Sunday School

27 May 2009

Dear Pastors and prayer partners,

One of the national pastors called to ask for Sunday School lessons for all ages, in Afrikaans to teach how we got our Bible. Teach something of the men God inspired to write. How about a song with a catchy tune to teach the names of the Books of the Bible? (in Afrikaans not English) Knowing that we’ve been missionaries so long and used to work exclusively in Afrikaans, he was pretty confident that I could open a file drawer and pull out a series of 6 – 8 lessons complete with handwork and take-home pages!

Now this is something I’ve roughly pieced together myself in the past when I also had the idea that it would be useful and interesting. Unfortunately, we never did have a complete series dedicated to this theme. If it had been done in English, and if we’d had it, we could have simply translated it. I called another missionary who also works in Afrikaans. She didn’t know of any such series by any good

Sunday School publishers either. We decided it was worth taking the time to work on it together, to get it right and do 6 sets for the 6 churches we know are using Afrikaans. We raided our respective files for anything that might help, worked up an outline and set some goals. Deciding to do it was easy! Getting it done is another story: keep it simple but include all the important and interesting stuff, keep it interesting; find pictures or think of interesting objects to keep the kids attention… I had all the kids think of as many ways as they could to leave an important message if they had no pencil, pen or paper… they thought of writing on the ground with a stick or better yet writing it on the wall in blood! Then we talked about how the Lord prepared Moses to write the first books of the Bible by having him adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, who sent him to school in a time when Egypt had invented paper but also often carved on stone, wrote on clay tablets or engraved on metal. When Moses broke the stone tablets God had made, he had to make the second set himself! Cathy and I determined not to break any copy write laws. If I have only one page of a coloring book, showing Moses dressed as an Egyptian writing on a long sheet of papyrus – no running off 6 copies. Pray for us. I need creativity, inspiration, and brevity.

I’m trying out my ideas on our present English speaking Sunday School. iTunes offers several different groups singing the Books of the Bible (English). You can download for $ .99 the Justus Brothers singing the Books of the Old and New Testaments from their Open Any Door album or Thing-a-ma-kid singing Books of the Old Testament, Books of the New Testament from their Sunday Bible Tunes album!

Pray that God will call more Sunday School teachers. Pray that God will call men out of our ministries to serve as Pastors. Pray that God will give many good gifts to his servants – we need more who can do things like put a tune to the Books of the Bible in Afrikaans.

Thank you for sending us to South Africa,

Your Missionaries,

Jeff & Judy Blanton

FINISHED

19 April 2009

Dear Pastor and Prayer Partners,

When Strafford casually said, “Pastor, we started building 8 months ago today” I thought, “no, that can’t be right”. I checked the calendar later and sure enough, this small building has taken 8 months to build! Almost everything that could go wrong; did go wrong. Listen to the last tribulation; we had wired the building and passed inspection. All we needed was for the Power Company to run a line from the street to our building and hook it up! Strafford called to report that he flipped the lights on as soon as the electricians had packed up and gone. The fluorescent fixtures glowed brightly for a few seconds and then bulbs began to blow! He quickly switched them off even as his brain was registering that they smelled burnt and had made odd noises. An electrician with years of experience mistakenly hooked us up with 415 volts (which is what the farms use) instead of 220 volts. That took a few days to straighten out and someday they will process the paper work and reimburse us for a dozen fluorescent tubes! Everyone is glad that the church didn’t have a refrigerator or computer!

We held the building dedication in Calvinia over the Easter weekend with good groups from Upington and Mitchell’s Plain also attending. We will forget the swarms of mosquitoes that dive bombed innocent sleepers and remember the good stuff!

In a quiet time, Carmen (in her 30’s) gathered the teenagers together and shared her testimony. Like many of them she grew up in poverty because both of her parents were drinking heavily. The Lord helped her to finish High School, get some secretarial/office training and make a life of her own. After her testimony, a couple of the teenagers asked Kim (20 yrs old) about her life. They were amazed that Kim has been a Christian for so long! (since she was 9 yrs old) They asked her if she doesn’t find it difficult to live a Christian life. Kim admitted that sometimes she does find herself in places and situations where she suddenly realizes that a Christian shouldn’t be here. She was able to tell them that it’s not hard to turn around and leave when you really want to please the Lord. One of Calvinia’s teens promised to try again to live a life pleasing to the Lord.

Everyone was admiring the building. It has that brand new, not a fingerprint on it yet, beauty. And one of the men said, “built by tithes…this is what we can do when we all tithe.” At the beginning of the morning service, Pastor Frantz reminded the people that as soon as they’d had a small group meeting regularly they had saved from the tithes to purchase this land. Bro. Feni charged the new congregation that they should continue in tithing and go forward in the Lord’s work. At home again on Wednesday night when Jeff asked for testimonies, Keith said – “we built that church. We sent Strafford, we prayed, we supported them from our tithes and offerings. We preached while Pastor was gone. We built that church!” (We had originally borrowed $10,000 from the revolving fund. When everyone was talking about worldwide inflation and the Dollar being so down – we decided to see how far we could get without using borrowed money. The Lord was really good to us. Last month we returned the $10,000 to the Missions Office.)

Faith (16) shared her testimony with Raymie and Leroy, teens from Calvinia. Jermaine (17) didn’t speak to anyone he didn’t already know! And neither did 15 yr old Byron. So it wasn’t perfect. Most of our people moved around and met others from both congregations. It was good, really good to have 3 churches together for this celebration.

Thank you for sending us to South Africa.

Your Missionaries,

Jeff & Judy Blanton

Almost Finished

Greetings from South Africa,

Everybody keeps asking, “Is the building done yet? When’s the dedication? Are they using it yet?” No. Don’t know. And yes! Yes, the congregation in Calvinia is using the building, but we have not been able to finish it. It has been painted inside and out, the bathrooms are in and working, the building has been wired and lights fitted. When we had an electrician’s certificate in hand saying that we’d done all required of us and were ready to be hooked up; the one municipal technician was first off to a conference and then started a 2-week vacation! We need power to finish the eaves, cut the floor tiles and do the baptistery lid. We are patiently waiting. As far as a dedication service, I am hoping that we will be able to have it during the school Easter break.

The world economic recession has also come to South Africa. After gasoline prices stabilizing they are back on the rise; this time the American dollar is getting the blame. As Americans, we get tired of hearing America blamed for all the ups and downs of the world economy! The American dollar had been low and it was time for that pendulum to swing the other way for a while. There has been another round of factories closing their doors due to the loss of overseas (American) contracts. One reason that offerings are down in several congregations is that people who were tithing have lost

their jobs. The government suggests that the unemployed go into business for themselves! Please pray for our people who are seeking employment.

Last Sunday could have been called Cousin Sunday. Almost every visitor introduced to me was someone’s cousin; even a family of regular visitors brought a cousin and his wife. All total we had 76 present with 22 of them being under the age of 6. Judy really had her hands full.

We want to thank you for your faithfulness towards us.

Your Missionaries,

Jeff & Judy Blanton

New Year

Dear Pastors and Prayer Partners,

As monthly prayer letters go; this letter is late. It’s easy to write letters when everything is going well, when people are getting saved and growing, when we’re excited.  This letter is late because we got tired and down in the dumps! 

This is our end of the school year; summer vacation, Christmas and New Year slump time.  It happens every year. School has ended. The children who passed are breathing a sigh of relief and the ones who failed are ducking their heads in shame. School is out and they think Sunday School should close for the summer as well!  Besides it’s hot and they’re tired and want to stay home, visit grandma or head for the beach. Even with 21 teens at the Christmas Party we were missing 5 and then Sunday morning only 2 came for Sunday School.  We’re ready for them to get their enthusiasm back again.

Counting our blessings:

This past year we rejoiced as our son, Michael, returned after a 12-month tour of Afghanistan.  We weren’t expecting our 42 yr old son-in-law, Lynn Curry, to get called up for Baghdad! But the Lord has been watching over him and he should be back with Jennifer and the children in April.

What a blessing Skype has been to us!  May its inventor/ founder be blessed coming and going!  We thought email was a wonder till Skype came along.  It’s so good to hear voices and so much easier to chat than to type long letters.

We’d like to thank the Lord for His continual watch over us.  In Kansas, our daughter Sherry’s car turned circles in the other lane and then slid off the road into a ditch without anyone being injured.  Here in South Africa, Jeff pulled out of a parking lot into the nearest lane of traffic at the same time that someone else changed lanes without signaling any such intention.  I’m convinced angels jumped in to prevent a disaster.

What a year financially!  Prices went up and the dollar went down.  The Lord must laugh at human attempts to understand, predict and control the stock market.  It looks to me as though the world is headed for another Great Depression but the Lord works on an entirely different plane.  He has provided everything we needed.  The savings account is smaller but we aren’t in debt.  We thank the Lord for you, our supporting churches and your faithfulness.

The church building in Calvinia is almost finished.  We’re tired.  Perhaps we got stretched a little too thin and some things suffered because we couldn’t do all the usual things and build at the same time.  Our church members, who had been working and witnessing, worked harder while Jeff was away.  But the ones who need constant visits to encourage them towards faithfulness, weren’t so faithful.

Several new teenagers have been visiting.  Delia, 15 yrs old, accepted Christ as her Saviour.  Also, Tino, 28 yrs old, has been attending Sunday mornings for a couple of months now.  He accepted Christ as his Saviour the first Sunday in Dec. and was baptized yesterday, 4^th of January.  His Mother, sister and brother-in-law came to see him be baptized.  That was a good way to start the New Year.

Your Missionaries 

Jeff & Judy Blanton

We are building!!!!!

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

The adventure has started.  We’ve been working on the building in Calvinia for a month now.   It hasn’t been boring.

Challenge #1 Living arrangements:  I’m staying in the pastor’s home.  I have a foam mattress, sleeping bag and other stuff to pull out on the living room floor at night.  I’m trying not to disrupt their normal life.  They have one small bathroom and only turn the hot water heater on in the evening.  The tiny mirror in the bathroom is positioned for children.  I’m too old to hang a mirror on the tree and fill my helmet with warm water for a shave.  I have a beard now.  It’s a real joke at home in Mitchells Plain.  Camiel, 4 yrs old, told her Mama we have a new pastor now.  Our pastor went off to build in Calvinia and the man who came back is someone else!  She can’t see it’s me under this white beard.

The Frantz family object to my eating 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and half a can of pork-n-beans for lunch.  “Pastor, that’s prison food!”  Charmaine has learned to make gravy after no amount of urging could convince me to eat either mayonnaise or chutney on my rice and they thought it a pity to see Pastor eating plain rice with the chicken and green beans.

Challenge #2:  Winter.  Calvinia is in the middle of a desert.  Winter is drawing to a close but temperatures still often fall to below freezing at night.  This wreaks havoc with sundried cement brick making.  Some batches of bricks were brittle and had to be broken up and recycled.  Cold rains have also slowed the work down.  Never have I spent so much time looking at the weather forecasts!

Challenges #3,4 & 5:  Location, budgets and time.  Pastor Frantz chose a plot for its visibility on a main street across from the health clinic, on a hill.  First we tried to level the ground with a backhoe.  Then we dug the footings, and laid the foundation walls over 6 feet high on one side, only 18 inches high on the other side (think of a walk out basement) because we couldn’t level the whole hill and didn’t want to build a retaining wall.  (For those who remember the photo and think ‘it looked flat to me’ all I can say is looks can be deceiving.)  Budgets and time schedules are apparently papers to chuckle over some time in the future.  The desert is one or two inches of sand over rock.  It took a long time to chip out those footings, dig the baptistery and septic tank with men, pick axe and shovels.  Back filling and tamping down has taken another week.  I never dreamed it would take a month just to do the foundation!   Also building 5 hours from the big city, 1 ½ hours from the nearest big town means that absolutely everything costs 30 -50% more because of delivery charges.  It does no good to think ‘but it only costs so much in Cape Town’ this isn’t Cape Town.   Inflation means prices are going up and quality is going down.  Today’s metal window frames are only half as thick as previously and rust.   I wouldn’t have dreamed that I’d be thanking the Lord for previously used steel window frames; but after much searching and comparing prices and quality; that’s exactly what I’m doing.  The Lord blessed us with all the second hand window frames we needed, for the price of just one new window frame.  Hallelujah.

Next Challenge: back at home.  (from Judy) Jeff leaves Monday and comes home Thursday or Friday.  Things go wrong when husbands are gone.  So far the shower drain and one sink were going down v-e-r-y slowly.  The car only started on the 4^th or 5^th try.  The bulb went out on my sewing machine and I couldn’t even figure out how to get the blown one out to replace it.  It’s no fun cooking for just myself and it’s awfully quiet around here!  Lessons in appreciation for a good husband and reminders to pray for all the women whose guys are overseas.  The normal stuff is still going fairly well.  Jeff found time to help the kids make their pine wood cars for the grand prix.  Isaac and Keith are teaching on Wednesday nights.  Everyone at home is helping more with regular church work.

Your Missionaries,

Jeff & Judy Blanton   

Time to Pray

23 July 2008

Dear Pastors and praying friends,

Camp is over!  Whew.  Some of the counselors were a little disappointed that there weren’t more children saved at camp this year.  (That’s because most of them were already saved!  It’s something you only do once.)  Bringing the children home, they told us every exciting thing they’d done.  Faith and Albie both announced that they want to be camp counselors as soon as they’re old enough.  Jeff noticed Ambrose was singing the new songs he’d learned as he brought his bag out to the pickup.   We visited Jodie’s unsaved Mom a few days later and asked if Jodie had talked much of his camp time.  So now we know that Jodie wasn’t impressed with the number of vegetables in Chinese stir-fry or with his taste of sushi.  Did he talk about any of the lessons?  Talk about?  She peeked in the bedroom and saw Jodie with an open Bible giving a lesson to grandpa and his 19 yr old brother!  Grandpa finally said, “That’s enough for now”.   And big brother told him, “Yeah, yeah, we all know you’re going to grow up to be a Pastor.  Save it for someone else.”  His Mama thought it was quite a joke.   9 yr old Jodie is the only Christian in the home.  His brother has been a drug addict since he was 15 yrs old and has stolen everything in the house that was small enough to carry to support his habit.  Jodie accepted Christ as his Saviour May 30 and is always one of the first at church.  He comes Sunday and Wednesday evenings as well.  His Mama figures he’s going through a phase; like the year that he refused to cut his hair so he was the only kid on the block with an Afro and he’d accept any wild dare so all the other kids called him George of the Jungle.  Grandpa has told us that Jodie often invites him to church.  Pray that we and Jodie will be effective witnesses in this household.   And wouldn’t it be something if he did grow up to be a Pastor?

Brent has told everyone that he’s almost a teenager since he had his 11^th birthday.  He also accepted Christ as his Saviour May 30.   He really wanted to be baptized but his Mother doesn’t believe that he’s old enough to understand the decision that he’s made. His aunt got all excited about church and told everyone she was saved at the same age and she’s an alcoholic now, which just goes to prove that kids this age can’t really understand this stuff.   He may be a well-behaved kid at church but she assures us he’s something else at home!  When Brent’s Dad sees us in the living room, he does an about right face and goes in through the kitchen door!

Children are such a blessing!  We brag on them as much as other people brag on their grandchildren!  Many of the children who attend each Sunday have lazy parents at home enjoying a cup of coffee in the quiet house.  I honestly think they tell their friends in the neighborhood to also send their kids over to the church so they too can enjoy a lazy, quiet Sunday morning!  We visit these parents often but so far very few of them have accepted Christ as Saviour.  We’re afraid the children are actually learning that church is for little children and old ladies.   Pray for us to be effective witnesses and pray that the Holy Spirit will convict, really convict these hearts.

Matters of the Heart and Wallet…

For a few months now we’ve been discussing finances.  Inflation, a poor exchange rate for the Dollar, changes in our bookkeeping system and in what’s considered taxable by Social Security have all given us something to think about. 

We’ve even been having some little disagreements in the grocery store.  When a price really jumps, I figure they’ll put it  “on sale” next week at the regular price so I’ll just wait till next week!  Jeff on the other hand has some other mindset and apparently isn’t above putting things in the shopping cart when I’m not looking.  I’ve threatened to leave him at home next time I go shopping.   Joking aside, I began to worry about Charmaine Frantz in Calvinia.

Also Jeff has been looking at building costs.  He had planned to start putting up a building for the church in Calvinia and then had to wait.  All the prices for building materials are soaring.  If our mission church borrows $10,000 at 7 Rand per dollar and the exchange rate swings to 9 Rand per Dollar; they could borrow R70,000 and need to repay R90,000.  The answer to this is to borrow as little as possible!

Missionary and Pastor needed to discuss finances.  What could they afford to repay per month on a building loan?  So it was off the Calvinia to discuss money eye to eye.

 In the meantime, we talked with our people here.  We discussed what a family of five might need these days for groceries.   They voted to give the Frantz family a substantial increase in their monthly support.  They also brought groceries and gifts to send with us.  It was good to see how they love their home missionary.

Strafford had lost his part-time job (the contractor is looking for another contract!).  Charmaine had worked for various people who hadn’t paid her.  The other church that had been supporting them dropped their support.  Tithes and offerings are really down. (We were stunned.   As often as we pick up the phone to chat, they hadn’t told us any of this.)

Now we were worried about the church in Upington.  It’s apparently a sad fact that some people tighten the budget by cutting their church giving.  Brother Feni and Anna have been praying earnestly over this situation.

How do we put up buildings for mission churches?  Usually the mission’s congregation has grown to the point where they can carry some of the costs.  The other churches ought to be at a point where they can support their own pastor and help the new church.   And the well-supported missionary generously gives out of the money available to him.  And yes, churches in America help by supporting the revolving fund and with special gifts as they feel led.   At this moment we have a problem and the answer isn’t to plead for more American help.  (We do appreciate all that you folks have done.)

We need to win more adults especially men to the Lord.  Single moms living on welfare are precious souls and we rejoice over the salvation of teens and children.  But to build strong churches; we need dedicated men!   Pray for us.  Pray that each member will learn to be an effective soul winner.  Pray that our members will have a heart for the work of the Lord and worship Him with their tithes and offerings.

Your Missionaries,

Jeff & Judy Blanton, South Africa

True Stories

 

8 May 2008

Dear Pastor and Prayer Partners,

Your Missionaries,

The garage door swung up and a man’s voice was saying, “Pastor, I just don’t know what to do with my wife.”  I thought, “oops, not for my ears!” and turned to leave the kitchen when I heard Jeff say, “Have you tried taking her to a book store?”  I was hooked, my feet stayed planted.  “Books are expensive!  Women like restaurants.”  “Books aren’t expensive at the second hand shops.  Look in the windows next time you pass a bookshop; it will be full of women.  They can stay happy in there for hours.  And when you come out, you get an ice cream cone and walk on the beach!  It works with my wife.”  I left chuckling; I think Jeff deserves that ice cream cone for his patience!  Keith had better study his own wife and figure out what she likes.  Not everyone enjoys reading.  But everyone likes stories especially true stories.

True stories of real people capture the attention.  Though camp is still six weeks away, we’re gearing up for it.  At counselor orientation, I taught ‘How to Lead a Child to Christ’.  To illustrate some important points I wanted to make, I began with 3 simple stories of true conversion experiences.  I knew they were true because I chose Jeff’s story, my own and one of our daughter’s.  I challenged the would be young counselors to think about and write down their own stories giving careful attention to ‘where’s the repentance’.  One of our own young ladies who’d been at orientation told me she’d received an odd phone call later.  One of the guys called to ask if it was her Pastor and wife at orientation?  He wanted to know if we were ‘for real’?  Kim assured him that she’d heard our testimonies before.  I’d told the teen girls class before of 5 year old Sherry coming out of her bedroom one night in tears to tell us that she couldn’t sleep until she got saved.  A few years later she came out of bed in tears again with the same words!  What?  Haven’t we been through this before? The first time, 6 year old Jenny had been leaning down from the top bunk whispering, “you know, Sherry, if Jesus comes tonight, Daddy and Mommy are saved, and I’m saved and Stephanie and Michael are just babies, so we’ll all go to heaven and you’ll be left here all alone if you don’t get saved.”  No wonder she couldn’t sleep!  We pray for the Holy Spirit to work and we’re all waiting for children and teens to step forward but we’ve got to ask a few questions and listen to each child individually before we start quoting Bible verses.  Kim’s friend was supposed to be writing his own testimony (emphasis on: where’s the repentance?) but he got stuck comparing his own story to ours.  “I haven’t had any grand adventures, nothing good like that has ever happened to me.”  Kim was sure that her friend meant that his conversion was ordinary and not that he wasn’t saved.  Grand adventures?  At first I laughed and then I thought about it.  Yep, when Jesus spoke to my heart and I understood clearly that without Him as my Saviour I couldn’t go to heaven; it was grand!  And accepting Him was the start of grand adventures!  Perhaps after camp this young man will be able to say, “the lights were out, when this kid came out of his bunk to tell me, I’ve got to accept Jesus as my Saviour before I can go to sleep”.

 Sunday evening Carol asked us to pray for a neighbor she’s been witnessing to.  Early Monday morning Mrs. Hendricks called to tell her, “I’m ready to accept Jesus if I can come over for a minute”.  Grand adventures and lots of stories still to be written!

Your Missionaries,

Jeff & Judy Blanton