First Saturday Good News

We previously reported that at the end of January, we held an all-day study day for the BEC students in Lamontville and Umlazi townships. The response was terrific, with 45 students attending.

We obviously wanted to follow up on this great response. The plan we developed was to run a series of half-day sessions, on the first Saturday of each month, for 6 months: First Saturday Good News. There would be two talks at each session: one on Bible teaching, and one on Christian living. In-between, we would have tea & biscuits (cookies to North Americans!) to provide a break and an opportunity for conversation.

The first Saturday of March, we kicked off the series. The responses for the January study day came mostly from text (SMS) messages sent to the students’ phones. So, we decided that would be our advertising approach, plus fliers in the BEC and in the Lamontville Good News Centre, where the sessions were to be held.

As we mentioned in an earlier posting, we were disappointed that only 9 students came. (Although in North America, nine visitors at a public effort would be fantastic!) Bro. Dumisani Qwabe gave the first talk (in Zulu) on “Sin and Salvation”, and Paul did the Christian living talk on “Doing Right”. Although the number was small by comparison with January, those who came were attentive, and seemed to appreciate the message.

For the April session, we decided that we must do better on the advertising. Bro Mhloli Malunga from the Durban ecclesia attended, and he suggested we do leafleting. We thought this was a great idea, and the last Saturday of March, seven of us went door to door in Lamontville. We were delighted to be joined by our oldest son Caleb and his friend Shawna, who were in town visiting from Oregon. For those of us from overseas, it was sobering to be in the homes of these very poor people. It was also interesting to see with our own eyes what we had heard: although the home might be only a shanty, and the outside might not look like much (and might in fact have trash lying around), the inside was invariably clean and neat. No matter what, the Zulu culture is that the home, the body, and the clothes will always be clean.

It turned out that Jonathan and Megan Sabo from Missouri were going to be in town on the day of the April session (Saturday the 4th), so we invited Jonathan to do one of the talks. He did the Christian living talk, on “Trusting God” (even when things don’t go well). Paul did the Bible truth talk, on “God’s Promises”. Jane organized and served the refreshments, as she has each time – an important contribution to the overall event.

The door-to-door work paid off. Four people from the neighborhood responded, none of whom had attended any previous functions. All told we had 12 visitors – still not nearly as many as January, but a definite improvement over March.

It clearly makes a difference when you serve a meal, as we did in January. While going door to door, we actually had a couple of people say directly, “If you have food I’ll come.” It is hard to know where the balance lies on this issue. We don’t really want to bribe people to attend, but on the other hand feeding needy people is certainly a good thing to do. The approach that is being taken is to occasionally have an event that includes a meal, but not all the time. This would seem to fit the pattern set by Jesus, who as far as we know only fed the crowds twice; and he rebuked the crowd that followed him only in hope of getting another meal.

We pray that the seed sown on Saturday among new contacts, and the watering of several long-standing students, may result in growth and fruit, to the glory of God. We know who it is that gives the growth!