“We had two speakers. Pastor Timothy Sitelo (left) focused on serving God whole heartedly. His teachings were very engaging, including group exercises. We all participated in and learned a lot from them. Pastor Emmanuel Nzama [Thandy’s husband, at right] taught from the pastor training program’s Volume 2 on “Christian Ethics.” Cultural practices that have made their way into the church were confronted and habits that do not glorify God were exposed. The teaching was followed by praying for each other in small groups. We held hands and lifted each other up to the Lord. There was praise and great worship after these great teachings.”

Biblica Africa's office staff from Kenya attended the conference. From left above are Lydia, Rose and Susan. Lydia said, “You guys keep on thanking us for the books but it is us who are actually inspired by you all, the passion you have and the love you have for God's word is an encouragement to us.” After seeing so many people committed to the program, Rose sang a song that said, "What should I render to Jehovah, for He has done so very much for me.” Carien (Biblica, South Africa, not pictured here) also attended and gave encouragement to the teams. She shared the struggles of getting funding for printing books, but said that Biblica will keep trying to support partners like Phakama because of the great work that is being done. We appreciate their help with the books because they are what the whole R4L ministry is built on. We encourage those who can access the R4L app to do so, but the vast majority of those we serve aren't able to, either due to lack of a phone or lack of money to buy air time for the phone and data for internet access. The electrical grid in South Africa is continuing to fail. Last week they were on stage 6 (3 hours of power per day). This is happening all over the country, even in the big cities. Thandy said yesterday that Johannesburg has been without power for several days. Please pray that Biblica will be able to continue printing books at the same level as we have received in past years - they are needed!

Meanwhile, Prevention Time has been busy on this side of the world as well. We changed our website's service provider, so our website pages load almost instantly. Check it out at preventiontime.org. We are also working on a website where resources are being posted online so they can be accessed and downloaded when phones are able to be charged. We have been sending weekly lessons for about two years, and we are adding those under the menu tab "Lessons." We are still developing the site, but so far, we also have menu tabs for Teaching Aids (stick figures, storyboards, etc.), Gospel (how to share effectively, how to identify false gospels, etc.), Family, and Sermons. (We're starting to post sermon notes from Christ's Church, Federal Way). We also plan to start loading information on topics such as grief counseling, anger management, rape, and domestic violence, all from various manuals we've written, plus lessons for Sunday School and other resources. Take a look at resources.phakamaprojects.org (temporary user name is "resources" and password is "Reach4Life"). Click on "menu" at the top to see the menu choices. Click on "read more" at the bottom of each lesson. These resources can be used by the Peer Educators, pastors, church leaders, teachers, community leaders, and anyone who finds them useful. Please send us an email if you have some useful resources for us to consider posting.

Peer Educator Linda (male) from Harrismith performed a poem about the kingship of Jesus.

Celiwe Malinga, teacher at Sivukile High School, Ladysmith, says, “It is my first time coming to the R4L conference. I came because the headmaster sent me to thank the team that comes to our school every week without fail. Our pass rate has increased since we had R4L in our school. No more teen pregnancy. We know it’s the R4L program because we asked the kids why have they changed. They say it is the teachings of the Peer Educators from the R4L book. I too have been linked to a good Bible teaching church through the program. We salute all the funders, you have unleashed light in Africa and Jesus is being glorified.”  

Prevention Time thanks you for your interest in our organization. We are a 501(c)3 organization and all donations are tax-deductible. Prevention Time has no paid staff, so our administrative costs are minimal. To help support the ministry in sub-Saharan Africa, please click on the donate button below.