Spring—A New Beginning
Fanie Buys
By now we recognize that spring is a time of new beginnings. After every dry winter we experience here on the Highveld of Gauteng, South Africa, the first rains bring green grass, flowers and blossoms. Spring brings a new beginning.
People also hunger for new beginnings. We receive countless letters from prisoners with the cry for a new beginning. Most of these prisoners recognize that their way of life has brought them to where they are.
Here are some quotes from the letters we received lately:
A prisoner serving a sentence of 42 years writes: “I am glad to write to your institution in my endeavour to turn around my life and discover the way of salvation through the study of God’s Word. I am pretty sure the brand new journey will be full of excitement as I gradually acquire a greater understanding of the functionalities of the Almighty Living God in my life.”
Another one writes: “Since I came to repentance all became new. Sometimes there are challenges, obstacles, but with prayer I win them. The greatest of all is that I am certain about the love that Jesus has for me. It promotes my faith. I love my Jesus.”
A prisoner said that he thanks God that he is in prison, because in prison he met Jesus. Then he said: “I am so appreciative to the love of God. I also thank you for My New Life in Christ, because now I am no longer the same person I was before I met you. I am totally changed.”
Spring is surely a time of change, a time of new beginnings.
Spring—Making new plans
For a long time we have been frustrated by slow mail. Airmail letters to neighboring countries take up to two months to reach their destination. The result was that students took up to two years to do a course like My New Life in Christ. Many lose heart and stop doing their lessons. But we had to come up with a plan to speed things up, a new plan. So we asked the Lord for wisdom. We decided to send out letters to our existing students, giving them the option to receive the whole course at once. This way they will only spend three or four months on a course. Of course, this increases our monthly postage expense dramatically, but we have to trust the Lord for the extra funds. We are still in the process, but our mail has increased. One day, I received 41 letters in the mail. The majority were from our Namibia students who had received the whole course.
Spring—Reaching new areas
To remain stagnant is definitely not a characteristic of spring. New growth is what it is all about. We should look for new areas to reach. At Source of Light South Africa we also reach our neighboring countries. Apart from our own country, we currently have students in Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Like Jabez prayed for more territory, we must ask the Lord to expand our influence. We are currently negotiating to distribute the Bible studies in Malawi. We are in contact with another missionary, Brother Robinson, who will help us. He is looking into placing an advertisement in the local newspaper. He will also help us by being the go-between for those who cannot afford to mail it to South Africa. He will give his address as a local address and collect the lessons for a while before sending it in bulk to South Africa. We look forward to sending more Bible studies to Malawi. Because it is God’s Word we send out through the lessons, we pray that soon many in Malawi will meet Him who declared: Behold, I make all things new.
