Dear Friends and Family:

Praises: 
***God is a God of grace and mercy!  We praise Him for guiding and protecting all of our lives each day in an unstable world.

Prayer Requests:
***Pray for continued opportunities for us to see how God is at work in the Baptist churches here in Durban and how He wants us to join Him in motivating them to further service.
***Please download the attached prayer card and print as many copies as you would like for yourself and others to use in praying for us.  The prayers of the saints are what keeps us here and keeps us going.  (You can put the prayer card on a disk and get copies made a Walmart for a reasonable price.)
***Please continue to pray for Jackie, whom Carol mentioned previously as having made a decision for Christ on the plane trip to South Africa in August.  Carol has tried to communicate with her by e-mail but has received no replies.  She either does not check her e-mail or she has been deceived by some of the persons with whom she was traveling who said they do not believe in Jesus as the Son of God.  Carol will continue to try to communicate with her and encourage her even if she does not reply.
*** Please continue to pray for our American Jewish friend, Martin, whom we also mentioned earlier.  He is going through a huge transition in his life right now and seems open to seeking the Truth.  He is corresponding with us by e-mail and we are trying to connect him with other Christians who can have opportunities to share with him face-to-face as we were able to do while in the states.

We know that many of you will be excited to know that we have seen monkeys twice now here at our new residence in Durban!  Since that is only twice in two months and then only seeing one or two at a time, don’t get too excited!  BUT summer is on its way and the doors and windows will be open – you never know when the little critters will pay us a visit.  Recently we were at one of our Baptist churches; and after the service, they were having a tea time.  A monkey came right up to the front door, inviting himself in, but the pastor saw him before he could get too far and chased him away.  We must admit, we really aren’t looking for monkey’s souls just now.

Bill’s notes:

I am now serving as our team as Mission Catalyst to engage the churches of our area in doing missions.  God is already opening doors for this.  I am meeting with groups of pastors.   We are excited about reconnecting with people from our previous term.
We are already helping the mission chairman of the Baptist Mission Association (an Indian association) work toward planting a church in Ballito in the extreme north end of Durban and where the city is having significant growth. 
I am excited that Pinetown Baptist Church leaders want to do more evangelistic block parties.  This was the church I worked with when they conducted the block party at The Towers, a high-rise building where thousands of people lived.  Over 300 people came to the party and the church recently baptized 14 teenagers from the approximately 50 teenagers that were added to their fledgling youth group that is now thriving and actually doing mission work themselves in some nearby poor communities.
We both anticipate teaching next year in the Bethany School of Missions.  This is comparable to basic level seminary extension and focuses on training lay people to do short term foreign missions in Mozambique and engages them in it.  They have an excellent record of this.  We have worked successfully with them before and we are looking forward to doing it again.  Of course, these people are permanently changed by the training and mission experiences and usually they become very effective witnesses here.
Carol’s thoughts:

We must admit that we see Satan hard at work here, using diverse and various means, trying to disrupt on every front. 

Some of you will remember Lungile, the 13-year-old who took over one of our Friends of Jesus Clubs. She had a successful three years of working with the children but is now living with her aunt near Richard’s Bay because of some difficult issues she was facing in her school in Durban.  That leaves a gap in KwaMashu; BUT Praise the Lord, she wants to begin a club in her aunt’s garage next school term!  God is enlarging our Friends of Jesus territory!  What Satan meant for bad, God can use for good!

I have found that some of the others I have worked with previously in Durban have made some unwise choices, but I see that God is still at work in their lives and we will begin to mentor them again in the coming months.

I was thrilled to attend a Friends of Jesus Club in Burlington township this week that is thriving.  Please pray for Vivian, a lady whom Mary Wood mentored in the Friends of Jesus clubs, who faithfully goes out to different parts of the city every weekday and holds Friends of Jesus Clubs.  She has a burden for several new areas.  Pray that she will be able to turn some of the clubs she is currently running over to others in the community to carry on while she begins some new ones.  I can very well see that happening in Burlington as she has mentored a young lady, named Precious, who is very capable of holding the club herself now.  Pray that many of our Baptist churches will catch the vision and begin clubs in their communities as an outreach to the unchurched.

I have encountered several people here in Durban, since we have returned, who remember me from teaching them to prayer walk/drive.  Pray that we will find many groups who will see the need to go out to pray over their communities and see where God is at work and join Him in that work.  I have enjoyed going out with our team member, S, to pray over the communities were they work.

I am looking forward to attending the Jameelah (Beautiful Lady – Christian women reaching out to their Muslim lady friends) group in Pietermaritzburg on Friday that we were able to start last year.  I hear that it is doing well.  I look forward to being a part of one of the Jameelah groups that meet here in Durban the last Saturday of each month.  We have been challenged to try to get others involved.  Please pray for me to be able to encourage other ladies who have a heart to be a part of learning how they can reach out to these ladies.  God is at work in the Muslim community and He desires to draw EVERYONE to a saving knowledge of Him.

I have been writing some personalized tracts for persons we come into contact on a regular basis but, because of the nature of their work, do not have opportunity to carry on an extended conversation, such as gas station attendants and cashiers in the stores.  I enjoy writing and ask you to pray that I will have more opportunities to use this avenue to share the cause of Christ.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.  You are an amazing group of people.  When things get tough, the tough keep praying.  We are pleased to lift up your prayer needs also as you share them with us.  Keep us updated!

Trusting Jesus as we continue to
Risk the Journey,
Bill and Carol Bowers