Praise & Prayer from IMM South Africa July 2011 IMMSA Board met at Magalisburg (Elijah, Seelan, Faki, Vusi, Mohau, and Andrew) - By Pookkattu Paul Dear Praying Friends, CHALLENGES It is with a great sense of responsibility and burden that we bring these prayer and praise items to you. I am writing from the SIM ROSA guesthouse, which happens to be our 8 th home since our arrival in a new term of ministry in South Africa. We are hoping to continue living in this house at least up to December, 2011. Our unsettled life for about 47 days was not at all an easy ride. Molly and I have learned to live alongside people with emotional potholes. However, when we are challenged by these emotional pot- holes in our own lives due to unexpected circumstances and very limited resources to begin a life and ministry, this resulted in pain to the point that we almost experienced a nervous breakdown, and we cried many days and nights. We knew that the darkness would move away and the day would break. However, the length of the night (darkness) tried to create panic and Molly was particularly affected.
I am not saying that I was strong or that I blamed Molly for being weak. Mentally, physically, psychologically, and even spiritually we were coming to the end of the elastic limits of the Pookkattu & Molly Paul whom God has made strong over the years. COMFORT Our close associates, Rev & Mrs. Seelan Govender, Brother Sunny and Alice, Dr. Vinitha Philip, have basically carried us. We cried at Seelan s house, Sunny s house and at each of the eight houses to which we moved. The Mission sent us to comfort people like Seelan and Teena Govender and the miners; however, they have become our comforters just like Priscilla and Aquila were to the Apostle Paul (Romans 16:3-4). JOY Our ministry with the Luka Church ( Mozambican Miners), Ikkageng church (Mohau s church), our visit and fellowship with Agape Fellowship of ECSA (Rev. S. Govender s church), our fellowship and worship with the Johannesburg AEC, and the cluster meeting lead by Elijah Dube, were a real encouragement and motivated our spirits and filled our souls with the powerful Word of God. Our visit to the miners soothed our troubled hearts and minds these past weeks. SHARING BURDENS We value your prayers, support and partnership in the Gospel. Stuart Burns made expensive calls right on time during our troubles. We knew his heart was here while physically he was in Boone, NC. We thank the Lord for people like Tom Gilliam, Ben Wilson, David Shillitoe, Mark Gillette, Pastor Micha Warren and Pastor Tod Adams who called and prayed with us during our recent struggles. A comforting letter and prayer from Westover missions Pastor and their prayer team, helped stabilize us. The SIM USA Personnel director was willing to listen to our struggles during a long call and prayed with us. We are grateful to all of you. There are many who prayed for us. Thankfully, I now have the strength to write this report.
Mark Gillette greeting the Luka Church God blessed us with an unplanned, but truly beneficial visit from Mark Gillette of Christian Bible Fellowship as we were going through our initial struggles in SA. This is an amazing story in itself. For five days Mark could not obtain a return flight to the USA after visiting another ministry in SA, and we were able to fellowship together and expose Mark to the IMM SA ministry. Praise God for directing Mark s steps. Please pray with us as the concrete foundation is now poured at Cheawelo church
Elijah Dube trying to fill the concrete mix to take it to the workers GOD IS BUILDING HIS CHURCH Pray with us, that we will be able to worship the Lord in the Chiawelo Church sanctuary by Christmas, 2011. We are looking to the Lord to supply the bricks for the foundation footing, and the filling soil to level the floor before we pour the concrete slab at the church.
Rev. Dube leads the AEC Johannesburg cluster meeting on May 15 2011. Rev. Faki Bodibe, Molly and Pookkattu Paul had a few minites to share and promote IMMSA in the AEC gathering. The Word was preached by the Jabavu AEC Pastor with conviction and the message inspired and strengthened our hearts and souls. Ikkageng Children after Sunday School Ministring to the women and with the women is a real joy for Molly. Their needs are numerous. Many mothers struggle with issues related to personal health, spouse relationships, caring for their children who are growing in a crooked and depraved generation. The Apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, Molly Paul praying with a Mother
lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungreatful, unholy, without love,unforgiving, slanderers, without self- control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherers, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. Molly Paul with the women in Ikkageng Church smiling for eternity Molly is effective in using her cross-cultural understanding with young mothers and grandmothers to instruct them to Have nothing to do with lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. RESULTS CHANGED LIVES There is nothing that excites us more than seeing and hearing that many people have turned from worldly pleasures to the eternal security that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jerry Shuma wasted his life in alcohol, drugs and with women. Hearing the Gospel from Pastor Mohau, he gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and is now undergoing counseling with another pastor in the mining community. Glory to God!
Jerry Shuma on left with a friend WHAT YOU CAN DO 1. Would you pray with us that Jerry and many like him not only grow in the Lord, but that they will GLOW for the Lord, and go and minister to others who are seeking the Lord? 2. Would you also pray that the ministers of the Gospel like Andrew, Elijah, Faki, Mohau, Patrick, Philip, Pookkattu, Seelan and Vusi will be encouraged and strengthened to move forward with diligence? 3. Your fellowship, partnership, prayers, and visits to the field where we are reaching, building and equipping the miners of Southern Africa are highly rewarding and vital to
the development of this ministry in South Africa. We are looking for donors, who will generously give for the appointment and training of new staff as we are earnestly seeking, under God s leading, to expand this ministry to other mining communities within the borders of South Africa where half a million miners plus their families live and work. 4. Pray with us that we will reach the nations surrounding South Africa, such as Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We covet your prayers and vital partnership. May God richly bless each of you, is our prayer. Thank you for praying! Pookkattu and Molly Paul IMM South Africa And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me! Isaiah 6:8 Web: www.minersmission.com E-mail: paullymap@gmail.com Cell (from USA) 011 27 83 366 6780 IMM Introducing Miners to the Master