The Four Year Mark

Dear Friends,

Our updates have been a casualty of a very full past three months. This one is long overdue! We continue to be aware of God’s goodness and grace as we see His hand at work in the city of George. Here is a little bit of what God is doing . . .

Church Planting

The Lord continues to grow Life Fellowship Church. We had the great joy of baptizing three men at the beginning of November and enjoying a church family meal. The Lord is working in hearts through our preaching series: Kingdom Living: The Sermon on the Mount, and He continues to bring new people to us on a regular basis who either need Christ or need to be discipled in their walk with Christ. We are also currently engaged in a mid-week study with the men of the church on “Developing Spiritual Leadership in the Church.” It has been a great encouragement to see almost all of our men joining us for this important study as we prepare to establish deacon and elder leadership in the coming year. We have also been encouraged recently to see the church family ministering to each other in the midst of two very difficult situations that impacted two families in our church. The Lord is visibly working. Please keep praying for genuine spiritual growth among our church family.

Theological Training

We have completed the second year of the Biblical Leadership Institute theological education courses. The Lord has provided us the opportunity to offer a fully accredited bachelor of theology degree in conjunction with the South African Theological Seminary. We just completed a Marriage and Family Counseling course, and are preparing for four more courses in the new year. Please pray that the Lord would continue to bring men across our path who need sound biblical training in preparation for spiritual leadership in churches across the Garden Route of South Africa.

Gospel Outreach

We are still in the process of furnishing our community center building to open the Inspire George Business Center as a means of building redemptive relationships within the business community in our city. The pace of getting furniture made and installed has been much slower than anticipated, but we are hoping to have everything in place so that we can “open for business” early in the new year. We are also praying that the Lord will provide the means for a young man connected to our church to oversee the business center as a source of income for him and his family while we seek to nurture his desire for ministry. We are also developing some plans to expand our counseling ministry and to expand the use of our multi-sport court for outreach purposes as soon as some much needed and anticipated help arrives from the States.

Inspire George Ministry Center

Many of you are aware that the Lord has blessed us with a wonderful property strategically located in the heart of George. We continue to renovate the property as the Lord provides resources. We are excited about the installation of a baptismal pool, which was a gift from a church in the States. Lord willing, the project will be completed before Christmas. Also, we anticipate a significant building project early in the new year as we add a second story to our community center building so that we will be able to begin the Foundations Program in 2024, a gap-year ministry that will house up to 20 high school graduates and provide a year of intensive Bible training.

With the end of the year approaching, we know that some folks look for opportunities to give toward ministry endeavors. Here are a few things you may consider . . .

1. Support of the young man to operate our business center who has a desire for future ministry. $2,400 would cover the entire year as we have already received a commitment from someone here in South Africa for the other $2,400.
2. Adding additional security features to the property as we have had problems with several items stolen in recent months" $2500.
3. Shelving units for our storage garage, which is in significant need of organization: $1500.
4. The Foundations Program building project is a bigger expense item, but if you would like details about the funding of that project, please contact Troy at troygahman@gmail.com.

As you continue to pray for us and the ministry here, please pray for the Oser family and the Tandon family, both of whom are in the visa application process. We anticipate their arrival at some point in the new year. We certainly need their involvement in the ministry here!

As we approach the end of our fourth year in South Africa, we are humbled at what God has done, and look forward with anticipation to what He has in store for the year ahead. We are also so grateful for many of you who faithfully and sacrificially partner with us in your prayers and giving. You are very much an integral part of what God is doing here. May the Lord richly bless your Christmas season and fill your hearts with great joy at the hope we have in Christ.