SURGERY, SCORPIONS and SCRIPTURE

28/12/2020

Combatting Cancer

As I was packing for the journey to Pretoria to conduct a Biblical Worldview Seminar, Lenora was preparing to be checked into hospital for a complex hip replacement surgery. This was just the latest in a 10-year battle against cancer. A PET scan and an MRI revealed that the whole of Lenora’s right hip was riddled with cancer and surgery was scheduled. Lenora’s primary concern was that this would prevent her from participating in Dragon boating and Choir! Every year this time, Lenora’s choir would be involved in Carols by Candlelight and Handel’s Messiah concerts. Lenora has not relished hanging up her paddle for the month of December and having to take up crutches instead. Yet, it is extraordinary what she has been able to organise and co-ordinate even from her hospital bed through her smartphone! I remain determined not to acquire any smartphone, content to leave those technological gadgets to my wife and children to master. Books, libraries, research, printing and publishing projects still remain my weapons of choice in the world war of worldviews

Running the Gauntlet of Lockdown Lunacy

To reach Pretoria where I was invited to conduct a Biblical Worldview Seminar and services, I was required to run the gauntlet of Lockdown regulations that solemnly had passengers maintaining social distancing in the airport and as they boarded the plane, only to be shoe-horned into the same crammed seating arrangements as had always existed before the so-called pandemic. Then, even more incredibly, instead of allowing passengers to meet their hosts through any of the many doors and along the long roads running past the terminal in Johannesburg, they closed all doors, except one and forced all disembarking passengers to meet their local hosts on level 2 of the adjoining parkade! With no apparent thought whatsoever as to the logistical nightmare and mega traffic jam that caused. The crush of thousands of people forced to cram through one entrance way in what looked like a Nigerian taxi rank scrum was just one of the logistical and illogical inconsistencies which the powers-that-be enforce under this masquerade.

Our couriers inform us that testing requirements led to monumental traffic jam delays of 5 days at Beit Bridge customs into Zimbabwe. Several people have literally died waiting in the summer heat at the border post!

Confronting the World War of Worldviews

I was requested to give presentations on: A Balanced Biblical Response to Lockdowns and Masks; The Biblical Role of Government; Weaponising Words and the War on Free Speech; Responding to Abortion Threats to the Sanctity of Life; How to Resist Marxist Bullying Tactics; Successful Strategies to Safeguard Farmers from Terrorist Attacks and Resisting Revolution with Reformation. In addition, I had two Sunday morning service ministry opportunities and many hours of responding to questions from the congregation and participants of the seminars. There was great interest in the book table and literature. Question and Answer sessions frequently lasted for hours and I was kept busy from 7 am to past midnight every day.

Scorpion in the Night
The first night, in the early hours of Saturday morning, I leapt out of bed as a sharp stabbing pain shot through my leg. My first thought was that I had a severe muscle cramp, but this was far more intense than the cramps that could come after a day of either mountain climbing, or moving tonnes of Bibles and books off a container and up and down ladders into the various book shelves. Throughout the day as I was presenting lectures and responding to questions, the pain in my leg only seemed to be intensifying. It was unlike any previous cramp I had experienced. Only after midnight, as I was preparing for bed, did I see that my thigh was swollen, red and inflamed and hot to the touch. Now I began to suspect that I had been bitten by a spider. It seemed in some way similar to a severe spider bite I had endured a few years ago.

Occupational Hazards
The next day was packed full and only by late Sunday night, did I ask my host if they had any anti-inflammatories, or cortisone cream. By the next morning, the swelling had gone down measurably, but the pain persisted. So, on arriving back in Cape Town, after visiting Lenora in the hospital, I went to visit our doctor to be examined. He concluded that it looked more like a sting than a bite. My leg was inflamed and swollen, hot and red. “You have been injected with venom,” he concluded. The sting was more consistent with that of a scorpion than my assumed spider bite. Well, it took a week of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory tablets, along with cortisone cream, to bring the swelling down and end the throbbing pain. It had not stopped me from completing all my duties and meetings, but it did seem strange that something that I would normally expect in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, or in the jungles of Mozambique, Angola, or the Congo, had managed to get me in Pretoria!

Bibles for Africa

By God’s grace, we received another container of Bibles, books, Sunday school materials and Gospel materials from Eagles Nest. Starting long before dawn, in the dark, we offloaded the 20-foot, 18-tonne container and sorted through the Scriptural materials, categorising and designating where they would be most needed, best appreciated and most effectively used for the fulfilment of the Great Commission.

Shipment to Zambia

By God’s grace, we shipped off 20-tonnes of Bibles, books, Sunday school materials and World Missionary Press Gospel booklets, in numerous languages, to Zambia. This transportation project was complex and required ingenuity by Jonathan to coordinate with our Zambian distributors and the company assisting in the transportation to overcome the considerable obstacles and logistical challenges across several borders. The literature had to be prepacked on pallets, waterproofed and then loaded.

“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

Special Projects

By God’s grace, designated gifts through Special Projects made possible another purchase of over $5,000 worth of Bibles in indigenous African languages for free distribution, where most needed and best appreciated. These were received with joy just before Christmas.

Quartermaster’s Store for Missions

Our Mission House is always a beehive of activity with pastors, missionaries, evangelists and teachers, chaplains and others, coming to Literature4Africa stores to obtain evangelistic, discipleship and teaching resources, as well as Home educators coming to Christian Liberty Books store for textbooks

Leadership Training

Participants of the Reformation Society come to join in on Thursday night presentation and activities each week. Sometimes we also conduct Home Education Workshops and Biblical Preaching Workshops for pastors and evangelists.

Local Outreaches

Our missionaries and interns are also involved in regular outreaches to resistant and needy communities within the Cape Peninsula. This includes door-to-door, street evangelism, literature distribution, one-on-one personal evangelism and hospitality to Muslim families, to introduce them to the teachings of Scripture and counselling and follow up for new converts.

Day of the Covenant

A new community up the West Coast invited me to come and lead their Day of the Covenant service on 16 December. Earlier in the year, I had conducted the first worship services in their community and delivered Sunday school and Bible study material to help them with a church plant. As Lenora was recovering from her operation, Calvin joined me in this drive a couple of hours north. At Zuidland, we quad biked, went to a shooting range with a wide variety of weapons to hit a variety of targets, followed by conducting a Day of the Covenant service and a traditional braai. You can view my Day of the Covenant presentation on SlideShare, here.

Radio and TV Ministry

Our Pioneers Network Recording Studio is already being used for recording From the Frontline and Salt and Light Radio programmes each week. Soon we will be offering video livestreaming of these as well. Each week there are also other regular programmes, such as with Radio Cape Pulpit – Christians Perspective on the News. Regular programmes with American, Australian and British broadcasts are an increasingly important way of communicating and responding to the challenges and crisis confronting us. Many of these programmes are being added to our audio and video archives on www.FrontlineMissionSA.org.

Biblical Worldview Summit – 30 Years

Please pray for our upcoming Leadership Training course, the Biblical Worldview Summit (4-11 January 2021). This January will mark 30 years since we first launched the Biblical Worldview Summit at Glenvar Bible College, January 1991. We praise God for 30 years of encouraging, equipping and empowering young people to understand the world war of worldviews and to be able to apply the Lordship of Christ to all areas of life.

Creation Science Engineer and Author to Visit
Dr. Philip Stott is to be our special guest speaker at the upcoming Biblical Worldview Summit. Dr. Stott will also conduct a livestream webinar on Creation vs Atheism on Wednesday, 13 January 2021.

Thank You

Thank you very much for all your prayers, encouragement and support, without which none of our ministries would be possible. Please pray for our upcoming outreaches, training programmes and cross-border missions.

Yours for the fulfilment of the Great Commission

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship

1 Comment