Literature Shipments Offloaded Despite Lockdown Limitations

​Despite South Africa being on one of the most severe lockdowns, which, for the previous five weeks, even mobilised the army to prevent people from exercising, or walking the dog outside of their property, we managed to go through all the red tape necessary to clear two container shipments of Bibles, Christian books, Sunday school materials and Gospel booklets, over 35 tonnes of Scriptural material. One of these containers was scheduled to arrive more than a month before, but because of the lockdown actually only arrived a week ago. However, because of the lockdown we were unable to have it cleared through customs and delivered before now. Due to customs being closed during this lockdown period, we were not able to apply for our VAT clearance certificate on either container. This led to extra unforeseen costs on both shipments of free Bible resources and Scriptural booklets.

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Moving Mountains of Materials
On Saturday 2 May, despite the severe travel restrictions still in force, our office manager, Colin, managed to get all the papers necessary for several of us to travel through and offload these precious cargoes. The 20-foot container of 17 tonnes of Bibles and books from Eagle's Nest needed to be offloaded by hand. The 40-foot container shipment contained World Missionary Press Gospel booklets, all palletised. This required us to search for a forklift and by God's grace a Christian owned business nearby loaned us one of theirs for the day. As Colin has had lots of experience driving a forklift, he was able to offload the WMP 40-foot container’s 17 pallets in record time. ​

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Frontline Gym
It took many more hours for the few of us available to offload the 17 tonnes of Bibles and books from the Eagle's Nest container. It had arrived shortly after 6 AM in the dark and by 11 AM everything was offloaded. Those of us involved in sorting, categorising and designating of the Bibles and books were busy until just before sunset. You can view pictures of these container shipments and the offloading operation on the Literature4Africa Facebook page.

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Thank You
We give thanks to God for all those who had a hand in printing, donating, supplying, preparing, packaging, loading, shipping and financing these vital literature resources. For several weeks our Literature4Africa ministry has been receiving desperate and urgent requests for Bibles, books and Sunday school materials. With Table Bay Harbour in lockdown, no “non-essential items” were being delivered and it did not seem that any end to the lockdown was in sight. We praise God for this magnificent and timely answer to many prayers. "For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

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Spiritual Ammunition
Please pray for our Literature4Africa manager, Jonathan, as he contacts and coordinates with the many pastors, teachers, chaplains, evangelists and distributors who are ensuring that these precious educational, evangelistic and discipleship materials are entrusted into the hands of those who most need and will best appreciate and use these Bibles, books, Gospel booklets and Sunday school materials to fulfil the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16

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Bibles for Africa
We have requests from all over South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Nigeria and even further afield. According to Operation World, there are 500 million people in Africa who call themselves Christians. There are 100 million churchgoers in Africa who do not yet have a Bible, nor even a New Testament. Please pray for our couriers and contacts as they seek to deliver and distribute the life transforming Scriptures and Bible teaching resources which have been entrusted to us, to where they are most needed. "So shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11

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The Power of the Printed Page
The written Word can go where and when the human voice cannot.
Literature is the most cost-effective way of proclaiming the Gospel.

It has no passport or visa problems.
It knows no fear.
It never loses its temper.
It never tires.
It is never discouraged.
It can tell its story over and over again.
It can be received, read and studied, in secret.
It speaks without an accent.
It never compromises.
The written Word is more permanent than the human voice.
A drop of ink may make a million think!
 
"So then Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Romans 10:17
 
"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…" Romans 1:16
 
To view a PowerPoint presentation of The Power of the Printed Page, click here. 
To view a video of You Are What You Read, click here.

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