Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1971-SAfrica.pdf

7/29/2019 Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1971-SAfrica.pdf

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HINUTE REPORT Jan1. Lesson books distributedrm2 . C e r ti fi c at e s recorded3. Sent School Catalogue to4. Requested baptism by th e

n e a re s t m i n i st e r.

28726

5. Iirpresslons printed 86500ROBERT & PHYLLIS HILLS

Sponsored by:Webber St r ee t Church o f C h ris tUrbana, I l l inoisForwarding Agent:Mabel S . M illsBox 134. U. Salem. I l l inois62476

foAfrel twct centw(CHURCH OF CHRIST POSTAL MISSION)

F e b .2075

3 ^ 558

75,000

P.O. Box 5135, JohannesburgMAY 10) :Jan . /Feb . 1971

Dear Friends in Chr is t Jesus ,The s t a t e o f oin: bank ba lance and the demand on our tim eforced us to combine two months in one news l e t t e r again.During th is t ime, we have managed to bring out threebook re -pr in ts and one new pr int ing, however. Two morelarge re -pr in ts are also immediately to be done.

Our off ice helper , Simon, moved to a fa r par t of his c i rcu i t and Watson went to^sôolr-in Port-5hep&tonescrê are--ttowHLn H:he^-Johâanesburg -atea-wirth-no Africanministers at a l l , plus having los t Simon's valuabl e help in the off ice . He readour African language mail and did a l l the assembly and finishing of our lessonbooks for us, so we are doubly appreciative of two special contributions whichmade th e purchase o f some very badly needed printing equipm^t^possible. The Maudchurch send funds with which we were able to buy ^ ci^^cstthestapling of the assembled books, and th e Webber Street"'dhW5tr"slnfrtmds which weused to buy a gmal 1 pl.ectrirL machine fo r the assembly of the books inth e r ight page order, and mucK~mbre rapidly than by hand. Without these two itemswe could not have managed to complete the thousands of books we did in the pas tfew we e k s .Ruth has s ta r ted work as a sec re ta ry in the off ice of a smal l pump factory nearhome now and is saving toward her fur ther s choo li ng . Unfor tuna te ly , s in ce she hasgone to work, she has not been of very much help in our own off ice , so we cont inueto pray fo r the safe and speedy a r r iva l of Mrs Mitchel l and ^dyJChomas who wi l ltake over our own typing. Ruth was able to get the one book ready for pr intingbefore she went to work and she and Edwin take the responsibili ty for the planningand leading of the you th meetings each week.Brother 'Stamm h ^ s t i l l not re ce ived his visa to come take over the Beit Stree twork, so I a^^t i l l ministj^rin^ there. One aid to this is that after more than ayear on the wai ting~l is t~ ,' our telephone has f inally been insta l led. They can newphone i f they need me. Previously, the only answer was to send someone to thehouse or to send a telegram.We are continuing our search for a suitable meeting place fo r the Tulisa Park(white) congregation. Please make this a matter of prayer. So far , every leadhas resul ted in failiure and somewhere other than a home is badly needed even to


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accomodate the ones we already have in the Sunday School,'=lP'>ne was from Dmiel Mitane of Rustenburc Ihad told him what my number was aunnoserl Ko or Kuscenourg. i

L'Tn'the^S: llVlT^Tn j" f earT-î^g.^Da^LTh^^g"nenbers of the church there Mrs sfme ^ "'êrin their home? hrwUl brilllftohis baptism aid Wruct hi^ in th! = "^hat they will planeducated young man and is keenlv intLIi^ k 'II Daniel is a wellhe will return to Rustenburg to establish a cir^ VBeme's supervision, rcuit church there under brotheravailablehere''so''Sa"wf cm^'S^tlwhen they have the opportunSy"^ Lve^^f^ f^^ ? Vis'xr4':?iy" ht.pools and are required to be fenced filteredÎnrf^f^ considered to be swimmingthe like. This makes it rathe^^V^'pro'po^S^r (A minimum of $775.)

Yom im His Sewice.fM- mRobert and Ayllis Mills


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The Christian Mission, Vol. 15, No. 2, February 1971 Page 5

CHURCH OF CHRIST POSTAL MISSION

Robert and Phyllis Mills, with theirtwo young daughter, sailed from NewYorkin May 1953 for their first term of missionwork in Afr ica. Kathy was only a littleover a year old and Ruth was only sevenweek s a t th e t ime .They wearily arrived in Windhoek onlyto discover that there s imply was no housing of any sort available. It took severalweeks in various hotels before they finallyfound an old shop and attached house on thevery edge of the location. Here they livedthe balance of their stay in Windhoek.Though this site was ideal , they neverreally made a foothold with the Hereropeople of the city. The young colored children readily accepted them, however, andsoon a flourishing Bible school was established and services were held nearly everyevening in the shop. Word of the successfiltered to t he Rhen is h Church ' s ColoredSchool and they were forbidden to attend.Being the only Colored school of the community, the children had no choice, especially as the school planted a teacher nextdoor to the shop to see who was attendings e r v i c e s .

When this avenue was c lo sed , M r. Millsstarted a small series of correspondencelessons in the hope of contacting adults ofthe area. The response was overwhelming,but almost exclusively f rom o ther parts ofAfr ica . No a du lt s tu d en ts e n ro ll ed i n Windhoek, so when Lynn Stanley, principle ofthe Minister's Training School at Kimberleyi nv it ed t hem to m ove t he i r work the re andassist in teaching at the school as well,they accepted the call and moved to Kimberley. Here they made their home fo r the next12 years. Donna, who was born in Windhoek,was only three weeks old when they made thismove. Becky was born about a year later,thus completing this rather "international"family.After a few years th e Native Affairs Department suggested that the training schoolbe moved to an African area , so Bro. Stanleybought land at Umzumbi near Port Shepstoneon l^e South Coast. A new building had beenbought and a Colored congregation was gettingstarted in Kimberl ey , so the Mil ls familystayed on to assist with this yoimg work andtrain Roland Joseph to minister to t he work .The correspondence work continued to g row

and expand, now in several languages.By the end of 1966 Bro. Joseph was readyto take over th e work alone and the Mil ls 'moved to Johannesburg where they renteddown-town office space and opened the GospelTract Centre. The Centre carr ied about 100tracts in 15 languages and the correspondencelesson ser ies o f t hr ee books which was r apidly being expanded into as many languagesas possible. Regular advertisements inEnglish, Afrikaans, and Bantu multi-lingualmagazines brought in a steady stream ofeager students of all colors, languages andbackgrounds.In the l at te r part of 1969 the Mills' sawthat it was imperative that they relocate thework in a larger premises nearer their home.Much time was spent in commuting to andf rom work, and tiiey desperately needed morespace which was not to be had in the purelyoffice building where the Centre was located.The Lord, in answer to prayer, le d to a newhome in the suburb o f A lberton. T his hom ewas much c loser to the city Centre, was neara four lane freeway, and had a large half -basement which could also provide all thespace ever likely to be needed fo r the work.P lans wer e immediately set in motion topurchase this property to house both thefamily and the work under one roof.

We at th e Gospel Tract Centre are convinced that the only way that the church isgoing to make a real impression on the worldfo r Christ in perhaps the only generation theLord may see fi t to give, is through the prayerfu l use of the printed page, in evangel is ticform, in cooperation with a located nationalministry.

We have seen th e printed page overcomeserious barr iers such as language and color.Our mail bears witness to thi s a lmos t daily.I t overcomes t ime . Trac ts and booklets havean extremely long life in Africa. I have seentracts of relatively small circulation whichare now nearly 50 years old. It survives warsand famines. We are now receiving lettersf rom Niger ia mai led to the address on materials which we posted there years before theBiafrian war and following famines. I ts influence will remain iong after we are gone.

T he L ord h as b les se d th is m ea ns o f evangelism in Southern Africa so wonderfully that(continued on next page)


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Page 6 The Christian Mission, Vol. 15, No. 2, February 1971

(continued from previous page)we have absolutely ceased to se t goals. Wecan only try to keep up to His leading! Ourown go^s are never high enough; they arepromptly passed and left behind. For example, less than a year ago we thought that300 new students a month was good. He nowprovides over 3000 and th e number continuesto increase. There is no reason why thesemethods should not work with equal successworld-wide. Simply put, we use four simpleScripture filled workbooks of the completiontype, each one accompanied with tracts andan attractive certificate. These are postedin progressive ser ies as they are completed,each one with a tract list order form listingall languages and titles of the more than 100t rac ts we s tock a t a ll t im es . This orderform is also a tract on baptism and an enrollment form for friends of the present student. It is through this order form thathundred request baptism or to be placed intocontact with a local church. Special postcards have been prepared for this follow-upso th at both th e minister and th e student aregiven the address of the other and we keepthe original request on file for possible evangelistic trips and meetings. In the case ofpersons in very remote areas or distantcountries, we have prepared a special tractgiving full details for setting up a simple NewTestament church and including an order ofservices, full instructions for serving com-mimion and taking a confession and baptizinga candidate. This is a lso s en t to all studentsat the final conclusion of the studies, as wellas the address of the Bible college which isnearest to them so that they can know whereto make enquiries about training for the ministry o r in c lass instruction.Because of the many languages spoken inSouthern Africa, wepublish in many languagesand add to these as time, funds and the needmakes possible. As a publicity medium, wehave found newspapers to be useless, and wealways make use of family type magazines instead. We place attractive display type advertisements in these on a regular basis andpresently use a popular English, an Afrikaans,and two Bantu magazines. One of th e Bantumagazines in distributed in four language editions. These cover the entire scope of theSouthern Africa population, both in languageand in color and nationali ty. We have foundit most projitable to use a non-identifying

address and to provide full information in thefirst mailings in lesson and tract form. Thisis why we use "Gospel Tract Centre" ratherthan a church identified name.During the year ending Sept . 30, 1970more t han 12,000 booklets were distributedalong with more than 100,000 tracts. At thecurrent rate of growth, at least 40,000 willbe needed fo r 1971.The Gospel Tract Centre is presentlystaffed solely by Robert and Phyl lis Mills onan overtime basis, with the occasional help oftheir school dau^ters. Donna and Becky, afterschoo l. Kathryn and Ruth are both absent inBible college. Simon Mtshajrisa, the localAfrican minister, now helps out on a parttime basis working mornings. He is especially valuable as help as he can read nearlyall African language letters received in themails. Mrs. Arilla Harrington gave muchvolimteer help while she and her husbandwere working in South Africa. With theirdeparture, it becomes imperative that additional workers be recruited. Several ladiesare urgently needed in secretarial capacityto cope with current demands, to preparematerials for printing and for any future projects. Some experienced and well qualifiedladies are currently considering this work.Apart from new staff members , our mosturgent needs are for funds and prayer. Allequipment and supplies are best purchasedlocally, but we covet your earnest prayersthat His work may not have to be curtailedfor lack of funds. Maywenever have to say"No" because there are no funds to prepareand send t racts and studies.Robe r t Mil l sBox 5135Johannesburg, South AfricaForwarding Agent:

Mab el S . Mil lsB ox 134West Sal em, I ll ino is 62476


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CNvei

* .


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I '*-..X'


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r^ >

HINUTE REPORT1. Lesson books dis t r ibuted2. Certificates recorded 2453. Sent School Catalogue to A14. Requested baptism by the 232nearest minister. __5. Impressions printed

ROBERT k PHYLLIS MILLSSponsored by:Webber Street Church of ChristUrbana, I l l inoisForwarding Agent:Mabel S. MillsBox 134. W. Salen, Il l inois62476

Pu ic t centnc(CHURCH OF CHRIST POSTAL MISSION)

Apr i l249049673

104,700

P.O. Box 5135, JohannesburgMarch/April

Dear Friends in Ch ri st J es us ,Opening our mail is like searching for precious gems.While most letters are purely routine requests for lessonsor tracts, every so often there is something almosthilariously funny or something very sincere and hearttouching like the one we have placed on the reverse sideo f t h i s letter.

We see God's hand of encouragement in such letters, for so much of our work isroutine, such as the printing of well over a hundred thousand impressions this month,on a somewhat determined machine. (Machines ^ surely have minds of their own andoften revoltV) Or, thermarking of almost SOO-lesson books, or-mailing-xralrnearly2500 sets of lessons and thousands of tracts. We printed 35,000 this month just tor e - s t o c k .We used to be able to enjoy occasionally going out to speak at various Africancongregations, but our budget will simply not permit this any more. Postage tookanother bound this month under the excuse of going metric, likewise gasolene. I tis now sold in tiny liters rather than gallons. The same rises also extend rightacross the board to bread, milk and even house loan interests.No doubt you have noticed that we have not listed the number of people who requestedbaptism recently. This is because we now find that nearly all who request tracts forfriends and many as they complete their lesson books, especially no. 2 book, askthis service. I t was a very personal and time consuming job and we find that we cannot keep up with processing the requests in that form. Rather, we have printed aspecial tract which includes the addresses of ministers in most areas we reach, andwe include this with ALL requests for tracts and all no. 2 lesson books now. I tsavailability is already mentioned in the first lesson book and we will send i t atany time on request of course. Nearly 500 of the first printing have already beenposted and we hope to catch up with the backlog of requests in a few days.Since the last letter, brother Stamm received his visa and he is expected this weekto take on the leadership of the Beit Street congregation.We thou^t two months ago that one problem was solved when a new phone was installedat last . Not so. In the f i rs t six weeks, i t was in working condition only about aweek in all. Finally, after I had phoned no end to report i t out. of order and had


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witten general manager twice, we got a repairman who knew what he was doing.It took him several days, but he stayed with it until he finally found that thefault was with our earthing. The ground was simply no good in this rocky soiland It only worked after a rain. This man grounded us to a water main. Now weshall see what happens when we have the next electrical storm as all liehtninear res te r s are grounded to th e w ater mains.We had a thriUing answer to prayer this month, when our friend Johnny Ivan, wasbaptised. Johnny has many home problems and had resisted baptism because of these.He IS a much happier boy now, but is still much in need of our prayers as thehome situation, not being of his making, is still not resolved.

I C^e:*-\Gve IN Cr-o ^

Youra i n u n n ^ t AJf^sus.Robert & Phyllis Mills

/ V c / S o / ?/Vc> 7" A^C / / / /


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M IO M OW D

HIHUTE REPORT1. Lesson books distributed 21312. Cert i f icates recorded AGO3. Sent School Catl09M to 704. 43 .831 add res ses

on file.5. Impresjiofls printed 39_5flDROBERT i PHYLLIS HILLS

Sponsored by:Webber St ree t Church o f Chr i s tUrbana. I l l inoisForwarding Agent:Nabel S. Hil l sBox 134, W. Salen, I l l inois62476

,,:P 2 2 'M

tn.eict cen twJ u n e

2 5 1 4434

57

139,500

(CHURCH OF CHRIST POSTAL MISSION)P.O. Box 5135, Johannesburg

A^sOTte^ stamps at $1 / ICQ a ir mailed3May/June .. o

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,We have always maintained a few dol lars laid aside incase of emergency travel, but this month i t was necessaryto dip into this fund in order to meet current operatingexpenses of the work i tself and to pay bi l l s . This wasin spi te of extra South African contributions toward thework. For one thing, the printing press required repairs,but we are also facing threatening auto repairs. The differential is becoming verynoisy as a result of constant overloading of the station wagon.

We are placing the news letter in the mail a few days, before ..the end_ of the. monthin order to beat an expected rise in overseas mail postage on the first of themonth. Fortunately the mid-winter school holiday has just started so we are ableto draft Donna and Becky into the office extra time to make this possible. We arealso catching up on a lot of accumulated work that we had not been able to clearaway by ourselves. I hope to be able to publish a second lesson book in the Sepedilanguage and a series of tracts in Bemba. Demand far Sepedi has been rising rapidlythe past several weeks. It is a neglected area of South Africa, so we are especiallukeen to make contacts there .I dm currently planning a filing system and addressing system for our mailingaddress and student records. As w^will soon have fifty thousand people on our files,we find that it is impossible t^~T6cate records of work' complestudent's serial number and the important date he did his work, which he frequentlyforgets, or evenmore important, to search the files for all addresses of aparticular country or area of South Africa, or language, for follow-up purposes.The new system should simplify this and at the same time provide address platesfor several mailings and addresses in books sent out._aL^wo_^e^jA^fs to ^he work h.ive been delayed in their plans. Sandy is short offun9r==Torher salary needs as yet though she has her travel documents in order.Louise has the funds on hand but was denied a visa at the last moment. She is tom^e further enquiries as they enclosed new forms in the letter of denial. We praythat they shall both be able to come and soon as we have hardly been able to keepup with the work as i t is and the Harrington's will be leaving for their annualvacation month in America in a few weeks time.Please keep this need and the matter of funds in prayer.Y^l^^s^ i^

ODert and PhyTjds Mills


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(CHURCH OF CHRIST POSTAL MISSION)P.O. Box 5135j Johannesburg - - r-U - ' T.yi

to show iflvsiilf July / AugustFriends in Christ Jesus,

'V' We have changed the form of our news letter this month in. orderto get the most value for the money as the cost of postage on i thas jumped fran cents CSouthAfrican) to 4 cents. This isnearly 6 Anerican cents each item. At the same time we are goingover our mailing l is t to check for obvious duplicates and inacti ve a dd re ss es .The two inside pages are presently given over to printing a new bookletwhich we are preparing in installments. It will appear in our newsletters, the Lord willing, but will also be available in booklet fomwhi i t has been completed. The Lord has so wonderfully blessed ourefforts that we feel others should be encouraged to use a similar meansof outreach in their own fields of labor. Our plan for acconplishing thiswill gradually be unfolded in the installments.The work has continued such a rapid growth that, even with the help ofMiss Thcjnas, we are not able to cope with i t , so this month we have hadto take the step of cancelling sane of our advertisonents. This shouldalso help to relieve the pressure on finances as we have found ourselvesunable to meet accounts the past month or more. If the danand relaxesencugh, we will take advantage of the breathing space to get more translations into print and bring our stocks of material up to date.We are also eagerly waiting for news fron Nhrs Mitchell, that she hasreceived her visa and can join us in the work. Miss Thanas, of course,has already arrived, but she, Mrs Mills, and I are kept busy with theordinary turnover of the lessons. Also, Sandy has only canmitted herselfto stay in South Mrip for a few months. She-Jj^-ygrv but nowsems to be settling in better. UnfortunateI^7 'Ke^TivM""at the worstseason, mid-winter. Spring will soon be upon us and things will be muchmore attractive.Sandy has m^ged to re-set the type for the second edition of our bookon Leadership Training. I nov,' have the negatives ready to print it assoon as there is time. She also set up several tracts in Besnba and inTsonga Languages. This was her first attempt at doing a Native laneuaee.It was not so bad as she had feared. ^ ^We >^ld also like to express our public appreciation to Midwest Christian College for the strip printer which they have donated to the work.It arrived in factory cciidition and we now have the proper film anddevelopers to p t it to use in preparing the tracts and books. We usedIt to set up the titles for the Bemba and Tsonga tracts, but with theVerifax matrix paper as a film. It worked but will be better with theproper materials. Thank you very raich president Davis of Midwest.

'Chr is t


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HFTY THOUSAND SOULS

"My word ... shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplishthat which I please, and i t shall prosper in the thine whereuntoI send it." I sa iah 55:11.Of what value are fifty thousand souls?

This book is being written as we record the address of the fift ie ththousand student on our mailing list. If a person cm not place a valueon even one soul, then how can any value be placed on a work whichtouches so many with the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ? Ours is essentiallya sowing mission. As Paul said of his work, "I have planted, Apolloswatered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plantethany thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."I Corinthians 3:6,7.

The emblem of the British and Foreign Bible Society is that of thesower scat ter ing his seed upon the fer t i le f ie lds . We believe that thereis a far greater need for sowers today. Too many want to do theharvesting, never mind the sowing of the word first. We believe, too,that we need to be selective in the seed which we sow. There are very fewpeople in Southern Africa who do not have access to a Bible if they wish.Nearly all missionaries make Bibles available, the Bible Societymaintains book stores for their distribution, and they are available inmost book stores and bazaars. Every school child has one as a textbook.The word is being sown, but, is i t solving the problem of religiousignorance? No. I t is said that there are over, two thousand differentdenominations in Southern Africa. Many of them have the most illogical

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teachings. Men need to be called to those portions of the Bible inparticular which effect salvation and which present the simple New Testament church. They need basic tracts and lessons along with their Bibles.

After nearly twenty years in a ministry of t ract and correspondencelesson distribution in Southern Africa, we feel that there are manythings we have learned from experience that would J)e,..an^^d to others whomay wish to become sowers of the word in this way. Of one thing we can becertain, and that is that His word win not return void. I t will prosperin the work for which He sends it . The result may not be immediatelyevident to the casual observer, but, i t will be there.You may recall thatin the Old Testament many of God's promises were not fulfilled even inthe lifetime of the patriarchs. They were only fulfilled on a long termb a s i s .


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Several years ago now, I was talking to brother Andrew Calvert, oneI of our coloured ministers. He connented that he had something he wishedto sltow me, and going to one of the back rooms of his home, he soonretuêd with a small tract which had been printed nearly thirtyfive years earlier by brother C.B. Titus, It was yellow with age andbrother Titus is Irag since gone, but that tract s t i l l preaches i tsmessage just as eloquently as i t did the day i t came from the press andwas handed over to brother Calvert. This is a seed which has probablybrpu^t forth fruit many Limes in the messages of brother Calvert as hepreaches the Gospel message and reaps the harvest.

Ours has been essentially a sowing ministry. Over the years, we haveP'ioted and distributed SSarly 'seven-liun red ifty-thousand tractsprinted in one of seventeen languages and sowed widely over~africa. Thesetracts will st i l l be bearing fruit many years after we have gone fromthese shores. Will not the correspondence lessons we have sent forth in,their home languages, to fifty-thousand people not effect the lives ofprobably hundreds of thousands of men and women not yet born? Several ofour students have gone on to enroll in the Bible Training College wherethey have studied to become ministers of the Gospel. Some of these menrepresent vast areas of Africa in which the New Testament church is asyet unknown and there are presently no ministers avai lable who speak thelanguage. Studies of a printed nature minister, irrespective of language,colour, nation, or even creed. We have corresponded with confessed pagan,Moslem, African, Coloured, Chinese, Indian, and European all,alike.

Again, the printed page is far less expentîvp-. and far more permanentthan any other means of presenting the wonderful good news~~of Christ'sredeeming plan for man's salvation. Even i f i t had been costly, how couldone value fifty thousand souls and those whom they will influence?

,f .oJ: traî,ru.rtAir Myo .uaS' CkhoujBL. pujUt 'SVrt-cjz- dUu11 ro ^ "to CcllosiQ,

oio&^jus^^ 9 ..CUr\a 4^qUahj yno. ^/s^-


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^Phyllis and Robert Mills

Searching out an address

July niNUTE REPORT Aug.1. Lesson books dTstH^ted2. Cert i f ica tes recorded 10533. Bible School reference4. Addresses on fi le 48,9615i Inpressions printed 162,700assorted stamp packets - $1./100 stands

ROBERT & PHYLLIS HILLSSponsored by:Webber Street Church of ChristUrbana, Ill inoisFoj-warding Agent:Mabel S. MiltsBox 134, H. Saiem, Illinois62476


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'SiuJy to shov>. tlivsclfapproved unto'God."\llTiniq,ihy 2:15

tn4zct ce^ttnc(CHURCH OF CHRIST POSTAL MISSION)

P.O. Box 5135, Johannesburg

Novonber / December 1971Dear Christian Friends,Devaluation has struck another blow at our a lready res t r icted budget! In actuality, the South African Rand devaluedalong with the American Dollar, in fact even more severely,birt this is a very l imited blessing. While i t does meanthat we shall gain a few more rands for our dollars than before, i talso-means iaroediate mark-i^js in prices which mnre than wipe out theîes l i j^ t gains.

To counter the effect of this , i t has been suggested that we l i s t saneof the regu la r expenses of the work in units so that grwps can acceptthe c'âllenge of providing for a unit or project. Our two largest itemsare pvi'tmg paper and the postage bil l . My friend at the pîer can5>3nywas gracious enough to donate and deliver me sane scrapped ptgier lastmonth and also to open an account for me, but I must now order a miniimjiiof 16 reams C21" x 33") at a time, at $10. a ream. We use at least ten suchreams a month. If you can underwrite a ream or more each month, i t wouldbe most appreciated. We also use about $200 postage each month and needunderwriters for portions of this regularly. Also, we presently need twotype-balls for the IBM typewriter. These were damagedwhen they weredropped, one is urgently needed. They cost about $15. each.The Lord has truly been good to us this iDonth. Our daii^ter. Donna, wasstruck by l i^tning as she was removing clothing fran the line just beforea thunder shower recently, but was only sl ightly bumed. We give thanksfor His divine protection, die of our young Christian boys was in an autoaccident on the way to church Christmas Sunday. He was hot harmed, thoughhis car is badly damaged. His cousin, a passenger, was thrown fran the carand rolled canpletely across the street in frcnt of the spinning car.God preserved him with only a few scratches and bniises. He is a verypronising lad, and we feel sure that God has a great work for him once hehas truly given his h eart to Him. We ask your prayers for both Edwin andHu^. Lastly, while Kiyllis was returning frian a church function with a"load of passengers, our own car was struck fran behind. Fortunately, l i t t ledamage was done other than to the ta i l l i ^ t . The two cars behind weredamaged while she managed to miss the one in front entirely. I t had madea sudden stop in the approach clover-leaf of a main hi^way.The conp season is ncM over. This was wf f i rs t try at managing a camp, butwe had an excellent faculty, a trnendous cook, and good stunts. Hieresult was one of the best camps we have had and three baptisms during theweek.We would like to thank my Mother vô has been our forwarding agent fornearly twenty years. She has decided that i t is time to hand over toothers and our sponsoring churdi has taken over as agent. Mr and Mrs .Wilbur Boydwill handle the work for them at the present time. "THANKYOU for a job well done, Mrs Mills '*.


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HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT OVERCOMING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER?"every man heard them speak in his own language" Acts 2:6Unfortunately, we do not have the miraculous gift of being able topreach in a language which we have not first learned, today. One of the

first problems faced by nearly every new missionary, is that, he will haveto leam how to be able to communicate with the people. He will have toleam a new language, and i t will-be one that he wil l never master to theextent that i t will be completely natural to him. I have often heard i tsaid that i f you want to know a man's true language, listen to whichlanguage he uses when he prays. In the use of the printed page, languageis a barrier. We now have lesson books available in nine languages andtracts in seventeen. Obviously, we do not speak or read and write so many.Even i f the new missionary is very adept at language study, he shouldnot trust his own translation. Many men have thought that they knew the

language of the land very well and used i t at every opportunity, but whomthe nationa ls o f the land could hardly understand. Even i f he can be wellunderstood, often his phrasing or spelling or both are faulty. Welleducated, and at the same time Christian, translators are often almostimpossible to find. What, then, is the answer? If a person should not dohis own translation and he can not-hire i t done, how is he to get it?

We have personally hired translations done only to have to scrap theentire printing at a later date when we discovered that it was really toofaulty to continue to use. One missionary recently told me of a tract hehad seen on another mission field which contained a pledge to be filledin by the reader. The entire thought of the pledge was altered by just avery slight variation in wording and i ts whole impact was lost.

One or two simple rules will help immensely.First, one must keep everything very simple and straightforward. Wehave developed our lesson study books entirely on the idea of the completion of scripture texts. This means that we have to have only very simplet i t les translated. Such translations are not so difficult to obtain, norare they expensive as bulky translations of copy would be. In this waythe Bible can be used for most of the copy of the book and i t wil l alsobe easy to check and grade. The same thing is true of the tracts which we

have used. They are mostly Scripture. If error is to creep into thecaptions, the scripture itself will correct the misunderstanding. It canb e known to be a c cu r a t e .

Second, The first printing must be kept small. This will give theopportunity to make corrections in s pe llin g, omissions, and the l ike in asecond print ing which can be much more accurately done. I f a large printing was f i rs t undertaken, then i t will be much longer before these can bese t r igh t . I f the print ing is found to be too-faul t-yri rt -ean-be compl-ctelyscrapped at no great loss. If i t were a large pr in t ing , f inanc ial ly , thiswould be a very diff icul t thing to do. Second and la te r printings can bemuch larger. Once the negat ives a re on hand the hard part is already done.Keep^ the lesson books of correspondence lessons, easy to mark. I t iseasy to do this with scripture completion texts. Yes and No answers areeasy, especially i f one has to circle the correct answer. Occasional oneword answers are not dif f icu l t ,bu t essay answers should be avoided at a l lcosts . These are very di f f icul t to mark, especial ly in t ran sl at ion . Toencourage the student, we have preferred to keep individual bookletssmal l and to o ffe r a ce r t i f i ca t e fo r each booklet completed. A moree labora te ce r t i f i ca t e fo r the f u l l course can be offe red a t the c lose o fthe entire series . This one might be a miniature version in reinforced


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cardboard folder that can be carried by the student, i f desired.In correspondence work, the missionary is working with people of a l l

ages and a l l degrees o f educa tion, thus the materials must be simple.Scripture completion can be done by a l l alike and at the same time be abless ing and a challenge to a l l as wel l . Through i t s use you can not onlycal l attention to individual passages of scr ipture according to subjectmatter, but, you can also emphasize the exact portion of the text desiredby making these the words which must be written in by the student.

P .O . Box SI3SJohasusbursV* hop to tranilat* our lateit iMson booklet into u ocnj of tbt boa* ItttsmgMof oar rudan is poitibla. ton can lalp do tbli by trasalatiag tbo balowword*aad phraaaa for ua.^ n5e/^eCSo^


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Jan. 1, 1971

HNANCIAL REPORT1971

Ch hand.Frcm U.S.A.Donations fron S.A.Sales and Print ingFrawn from Bnergency Fund.Insurance Refund.Postage Refunds.

12.305388.04557.91174.86375.00

3 .4812 .80

Deposited in Emergency Bmd.Rent fo r Office Space.Office and Printing Supplies.Adve r t i s emen t s .Purchase of Bibles .Postage.Office Help.Auto Expenses.I n s u r a nc e s .Passpor t Fees.Electric Collating Machine.Electric Stapling Machine.Typewriter.International Book Numbers (library)Telephone.Refund of Donation.Bank Charges.Conference Camping Fees.Pos t Off ice Box Rental.

Balance on Hand Jan. 1, 1972R 6524.35

5651.46R 872 .93

700.00720 .00

1182 .88649.01

3.621187.83

26 .00288.33226 .3526 .28

360.00111.23116 .4015.007 .091 .00

10.4415.005 .00

R5651.45

(Since devaluation one rand is approximately equal to $ 1.33)

Nov. Dec .MINUTE REPORT ROBERT & PHYLLIS MILLS

1 . Lesson books d i s t r i b u t ed2 . Ce r t i f i c a t e s recorded3. Bible School reference 59,60?4. Addresses on f i le5 . Inpressions printed

12S

291,275

Sponsored bjj;Webber S tUrbana,,F(

h o f C hr is t

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