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8/21/2019 Nicholson Alvin Vernita 1972 SAfrica
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Vol .
13, No.
1
NEWS
WITH
THE
NICHOLSONS
January 1972
^ e a r
Friends;
We do pray
t h a t
you have had a very Happy Christmas
and t h a t
God
s h a l l grant
you a Happy
and
p r o s p e r o u s New Year .
We
had
Chri stmas Dinner
a t
our home
with
Lynn,
L u c i l l e ,
Debbie, Michael
and
Carol
Stanley
and
two widow
l a d i e s
from
Port
Shepstone. I t
was
a
happy and
enjoyable day. New Year 's Day
j^ e
met th e S ta nl ey s
a t
one of
the beaches for a
picnic lunch and
swimming l a t e r
in the day.
Well;
one
of the
big
quest ions has
been solved f o r a
while a t l e a s t . That i s ,
what i s
going to happen to
the
d o l l a r and
o t h e r
currency. For us in South Africa , the Rand
was
devalued
a l i t t l e
more than
the
d o l l a r ,
so our
s a l a r i e s
went
up
a
l i t t l e . However, it w i l l
nean more income tax and a
probable
r i s e in the price of gasoline which i s already
high;
also
a
r i s e in
the
p r i c e of a l l imported
i tems. So we
expect it to
even o u t .
Since the dock s t r i k e on the East Coast was_set t led, we have begun ho get a t r i c k l e of
second
c l a s s mail , so
suppose t h a t
s h o r t l y we s h a l l r e c e i v e some of the
Christmas
boxes and
-lope
t h a t o u r s s h a l l r e a c h t h o s e we
s e n t
t o
i n
t h e S t a t e s .
amp
a t
Johannesburg
was a
most enjoyable
time for us.
Going to the
Johannesburg area,
stayed
with
Pete Jones a t Springs. Sunday a f t e r the
missionaries
had enjoyed
dinner
with
ine
of
the
famil ies
from Craighall Park ch urch , th ey
loaded
our
pickup
with food f o r the week,
3o we
were
able to provide a l i t t l e
e x t r a
help in t h i s way. We
taught
two c l a s s e s , one f o r
the older children and the other
for
the younger ones,
and had
a par t in two evening work
s h o p s This
l e f t
us
plenty of
time for v i s i t i n g
and swimming. Three of
the
young
people
were
lapt ised a t amp
and
a mother called the Jones on Sunday following camp
to
say two of her
chi ldren
wanted
to
be
baptized
and
the f a t h e r
had
given h is consent . We spent the week end
it the
Jones before
returning back
to
Port Shepstone.
Several
people
t h a t
we had thought
would s t a r t
school a t the close of t h i s
month
hav
now written that
they will not
be coming . I
thought
perhaps I would
not
be making a
t r i p
a f t e r s t u d e n t s t h i s
t ime, b u t
th er e a r e
s e v e r a l
t a s k s I can do. One of t h e m i n i s t e r s has
isked me
to
speak f o r him as
well , so
I wil l make the t r i p about the
end
of the
month.
One
>f the men who spent a
year
in school has
been
in t h i s
area , Port
Shepstone, with h is in- laws.
They
will
be
returning
to
h i s
home
and
he
i s
going
to
help
one
of
the
churches
out
for
a
i m e
in the
Cape.
I
would
also l ike
to keep
pressing a t Umtata
to
see i f we can get a home
f o r
t h e m i n is te r t h e r e .
We
will be teaching t hr ee c la ss es a t school when school opens. Already I have plans
j iade
for much more traveling and can do this by changing th e te aching schedule j u s t a l i t t l e
l o w
.
Jamas' passed h i s Junior year a t
school
and
i s
now a t
t h a t
a l l impor tan t year --The
year
of matri'c or
the_year
of
th e big
examination. He
not looking
forward
to
i t , and
shall
have
o r e a l l y work. His plans-
are,
po re turn
to
the States and
to
school
a t
Minnesota
Bible
College
jhen_h_e.~ iai-shes-here.
Fray especially for the work of evangelism
as
we seek to
strengthen
the churches and
increase
t h e i r ou tr ea ch du ri ng
t h i s year of 1972
Yours
i n
t h e M a s te r s S er v ic e ,
A lv in , V e rn it a
James
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_ 71^72
N WS WITH THE NICHOLSONS
1
Vol.
13 No. 2 February, 1972
e a r
C h r i s t i a n
F r i e n d s ,
Last week s t a r t e d o f f with
things
in
a
turmoi l . Enock Zobolo s
o l d e s t
son
had
been
working
for us to make some money
so he
could
get
some
things
for school. He
did not get
u s
school
marks
u n t i l
near the
l a s t
of
the
month.
Then
they
had
to
c a l l
the
school
where
iie had applied for admittance, to see i f they had
accepted
him.
They had and they sent him
^
concession
so he could
t ravel
by student
t icket to
school.
When
he came
with his mother to
je t
the t r a i n on the 31st o f Janaury, he found t h a t there was no
place
for him as i t was
f u l l ,
,^e
could
not have gotten
to
Durban in time
to
catch the t r a i n from
there.
So I
cal led
Lynn
Stanly
who
needs t o
go to Durban and we went to Durban
to
do a few things and
then
on north
T)f
Durban another 100 miles to
school.
I f the boy had
not
been present to regis ter for
school
)n
Tuesday morning, he would not have
been accepted for there
are
so many who desire
places
th r
Alpheus
has
done very well in
school but
while he has
been
with the
same
c l a s s
as
James
each year, he w i l l have
to
take two years to f inish where James has only t h i s year.
Then Tuesday noon, I went
back to
Durban v;ith Lynn so as to drive his pickup back and
.^hile they had called him
and
told him his
things
were ready, they were not. So much time
was
spent
wai t ing t o
f ind
out
what
was going on.
S a tu rd a y, V e rn it a and I went
t o Pondoiand
t o d e l i v e r
some
m a t e r i a l s
t h e r e .
Most
im
portant were the windows and
door
frames for the church at Xopoco. They
have about
enough
JDlocks for t h e i r building,
and
I did not v/ant to hold
them
up with the work for
it
will be
sometime before 1 get that way
again.
Some of the
people
were waiting
for
us,
for
I
had
telegraramed
the
minister ,
but because o f ra ins they
were
not able
t o get
bread
and
some
other
things
they wanted and
gave
us only t inned baked beans, peaches
and
tea ,
but
even
t h i s
we
vere
happy for. (Also
gave me
a chicken
to
cook for
Alvin,
when we
get
home
since they
. ladn t prepared
one).
On the way back, we
then
stopped to see the Sogon I s . They
ask
us to
bring
bananas each time
we come and
they
sel l
them. He liad
just
f in ished putt ing a
porch
on
^ h e
square
house.
Mrs.
Sogoni has
a knitting machine and had knit ted and
sold
enough
sweaters
in December to
buy
a
big
iron
wate r ta nk .
She had sold j u s t
about
80.00
worth
o f
goods and paid
66.50 for
the tank. They
asked
that I bring
six
pockets of cement when I come
^gain, and
t o
look f o r some
k i t c h e n
and
d i n i n g
room f ur ni t u re f o r
them. I
had two
s t e e l
drums
;hich
t he S tanl eys
had used
to
bring back
used
clothing
and these he had sold to Stephen
Kwetshubi, m i n i s t e r n e a r Bizana. But when we a r r i v e d
t h e r e
we found t h a t
he
was in th e hos
pital in Bizana. It
was
getting close to 6 p.m., but I stopped
and saw
him for a little bit.
.hey had
taken
x-rays of his chest,
but
had nor. told him what was wrong.
There are 16 students in school, eind only
three
of them were
pre.sent l a s t
year. Some
a l r e a d y
show
that t hey shou ld
do
very well
and the others we
shall
know b e t t e r about
a f t e r they
lave
had a chance to get s e tt le d b e tt er in school. I am teaching three
classes
Hoseal,
Joel
and
mos f o r Second year. Orientat ion
and
Stewardship
for the f i r s t year. Then I II Corinthian
^ l a s s , but f i n d
t h a t
the
ones they have got ten are
going
t o
cost
much
more
than
the
f i r s t one
[ had bought. I was paying the
greater
share of the cost of the books.
Twenty
one
baptisms have been reported during the l a s t month.
May
the Lord bless and
keep you
a l l . Yours
in C h r i s t ,
The N i c h o l s o n s
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FIN NCI L REPORT
FOR
LVIN N VERNIT NICHOLSON
J NU RY 1,
1971 - DECEMBER 31, 1971
I n c o m e
Balance December
31,
1971
662.43
Cont r ibut ions 11,259.33
R e f r i g e r a t o r Fund 38.50
P e r s o n a l
2 8 . 0 0
Savings Account 509.36
Tota l 12,497.62
D i s b u r s e m e n t s
Working Fund 5,450.00
Salary
-
Sent
t o
F i e l d 3,950.00
Savings
J a n .
Feb, .
A p r i l May 1970,
March, April , May
August,
Dec.
1971)
5 0 9 . 3 6
P e r s o n a l
1 9 5 . 6 4
4 6 5 5 . 0 0
P e r s o n a l G i f t s 1 0 6 . 0 0
M i s s i o n
S e r v i c e s 3 7 8 . 1 1
I n t e r n a l Revenue 3 1 0 . 5 0
Safety Deposit
Box
6.00
I n s u r a n c e
1 9 9 . 9 2
V i s u a l
Aid
M a t e r i a l 3 4 6 . 2 6
N e w s l e t t e r
9 6 . 4 8
T o t a l 11,548.27
Balance
December
31, 1971 949.35
FORWARDING
AGENT:
M r s . R i c h a r d H a n s o n
1 6 6 4 2
G an no n A ve. W
Rosemount,
Minn. 55068
NEWS
WITH THE NICHOLSONS
Mailed
b y . . .
F i r s t
C h r i s t i a n
Church
Camp P o i n t I l l i n o i s
RETURN REQUESTED
C 7 1972
P e t t y
Cash
Balance Dec. 31,
C o n t r i b u t i o n s
o t l
D i s b u r s e m e n t s
Stamps
Postage
Supplies
T o t a l
1 9 7 1
8.50
7 0 . 0 0
78.50
54.59
2 3 . 9 1
7 8 . 9 0
Savings
Account
Travle
Fund
t r a n s
ferring to
Personal
Account)
Balance December 31,
1970
655.39
I n t e r e s t 2 9 . 9 9
S a l a r y
509.36
Tota l
1,194.74
D i s b u r s e m e n t s
To
check ing account 509.36
Balance 685.38
Non-Profi t
Organizat ion
U . S . POSTAGE
1 . 7 ^
PAID
Camp Point ,
I l l i n o i s
P e r m i t
No. 7
M i s s io n
3 e : v i c e s
B o x 1 7 7
KSMPTON,
IND, *:c049
n
n
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- >
/g
I I
NICHOLSONS
Vol.
May
1972
Dear
F r i e n d s
The
f i r s t
touches of
winter
are beginning
t o
make
t h e m s e l v e s f e l t . e have
j u s t
has a
good rain
a f t e r two months
which
makes us happy but does
add
to the
cold
for
i t
l t
snow
o n t h e
m o u n t a i n s .
The
garden
a t
school
i s growing
well
but
we
have
ha s
to
keep
busy
watering
i t
both
by pump
and
by
can.
We have been slow ed some in
planting
for we have
had
to go back to
digging by
hand
for the l i t t l e garden t rac tor is awaiting spares from America. They
have
one
sold h e r e
but
it
i s
made
i n E ngla nd so
t h e r e are some
d i f f e r e n c e s .
I
took
a long weekend t r i p to Mqanduli near Umtata to help
them f ix
the roof on the
church. But Saturday
morning when I
went
to
get
the t imbers
that were
needed
they
did
not have them. So we got a l l things
in
order that i s ordered and
paid
for them and with
in
the next
couple
of weeks
they should
have the
roof
back on again. One of the men a t
Lbatatei S a_quali.fied bui lder and
he wi l l do
the work
for
us. e
hadgood
mee ti ngs wifh
t h e
c h u r c h .
Brother John Sibinda who i s m in is te r fo r that area has recently moved into Umtata
which wil l make it p os sib le fo r him to do a closer work
with
the
churches of t h a t area.
e
hope to
see a greater
growth through out the central
Transkei. At
Idutywa in the
same
c i r c u i t
we want to put up a building of about 10 by 15 feet which can be used
u n t i l a church bui lding
i s b u i l t
then
t h i s
can be divided
an d
used f o r the
minis ter
when
he
i s
v i s i t i n g
there .
One weekend was sp en t w ith the work o f Brother
Isaac
Nomazele
near
Lusickis ik i .
This work has
been
going very s lowly. Mostly I
am
sure because
of
the area. Part of
the
area
is used for
trying
to grow Dagga which is
like Indian
emp or
marijuana.
The South African police have
been very
busy
seeking
to destroy a i l
that they
can find.
They have written in
the
papers that i t i s I think five times stronger than that grown
in Mexico. The
fines for
growing or selling
i t are
very
s t i f f but
the
profits are
so high
i f
they
get
by
with
i t that
there are s t i l l
many who grow
i t .
Pray for
our
camps. The ministers of this area met on the 3rd to make plans for the
camp
in
this area.
There are
four places that want camps but now i t seems that the
c losing date
of the African
schools has been
moved
to
the same time as the European
Schools so this is squeezing us for time. One camp I had hoped to
hold
when I took the
students home from school but now i t wil l
have
to be about two weeks l a t e r . Perhaps the
whole family will be able
to
go
to
that area then. Here at
Port
Shepstone i t
is
the plan
to
rent
a
church
camp from another church group .
Vemita
has
been
working on
questions from the book of Genesis for
use
of
the church
in
their
teaching
program. In
visiting the churches
I always spend some
time now in
question and answer
periods.
I f i r s t ask them general
bible
questions and then
give
them
an
opporutnity
to
ask
questions
which
they
may
have.
With
this
then
we
can
urge
them
to
do
more
studying
and point out their great need fo r bible study.
Thru an auction sale we with
the Stanleys
have been
able to get
a three year
old
Gestetner
d up li ca to r f or about. . 100> . This was a good buy for the new ones are about 6
times that amount. The one we have been using was getting so old that they
did not
like
t o
work
on
it l e s t something break an d they could not f ix i t .
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Fo r
many years the s t r e e t t h a t runs by our home has b ee n n ar ro w and often rough.
Bu t now they have graded
i t
out wide and
p ut
on
s o i l
t h a t makes a
hard
base as
well
as putting
in
a
drainage
system and they are making
plans
to
t a r
the road during the month
of
July.
I t is very
nice
as before two small c ars could
hardly
pass
in
some of
th e
places. I t will probably
mean
higher taxes but we haven t
had
to
pay
ou t anything
else
for i t so we
are
no t complaining. What
we
need
to
do is
find
a
way to surface
our o\m
d r i v e . We
a r e
on
a h i l l s o it
o f t e n
washes w i t h t h e
r a i n s .
James
is finding this last year of
school to be
rather
heavy. They have been
giving
them a
great
deal of homework With two rugby
practices
and one
game
each week,
his
part
is
Student
Christian
Association
at
school
and
the
Friday
night
youth
meeting
he
f in ds h im se lf
busy
a l l the time.
Brother
Qwemesha s milk cow was
killed
when i t was
bitten
by a snake.
This leaves
him with out a milk cow
He
sold th e old cow at th e end of last year and th e
heifer
he
had
d i e d suddenly.
What a wonderful blessing ^the
cassette recorder
has
been.
They were
able to make
a recording of John s
ordinatibn~ I t
was-so clear
that
we felt
like
we were
present.
His brother Steven brought th e message and hi s brother-in-law Richard Hanson, sang and
ha s p a r t
i n th e s e r v ic e .
With prayers fo r guidance and b le ss in g fo r you a l l .
We a r e your in C h r i s t
A l v i n V e m i t a
and James
FORWARDING
AGENT:
M r s .
R i c h a r d
H a n s o n
1 6 6 4 2
G a n n o n
A v e . W
R o s e m o u n t Minn.
5 5 0 6 8
NEWS
WITH TH E
NICHOLSONS
Mailed b y . . .
irst
hristian
C h u r c h
amp
P o i n t
111.
RETURN REQUESTED
M i ss io n S o i v ic ss
B o x 1 7 7
KEMPTON, CND. :-6049
N o n - P r o f i t
O r g an izatio n
U . S .
POSTAGE
1.7f P A lD
Camp P o i n t I l l i n o i s
P e r m i t N o . 7
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June
1972
Vo l
13
No. 5 . NEWS WITH THE NICHOLSONS
Dear Bre th ren
Greetings in our Lord Jesus Chris t .
We
do pray
tha t
God s great love
sha l l
abide
with you
a l l
The
ten t
meeting
held
on
Pentecost
Sunday l a s t month
was
a
great
success .
I t
was
se t
up
between
the school and the outstat ion
to
th e so uth , which
is ju s t
cal led by the
locat ion
number, number f ive. I completed my sermon a t about 9:30 a t
night .
The ten t
was
fu l l then,
but people
were s t i l l coming and they
said
la ter there were about hal f
the number
outside
that
were pre sent within.
With
the
PA system those
outside had
no
trouble hearing. The
portable generator
l ights up
the
tent in such away that people
can
see
from a
long way. Brother
Qwemesha and
t he s tu de nt s have been going back
to
th i s area
fo r follow
up work, going
house to house to
v i s i t them.
I
hav e b een
very happy
fo r the class
which I
have had On_Teaching ^
They
have
taken
more in teres t in
the
class
and
given
more
part ic ipation than
most we
have
had. We
jus t
hope they
wil l
do as well when they have oppor tuni ti es to teach in the i r home areas.
Several
t r ips
have been
made
to
Xopozo
in
Pondoland
with
materials
which
they
have
needed for there new church building. The doors and
panes
for the windows are the
things
which
they
are needing
jus t
now.
These brethren have
a
real
hear t to work
^ d
the work in
the i r area is real ly
advancing.
James
is almost
half way
through this
year s school work and preparing
for his
June
exams. When they
return to
school
after the July Holidays
they wil l
be working
toward
their^Matric
exams at
the end
of
the
year. James
is
planning to retuni to
the
s ta tes the f i r s t of next year and follow h is
s i s t e r
and brothers at
Minnesota
Bible
College.
We
have j u s t checked with
the
a ir l ines and his
fa re back to
the States will
be 700 Like all things, travel has increased in price. do hope that you
will
help us with th is fare.
Our camp plans
have been
scrambled a bi t Other years, the Afr ican schools
have
gotten
out
a week before the European schools. But this year they are letting the
secondary
schools
and high schools
out
on the 23rd of June and th e primary
schools
on
the 28th.
had wanted to start our f i rst camp on the 26th. Also they
are
only having
three weeks holiday
for
the younger
children.
So
we
shall have to run some
of our
camps
at
the
same time. It
was our plan to
have classes
for
three
different
groups
here
at
Port Shepstone, but i f some of us are away i t will make this more difficul t . However
we
are so very happy for fhe opportunity to have camp for the young people and just pray
that
i t wil l
grow throughout the
country.
Would you especially pray with us for Ashwell Bukuka and Bennett Ngqungqutho that
their
hearts may
be moved by
the
Lord so that they will
really
work for Him of that they
will
give
up
the
work
of
the ministry.
At
the
present
time
both
men
are
failing
their
wo r k
A European Doctor has asked for permission
to
come and
use
th e
clinic
on day a week.
He worked at a mission hospi ta l fo r a time and desires to have a place where he can
help the African people. He has an office in one of the South Coast towns at the present
time. are to
furnish
him
nothing, just
a
place
to meet his patients. This can be a
r ea l opportuni ty fo r our area
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Plans are
in hand to
begin work on another classroom a t
school.
With more
teachers
and more students
we
are g r e a t l y handicapped. The
l a r g e r
building serves as church
on
Wednesday
evening
Thursday
afternoon and on
Sunday so
n o changes can be made t h e r e .
The smaller
classroom
has t he t ypewr it er s and
sewing machines
in
i t
which takes up quite
a b i t
of
space even when
not in
use.
For severa l
class
per iods
there are
teachers
who
are
n ot t e ac hi n g
and when
th e women come o u t they
have t h e i r work i n
t h e
a f t e m o o n . There i s
not room
for
them to s i t
in
and now
t h a t
i s i s
colder they
must
spend t h a t time in
the
car
go to
the kitchen. N either
are very
good f or w ritin g or other
work
they
may want
to
do.' This building
will have
some
office space
to make
i t possible
for
those
not
teaching to do other v/ork. Our problem i s that we need some
helpin
putting up t he bui ld ing
The
cost
wil l run between 1200 and 1500
with the
teachers
and students
doing
most
a l l
th w o r k .
T h i s
t e r m
o f
s c h o o l we
h a v e h a d some o f
t h e
m i n i s t e r s come and
t ll
o f
wha t m eth od s
they
use in t h e i r work and to allow th e studen ts to
question
them on the work.
All
have
f e l t this was
very
helpful. School will
close
the
15th
of June and open
again
on
the
25th
o f
J u l y .
A recent l e t t e r to ld o f 15
baptisms
in one church.
Thank you so much
for
your
help
and
prayers.
do so
greatly
need
this
help.
Yours
f o r
C h r i s t
i n
A f r i c a
Alvin
V e m i t a and J ^es
FORWARDING
AGENT:
M r s .
R i c h a r d
H a n s o n
1 6 6 4 2
Gan no n A ve .
W
Rosemount Minn.
55068
NEWS WITH THE
NICHOLSONS
Mailed
b y . . .
irst
C h r i s t i a n
C h u r c h
Camp P o i n t
111.
RETURN ADDRESS REQUESTED
- . . M M a
jn.0. _\_
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P A I D
Camp
Point
I l l i n o i s
P e r m i t 7
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T hy
word is a
lomp
unto my
feet, an d a l ight unto my path.
P s a l m s 1 1 9 : 1 5
SOUTHr
a F R l C A N
/
TORCH
Kimberley ^
Bible
College
O J
,e
v
Port
Shepstone
c
Cope Town v
Eost London
Relhatching ihe kitchen unit
at school
Lynn Stanley
Is
helping Volume
3
th e
thatcher
Second
Quarter 1972
Number
2
^^
uulL tkee
ac^xzii^ wia
tlui
iami
And, behold, I am with thee,
an d
will
keep thee in a ll p la ces
whither thou goes, and will bring
thee aga in into this land; (or I will
not
leave
thee,
until I have
done
that which
I have
spoken
to
thee
of.
Genesis 28:15
Brian Guy left South Africa for
t he Un it ed States in 1965 to attend
college with God s promise to
Jacob
in mind; and now he is planning to
return to his
home
country by Jan
uary, 1973.
Some who
have followed
the South African
work
through the
years
may remember Brian:
he
accepted Chr ist as a teenager after
friendships developed between him
self
and the Stanley and Nicholson
children. Following that time, he
lived in the Stanley home while
completing a mechanic s appren
ticeship in
Port
Shepstone.
Brian has now completed his
college work and plans to be grad-
uatea
from
Nebraska Chri st ian
Col
lege in May. His wife, Deanna, is
from Ravenwood, Mo. She also has
completed her
college\
work at
Nebraska Chris t ian The
newest
Guy is Sonja Ann, who was born
January
22,
1972.
When they return to South Africa,
they plan to work under the leader
ship of Lynn Stanley in connection
with the Umzumbe Bible Training
School and helping in the
area
churches. During this time they
will become reacquainted with the
Sou th
African
f ield
a nd d et er mi ne
Brian, Deanna and Sonja
what
a r ea th e
Lord
can use
them
best. A future hope is to
settle
in
a South African city and work with
the white population.
The Guys are now traveling to
churches in the U nited States
to
make known their plans for the
South African field and
raise
sup
port for this work. They come with
th e recommendation
of
th e
elders
of the First Christian Church,
Onawa, Iowa, where Brian
has
served
as youth minister for two
years, and where they are now liv
ing. Financial needs include regu
lar monthly support for salary and
working fund and also relocation
expenses for ti cket s and shipping
osts
Some speaking dates are
still
available, especially after August,
and
Brian
is
ava i l ab l e fo r summer
youth camps and Vacat ion Bib le
Schoo l s
P l e a s e wr i t e to :
Brian
Guy, First
Chr is t ian
Church,
Onawa, Iowa 51040.
t i c k
Bi t e -
Both Lynn and Michael were
conf ined to
bed over the
E a s t e r
weekend
with tick bi te fever.
Michael s was recognized and
treated earlier than Lynn s, so he
did
not
have
as
much fever. Nei the r
of them had the very severe head
aches that often accompany this
d i s e a s e
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Page
2
South
African
Torch
S e co n d Q u a rt e r 1972
The Jim Solomons Return
To
Cape Town
The Jimmy Solomon family. Jimmy, Lorna,
Hazel,
Lisa,
Lynn and Karen.
A f t e r a b r i e f visi t
to th e U .S .
churches during September 1971 to
February 1972, the Jim Solomon
family
is
back in Cape Town. They
returned
on March
22 ,
1972.)
They
served
their
f ir st term on
the field during 1967 to 1971
after
Jim completed hi s work at Minne
sota
Bible Col lege. Previously the
work embraced B ib le s ch oo l w o r k
among th e Cape Coloured, an d
also
Cot tage Meetings for adults. Jim
also ministered at the Observatory
Church of
Christ
Polo
Road),
in
the absence of Mr.
J oh n F ul fo rd .
They will continue their work of
assisting
the churches in the
Cape
and searching for new
avenues
of
service
among the Coloured peoples.
A new forwarding agent
ha s
a lready been int roduced to the sup
porting churches. They are: Mr.
an d Mrs. J es s e Ireton, Ro ute 2,
Shirley, IN 47384.
I A M GLAD I A M A CHRISTIAN
It was my privilege on Good
Friday morning to si t in a worship
service where I heard a message
of our hope through the offering of
God s Son
as
atonement for
sin, of
H is resurrec t ion from t h e
d e a d
a n d
of our promise of life
a ft er d ea th
through Him. A glorious promise
to those
w h o
be l i eve .
In
th e
a ft e rn o o n I tr aveled w i t h
another missionary to watch a Hindu
fire-walking ceremony and the ritual
that accompanied it .
We
went down
to
th e riverside wher e certain ablu
tions were taking place, and we
watched
those who were taking
par t being prepared for the ordeal.
T h e re w as much
that
w e did n o t
understand, but the sincerity of
what they were doing was obvious.
We
watched the tortuous practice
of piercing their t o n g u e s and
cheeks with long needles which
were
left
in posit ion.
We
watched
as
hooks holding fruit, mostly
lemons, an d even
a
c oc on ut w er e
passed through the flesh of the
chests
an d backs
of those par
t icipating. There
was much chant
in g and marching ending at
th e
Hindi shrine and then the walking
a cro ss h ot beds o f coa l s . H ere the
crowd
wa s
so
great
that we could
no t get close
enough to
se e
th e
actual
walking.
We
saw no blood
nor real
evidence
of pain; neither
w as t he ir joy or hope.
Just
two blocks away a
large
group of the Moslem faith was con
ducting a conference.
Neither
of
these groups could offer any for
giveness
of sin, but only a certain
amount of improvement in an af te r
l i fe .
My
first words when I got home
were a fervent, I am glad 1 am a
Chris t ian
Lynn Sta n le y
S ou th A f ri c an
TORCH
is a
publication
A k *
- of the South African Church of Christ
M is si on , a nd
is published four
times
each
Hindi Fire Walker being pre- year in February
May Au^;ust
and
Novcm
paretl for his ordeal - Good Friday ber
by
Mission
Services Association
at
in Pietermarilzburg, 1972. Kompton Indiana 16 69 Second
Class P o s t a g e p ai d at K e m pt on , I n di a na .
Second Quarter 1972
V o l u m e
23
N u m b e r 2
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S e co n d Q u o rt er 1972
S o ut h A f ri c an Torch
Page 3
Sunday
School
At Umzumbe
q u a r t e r s .
The U m z u m be T o w n H all is not
usually the
scene
of much activity
but each Sunday
it
comes to
life.
Those who wish to join the
activity
must come early for the Sunday
School s ta r t s a t 8 :0 0 a . m .
Caryl and 1 have now been
working with the group for two
months, and we have really enjoyed
it .
Caryl
teaches
a
class
of first
and second graders in the men s
changing room while I teach a high
s c h o o l
c l a s s
ou ts ide R a i n
occa
sionally forces my
class
inside,
bu t
this has not proved to be too
j
Caryl Stanley helping one of her students in the very close
p l p i r s
great a problem so far.
When
we do
move
inside we
must share th e
auditorium
with
another class
The
children
a re i n te res t in g
to
work with, e sp ec ia ll y s in c e they
come from a variety of denomina
tional backgrounds. Several chil
dren do not own Bibles so they
bring Prayer Books, or Bible story
b o o k s
a s
s u b s t i t u t e s .
F e w of th e
children have much knowledge of
th e Bible
so this is
on e
field
where the Sunday School as a whole
has a great potential for improve
ment. Most of my
students
have
no t e v e n le a r n e d th e books
o f th e
New
Testament
and this makes
looking up Scripture texts difficult.
This work is the only regular
work which we do amongst White
people. Most of our
work
is with
the
Africans
and even if we had
enough
time
for both, it
would
be
difficult
because of the policy of
Apartheid (race separation) .
O t h e r
t e a c h e r s
and
l e a d e r s in
the Sunday School are
Mr
and Mrs.
Peter van de r Merwe, Mr.
and
Mrs.
Alvin N ic ho ls on a nd my
parents.
tAichael
Stanley
. Sjr , .- .
Michael Stanley and his class meeting outside. When it rains
they share the main auditorium with another class.
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Page
4
South A f ri ca n T o rc h
1
f s a \ A
>.
While allending ihe
Preachers
Meeting
at
Barberton these
men lound a l it tl e time for some s ig ht s ee in g.
cation
for
it shortly from the ov
ernment. They also have been
invited by the people who live in
th e area to return with the tent
fo r
another weekend meeting.
Besides this
Brother
Qwemesha
is making plans to use the tent at
l e a s t
three t imes in the a r e a s
s u r
rounding the school. This will give
the students p ra ct ic e in personal
evangelism and will evangelize
areas
where he
ha s
had
little
oppor
tunity to do calling e are certain
it
will bring new life to both con
gregations in that area
3S\ S t
Second Quarte r
1972
NEWS OF THE
T h e
e f f e c t i v e n e s s
o f
th e tent
has been great ly Increas ed through
the us e of the
portable light
plant
and the pub li c
address
system
e
are
still
awaiting
the transformer
a n d t h e n we s h a l l make u s e o f th e
I6mm
projector as
well. e are
able to get religious films in the
Zulu language. But even with Eng
lish being used with pictures the
people
still
get the message
Not only has the
tent
been used
here but we
took i t
to
Pondoland
fo r E no ck Z ob olo on the 24th of
March and 136 of his people came
from
this side by bus for the meet
ing It was
in an
area
where we
have a
small
c ongregation with
their own building. But it was not
big enough for such a large group
of p eo pl e. Again
great
interest was
raised amongst the people of the
re
On March
4th and 5th
I
went
to Pondoland for a meeting with
Ashwell Bukula and his
people
in
the church house which they have
built at Qabangeni. It is a large
building of
mud
blocks like they
make for t heir homes. But they have
put
an iron roof on this one and
plan to
plaster it
so that
it
should
last
for a long time. They have
built a nic e house there which they
can use for theirminister and guests
at the meeting and will make another
Alvin N i c h o l s o n
Good F ri day through Res urrec
tion Sunday
ha s
become a time of
special e v a n g e l i s m for Nick
Qwemesha and Barnabas Songo
with their congregations
On Thursday they will set up
t he t en t
a t
on e o f th e s t a t i o n s
where
there is no building for handling a
large
group
of people. Thus they
go to an
area where their
work
is
not so strong
Thursday night will be the
beginning of their services with
one of the longer services being on
F ri day morning when they will
use
the words of Christ upon the cross
T his ser vice normally lasts from
10 a.m. to either 3 or 4 p.m. then
there will be the normal evening
service
which
to us would be
abnormal
fo r i t a l s o
will
l a s t
fo r
hours. Saturday they divide up into
groups
and
visit
the homes in the
area Sa tu rd ay n ig ht they wi ll
have
services again and e arly Sunday
mor ni ng t he y will have
their
bap
tismal service This year there
were 21 peo ple buried with Christ
e came on Sunday morning this
year to bring to them the closing
message
of
their
meeting
The tent this
year
was erect ed
on a site
that
ha s been given by
the c hief and th ey wi ll make a pp li
The
house at Qubangeni
that
was mentioned in Mrs.
N i c h o l so n s a r ti c le
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Second
Quarter
1972
NICHOLSONS
l i ke
i t
which sha l l be
used
fo r cook
ing for the
people
when they are
presen t .
Besides these
three meetings,
I was also
present
at Ingwavuma
in
Northern Zululand
on
th e 17 th
and 18th of February and Nongoma
on the
19th
a nd 20th .
I
will return
to Nongoma again on the 13th and
14th of May.
On March
7th through 12th, we
were present at Barberton in the
Tran svaa l fo r Minis ter s
Week and
for p reparat ion for the 50th Annual
Conference of the Churches .
Vc r ni ta N i cho ls on
As I read back through the
issues of the Torch of past years,
there
seems
to be
one
phrase
that
i s common
to the ar t i c l es
tha t
we
wrote . That i s
And
we
were
off.
I t seem s tha t much
of ou r
work ha s
been done with the car or pick-up
traveling
to many areas of South
Africa . We have v i s i t ed churche s
in most
areas,
preaching, teaching,
witness ing those
who
gave
their
hearts
to t he Lord, being baptized.
Much o f
this
t ime
also has
been
spent in discussing current prob
l ems with t hose o f th e Afr ican
chu r c he s .
This has
not changed
too much.
It seems most every week-end
lately, I have been packing a suit
case fo r Alvin to leave fo r another
period of
preaching
with one church
or
ano the r .
The second
week
in March, we
took seven of the
mini s t e r s to
B arb er to n in th e Transvaa l . Min
i s t e r s
Week
w as sched uled fo r
th is
t ime.
The r e were s e ven mis
sionaries present and four children.
We stayed in a
rest
camp with ron-
davel s. Thi s is a lovely area and
Barberton
is bui l t at th e foot of
some mounta ins on three s i d e s
with the valley
stretching
to the
n or th a nd mounta ins on the horizon.
To the
west of the
camp
just
a
little way, was a
cableway
which
transports asbestos froiri
th e
mine
South
African
Torch
Page
5
The Quhangeni Church and sonic of the congregalion.
This
is in
Pondoland.
in Swaziland to the railway in Bar
berton.
I t c ar ri es i t
about
19
miles
before
it
is
taken
off and put in
the t rain.
All of the
mini s t e r s were
not
ab le
to
at tend th e week. Fo r some
the distance was
very
great and
money was lacking. For some, ill
ness
stru ck a t th e l as t
moment .
We
hope
that
those who did attend
received help with the work which
they are doing in the churches.
The women
o f
th e l oca l
church
met on Thursday and asked tha t I
speak. I didn t go prepared as I
had almost decided not to go but a
song t itl e, Give
Me a Vision pro
vided the theme and the scr iptures
used were Proverbs
29:18
an d
Philippians 2:5. The song was
sung at the
close.
Most times now with
James
at
home, 1 am not traveling
with Alvin
so
1 am also helping with the Sun
day School at Umzumbe. 1 teach a
junior age
class
and play the piano
for opening exercises.
This
group
ha s
grown quite a lo t
and has
been
a
real
joy to us. The teachers and
leaders
come from the Stanley
family, a
local
European family
and our family. James fills in when
I
have
been gone.
1 find
that
I am
increasingly
doing more typing, letters , s tencils
and so on. When a new song
is
learned
by the students at school,
1 often have to type
several copies
so
they will have the words.
When
Alvin requires stenciled
material
for
hi s
classes, I type
these.
Many
o f th e l e t t e r s
a re m ine to an swe r
a s wel l .
Each
month, 1 try to send a
mimeographed
letter
to
the mini s
ter s
wives to
give
them
ideas
for
leading their women's groups in
study.
Recently,
I sent a
puzzle
to
be given to the young people to
work out .
Some
o f the women
did
i t
t hemse lves . If
even a fe w o f t hese
things give some help
or
thought
to some, I feel my efforts have been
rewarded.
They
are going to read
more and more as they learn English.
Pe rhaps these
will help them a
little.
There
is
certainly enough
trash that
goes
out that they can
ge t
to read.
The
basic
desire
of every
Chris
t ian i s
to
be o f
se rv ice
to th e Lord .
To be
at His d isposa l at al l
times
is a wonderful thing. This is
our
fervent desire, no
matter how small
the
task, that many may be won to
the Lord and helped to live fruitful
Chris t ian
l ives .
LOOK
unto
the
hills from
whence ccmeth
your
help
LOOK
unto t he f ie ld s w hi te
unto
harves t
LOO
unto yourselves lest you be weary in well doing
LOO unto the Lord ofHarvest to send forth reapers
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Poge 6
South Africon Torch
Second
Quarter 1972
USED
LOTHINGDIST RIBUT E D
About
that
used clothing
that
came
out
in our own shipment
and
in
Michaels
A ll
but
f ive
of
the
ministers
have now received bags
of clothing weighing about 25
pounds each It ha s been a costly
opera tion considering collecting
packing shipping then sorting and
packing again Much of that which
has gone out has been delivered as
near
as
possible
to the men The
men appreciate this help and the
clothing
is
more valuable to them
than dollars and cents sound but
w e have
warned
th e m in is te rs t ha t
thi s will probably be
ourlast
effort
b ec au se o f
t he t re m en d ou s
inc rease
in costs
We
los t a goodly amount
of our clothing when the drums
were
broken
in to and
the be s t in
them
stolen
during shipment
We
do have enough to send out nearly
as many bags as have already
gone Thank
you
to all of
you
who
helped us with clothing
Lynn Stanley and Caryl packing the used
clothing
for the native
ministers
EIGHTEEN STUDENTS
TTEND I LE TRAINING SCHOOL
During the first temi of 1972
we had 18 students at the training
school As in every new
class
we
f ind
some
whom we would l ike
to
send home before the week
is
up
but we
have
learned to give them
a chance and have often found they
prove more
promising
as time goes
on Our
present
misfit has made
some remarkable growth and we
are very hopeful
The
f ir st term
closed on March 30th and
the
second
term began on April 4th
Because it
is
too costly and too
difficult for the
students
to go
home for
short periods
we do
no t
take
a break
at this
time but
allow
for a much longer one after the
second t e rm
The
second
term began with
the same 18 students but we are
expecting another married couple
This
will
give us three married
couples at one time and it will
make the
largest class
while Lynn
has
been
in
charge There was
a
larger one while the Stanleys were
on furlough Five
of
these are
second year sfudents
1972 Umzumbe Bible Training School
Each
year the
student
body
grows
large Here are the students and part of the faculty
for
this
year
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S e co n d Q u a rt e r 1972
S o u t h
A f ri ca n T o rc h
Page 7
nm
Here we
se e
the congregation singing and shaking hands
following a church service.
JOHN NICHOLSON
ORDAINED
J oh n N ic ho ls on
second
son of
Alvin
a nd V er ni ta
Nicholson
wa s
ordained a t th e Bloomington
Church
of Christ Bloomington , Minn, on
March 5th.
Steven
Nicholson John s
brother preached the ordination
s erm on R ich ard H a ns on brother-
in-law and Robert Cash minister
of the Bloomington church
sang
for
th e service.
John
hi s wife, Cheri
and baby daughter, Lisa ar e living
in Readstown Wise, where John
preaches.
W I T H F AI TH
BU ILD ING
CONSTRUCT ION
TO
BEGIN
For more than two years we
have hoped and prayed and worked
that we might be able to expand
the
f ac il it ie s a t
th e
B ib le Trai n in g
School. Some money came in for it
but
ot her ne eds a lwa ys
had to be
met. Plans had to be changed.
Urgently needed have been married
couples rondavels, a gi rl s
dormi
tory and additional classroom and
library facilities. All of these have
thought to be our next building
project at one time, but new needs
appeared and changes were made.
Finally, it looks like we will be
able to go ahead with a large unit
to
house
two
classrooms
two
offices and a library as well as a
large storage room under the
main
part
of
the building. Probably the
first to enjoy it will be the teachers
not on duty, as
it
will provide office
r ooms fo r
them
to u s e which
our
meagre classroom se t up has not
been
able
to do.
This
time we hope
to build a more permanent structure
than
ha s
been possible in ourother
buildings. We do not
have
suffi
cient funds on hand to complete
the building but enough is in sight
to go ahead on faith believing that
as th e rest is
n e e d e d
th e
L o r d
will provide.
CINCINNATI
JULY 11 14 1972
S e e
u
^^JULYll 14 1972 . .
TillU ^
CINCINNATI CONVENTION CENTER
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Page
8
It sometimes seems like
w e
get
stuck in a
rut.
Our activit ies
con
tinue much the same day after day.
I
am
sure
we
are not a lone in that
feeling. The difference is
that as
Christians we are vitally interested
in each day and in our work, even
if nothing extraordinary presents
i tself
to tell folks about overseas .
BOX 17 7, KEMPTON, INDIANA
46049
1
As far as
these last
couple
months
ar e concerned,
we have
continued much the same type of
routine. One new activity we are
engaged
in is a First Aid Course
being held at Medical School. We
meet for an hour at 5:00 p.m. on
Sou th Afr ican Torch
Tuesdays for a lecture and on
Thursdays for a practical demon
stration. We learn to make slings,
tie
proper knots , bandage various
injuries and a lo t of what not to do
to an
injured person.
Some of the
time Anne feels out of her depth
as she is the only non-medical per
son attending the
course.
1 am sure
this information
will be valuable
in all
kinds
of situations later on .
We
continue
to be
concerned
about the work
at
the Wynberg
Church of Christ .
We
have had
quite a bi t of illness there over
the past few weeks so our num
bers hav e
been
smal l . One
of
our
members, Mrs. Levita, passed
away in March.
Easter Sunday was a time of
rejo icing for us,
as
it
should
be
for
each
Christian.
John Ful ford ,
who normally
preaches
for us while
we are without a minister,
was
unable to be with us in the morning,
so 1 brought the morning message.
In the evening the young people
from al l
three of our Cape Town
churches presented a special
Easter
program. It inc luded a
short
p lay on the reality of the Resurrec
tion. Jimmy Solomon brought a
short message and afterwards the
folks enjoyed a time of fellowship
with tea and biscui t s
The Jimmy Solomon family just
a rr iv ed b ac k in S ou th Afr ic a a bo ut
10 days before Easter. They had
been in the
States
on furlough since
last August.
The
week af te rEas te r
1 had
the
opportunity to address the Medical
Christian Fellowship,
an
organiza
tion
o f
hris t ian medical
s tudent s
on our campus.
Together
w th two
other students 1 spoke on What
the Resur r ec t ion
Means
to Me.
Certainly there are many
areas
in
which we can
witness
concerning
our fai th .
There
are many
avenues
of outreach with the
Gospel.
Each
one of us need to be taking
those
opportunities
each
time they come
our way
Darrel
Stanley
Second Quar ter
1972
South African TORCH v
Published quarterly
for the following:
MISSIONARIES
and their Forwarding
Agents
Mr. and Mrs. Brian Guy
and Family
First
Chris tian
Church
Onawa, Iowa 51040
Mr. and Mrs. Aivin Nicholson
and Family
P.O. Box 219
Port Shepstone, Natal
South Africa
Forwarding Agent
Mrs.
Richa rd Hanson
16642 Gannon
Ave., W
Rosemount, Minnesota 55068
Mr.
and Mrs. James Solomon
Bethesda,
Quartz
Street
Penlyn
Estate,
Lansdowne
Cape
Town, South Africa
Forwarding Agent
Mr. an d Mrs. Jesse Ireton
Route 2
Shirley, Indiana 47384
Mr and Mrs. Darrel Stanley
140 Ringwood Drive
Pinelands, Cape
South Africa
Forwarding Agent
Mr. an d Mrs. Donald Barnes
Route
1
Lyie, Minnesota 55953
Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Stanley
and Family
P.O.
Box
219
Port Shepstone, Natal
South
Africa
Forwarding Agent
Mrs. Sybil Evans
Bo x 1
St. Joseph, Illinois 61873
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Stanley
P.O.
Box
21 9
Port Shepstone, Natal
Sou th A f ri ca
Forwarding Agent
Mrs. Richard Eckman
Route 2
Kimboll,
Minnesota
55353
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NEWS
WITH THE NICHOLSONS ^ . r
Vol 3 o 6 ^^ July 972
^ e a r
Friends
We
know that
most all
of
you are involved
in the
camps
at
this time. So our situations
lare somewhat t h e
same.
Because the winter holidays
for
the African primary schools
was much shorter this
year
^ t
has pushed our
camp
time together. So while the folks
were
busy with the
Umzumbe camp
I
vent to Middleburg Cape. The minister. Gift Gcobo at IVhittlesea
called
to ask
i f
I could
-lelp them with
transportation. When
I arrived
on Monday
night I found that he had gone to
toivn to wait for me and we had missed each other. So I loaded up a load and again went
hrough the town but did not see him so went on to Middleburg. I went to bed at 10 and
irose the next morning to
make
another
trip
back to Whittlesea. These two places are 170
miles apart so a
round
trip
v;as
not
really made
in
an
hour. I took 34 people over to
^iddleburgj but
only_31 went_ back_with_nLe_.
Friday_aft__emoon_ __I
started to rever se the travel -
ind
arrived back home after taking only one hours sleep on the road and traveling over 800
m i l e s
Several of the young people said
that
camp was wonderful and from their happy appearance
md
participation
in
class
I
am
sure
i t
was so.
The
group
was
divided
into two
age groups and
a few times
we
divided the
older
group
into
two groups. Most of the time I taught the older
roup of
over 100
students
fo r two hours
in the
moming and two hours
in the afternoon.
The
:otal
number
at
camp was over 200 but thev did
not
give me
the exact
number. Thev made plans
fo r
next years
camp to be
at
Miittlesea. T ^
The
African
young
people like
to
do
skits
and are very good
at i t They
gave
the
Birth
of Jesus the
first
night. They
added Herod
to the scene. He had five soldiers to help
him.
They
were
attired
in khake coveralls with yellow hard
hats.
After they met the wisemen at
^.he city gates their leader would march them
off
to the king and then
had
to
go
back several
:ime
to talk with the wisemen and also
to
get men
for
t he king.
The
whole story was well done.
Here
at Port Shepstone they also
had
a.
recprjd ..caaip. with_86
.present.
They hadJ.7_Jbap.tisms
.
It the end of the week. They had more teachers since all of the missionaries helped
as
well
as the thre e African ministe rs. They divided their camp into three class groups thus they
^ould give the older students work which
was
up to
their
ability. They all have gone far
inough in school
that
they could be taught
in
English.
No w
I
am
getting ready to go to Pondoland for their camp at Emagusheni. I
am
sure
Attendance will be
large there
also. Columbus
Ncanazo told me
he had
two
buses
coming
with
0 students. I am. to go to Flagstaff to
get
25 students. Plus
this
I
am sure
the
man
having
the
camp will
have 70 or
more. So for camps
this has been a wonderful year. I have seen great
changes in the church the
past
few
years
but I am sure we are going t o s ^
greater
ones as these
oung people take t h e i r places in the
work.
^ Today the 10th of July
is
family days. Port Shepstone
celebrates
i t by having Go Kart
acing in the town. There
are
70 some karts registered and so they will have a great crowd. To
lake things
different
they are running
the race
clockwise in ste ad o f
counter-clockwise.
A Mr. and Mrs.
Pete
Jone.s of Johannesburg were
down
from
the
29th of June
unti l the Sth of
uly.
We greatly
enjoyed
their visit. The
first day I
was
able to take them f ish ing and get
some
fish.
But
after that
th e
luck
was
not
so good
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The Robert Mills family visi ted at the Stanleys
over
the las t weekend. were a ll
t ogethe r t he re on Sun da y.
have
also
ha d vis i ts from the
Floyd
Stamms
in
Durban and th e
J o h n
K e ma n
in E a s t London.
* May the Lord gude you in your Christ ian l i f e May your l i fe in Christ make you
strong.
His l ov e c om fort you and may
you have
fellowship with the Holy Spir i t
Yours w i th
C h r i s t i a n
Love,
A lv in
V e m i t a
James
(P.S.
James re tu rn s in
January
'73
to
America
to begin his
studies in Minnesota Bib le Co ll ege.
His
return
fare
is
$700.)
FORWARDING
AGENT:
Mr s R i c h a r d Hanson
16642 Gannon Ave . W.
Rosemount, Minn. 55068
NEWS WITH THE NICHOLSONS
t
i
;
i
MaiTed
by.
F i r s t
C h r i s t i a n Church
Camp
Point 111.
Non-profit Organization I
U.S. POST G i
1 7 ^ PAID
Camp Point I l l ino i s i
Permit
7
^
M i s s i o n S a r v i c a s
B o x
1 7 7
KSMPTON, IND.
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NEWS WITH
THE
NICHOLSONS
Vol. 13 No 7 September, 1972
Dear C h r i s t i a n F r i e n d s
Greet ing
i n
C h r i s t our Saviour.
They s a i d t h at the f l u
would catch
up with
our area
a f t e r winter s e t i n .
While
h as t ou ched many, has only been J ames
o f
our mis si onary f am ilie s h ere
t h a t
has had i t .
He
missed
four
days
o f
school.
The l a s t
camp
in Pondoland was
also a
very good
one.
ITiere were 130
children
present .
e
could
have
used a few more teachers
and another
meeting
place
as well .
But, again,
I
f e l t
the
children have a
b e t t e r knowledge
o f the
Bible
than
they
had a few
years ago
which a t t e s t s to
more
teaching in
the
churches today . Even the time spent each day with
the
adults
t h a t
were present was bot h enj oyab le
and
encouraging. The questions wore
o f
a~deep~er
n a t u r e
and~shbw^ more ~imderst an dih g of the
worcr bY~GbQl Along
withr~this drey
entered
i n t o a r e a l
discussion
on some o f the
questions
and
they seldom did
t h i s before .
One
o f
t he que sti on s
t h a t
thas
r i s e n
a
number o f
times
l a t e l y
has
been on
the
burying
o f those who have been k i l l e d accidently. I t
was
t h e i r
custom
to
bury
them near where
they
had been
k i l l e d or,
as they
said ,
to tal< e them to
rhe
raouritains for b u r i a l . I wondered
why
t h i s question was
only a r i s i n g nov/
a f t e r
so many years.
ovv the
Chris t ians no
longer
bel ieve
t h a t
t h i s
one
died because o f some e v i l s p i r i t
and
t h a t
to bury them
r i g h t
a t the
home
will
brin g th e evi l s p i r i t into t h e i r midst and endanger
the
r e s t of the
family.
I t
was good
t o
l i s t e n
t o
the
t hr ee m ini st er s
planning f o r the work in t h e i r areas.
By cooperat ion they
want to bring
some of t h e i r outs tat ions together
and also
to
exchange
some, so
t h a t each man s
people
and
work
v/ill
be more in
one
area.
Thus
he wil l save
time and money and be able
to v i s i t the people
more regulari ly or get
to
them when they
n e e d
h i m .
Our t r i p to
Johannesburg
was an
enjoyable and
refreshing
one. e enjoyed
the hos
p i t a l i t y of the Robert
M i l l s
a
Saturday dinner
with the
Pete
J o n e s Wednesday evening
prayer meeting
with
the
people
o f
Tulisa
Park,
a v i s i t
with
Simon Mtshayisa
and
ta lking
over
plans
f o r
the
new
m i n i s t e r s
home
a t
N a t a l s p r i u t
which
w i l l
be s t a r t e d the f i r s t
o f
October
r i g h t
a f t e r
the
annual
Conference.
Plans are
now t h a t Eustace Nyanieni, who
i s
a t
p re se n t i n the Bible
Training School
w i l l go
back t o
Johannesburg the f i r s t o f October
t o
work
in
the new Thembisa
African
Hospital
and help
with
the
v/ork
in
Natalspruit . Then on
Sunday morning we preached for the
church
at
Natalspruit.
SuiTday evening
spoke
at Beit
S t r e e t .
After s e r vi c e s t h a t night
we, with the
fo.tks o f
the
church, were i n vi t e d t o one
of
the
Chinese
homes for
tea
and
fellowship.
any of
these people
we
have not
seen
for
s e v e r a l
years . At t h i s t e a
we
had
a
p a s t r y they
make
c a l l e d bowties ; i s very good
but also v ery swee t.
December
c a r r i e s a very b i g red l e t t e r day for us.
Our
daughter,
Sandra , with
h e r
husband Dick
and daughter Valerie
are coming
to
v i s i t us
for
one month They are
flying
out
on a c h a r t e r
f l i g h t and
w i l l
be with us j u s t
about a
month, a rriv in g in Johannesburg
o n t h e
1 5 t h .
Our special thanks
to
those who have given for James return
to the
States next
year
and for the fridge fund. e hope to have a new f ri dge before
the
end of
the
month
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At school we are about to begin work on another class room. Well i t will really
have two classrooms library and an office. Those
not
teaching now have to s i t outside
which
for th e
wives
who
teach
in the afternoon
may
be
as
long
as two
hours. Also
our
smaller class room has both desks and
tables
typewriters and sewing
machines.
These have
to
be shifted back and
forth for
different
classes
so
the extra room will
be
greatly
appreciated. cou ld use
at
least
1,000
in
help on
this project.
Our
prayers to g et he r a va il
much.
Christ and much
joy
in se rv ing Him.
FORWARDING
AGENT:
Mrs. Richa r d Hanson
16642 Gannon
Ave.
W.
Rosemoutn Minn.
55068
NEWS WITH THE NICHOLSONS
Mailed
by. . .
rst
Ch r i s t i a n
Church
Camp Point
111.
R TURN R QU ST
We
pray yo u
may
have
soul s won into
the body of
Yours in Chr i s t i an Love
The
Ni c h o l s o n s
Non Profi t
Organization
U.S . POSTAGE
1 .7^
PAID
Camp Point
I l l ino i s
P e r m i t 7
J i s s i on
Se r v i c e s
Box 177
KSiaPTOM, IMD. < c049
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-
NEWS
WITH
THE
NICHOLSONS ^ ^
. 3 TV
Vol. 13
No. 8
November, 1972
Dear Chris t ian
Fr iends ,
M Greetings to
each
one
of you in
the precious name
of Christ
our Saviour. I t i s our
prayer
that
the grace
and
peace
of
Christ
shal l
res t
w?.th
each
of
you.
The end of
l a s t
month
was
the
Annual
Meeting of the churches
out
here. This tim e
^was special because i t was
the
50th meeting and Max Randall came out from America to
bring
a ser ies of
special
messages on Church Growth. His son, LeRoy, was able
to
come down from
Zambia and speak
and
have this short opportunity
to
vis i t
with his
father.
The
meeting was
held
a t Barberton in th e E as te rn Transvaal and
th e b re th re n
did a
wonderful job. X only had to s i t down once and
talk
with Bro ther Simon
Mtshayisa
about
the food they would buy and they did
all
the buying. They had
plenty
of hOmes
for
the
brethren
to stay in . Everyone was
well
fed and
the raeetingall
went
off very well.
Everyone
,said i t was on
the
the best of tjie Confere^r^es they Jiad
the
privi ledge of
attending.
We lef t home on the 22nd of September hoping
to take
a day or two
of
vacation,
but
when
we a rr ived the re on Saturday evening the flu caught up with Vemita again and kept her from
doing much for th e week. James went to Kruger
National Park
with one of
the
other families
before
the meetings began.
The missionaries were able to get
a ll
six rondovals that they
have
to use for the
time
that we were
there.
I t was not enough for some folks had to
stay in
th e hotel , but in the
evenings af ter services we
could put our
chairs
ou t in th e park ing a rea before
one
of the
rondovals and
have
a great time visit ing together. One evening
the missionaries a ll
met to
gether fo r a
braai
cook meat over a
fire). It
rained hard for a l i t t le while and gave us a
^bi t of
a
handicap
in cooking
our meat, but
i t
did not dampen either our
appetites
or th e
ab i l i ty
to
t a lk .
Next years meeting will
be at
Gcilima
here near Port
Shepstone so we shall
be at
home.
We
shall also
have some work to do in helping them to get
ready
since
the
reserves do
not
***have all the facilities that a
city
has. But we are all very
much
looking forward
to i t .
James is working
hard
on
his studies
for his exams now. They had t r ia ls last month and
he
passed
them. But
the teachers
se t
those
exams
and
the
next
ones
will
come
from
the
province.
50
has been received
so
fa r for his fare back
to
the s ta te s .
Devalu atio n has
helped a l i t t le
bit
as well for now we only need 660. This we should have by the middle of
December when Sandra and
her
husband
will
be coming out to visi t us. It
is
our hope that
^James
may return to the
States th e same time as they do about
the
middle of January.
The other day, in order
to return
something
which
I had borrowed, we took two widow
ladies
and went to
Oribi
Gorge. They are
rebuilding
the road from our end and
some
day i t will
be all tarred. When
we came
to the farm house where
we
were
stoping,
she took us to see
*^er cycal natalesis. These
are
supposed to be
prehistoric plants.
She says the small ones
are
worth
500
in
the states.
She had some small ones in
pots
that she has
started
and said
that they
are
worth
over
60 in Johannesburg. Further on as
we
went through the gorge
i tself ,
iWe stopped
to
spend a half an hour with the monkeys. They came
to
the
tables
by the road
to
beg There
was
one large male, five others and a
l i t t le
one.
They
put on a
real
show,;;
b^etter
tlTan
,can_,be
seen
in
a Zoo.
Iti Durban when we wenf.^to do our Christmas shopping,
we
wnt to have morning tea with Mrs.
Ste^.
Floyd Stamm is in the states just now. She was thrilled with the progress of the work
^
TOtfa ^ ashu
with Shadrack Mazibuko. She has been helping with
Sunday
school and the Women s
-One day a week she goes
to the
Indian township, Chatsworth,
for
a meeting with them.
We
are so thankful they
have chosen
to work
in Durban.
Everything here is beginning
to point
toward Christmas time. James will be through
school on the 1st
of
December. The school
at
Umzumbe will be out
shortly
after that. We are
pjnaking plans to get
th e
sweets for the end of the -year and must work out with
th e
churches
when we
shal l
be
visi t ing
them.
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e ar e busy with plans for several churches and Minister s homes The plans ar e
com
p le te d f or two
churches
except we must now change one from f eet and
inches
to
metric. The
blocks
are
being
made fo r the two homes and we have
planned
together t h a t I s h a l l come
an d
vi s i t
them
in
February
o f
next year
to help
them get
s tar ted
The foundations f o r
the
new building a t school
are
being
f i l led in
and leveled now so
that
the f loor can be poured. B ro th er S ta nl ey is hoping
to
have
th e
building ready for us e
when
school
opens
in
January
1973.
Pray for Brian and Deanna
uy
anJ their little girl as they seek support to return to
Port
Shepstone. This
i s Brian s
home and I baptized him
in the
Umtentweni
ri v e r
some
years
ago. He has been in the
s ta tes s i n c e
1965 an d we are
looking forward to
h is
r e t u r n .
Pray
with
us that
God
shall
guide
us
in
th e work that he would have us to do next year.
e want to make the
best
us e
o f
the
time
before we take our
furlough.
God b l e s s and keep
yo u
on e
an d
al l
S i n c e r e l y in Chr i s t
Alvin V e m i t a Nichol son
FORWARDING
AGENT:
M r s .
R i c h a r d
H a n s o n
16642 G a n n o n A ve
W
Ro se m o u n t Minn.
55068
NEWS
WITH
TH E
NICHOLSONS
M ailed by
F i r s t
C h r i s t i a n
Ch u r c h
Camp Point 111.
RETURN REQUESTED
B ox
1 7 7
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Camp Point I l l ino i s
P e r m i t 7
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1922 1972
MEETING
B RBERTON TVL
27^
SEPTEMBER
1
OCTOBER
1972
Alvin
J.
Nicholson
Supt.
Simon
Mtshayisa Host Minister
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CHURCH OF
CHRIST
MISSION
50th
ANNUAL
CONFERENCE 1972
Borberton,
Transvaal
CHURCH GROWTH
WEDNESDAY
EVENING
27th SEPTEMBER
Speaker Max Ward RandoU
THURSDAY
MORNING
28th SEPTEMBER
Collection of B E and Table Monies
his is to be
done
as
early
as
possible)
Flannelgraph
and Music for those not involved
THURSDAY AFTERNOON
Women s Meeting
Max
Randall to lead
men s
meeting
THURSDAY EVENING
Growth
of the
Church
Lynn
Stanley
FRIDAY
MORNING
29th
SEPTEMBER
Class
for
all Max
Word
Randall
FRIDAY AFTERNOON
Women s Meeting
Men s Meeting
Max
Word Rondoll
FRIDAY EVEN ING
Phi lip, the Evangelist Nick
Qwemesha
SATURDAY MORNING th
SEPTEMBER
Reports and Election
SATURDAY
AFTERNOON
Women s Meeting
Men s
Meeting
Discussion on
items
brought
by
the brethren
SATURDAY
EVENING
Religious Film
SUNDAY MORNING 1st OCTOBER
Message Work for the Night Cometh Alvin Nicholson
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f f lSTORY
OF
THE
CHURCH
OF CHRIST
MISSION
IN
SOUTH AFRICA
The earl iest known member
of the
Church
of
Christ in
South
A frico wos
o
certoin John B rcdie who set t led in
Kimberley
obout
1871 where he
mode
o fortune in the diomond mines. With
out ever
storting o church he
moved
to Cope Town in
1881 ond
loter
unit
ed
with
the Boptist Church. He was
something
of
o leoder ond it is noted
thot
the
church
wos
colled
the Bop
tis t Church
of C hrist .
He
lived
to
see
th e
eorly Church of Christ in
Cope Town but did not go In to it
himself though he helped with o loon
to put up the first building.
In
896
Mr.
John Sherriff
orrived
from Austrolio ond shortly put on od-
vert
in the
poper
osking if
there
were those interested
in meeting with
him obout the Lord sTob le. Four p eo ple
met the
first
time. This
work
con
tinued for a time but
shortly he
re
moved to
Pretorio. Here ogoin
he
worked to help stort o con greg otio n.
He wos o moson
not
o minister but
he wos very
much interested
in
preoching
the
Gospel. In 1896 o loy
white work wos s to r ted in Johonnes
burg
olso.
Between 1896
1903
this
work
d is bonded bec ou se of the
wor. On
July 19 1903
o meeting
wos held to orgonise o church in
Jo -
honnesburg ogoin. Bro. Sherriff
hod
moved to Bulowoyo before the Boer
Wor
there
he helped Stort o thi rd con
gregotion. These first three
were oil
efforts with
Europeans. Then
one
evening he sow
o
group of Bontu
looking
ot
o
book
one of them hod
found ond
h e o ffered to
t eoch ihese
men to reod. He used
the New
Testo-
ment os
his
textbook ond wos reolly
teoching them obout Jesus Christ.
This
resulted
in
whot
is
todoy
one
of the lorgest of the
Sundoy
Schools
of
the Church
of
Christ onywhere in
the world.
This wos
obout 1901 or
2. In the eorliest doys
the
white
ond
block
work met
together but
it wos
soon found thot culturolly they were
too d if fe rent to be one congrogotion
ond o resul t seporote
congrego-
t ions we re formed .
Just offer
the Boer Wor o white
congregotion wos storted in Johonnes-
burg ond the leoders were instru-
mentol in
reoching
the
Bontu with
whom
they
worked in
the
mines
ond
elsewhere. Soon there wos a group
of believers omong the
Bontu but
with no reol
leodership.
The
Control
Church
of
Christ
os
it wos known
wrote to B ulo wo yo ond osked for help.
This come in
the
person of Bro.
George Khozo. He come to South
Africo ond worked in the Roodepoort
Areo till the t ime of his deoth
in
1961
This
is the
f ir st i dent if iobl e
Bontu
Church
of
Christ in South Africa. This
work spreod
moinly eostword to-
words Swozilond ond the Portugese
territory.
When
Bros.
Rees
ond
Rondoll
orrived
in South Africo they
found
Bro. Khozo Supt. of
the Church
of Christ but unwilling to
work with Europeons
unless
he
wos
th e Supt.
This
resulted in
his
seporoting himself
from
the moin
streom of the
church .
A
second e ffo rt c om e in
the
oreo
oround Cebe School Kentoni where o
group of denominotionol
leoders
de
cided to put owoy denominotionol
ties ond
simply follow
the New
Testament .
The
records
of
this
group dote bock to 1917. Very little
is known of th e gro