our scattered congregation and start the church venue purchasing project. Dear prayers:

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1 March Issue 85 Dear prayers: The scene in Nehemiah chapter 4 is quite unforgettable: 16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us! 21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears 23Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water. (Neh. 4:16-23) Under the instability of South African politics, economy and public safety, we are still trying very hard to regather our scattered congregation and start the church venue purchasing project. A Christmas hymn sharing class has been held five times in November and December, which gathered 8 adult members. One goal of hosting this class was to increase members knowledge of 1) the birth of Christ and 2) Christmas hymns. The other is to prepare for the Christmas service. However, many members in this class went back to China for holiday. At the end there were only 3 people who could sing at the Christmas service, including Barnabas! Yet the hymns sung have deeply touched Barnabas himself and probably the audience too, thank God! On the same night we had a Christmas party where 22 people attended, which was only 10 in How motivating! Praise the lord, that we have 12 applicants for the PCCC Youth Band starting in February. 3 Ladies have joined the young adult guitar class and they all enjoy it very much. The first time they can play and sing King of Kings, Lord of Lords, they smiled satisfactorily. However the members of the young adult band, some 1

2 are exhausted from work, some are only coming back at the end of February, some are waiting for their husbands to come back at the end of February, some are ill...etc. Because of these reasons, this band has stalled and might have to be cancelled. Please pray for us. Due to various reasons, our attendance remains below 20. At the beginning or end of month, or even when it rains, the attendance is even lower. These situations are demotivating every single time. But, like Nehemiah, we will work in one hand and take weapons in the other hand - keep praying. However, Barnabas worked very hard and was able to re-gather the five teenage band members who stayed in SA. It was planned that two episodes of sermon to be played on every sunday while Barnabas was away for three months, which the congregation found to be a bit too long and chose to reduce it to one episode. This means that there is still some DVD material left that can help out when Barnabas struggles to manage almost everything by himself. The board of deacons is back in action starting from 11th Jan 2017 after long idle.(we communicated through WeChat before) Three members including Kenny, Shiang and Jane have started meetings again to take care of the running of the church. We ve already had another meeting on 26th February preparing the AGM on 26 th March. Praise the Lord that a sister, Xiao Zhu, is willing to be nominated as deaconess. We are looking forward to the approval in the AGM. Although it s hard, the outreach activities carries on. Regardless of its 0% success rate at inviting to Sunday service, Barnabas does not stop distributing pamphlets alone at the Chinese malls every week. Many Chinese businessmen have retreated due to bad business, which lowers the proportion of chinese people at the chinese mall. But there are still some surprising moments sometimes. Once, Barnabas countered a lady at the Durban China City who rejected the pamphlet, but found interest in the calendar. One week later Barnabas gave her the last calendar which she received very happily. Another time Barnabas met Mrs. Chen, who has been to our service before, at the China Mall. She was very energetic because she is also from Hong Kong. She talked about her sons, her retirement plan, and going to church again. She lives in the city center where it is very dangerous at night. She could go to church before because someone could accompany her, but not any more. We learned that even though sometimes we 2

3 know what their problems are, there is still only so much we can do to help. The work is extensive but not enough help. Since we are so far apart, when you hear from us, please join us by prayers. Our God will fight for us! The Mission will host a SA short term mission trip from 19th July till 3rd August. We ve heard that 5 people are ready to apply! The trip will certainly go on. To enrich the African experience in this trip we will arrange a wild zoo visit for the trip members. Africa Visit should include the Big Five of Africa.This also gives us missionaries some breathing time to relax, forget daily chores and to get to know more about them, and to have more deep sharing in the missionary lives! We hope that more brothers and sisters will join too! Since Barnabas got back to SA last November, he has been having chronic headaches. According to doctor s diagnosis, it is caused by poor posture and wrong glasses. As recommended, Barnabas got a pair of glasses that is specially for staring at screens. Now it is already much better! Thanks the lord that the problem was discovered early enough. From the eye test, Barnabas also found out that his right eye pressure is a bit too high, which is a symptom for glaucoma. Eye drops is an option to reduce the pressure. But it is also a lifelong one! The doctor suggested to check back after 2 months and then decide. Please pray that this situation would improve before 24/4, otherwise Barnabas will have to keep dropping things into his eyes for the rest of his life... 3

4 Since the eye incident, Barnabas has been looking more out of the window. One morning he saw this tree, a really strong and prosperous tree. The most eye catching part of a tree is of course the leaves, especially when the wind blows. However, he discovered that once a leave left the tree, it drops to the floor and loses its glory. It starts to look like rubbish on the road. The next one is the stem, strong and firm, supportive and confident. But the top is thin, pointing to the sky, easiest to be forgotten. This reminded Barnabas to not focus only on the eye catching leaves: the visible part of his duty, or on the supporting stem: how many prayers, donation as well, but on most importantly the top: God. What could I be without God? Praise the Lord! We have reached 54.78% of our fundraising goal by 15th March. Proportionally speaking we already have 3834 people out of 7000 needed. We pray for the rest and know that God will provide. 4

5 Lots of people have been having troubles extending their visas as the SA immigration gets stricter and stricter. Pastor Zhuang s family went back to Taiwan in last November and haven t been able to get back since due to the long extension process. American ABWE missionary Glenn s family has also run into a wall dealing with visa extension. They are now planning to go back to America this month. But once they leave SA, they will not be able to get back in in the coming five years. Another American ABWE missionary couple planned to start their mission since last December and have not heard still. There are xenophobic waves every year that affects Chinese. A lot of Chinese children, who are not residents or do not hold an effective student visa, have been kicked out of school! Therefore, Barnabas has been busy lately trying to help some affected children. Unfortunately, this will become our personal problem soon - the visa of both Barnabas and Peggy will expire in June. Which means that once Peggy is back in SA, we will have to kick off the visa process immediately. Hopefully we will take care of this process impeccably so that they can not have any excuse to deny our extension application. Please pray! Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. (Jer.32:17-18 (ESV)) With God s grace, I ve successfully passed the exam for Soft tissue muscle injury therapist. Most importantly I was able to get the certificate from the China Professional Competence Training and Evaluation Center, so that I can use this newly acquired qualification to serve. I have been practicing my craft for the past half year and have learned a lot. Once I help to deal with a 250-poundman s foot injury, though it was hard, but I have also grown more confident. In the past two months, God has prepared some injured customers for me to learn from those whose shoulder, back, waist or foot is injured. This allowed me to gain a lot of practical experience. A brother from the Grace Seal Baptist Church is also a great teacher of mine. He has been guiding and advising me a lot about stretching in class, hoping that one day with my skills, it will be possible for us to attract new people to PCCC and share the gospel with them. I have very much clumsily twisted my ankle last Friday walking on the street. I treat this as an opportunity for me to learn how to cure myself with what I just learned. The progress has been great! I pray that I can be an ambassador of God s love, and that I can spread the gospel using any channels. 5

6 1. Thank God for giving Barnabas strength and health to serve alone in SA for four months! Thank you for your prayers! 2. Thank the Lord that Peggy successfully received the certificate to be a soft tissue muscle injury therapist. Another class about spine health is still to be finished and please pray that she will be able to get back smoothly to SA on 22nd March. 3. Please pray for wisdom, balance and health for Yee and Eunice, who have been studying very hard. 4. Thank God for the blessed life Sharon and Stefan have in Germany. Please pray for Sharon to have strength to face the challenges in life. 5. Thank you Lord for the fundraising progress! 54.78% has been collected. Please pray that there will be more supporters and that our plan will come to life soon! 6. Thank God for the energetic members at our guitar classes of PCCC Youth Band. Please pray for the band for young adult, it might have to be cancelled soon. 7. Please pray for the Good Friday service on 14th April and the Easter service on 16th April. Please pray for revival at church. 8. Thank God for the five potential applicants for the short term SA mission trip that is held from 19th July to 3rd August. Interested parties please apply before 2nd May. Please pray for wisdom for the preparation of the mission trip. Thank you for praying, God bless! Your missionaries Barnabas & Peggy If you want to support us or the SA church purchasing, please draw check payable to Hong Kong ABWE Mission Limited and send to P. O. Box No , Kowloon Central Post Office, Kowloon, Hong Kong or deposit cash in Bank of China (Hong Kong) account number and send or fax (fax number (852) ) the deposit slip to Hong Kong ABWE Mission (at the back of the check or deposit slip please write down to support missionaries: Barnabas and Peggy Chung, or church venue purchasing: SA Church Purchasing ). If you would like to receive prayer letters or make enquires, place call (852) or to Hong Kong ABWE Mission at mission@abwemhk.org to Mr. Mak. Thank you very much! 6