“The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe.”
– Proverbs 18:10

ENTRUST:

Please join us in thanking God for the Gospel-centered ministry of friends from IX Marks, pastors Michael Lawrence (Capitol Hill Baptist Church; second from left) and Thabiti Anyabwile (First Baptist Church, Grand Cayman; far right), who recently spent two weeks teaching in South Africa.  They gave a series of keynote addresses at the annual conference of the Church of England South Africa (with which Entrust has strong ties), taught a course for Entrust participants and African Independent Church leaders on the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, and spoke at a variety of gatherings across South Africa.

Rev. Siegfried Ngubane (George Whitefield College), Michael Lawrence (IX Marks), Rev. Goodenough Mthembu (Entrust), Rev. Ray Brown (Entrust),
& Thabiti Anyabwile (IX Marks)

The strategic planning work with Entrust is bearing encouraging fruit.  In particular, beginning in January 2010, Michael Schäfer (currently the principal teacher for the Entrust Training Course, as well as a pastor in a local church) will become Entrust’s first full-time Director of Training.  Please pray for Michael as he seeks to lead Entrust in fulfilling its mission of “raising a new generation of Gospel workers.”

Please thank God for Entrust’s recent conferences — including the Midlands Men’s conference (attended by 200 men), the KZN Women’s Convention, and the Mid-Year Conference for university students (attended by 140 students from over a dozen African countries).  Please pray that, through Entrust, God will continue to be glorified .   Praise God, too, for the completion of several Entrust videos — an introduction to Entrust, an introduction to its campus ministry, and an overview of obstacles to the Gospel by Durban pastor Grant Retief, co-founder of Entrust.

BONGINKOSI:

Praise God for the faithful and enduring service of Bonginkosi’s staff (Principal Zodwa Molefe, teacher Thembekile Meyiwa, cook Phumzile Madlala, gardener Ngqaphuna “Gogo” (“Grandma”) Nkabinde, and Shakespeare-reciting caretaker Sipho Sheyi), who love and teach and care for the children of Bonginkosi day in and day out, even in the midst of trials and suffering.
Please pray for the safety of Bonginkosi’s staff and children (all of whom live near the school in Edendale Township), especially for “Gogo” (the gardener), an elderly widow who lives alone in a very basic mud hut and who recently witnessed the slaughter of a young man (for a pair of sandals) on her property. The murderers are still at large, and she was initially unable to stay in her home for fear that she would be harmed by the perpetrators.  Praise God that, through the generosity of several of you, a security fence has been constructed around her home to provide her with a measure of safety — please pray that she would see God’s hand in that provision and would give Him all the glory!

“Gogo” at her home with Bonginkosi’s caretaker, Mr. Sheyi
CHURCH ON THE RIDGE:

Praise God for the recent completion of a Zulu translation of the Westminster Children’s Catechism by our friend Hlengiwe Mkhize (below, left), a second-year law student at UKZN who faithfully attends Church on the Ridge (COR), and Rev. Goodenough Mthembu (of Entrust).  The Catechism will be taught to the children of the Bonginkosi School and is also available on our website.

Hlengiwe, Peter, Annie, Thembile, and Charlie celebrating Thembile’s birthday

Praise God for the formation of another midweek Bible study group and for the recent installation of three new deacons, and please pray for COR’s continuing outreach to UKZN students, from amongst whom will come many of the future government and business leaders of KZN and South Africa.

OUR FAMILY:

Praise God for a wonderful visit recently with our friends Matt & Christine Gibbs (whom we met at Church on the Ridge last year), both of whom are doctors working under extremely trying conditions in a rural government hospital just south of the Mozambique border.  Tuberculosis is nearly universal among their patients (including multi-drug resistant and extreme drug resistant forms), and HIV infection tops 80%.  Please pray that they would be encouraged in their faith and strengthened in their work, as they share with their patients Christ’s healing power, both spiritual and physical.

The Doctors Gibb(s) serving in rural KwaZulu-Natal

Thabiti Anyabwile and Michael Lawrence’s recent stay with us was also a great encouragement to our whole family.  (As you can see from the photo below, our children have become big Manchester United soccer fans this year!)

Praise God for improving family health (hopefully!), after more than four months of various ongoing illnesses.

Please let us know how we may be praying for you!!
Every blessing in Christ,
Paul & Kristi, Peter, Annie, & Charlie
]]> http://passarofamily.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/710/feed/ 0 passarofamily SANY2284crop 2009Jun03_2477 SANY1066~2 SANY0971~1 SANY1371~1 SANY2430 SANY1224crop http://passarofamily.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/694/ http://passarofamily.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/694/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:15:21 +0000 passarofamily http://passarofamily.wordpress.com/?p=694 ]]> Paul & Kristi Nominated for Worst Parents of 2009!

• for the resolution of the illegal tenant situation
• for additional donations for furnishings for Phases I & II and for construction of Phase III
• for a smooth transition to the new building
• for wisdom for the trustees in deciding how to make the best use of the current building.

Exchange students from Azusa Pacific University (California) preparing the new site for sod laying (with donated sod from local farmers)

Overcrowding in the current school building

Charlie and a Bonginkosi buddy

Please join us in praying for Christ-centered revival and reformation within the South African Church and across the nation.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an
inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade — kept in heaven for you”
— I Peter 1:3,4

Jesus said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." - John 14:6

Living in South Africa also helps us learn to focus on our ultimate home in another way.  We own a house in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  That house is our home, and yet it is also not our home.  It is our permanent residence, to which we’ll be returning on April 9.  It is also where we keep all of our belongings and where we’ve made a lot of memories.  And, yet, when we tell Charlie after a long morning of errands that, yes, we’re finally going home, we obviously don’t mean that we’re going back to Chapel Hill just then (or “now now,” as South Africans would say!).  The house in which we’re living here in Pietermaritzburg is, in a very real sense, also our home right now — it’s where we eat, rest, shower, play.  But it’s also not our home, because it belongs to our friend Rose (whose graciousness in extending such hospitality to our family of five is astounding!).  Being in South Africa — not just living in other people’s homes (more than half a dozen to date, since we left NC on September 1, 2006), but living in a foreign culture, surrounded by foreign languages (at 11, South Africa has the greatest number of official languages of any country in the world) — is a good reminder that, ultimately, NO PLACE on earth (not Pietermaritzburg, not Chapel Hill, not anywhere) is truly our home.  The fact that we are “aliens and strangers” here in South Africa (a fact reinforced by many recent visits to the SA Department of Home Affairs, to renew our visas until April) is a good reminder to us that we are also “aliens and strangers” in this world (I Peter 2:11) — and, again, the strangeness and sometimes discomfort of living here for a season encourage us once more to hold loosely to the things of earth as we learn to yearn for heaven.