Prayer and Praise Update - April 2016

​LET THE EARTH HEAR HIS VOICE

Dear Friends

Greetings in the precious Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing Psalms to Him; talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy Name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore! Remember His marvellous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth." 1 Chronicles 16:8-12

New Publications Produced
We praise God for a series of vital publications completed and received back from the printers in time for our field teams to deliver throughout South Africa and across the border to donate to Bible Colleges, Missions, churches and Evangelists.

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​Biblical Faith and Modern Counterfeits
There is much talk about faith, but little understanding of what faith is. Too many people think of faith as "a blind leap into the dark" – the very opposite of reason and logic. Others think of faith as wishful thinking, along the line of "wishing upon a star". It would seem that many people are confusing presumption with Faith. There is a tremendous need for clarification on what Biblical Faith is all about. This new booklet, Biblical Faith and Modern Counterfeits, forms part of our Firm Foundations for Your Faith series, which already include The Apostles Creed and The Authority of Christ and The First Day Sabbath. These booklets are particularly designed for distributing to each participant at our seminars, camps and courses.

Biblical Preaching Handbook
Three of our Missionaries, Rev. John Clifford, Rev. David Frew and Hunter Combs, rose to the challenge to provide a practical handbook for pastors in rural Africa, many of whom have not had the benefit of Bible College training. John, David and Hunter have produced an excellent Biblical Preaching Handbook which deals with Biblical foundations, principles of Hermeneutics and Exegesis, how not to preach, how to preach with power and how to practically prepare Biblically faithful sermons. The first edition of this Biblical Preaching Handbookis being field tested and will be revised in time for our next field outreaches.

The Greatest Century of Missions
Our first edition of The Greatest Century of Missions, first published in 2002, was very successful and received endorsements from Dr. James Kennedy, Dr. George Grant, Patrick Johnstone, and numerous other leaders worldwide. The 6,000 copies of that edition were soon distributed to our field contacts or sold out. SIM requested thousands of copies of this book as part of their youth leaders training kit for East African churches. As a result, as soon as I had completed the editing of Rev. Bill Bathman's Going On, and our Putting Feet to Your Faith book, needed as a textbook for our Great Commission Camp and Course, Colin and I focused on completely revising, updating and expanding The Greatest Century of Missions. This book now has 220 pages and includes 200 pictures, maps and charts. Numerous schools have used it as a History textbook and English reader, and homeschoolers have integrated it into their curriculum. It is also being requested as a Missions and History textbook in Bible Colleges.

Old Testament Survey
Sola Scriptura! was the battle cry of the Reformation. Scripture alone is our ultimate authority. However, while all Christians claim to believe the Bible, few seem to have actually read the whole Bible. Our professor of Old Testament at Baptist Theological College, Dr. Fritz Haus, regularly asked the students how many had actually read the OT book, which we had been focusing on for the semester. Incredibly, only a minority of the students could say that they had actually read the Bible book we were studying! Some commented that they had read the commentary! To this Dr. Haus would reply: "You do not read the cook book and skip the meal!".

On one occasion, Dr. Fritz Haus, asked the assembled college students, of all years, at a Chapel service, how many had read the whole Bible. Some started to put their hands up as one asked: "You mean the New Testament?" To this Dr. Haus smiled and replied: "No, I mean the whole Bible." Hands went down throughout the college.

Surprisingly few Christians can articulate the central message, or clear distinctives, of each Book of the Bible. We know this, because for over three and a half decades of ministry in the streets, market places and shopping malls, across the continent, where we have engaged in personal one-on-one Evangelism and surveys, it is clear that there is a pervasive ignorance of the Bible. Even at our camps and courses, and at Bible Colleges, we can see from the responses to the Bible Exam that most students, and even a surprising numbers of lecturers, are ignorant of central doctrines of the Scripture and even major events in Redemption History.

This Old Testament Survey is the first part of our Bible Survey. It has taken three years of study to produce. The messages summarising each Book of the Old Testament, as presented to Livingstone Fellowship, are now also available in an audio and data MP3 boxset. God willing, in two years we should be able to also offer the New Testament Survey.

The Old Testament Survey consists of 288 pages and includes 37 pictures, maps, and chronologies. (The Old Testament Survey Audio and Data MP3 boxset includes 42 audio sermons, over 28hrs of preaching and teaching, and 39 PDF sermon notes. Several Bible Colleges have already been requesting the Old Testament Survey to use as textbooks.

May God be pleased to use these new publications to challenge Christians to go back to the Bible, to study every Book of the Bible, to apply the central messages of each Book of the Bible to our daily lives. May God mercifully grant us Biblical Reformation and spiritual Revival.

New Tracts Available
By God's grace we have produced seven new tracts so far this year, including: The Hard Words of Jesus, How Can I Know That Jesus is the Messiah, Vocation Provides Purpose and Direction, Stamina, The Return of the Judaizers, The Heart and Soul of Karl Marx (also available in Afrikaans) and Risen. These have all been placed on our websites for anyone to download and print, for outreaches in their neighbourhoods. We now have over 60 Evangelistic and Discipleship tracts and leaflets available for download on www.frontline.org.za.

Risen Outreaches
The release of the epic new film RISEN provided an excellent Evangelistic opportunity and to we produced a tract entitled Risen, to distribute to film-goers and neighbours. Using the poster design of the Risen film on the cover, we presented the compelling cases of the research of skeptics into the evidences for the Resurrection. Our Missionaries conducted multiple outreaches at different shopping centres in and around Cape Town, which led to numerous productive Evangelistic discussions. In each case we found the cinema complexes and shopping mall managements open to our literature distribution and Evangelistic campaign over the Easter season. Having an Evangelistic tract designed to dovetail with a new cinema release certainly seemed to make more secular people open and responsive to the Gospel.

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​Mission Milestone
34 Years ago this month, Frontline Fellowship launched its first cross-border Mission to Mozambique. At that time Mozambique was a war-torn, Marxist dictatorship that had confiscated, closed, or destroyed, over 8,000 church buildings, incarcerated 300,000 people in concentration camps and publically executed 75,000 people. Bibles were banned and Missionaries forbidden. Nobody under 18 was allowed in a church. It was into this most unpromising situation that I rode on my off-road motorbike with Bibles, New Testaments and Gospels in Portuguese and Shangaan, and a 16mm copy of the Jesus film.

Return to Mozambique
Last month, my younger daughter, Daniela, visited Mozambique. She reported a vibrant country of friendly people delighted to receive Gospel literature in their language. When Frontline Fellowship was launched, Operation World described Mozambique as the least evangelised country in the Southern hemisphere, with less than one Bible for every thousand people. Barely 4% of the country could be described as Protestant. Today over 30% of the population of Mozambique are Protestant, Evangelical, and Bible-believing Christians. You may be interested in reading the article I wrote Mozambique Revisited, on our www.frontline.org.za website.

Remembering Rwanda
April also marks the 22nd anniversary of the Rwandan holocaust. In response to articles that I wrote: Lessons from the Rwandan Holocaust and The Holocaust in Rwanda – 22 Years Later, I received numerous requests for interviews on radio and TV internationally.

Ministry Milestones
It was on 3 April 1977, 39 years ago, that I first heard the Gospel and was converted to Christ. The same night I was convinced of my call to Missions. What an adventure of discipleship it has been since then! Earlier this year we also marked 10 years of Livingstone Fellowship, the Reformation Society and JOY! Magazine. 2006 was really a watershed year for our Mission and family. Lenora organised a 10 year anniversary supper for the Cancer Survivors Dragon Boat team which she chairs.

Literature4Africa
We have already received, offloaded and sorted through four container shipments of Bibles and books this year. Multiplied tonnes of Bibles and books have been sent out through chaplains, Evangelists and Missionaries, to Bible Colleges, churches and schools throughout South Africa and across the border far and wide. To save the cost of hiring a forklift when pallets need to be either offloaded or loaded, we purchased a hand operated high lift pallet jack. This has enabled us to, on occasions, prepare and load, or offload, up to 20 pallets a day of Bibles and books needed for Missions outreaches and College library donations.

New Staff and Missionary Interns
At the beginning of this year it was a joy to welcome my daughter, Daniela, onto our staff as the new Designer. You will have noticed her distinct style and professionalism has greatly improved all of our publications, websites, adverts, posters, leaflets, tracts, manuals and books. We also welcomed two new Missionary interns, Francis and Joseph (who comes from America), They both completed the Great Commission Course and joined our Livingstone Missionary School, 18 month in-service Missionary Apprenticeship programme.

Christian Liberty Books
At the beginning of March, we were delighted to welcome Nick as the new Manager of Christian Liberty Books. With no manager for CLB over December, January and February, our Mission Manager, Colin, and later Tershia, had to fill the gap. They were tremendously assisted by Francis, who worked long and hard to re-organise the Bookshop while providing the textbooks ordered by homeschoolers and others dependant on the ministry, all while juggling other duties.

University Outreaches
Even before the riots began on campus, our Missionaries Taryn and Abrie have been involved in a regular range of outreaches to university students and supplying Bibles, New Testaments, Gospel booklets, discipleship and evangelistic materials to campus ministries. Our interns soon joined in these campus outreaches and school assembly presentations.

Boxes With Love
Boxes with Love have also been prepared for pensioners, prisoners and pastors suffering under communistic dictatorship. This is one of our longest standing Love in Action projects. Since 1982, we have been delivering Boxes with Love to some of the most needy, suffering people in Zimbabwe.

Guests at Livingstone House
Along with the normal projects and activities at Livingstone House, we have had the joy of receiving guests from as far afield as Russia and the United States. This weekend we will be hosting members of Healthcare Christian Fellowship for a Consultation. Hospital Christian Fellowship (HCF), as it was known then, was the first Mission that I served with. The lessons learned from Uncle Francis Grim, the Founder of HCF, were foundational for my ministry in the military and in the establishing of Frontline Fellowship, over 34 years ago.

Social Media
In the last month, we have launched a series of new Facebook pages, including: Christian Liberty Books, Livingstone Fellowship, Greatest Century of Missions, Going On, Great Commission Camp and Course and Vikings4Christ.

On the Road
Please pray for our Missionaries, John and Joseph in Zambia, Ryno at Back to the Bible Training College in Mpumalanga and Lenora who is in Arizona at this time. At the end of May I will be leading a Frontline Team on a South Africa Mission, which will include ministering at a variety of Christian schools, churches, Bible colleges, conferences and seminars.

Ordination
Warm congratulations to our Missionary David Frew on the successful completion of his studies and ordination by his congregation in Limpopo. David has excelled in the field and in studies and is invaluable at our Great Commission Camps and Courses and conducting seminars in the field.

"Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all…"1 Chronicles 16:23-25

Thank you
We are most grateful for your prayers, encouragement and support, without which, none of our ministries would be possible. Thank you for all that you do to enable this Mission in Africa to advance.

May God continue to be your joy and strength.

Yours for the fulfilment of the Great Commission

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email: [email protected]
Website:www.frontline.org.za


Your support is needed and much appreciated.
Our banking details are:

(For South African supporters)
Acc. Name: Frontline Fellowship
First National Bank – Rondebosch
Branch code: 201509
Acc. No: 5017 0589 260
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(For overseas supporters)
Acc. Name: Frontline Fellowship
First National Bank – Rondebosch
Acc. No: 5017 0589 260
Swift No: FIRNZAJJ
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