Prayer & Praise Update

​Missionaries Mobilised through the Great Commission Course

By God's grace, Frontline Fellowship has completed the Great Commission Course in Cape Town. Pastors, evangelists and missionaries came from Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Canada, South Africa and the USA to participate in this uniquely practical, hands-on missions training seminar.

At the end of the Great Commission Camp, 19 participants came forward to be prayed for in a Commissioning service. Each of these were going out on various short or long-term mission outreaches, including to Bangladesh, Nigeria, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Spain, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

​The Great Commission Course involved daily outreaches and practicals, starting with daily physical training every morning, intense lectures and multiple outreaches to railway stations, taxi ranks, bus stations, market places, door-to-door, prison ministry, film evangelism and visits to other missions. The programme often went on till after midnight with numerous night hikes.

The GCC participants distributed 40 000 Gospel booklets, primarily in Xhosa, English and Afrikaans and showed Christian films including the Jesus film in Xhosa, Afrikaans and English. In Khayelitsha, Guguletu, Dunoon, Msipumulele, Wellington, Velddrift, Villiersdorp and Philippi.

One Saturday aftenoon, GCC participants and Frontline missionaries engaged in soccer evangelism in Khayelitsha. There is a huge settlement of mostly Xhosa people. The missionaries beat the home team 5-0. That evening the church was packed out for the film evangelism and it was even more overflowing the next morning as I took a communion service and preached on Jesus – the lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). The next week the missionaries beat the Khayelitsha home team at Volleyball: 3-1.

Many of our GCC outreaches were to assist church planting projects. One church planting project in Khayelitsha, which last year was meeting in a home, for which we had rented a tent to hold the special outreaches in, this year had moved into a fine new building, including their pre-school and a large church hall - which was full on Sunday mornings.

The GCC participants took part in night-time prayer vigils and street outreaches outside several night-clubs, brothels and pornography shops in the sleazy part of the city; and prayer vigils, protests and side-walk counseling on Saturday mornings outside a Marie Stopes Abortion Clinic. Some of the participants had the joy of leading people to Christ in prisons and outside brothels and night- clubs.

One of the 5 hikes included a 7-hour climb up and over the full length and breadth of Table Mountain. The descent was accomplished in the dark. As with the other hikes, participants carried back- packs, each laden with over a thousand Scripture booklets in Arabic. Some of the hikes ran up and down river- beds so we had the Scripture booklets securely water- proofed.

Aside from daily PT, outreaches, lectures and hikes, there were several exams written as well. At the end of the course, while vast quantities of Gospel Literature, Bibles, books and audio-visual evangelistic equipment were being prepared for mission outreaches and teams to go across the boarder, some of the written responses from GCC participants included: “Outstanding. Completely amazing. The content of the lectures was incredible and inspiring. Different from what I have previously known or expected” ; “I have been challenged to only accept God’s best for my life. Mediocrity and complacency will not be tolerated in any area of my life”; “I have attended many missions conferences, but I have never been so inspired or practically equipped before”; “Boldness has been built within me; fear removed”; “I want to be completely obedient to God in every are of my life – to be faithful in all circumstances despite the consequences.”

Please do pray for all these pastors, evangelists and missionaries, and for our own field workers now that they have returned to their fields of service or are launching out across new boarders for Christ.

Missions Conference in Mpumalanga

The Great Commission Course was no sooner over, then I was preparing to travel up to Mpumalanga, where a Dutch Reformed Church had invited me to be the key-note speaker at their Missions Week. This was a very well organised Missions Conference. The flags of many nations were hanging from the rafters. A huge world map with the 10-40 Window highlighted dominated the front of the Church. Displays and literature tables of numerous missions lined the walls around the Church. And there were numerous missionaries from the United States, Canada, Egypt and South Africa participating.

One afternoon we had a consultation with those missionaries involved in the Muslim world. This included an Arabic-speaking official of the Bible Society working in the Middle-East, American missionaries dedicated to reaching the Beja people of Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan, a Missionary focussed on the church reaching the Turks (the largest unreached people’s group in the world) and an Irish missionary dedicated to reaching Muslims. There were also Canadian missionaries of Samaritan’s Purse who are working in Sudan, evangelists dedicated to reaching the people in Pretoria, and numerous other vital ministries represented.

What was also remarkable about this dynamic Missions Conference, was the amount of time dedicated to worship at the beginning of each session, and how after the missionary reports and presentations, the congregation would divide up into prayer groups and pray for half an hour at the end of each evening. There was a great hunger for missions books and literature, and at one point I was running out of books. At that point, a Frontline mission team, en-route to the field, was passing nearby and I was able to call them and have them re-supply me.

Missionaries Sent Out

At the end of the Great Commission Camp, Frontline Fellowship Honourary Member, Dr Fritz Haus, committed new FF trainee field workers from Canada and the USA to the Lord. He also commissioned Charl van Wyk as Deputy Director of Frontline Fellowship and Timothy Keller as a Field Director.

Tim is at this time leading our new North American trainee field workers on a series of outreaches across the border. Please do pray for them. This is expected to include Literature Evangelism, Film Evangelism, Bible distribution, outreaches amongst refugees, lecturing at a Bible College, ministering in Christian schools and conducting leadership- training seminars.

New Book Published

By God's grace, Biblical Principles for Africa is now available. Some years ago, I was meeting with General Godfrey Miyanda in Lusaka, Zambia. General Miyanda had also been a prisoner in Lusaka Central Prison under the Kaunda regime. General Miyanda later served as Vice-President of Zambia and as Minister of Education. On this occasion I delivered to him a pile of great Christian books to assist him in his ministry.

However, as General Miyanda looked at the high pile of books, he groaned: “Don’t you have a small book?” he asked. “That summarises all of these?”

It was in response to that challenge that Biblical Principles for Africa has been compiled. This compact 100-page book is a powerful discipleship tool and we are hoping to obtain sufficient sponsorship, to entrust to editors, pastors, teachers, businessmen and government officials throughout South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria (in fact, any country in Africa which has English as their official language).

If you are able to sponsor copies of this new Biblical Principles for Africa book for any of these countries, please contact Frontline Fellowship. We are also praying for sponsorship to have this book translated into French and Portuguese.

This week, Biblical Principles for Africa will be launched with a special book launch at Parliament, then a breakfast is planned for those involved in the book industry and media at Century City, and a Missions Rally will be held in the Pineland’s town hall to which the public is invited to on 22 August.

By faith, the initial printing of Biblical Principles for Africa has been 10 000. The book has been printed at Khanya Press, KwaSizabantu Mission, in KwaZulu Natal.

Please do pray for the impact of this strategic book. It is our earnest prayer that the Lord would be gracious to use this as a spiritual guided missile, as a patriot missile to intercept the scuds of humanism, socialism and Islam; a manual for blessings and a road map for Reformation and transformation - on the road to progress and prosperity for Africa.

“Declare His Glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.” Psalm 96:3

Dr Peter Hammond