NEWS FROM SOUTH AFRICA - TIM & LESLIE BLACK

The year seems to be flying by! The first quarter has already come and gone, and we're beginning to get a taste of early winter with cold rains and shorter days. Looking back on the past few weeks it's amazing to see how the Lord has been moving, answering prayers, guiding us and caring for us. He is SO good! As we approach the final week before Resurrection Day we are reminded of what a privilege it is to not only serve our awesome Lord, but to be able to call Him, "Abba, Father" because of the relationship He offers us through His Son. May we all take time to reflect on this amazing truth over the coming week.

Ministry Front —Phambili ngeThemba

Things have been very busy on the Phambili front. We have nearly completed two Zanokhanyo courses (graduation for the second class is on April 2). The first class was all women and the second class had more men than women. Both groups were special, and the updated training manual has been well-received.

In the last newsletter we mentioned a graduate who had come to Tim wanting to commit her life to Christ. Well, a couple of weeks ago she helped lead another graduate to the Lord! She brought her friend around to everyone in the office saying, "I want you to meet a New Person!" Even more exciting is the fact that this "New Person" is someone who has been attending Pastor Julius' church in Barcelona. She learned about Zanokhanyo by reading a flyer that we had posted at the church. When we told Pastor Julius about Babalwa's commitment to Christ he was very excited, saying that she is a very nice person, but he knew she had been attending church without having a relationship with Christ.

Graduates of the February/March Zanokhanyo Class

The education branch of Phambili (Umthombo) has slowly been gathering steam this year. One of the retired teachers at our church is spear-heading a program to help Grade 1 students learn English. A group of volunteers will be going in once a week to assist in the three Grade 1 classrooms during their English lessons. This is the first year that English is being taught from Grade 1, and it should make a huge difference in how these students progress in school. From Grade 4 all of the textbooks are in English, but until this year English wasn't even introduced until Grade 4. It was like plunging the children into darkness if they hadn't already picked up English from their parents. Leslie and Pastor Ziba work with Grade 8 students, and they find that many of these students really have no comprehension of English. We are also trying to help the Grade 7 and 8 students with their high school applications. The school doesn't have a guidance counselor, so the students are normally left to themselves to find high schools to apply to. The better schools fill up quickly, leaving the township children with no alternative but to go to a school in their neighborhood. Most of the township high schools are significantly under-resourced and the quality of education is sub-standard. We see this as a major injustice, and it's proving to be a very difficult issue to tackle.

We spent some time with Pastor Julius and the children at Barcelona Children's Centre recently. They are still struggling with the Department of Social Services over the legal status of the children. The garden work has been taken over by another group; we're hopeful that they will keep up with it! Pastor Julius' church will be hosting a number of other churches from throughout the Province for Easter Holy Week services. That will be a lot of work for the members of his church, but they're looking forward to it.

MINISTRY FRONT— OTHER NEWS

We mentioned in our last newsletter that we are less involved in youth ministry now that our church has hired a full-time youth pastor. That has changed a bit recently, as the youth pastor has not been well and has had to step away for an indefinite period of time. We have jumped back into helping organize the high school ministry and Sunday school, which we love doing, but it is a significant time commitment. The college study that we started recently has been going very well. It has been amazing to see how the Lord is grabbing hold of these young people through Francis Chan's very challenging messages.

A number of things are on the horizon that we are preparing for. Tim is scheduled to make a Phambili fund-raising trip to the U.K. from April 24-May 9. He'll be speaking in various churches and meetings and is being hosted by Pinelands Methodist's "twin" church there, Haxby-Wigginton Methodist Church. A few days after he gets back a mission team from Gardner-Webb University is scheduled to come for about 10 days. At the end of June we're looking forward to hosting a team from our home church, Blacksburg Christian Fellowship (BCF). Sometime in the near future we're hoping to have a volunteer (Amy Mock) from BCF arrive to work with us for 3 years. Please join us in praying that Amy will be able to get here soon and get settled in before the teams arrive.

James has been accepted at a couple of universities in the U.S., but he has his hopes set on attending U. of Cape Town. Applications for U.C.T. become available in April, but we're not sure how quickly he'll know if he's accepted there, as university starts in February here. In early March we celebrated William's 16th birthday. It's hard to believe our "baby" is so old!

Thank you so much for your continued interest in what's going on here and your support of us in so many ways. We feel truly blessed to have such an incredible support team with us in all that we do. May you experience the joy of the Lord in a special way during this Easter season.

Attachments:

reachafricamar2012.pdf

[Original '12 March Newsletter]

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