Dear friends, we wish you all a Happy New Year!
In the beginning of December 2003 we sent a newsletter to those of you that we
have on our mailing-list. We gave you a thorough presentation of the vision “Mission
Made in Africa”. Unfortunately for you who are among our English language readers,
this presentation was only written in Danish at that time. But you can find a short
description of the vision under the link, “The Vision”, on our website.
Since then we have had Christmas and New Year, as you have, wherever you are.
One notable feature in our situation was that we had a temperature of 36 degrees Celsius,
making a very hot Christmas Eve. We had a cup of late afternoon coffee in the garden,
while our friends in Denmark were on their way home from the traditional Christmas service
on the afternoon of the 24th December. Here in South Africa we followed the English
tradition of being at the Christmas morning service on Christmas day.
In this newsletter we have a very wonderful and vital piece of news that we want
to share with you. It’s concerning a new co-worker in the MMA-ministry, back in Denmark.
God has spoken to our son, Mikael (27), who has been living in the city of Aalborg
since shortly after we left Denmark for Tanzania in the beginning of January 1996.
Mikael is married to Hanna, and they have recently moved to Hjørring. However they are
members of Aalborg City Church, where they are active in ministry. Mikael has a central
role in the intercessory ministry of the church, and he has often sent us prophetic words
of faith from the Lord that have blessed us.
About the 1st. of December, Mikael sent a special and extremely encouraging e-mail to us.
He said it had been laid upon his heart to offer himself as our future contact-person in
Denmark. He would take care of processing information, PR-work, and he would be our
administrator for MMA-Denmark. When Mikael wrote this to us, he did so, not only out of
love for us as his parents, but also because he was really on fire for MMA-Ministries,
and had been praying about it for some time.
This came as a gift from God to us, since we were quite sure that Mikael would commit
himself 100% into this task. He is conscientious, as well as being well-trained for the
work through his BA-studies in the field of international communication, a vital asset
for propagating MMA.
We have been blessed by having Georg Berthelsen as our contact-person in Denmark until
now. Georg has really supported us in getting “Mission Made in Africa” started, and we know
that there will be a good transition of the responsibility as our contact-man from him to
Mikael. We hereby express our thanks to Georg and the Danish South Africa Mission-Group
(SAG) for their support in getting us sent off to South Africa two years ago.
The whole new development, of Mikael becoming our new contact-person in Denmark,
comes solely as a result of God’s foresight and provision. We know that the Lord is
leading us into a great and demanding job with the implementing of the MMA-vision, and
this demands extensive work on the home front. We would hereby ask you to envelop Mikael
with your prayers as he begins in this new ministry.As we entered this New Year, we rejoiced
that God graciously made it possible for us to live and work in Africa. We are rejoicing
about the fantastic perspectives that are ahead of us for the unfolding of “Mission Made
in Africa Ministries”(MMA).
The first concrete step for this already took place on the 1st.January 2004, when I had
an exceptionally fruitful conversation with a Zulu church-leader about the MMA-concept.
His name is Simon Mathabela, and when I told him about the vision, he was immediately
gripped by it and its potential, and wanted to become part of it. The result of our talk
was that Pastor Simon Mathabela and I set the dates for the first planning-meetings for an
MMA-project in his church. The church is in the city of Pietermaritzburg, where the meetings
took place in January’04.
For your information we would like to explain what a “MMA-project” is:
A group of people who are on fire for evangelism and missions are chosen to participate
in a thorough teaching and training course about “cross-cultural missions”. Furthermore they
are introduced to the MMA-concept, which claims that God’s people in Africa have a biblical
mandate to carry out this task of missions. They are also provided with help and guidance
in how to set this work into motion, and how they would be able to find the resources for
it.
We hereby ask you, as many as possible, for your perseverance in prayer for the success
of this first, historical MMA-project. We sincerely believe it will result in “the
multiplication of the ministry of missions”.
Please pray for us as a family in South Africa, that we may receive God’s grace and help
in tackling the many new issues that are facing us this year.
Apart from starting and building up MMA, we have to face the fact of having to be without
our son, Mark, who is leaving for Denmark on the 18th. February 2004. Even though we are
happy for him that he will be embarking on tertiary studies in Denmark, surrounded by
family and friends, we know we are going to miss him terribly.
Tove and I are very thankful indeed that our twin sons will not be leaving us simultaneously,
since Peter will be staying on for a while longer. He will naturally miss his brother,
and we would appreciate your prayers for him in the new situation, he too will be facing.
We pray that the Lord will bless each and every one of you. God has especially impressed on my heart,
the enormous importance that the faithful ministry of intercession has for His servants.
This applies to intercession for workers back in Denmark, here in South Africa, as well
as for those sent to other countries.
We realize that this ministry has been given as a spiritual gift to some in the Church.
All Christians know what prayer is about – and do pray. However only some have the gift
and ministry of intercession.
Therefore we would like to encourage specifically this part of the whole matter, intercession.
It would be exciting and of tremendous importance for us if we could be informed
whom among you that have this ministry and are actively involved in it.
If any of you were to receive God’s guidance to do so, it would be a huge
encouragement for us to hear from you. Later on we will specify more about the vital
areas of ministry out here that need your special covering by prayer.
In this connection we hereby give you our personal e-mail address: thomsen@aabc.co.za
Yours in His service,
Tove and John, Mark og Peter
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