Greetings from a cool, wet Cape Town! It took us awhile to settle in once again but it is great to be home. Immediately, the phone began ringing as the African Christians realized we were back.
CAPE BIBLE SEMINARY
No rest for the weary. Bro Andre of the Monday night group and Reinaldo of the Tuesday cell group were the first in line for Cape Bible Seminary courses! It was great to be re-united with them once again and we started the sessions after notifying everyone.
Andre’s group is studying Christian Goals and Motivation; Reinaldo’s group is busy with the Will of God. A new member joined on Tuesday evening – Bro Jacques, an African Christian from the Congo. He speaks English, French and Swahili fluently and when I greeted him in Swahili, he was very surprised. (Swahili isn’t spoken anywhere in southern Africa – it is a language spoken in central Africa but I picked up a bit when I taught for two weeks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.)
Bro Jacques asked to speak with me privately and we met one day for coffee. He is keen to start a new work amongst Swahili speakers, legal immigrants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, eastern Congo, Burundi, Ruwanda and other countries. We are seriously investigating this possibility. Jacques is a dynamic Christian man, dedicated to the Lord. Please pray for this work. We can reach many new souls for Christ. An added bonus is when these immigrants return home for vacations or visit, they will take the gospel with them.
CONTAINER PROJECT
The pressure is on me to find a storage space big enough to sort, stack and distribute Bibles, books and Christian literature. In every church that Pat and I spoke, we told people about this project and our intention of establishing Cape Bible Seminary libraries in townships were there are no facilities. We were swamped with boxes, Bibles and books. There were a number of places where Pat and I were handed personal Bibles to take back with us. There was even one woman who threatened to empty the pews after church and scrounge any Bible left behind!
It is quite apparent that due to the responses by the churches and individuals, this is a long-term project. The church at Stroh (IN) once again donated a ton of Bibles to be sent to African Christians! Bob Snyder has tapped every source and collected hundreds of boxes of Christian materials. While we were on furlough, the Snyders took us down to Ft Wayne to a community welfare center and traded books – Roberta Snyder, a former school teacher, is loathe to toss away any book, even novels, and we donated all the unusable books for Bibles and New Testaments at the Ft Wayne welfare center. There is a standing arrangement now that Bob can trade whatever we can’t use for Christian books! In addition, two lady librarians in Denver (part of the Ferguson team which will be visiting in March 2006) have managed to secure an entire Container load of text books for schools and get the State of Colorado to ship it to South Africa! This is a tremendous blessing because the South African public school system has been under severe strain and cannot deliver books to pupils. With these text books, FROM AMERICA (a highly prized catch phrase!), the impact would be absolutely enormous!
Bob made one more invaluable suggestion: why not purchase a piece of land, build a small warehouse and additional storage rooms for rent? The rentals could be used to pay for Christian staff, security etc and this would then be a self-sustaining work! It is an excellent idea.
Land and warehouse space in Cape Town is expensive. But I have been combing contacts and talking to people to shake something loose. There are a few promising leads and I should have news soon. Please pray for this because it would be the final link in the Container chain to bring the tools and resources to the African peoples. We would appreciate any suggestions for funding for this long-term goal.
PERSONAL
Our return has been beset by gremlins. I know they’re not supposed to exist but it seems as if they were active in our home. Over the past few weeks, our hot water cylinder in the roof burst; there was an electrical fire in the kitchen main bus board; my e-mail system went completely on strike; a small flood threatened the boxes of books in the garage due to heavy downpours (we managed to avert it in time); and Pat nearly choked on a filling, which came loose while she was eating!
The gasoline price has gone through the roof as the barrel price of oil rose dramatically. This will set off inflation in the near future despite government assurances that it won’t. The Rand/Dollar exchange rate is half of what it was three years ago and we are feeling the pinch. But through it all, the Lord has provided.
We ask for your prayers during this time of transition. I would welcome any donations to the Gas Fund, which would assist us a great deal. I do not want to cut back on our trips into the internal to distribute Bibles and teaching materials. May the Lord continue to guide and bless you all.
Steve and Pat Zimmerman
S.A. Christian Mission, Cape Town
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