Rev Neil M Ross
Zimbabwe:
The Foreign Mission Committee, after conducting interviews in Zimbabwe and the UK, has appointed a new Administration and Technical Manager at Mbuma Mission. He is Mr Leendert Boon from Holland. Mr Boon is familiar with the Mission, having been a member of temporary work parties of Dutch young people who carried out valuable maintenance and repair work there in recent years. His wife, who is to accompany him, also visited Mbuma Hospital before she married, when she was researching our Mission’s Home Based Care programme devised for HIV/Aids patients.
The newly-appointed Superintendent of our Children’s Home at Thembisio, Bulawayo, is Mr B Maphala, who was Headmaster of Thembisio Primary School. To assist him in settling into his new post, the retiring Superintendent, Mr S B Mpofu, who has given many years of faithful service to the Home, has agreed to remain for a handover period of a month, and then for a further month in a consultative capacity. The building of the fifth and final house in the conversion of Thembisio from an institution to a family-based organisation has begun.
Now that the Ndebele Bible translation project is complete and the new translation is in the hands of the Trinitarian Bible Society, some of the translation team have left, while others have moved to Zvishivane to continue working on the Shona Bible translation project under Rev Z Mazvabo. Mr Benschop, who had returned to Holland with his family in August 2010 and continued to work from Holland as co-ordinator of the Presbytery translation team, is now no longer in our employ. The Committee conveyed its cordial thanks to him for the very good work he has done in the field of translation over the years, and for the gospel spirit in which it was done.
Mr Nathaniel Mpofu, who was a member of the Ndebele Bible translation team, has been appointed, with effect from April, as a second catechist at Mbuma Mission Hospital. His much-needed help will be greatly welcomed by the present catechist, Mr Nkiwane.
Kenya:
The heavy burden of work borne by our Superintendent at Sengera Mission, Rev Keith Watkins, makes it necessary that a mission administrator be appointed as soon as possible. The hope is that a suitable applicant, able to act as a manager and also to assist with church services, will come forward in response to the Committee’s advertisement.
It is perhaps an indication of the validity of our work at Sengera that strife was stirred in the local community by people from a liberal North American church who visited the area and tried to infect the people with their pro-homosexual views. After Mr Watkins spoke out against them and warned the people about their abominable views, he was made the object of hate e-mails aiming to blacken his character. It is telling evidence of the relentless persistence of Satan that he incites his agents to compass sea and land to make proselytes, for he knows by observation the power of the Word of God and does his utmost to extinguish the light of the glorious gospel of Christ.
Israel:
Rev John Goldby intimated that he believed his work as the Church’s resident representative in Israel was at an end and met the Foreign Mission Committee in February. His request, which he felt guided to make, was that he be allowed to withdraw from the work in Israel, return to Scotland and be available for a call, but that he be permitted to retain a connection to the work in Israel. The Committee granted his request and encouraged him to continue his contacts and work among the Jews as far as this will be compatible with staying in Scotland and his duties there.
Mr Goldby reported: “The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) translation proceeds, and the revisers of the completed draft are currently working hard on Chapter 20. I would like to see this work through to publication later in the year (DV). The Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament (DHNT) revision continues also, and John’s Gospel is on course for publication in the early summer. My involvement in these projects could continue by Skype, telephone and visits to Israel.” In fact, at the time of writing, he is continuing in the translation work (from Scotland) by meeting over the internet (by Skype) with both the DHNT revision team and the WCF translators. It is expected that an article on the DHNT revision will soon appear in the Trinitarian Bible Society quarterly magazine.
The Committee expressed its appreciation of, and hearty thanks for, Mr Goldby’s seven years of most diligent service, on behalf of the Church, among and for the Jews in Israel. “What shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Rom 11:15).