head out on a trip:
We are excited to share that the Benin chariot has reported
it's first direct convert!
The photo below shows Pierre, the preacher at Allada Church
of Christ, after he taught and then baptised our newest Christian.
The chariot team also reports that they were caught in a
heavy downpour and got stuck in the mud for a few hours - Honore, the chariot
driver, literally had a mud bath!
George Akpabli reports that the team did a lot of night time
preaching in the villages and they were well received. Below shows Honore (in the red shirt) and
Pierre (in the green shirt) teaching at night and also shows the crowds that
the chariot draws when it's in an area.
TOGO
The team in Togo reports that they had a very quiet month in
April as it was the time of their Presidential elections and the authorities
were not willing to issue permits for public gatherings. They did, however, manage to organize one
campaign outside the city of Kpalime, in Agou Gare. Four people were baptized as a result of the
campaign to Agou Gare.
They also quietly made visits to a few villages ( Huime,
Akata, Agame and Agoviep) for tract distribution and personal visits and home
Bible studies during April and May.
Willie also reports that the Togo team has managed to
purchase a shop in Zomayi, Kpalime (see below) which has since been renovated
and is now being used as a World Bible School literature centre and will also
serve as the Gospel Chariot Missions contact office. Willie says "Such an office became
necessary because it is a taboo for some denominations to enter places of
worship of other churches. This office
is considered a neutral ground."
MALAWI
The team in Malawi continues to visit schools and recruit
students for World Bible School.
Emmanuel and Robert report that students are always very excited to have
the chariot visit their school and they have managed to enroll 2,806 students
in this last quarter and 17 have been baptised.
Moster also wanted to acknowledge World Bible School
teachers James Van Zandt (AR) and Harden Harris for all their work in teaching
a large number of the students who've been enrolled in Malawi. One of Harden's students, who has been
baptised as a result of studying through WBS, has now signed up to study at the
Bible school in Mzimba.
Below are some pictures at Mchezi, Malawi with Chariot 2
before heading on to Kenya. They had 3 baptisms and ten churches benefited as
this Chariot handed out Church of Christ signs. This is in the mountains and a
remote, neglected area. The churches were grateful and thanked Moster and the
team. This chariot then crossed over into Kenya at the end of June.
KENYA
Please pray for the team pictured above as they travel with
the Gospel Chariot through Kenya in July.
This is Layman Mpharo, on the left, and Robert Hara, on the right, and
in the middle is brother Tom Opondo, one of our Kenyan coordinators.
Layman and Robert are our Malawi Gospel Chariot team and
they travel as far north as Kenya with their chariot. They have just arrived safely in Kenya for a
whole month of gospel meetings with the evangelistic Kenyan brethren.
It cost the chariot $1,111.00 to cross through customs and
border control to preach there for a month.
Please pray for the Kenyan brethren as they use the chariot and let
people know about Jesus. Next year,
2016, Kenya will be getting their own Gospel Chariot and who knows how many
borders they will be crossing and how far they'll be spreading the Good News of
Jesus. Below you can see some photos of
the work that is already happening there with the Malawi chariot.
LIBERIA
Isaac Daye, who oversees the mini gospel chariot in Liberia,
reports that just over 100 souls were baptised this last quarter - this
includes one elderly woman of 102 years old and also a man aged 90!
The month of April saw a lectureship being held for the
first time in Liberia and the churches are hoping this will become an annual
event.
Then there is also the wonderful news that a new
congregation has been planted in Gbarkormah village. A team of 8 workers went to the area. They baptised 17 people on the Friday and
Saturday and then on the Sunday they had their first worship service together
and another 8 people were baptised. They
had a total of 96 people attending this first worship service!
They then took their three man team on a 227 miles trip from
Monrovia to Bahn in Nimba county to share in the 6th WBS graduation of 42 WBS
students. Isaac reports that they were
blessed with four souls baptised and added to the Church in Bahn.
Then in May the team then went out on a two day Gospel
Chariot/WBS campaign on Peace Island near the capital and 25 souls were
baptised and added to the new church (which was only planted in April!)
After this the chariot went on to Tower Hill and Marshall
and after this Isaac planned to head out to Ghana.
NAMIBIA
Then don't forget Namibia.
We have started to build the Namibian mini chariot. It has been
purchased in Windhoek and busy being built in South Africa due to all vehicles
being brought into Namibia from South Africa.
So, it all works in our favour because the best body builders are found
in South Africa. It should be finished
being built by the end of July, then it needs to be exported to Namibia and,
Lord willing, we will have our two men trained up and working the chariot by
September.
In preparation for all this we are having a Short Term Bible
School semester in Windhoek and at the same time letting the driver evangelists
get some additional bible training. Then
it will be all systems go for Namibia.
Below shows the body frame being constructed and below that
shows what it will look like. The same
as the one built early this year for the Western Cape. Please pray for Namibia.
BIBLES
We have just ordered, and managed to find a sponsor, for a
full container of Bibles. All 21,120 of
them! They are a complete Bible (Old and
New Testaments) with helps at the back on how to become a Christian and also
how to plant a church in your home.
We have printed Bibles in the past, but only New Testaments and now we are managing to print the complete bible. They are being printed in China and 20,000 are being shipped into South Africa for distribution in the Southern part of Africa and then 1,120 will be shipped to Perth, Australia where I will distribute and use them for outreach in Australia. Remember last year the same donor helped us print and send a container of 30,000 New Testament Bibles to Ghana. Our prayer now is to get a container of Bibles into Malawi next year for distribution in Central Africa. Meaning all of our chariots will have Bibles as they work through the continent. Thank you to all involved, you are making the World a better place.
We have printed Bibles in the past, but only New Testaments and now we are managing to print the complete bible. They are being printed in China and 20,000 are being shipped into South Africa for distribution in the Southern part of Africa and then 1,120 will be shipped to Perth, Australia where I will distribute and use them for outreach in Australia. Remember last year the same donor helped us print and send a container of 30,000 New Testament Bibles to Ghana. Our prayer now is to get a container of Bibles into Malawi next year for distribution in Central Africa. Meaning all of our chariots will have Bibles as they work through the continent. Thank you to all involved, you are making the World a better place.
Above shows the Bible and Bible helps at the back of the
Bible that really helps all involved to explain the Gospel message.
Above shows some of
the 30,000 bibles being loaded onto the Ghana Gospel Chariot for distribution
in the Central Region.
