Hammett Updates
June 14, 2008
Brethren
Just wanted to give you a short update and share a great blessing with you all. Thanks for your prayers for us as we have travelled many miles over the last several days, and will be travelling again on Monday. The Lord has blessed with some great meetings along the way, and several new churches for support. We are in Cincinnati, OH area this weekend with 2 supporting churches. Lord willing we will be back at LV sometime late Monday evening. My wife came down with strep throat on Wed. night, and we are praying that it stays away from the rest of us,....no that's not the blessing :-).
I just got off the phone with Fels and David in South Africa. Now here's a blessing.....A couple of weeks ago, David was able to go and visit Godfrey and they spoke about beginning salvation Bible studies on Sunday June 1, with a group of folks in Godfrey's village of Samorela. As it turned out, Godfrey had to work on that Sunday, but they DID begin last Sunday, June 8 with a group of 6 men and 8 children, plus David and Godfrey! I have never even been to Godfrey's village, so this is truly a blessing to me, to see their initiative, desire, and follow-through. There is a funeral tomorrow that Godfrey must attend, but they are planning to meet again next Sunday, June 22. Now, you'll remember that David does not have a job, but he is paying the R40 ($5) taxi bill out of his own pocket to get up there and back. You say, that's not much money, and I say, people get robbed every day in Africa for less than R40. I was just a little blessed by the desire and commitment of these men, and wanted to share that with you. Please continue to lift them up in prayer.
We look forward to seeing you all next week. We will be in LV for about 10 days and then we will be heading back out on the road again.
Lord Bless,
Bro George
May 14, 2008
Brethren
Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We are still parked in Springfield, MO, and enjoying several good meetings that the Lord has blessed us with. For those who saw the news about the tornadoes, we were about an hour from where they touched down, killing several folks. In fact, the church we were with on Sunday morning was in Monett, MO, about 15 minutes from where some lost their lives. We thank the Lord for His protection.....tornadoes and travel trailers don't mix very well, and I would hate to see them try :-).
Tomorrow night we will be with Calvary Baptist Church in Knob Noster, MO. They sent a group of men down to Chile a couple months back to help Bro. Heinz, and we are looking forward to visiting with them. Please continue to pray for our meetings that we may be a blessing and a challenge to the churches for the cause of Christ.
One of our goals with this furlough was to raise another $1000/month in support. Thus far, the Lord has blessed with 1/3 of that amount already being raised! We are grateful for that, and trust that the rest will be raised in due time during the course of our other meetings.
We look forward to being back at LVBC in a little over a month. Lord willing, we will be back in town around the 20th of June for a few days.
Lord Bless,
Bro. George
January 21, 2008
Brethren
This will most likely be our last update, until we see you face to face in a few days!!! We are overjoyed at the thought to reconnect with each of you again in a short matter of time, as we prepare to head home for furlough. We are moving the house into storage tomorrow. Wednesday we will head down to Johannesburg with the Wilhites, and on Thursday we will fly out for NY. Our flight is scheduled to arrive at JFK on Friday around noon.
Our departure from Africa is not all excitement though. We are leaving our hearts here with the dear folks that God has allowed us to influence with the Word of God over the last 3 years. Today was a bittersweet day, as it was a last day in the villages here, ministering the Word of God and discipling men. We met again this morning at Mhlaba Cross Village, where David finished lesson 3 about repentance and faith. I attached a picture of some of the folks that were there this morning. After lunch, at the house, we met together for the Lord's Supper service with the baptized members here. What a sweet time together as we remembered our Lord's Death and Victory over sin. Isn't it great to know that the blood of Jesus Christ still cleanses people from sin and changes folks lives???!!!!!!!
This afternoon we were back at Fel's house, with a good group returning from last week. Some were missing, but we still had 10 adults and 10 children, so we praise the Lord for that. Please pray as these men seek to carry on by themselves with all of the open doors and opportunities.
We will see you all this weekend, Lord willing!
For Souls,
Bro George
January 14, 2007
Brethren
Thanks so much for your prayers for us. We have had a full week of packing and preparing to come back to the States, and yet imparting so many important truths to the men here before we go. The Lord blessed us with tremendous services today both in the morning and afternoon.
This morning we were back again to Mhlaba Cross Village, where David taught the 3rd salvation Bible study. There were 14 Africans there today for the study, and most of them seem to be very interested and listening well to the Scriptures. Please continue to pray for Jeanette and her family, friends, and neighbors for salvation.
This afternoon we went to Fels' house, near Motupa Village. There have not been many 'visitors' to work with at Motupa over the last several weeks, so Fels asked if we could try to organize some folks at his place, and take our group there on Sunday afternoons instead. Now, I know that I should have told him "no...we can't do that....we are starting a church in Motupa". Really, it was a blessing to me to see his initiative and desire to reach people. So we went there today for the first study. As you can see from the picture he really did the work this week in preparation to get the folks to come. In all there were 27 Africans this afternoon....2 men slipped out before we took the photo. What a blessing to see God give Fels the opportunity to preach the Gospel with boldness to his mother, aunt, sister-in-law, and neighbors, at his own house! My heart was blessed today watching our faithful band of men doing all the teaching, preaching, inviting, and organizing of all the details.
There are some other blessings to share from the weekend as well, as we have seen God developing some special things in some of the men's lives here. We will wait to share with you in person though, when we return to LVBC!!!
We must finish packing the house this week and closing things down. Sunday will be our last services here; Monday we move out of the house; Wednesday we head to Joburg; Thursday night we board the plane; and Friday the 25th we will (Lord willing:-) land at JFK.
We appreciate you all and look forward to seeing you soon.
For Souls,
Bro George
January 5, 2008
Brethren
I have been intending to get an update off to the church over the last several days, but we have been a bit preoccupied tying down some of the final details and packing the house before we head home to the States in less than 3 weeks. Our plane leaves here on the 24th, and we will arrive in NY on the 25th around 12 noon. We appreciate your prayers for us in these last few days to have wisdom to know exactly what else we need to impart to these men before we leave them for a year. We are planning a special Lord's Supper service with the baptized folks here on the 20th, and that should be a special time.
I know that many of you prayed for the funeral service of the little baby, that we were invited to preach at 2 weeks ago in Mhlaba Cross village. Last Sunday, due to some of the 'holiday complications', we were unable to go to Kujwana village in the morning for our normal Bible study. So, I called Jeanette, the one who asked us to preach the funeral, and asked her if we could come in the morning and have a Bible study with some of the folks in her neighborhood. This was on Saturday night last week at 8:30. She readily agreed and gathered some 15 folks early the next morning to come and hear the Scriptures. We had a great first study with them, and are going back tomorrow morning. David, Fels, and Godfrey are taking care of everything (preaching, praying, song leading, etc.), which is all the more important since we are only here for a couple more weeks. Please pray for the folks in Mhlaba Cross, there is no doubt that the Lord has opened this door. We pray that they will respond to truth!
The guys are continuing to work with Silas and Sam. Please keep praying for their salvation. The holidays have sent them to visit relatives in other places, and therefore, time with them has been scarce. Sam is supposed to be at Motupa tomorrow though it sounds like.
We trust you have a great day in the Lord's House tomorrow.
Lord Bless,
Bro. George