Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1979-SAfrica.pdf

7/29/2019 Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1979-SAfrica.pdf

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Dear Co-Work er , Apr i l , 1979 APR 1 1979The f i r s t great hurdle of the month was the Minister 's Week and CommitteeMeeting at Upington.: The Minister 's real ly enjoyed their week's ac t ivi t iesthough there were only a l i t t l e more than half of them present because of thedis tance and cos t of t r ave l . Our committee mee tin gs p ro gress ed v ery quick lyand necessary bus in es s ma tte rs were soon cleared away. One of these w shanding over of the Supt . ' s matters to myself since the Nicholsons were to havefnrini iph 1-his t ime. Unfor tunate ly , Verni ta i s hospi ta l ized andthey have had to cancel t ravel plans tor the time being. On Saturday, we hadthe dedication of the new church building the r^ i t is a very fin e bui ld ingindeed , then on Sunday morning, I found on a r r i va l for serv ices t ha t I was topreach the f i r s t Sunday Service in the off ica l ly opened building. I planned mysermon on the spot , and preached without notes. (Not my usual way, but we had adelightful service which was very well attended with many visi tors .)An elder of the African church took me to the a i rpor t and I flew back ahead ofJames and had a great pile of print ing ready for him to assemble into bookswhen he got here l a t e r in the week. In fact t h i s month, we have printed ninebookle ts , including a Minister ' s Manual , A Chr is t ian Leadership Manual in two_languages, A study book on the church in tluree languages, A booklet on teachingthe plan of sa lvat ion using the hand, in two languages, and a ra the r la rgebookle t , by our f r ie rd Paul Benjamin of Washington D.C. which I th ink wil l beof part icular value to the Christ ians. Two more booklets are ready for thepress th i s coming week, and a number of t r ac t s need to be done.All this time away and a t the press has resulted in our fal l ing behind on themarking and mailing of lessons, so we have a flood of lessons stacked about incorners of the study awai t ing a t t en t ion . In some cases the l e t t e r s have noteven been opened yet . I must come in and ge t busy here fo r a while now.

The grandch ildren a re a ll recovered the i r various problems of las t month. Inthe end, we drove Becky with Susan and Tommy to Tzaneen where they now l ive .This was a two day t r i p , but she was very anxious to get there and her workpaid for the gasolene since they could not get away before a week end to takeher up. I had an hour or two of "fru i t less" fishing a t the back of the i rproperty, before we started back a t mid-day. They l ive on a r ivers ide plot .As a holiday, I am afraid i t was a fa i lure , but we did get to help se t t le themin their new home .

Without grandchildren to care for , Phyll is has fa r more time to type and I amhaving greater trouble in finding "typewriter time" available for the work shedoes not at tempt , t ype se t t i ng , c e rt if ic a te s , e tc .

S

Enrollment in the correspondence lessons reached 212,481 th i s month. I amthinking that it-maybe-abS>Xutely essent ial to stop encouraging this tacet ofthe~'work too much for two reasons. ( 1 ) 1 c^~~^hardly service them now. (2)Second Class postal matter i s to be discont inued l a t e r th i s year meaningeverything wil l have to go f i r s t class sealed ra tes . These b oo kle ts a re heavyand not "standard" envelope sizes meaning a sur-charge as i s . One can onlyspread himself so th in , and a t times I feel l i l ^ a damaged veneer already.Pray the Lord that He will send forth labourers and backing to th i s part icularneed.

Je sus Chr i s t ,

toBert &/Thyllis Mills(+27 11/ 869-8331

Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson , F. Agents706 E. Washington Stree t , Urbana, IL, 61801Webber S t r ee t Church of Chr i s t , sponsors(217) 328-2955), Anderson's Phone.


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Dea r vCo-worke*;'v . 'v 5-^^


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JUN 14 1979 5 -5^De a r Co -W o r k e r : June, 1979There are times when I fe el a bs olu te ly "overwhelmed" with urgent matte rs toat tend to , and th is i s one of those t imes. This news l e t t e r i s almost a weekl a t e , two or three ar t i ca l s have been requested for publ icat ion , our mail boxi s overf lowing, three books, some fa i r ly la rge await the camera and prin t ing ,one larg ish book i s a t the ty pe se ttin g s ta ge , another being t rans la ted , and toadd to the feel ing , the ca r refuses to s t a r t a t a l l and gasolene has shot up tothe vicini ty of $2.25 a gallon. Perhaps i t i s as well that the car won*t go,but it makes mailing lessons rather a task. I have " caged " r ides from anyd au gh ter or son in law who gets anywhere near here with a car .Six new bookle ts have been pr in ted t h i s month and twenty thousand t r a c t s . Jamescompleted the t ransla t ion of the Benjamin book to Zulu and it i s ready for thecamera now, then the press and he i s al ready well into the Xhosa t r ans l a t ion aswel l . We had a v i s i t from Bi l l Brand t of Zambia e a r l y t h i s month to see ourprint ing programme as he thought we might be able to work out some sor t ofcooperative programme with Zambia and Malawi where he hopes to move soon. Ashe pointed out, (we were well aware of i t already), we rea l ly desperately needa fu l l time typis t and also a pr inter as one or the other of our rathercomplicated sets of equipment has to stand idle while I pe rsona ll y ope ra te theother and we could do so very much more i f we had the help and 1 coordinatedthei r work. 1 could not agree more. That i s jus t one of the reasons I havebeen placing so much emphasis on "saleable" Bible lesson booklets of la te . I tought to provide for s t a f f and equipment eventual ly , the Lord blessing. Rightnow, it makes more work and provides no income a t a l l to speak of. I hopeshor t ly to send pr i ce lists to Rel ig ious bookstores . One t ha t I had neverheard of requested a book today even without a price l i s t .We have bought a new nu-Ark Mercury Lamp plate maker, but have not yet beenable to s e l l the old one or the camera so we have not ordered a rep lacementcamera as well . There is jus t no room for new unt i l the old is out of the way.At the present we can not do halftones (pictures) as our camera is not vacuumebacked and we s t i l l develop a l l film in the t iny t o i l e t room. As soon as wecan build a car -por t on the house we plan to take the old separa te garage as as to re room for printed mat ter , and hopeful ly darken our camera room for use asa dark room. The plans have been sent to the town engineer 's of f ice , and weare awaiting h is approval so t ha t we can have work s t a r t ed .Becky, Chris and their two children have returned to Alberton and are livingwith us full time. They arrived without warning at breakfast on Saturday andboth had jobs starting today (Tuesday). In fact, we have four grandchildrenhere today and we have grown used to a quiet house so we are both struggling.We posted 2856 lesson books in May and brought enrollment up to 216,438. One ofthese days in about four months at the present rate, we should reach a quartermill ion enrollment. That i s our nex t "miles tone" marker to the praise of theLord and to the spreading of His wonderful Word. Please keep us ever beforeHim in prayer, especially to the reaching of our goals that He might beglor i f ied . May He provide the s ta f f and th e means.

esus Ch r i s t ,

y l l i s Mil l s- 8 331

Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington St . , Urbana, IL . 61801Webber S t r e e t Church o f Ch r i s t , spon so r s(217) 328-2955, Anderson's Phone.


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Dear Co-worker, July 1979JU1161979One week to go until D.V.B.S. starts at Kinberley Road. Phyllis is teachingagain this year. They had hoped to have sufficient space by this year, but if

anything, space is even worse. The congregation has grown in the past Tionthsand the building Is alnost l i teral ly bursting at the seans. Apparently thepurchase of the new site has been approved, but we now face the shocking costof bui ld ing and with a dwindled reserve*Our aging car has picked this tine to give trouble. It will probably be neededfor transport for Bible school, but at the present tine will not start beforenoon at least. We shall likely have to replace it innediately, whether we canafford to or not. (A dealer phoned right there to ask if I had agreed to accepthis offer to take it off ny hands really. Not QUITE that desperate yet.)We started the printing of Edgar Nichol's Study book on The Gospel of John thisnonth. It has turned out to fill ainost a hundred pages, spiral bound. At thepresent tine, we have it a l i t t le over half printed, and all of it has been puton negatives. The South African subsidised price will be 60c (72c), but theA-nerican price with posting will be considerably nore. We will fix that afterwe have finished and can weigh a copy.

At the sane tine we are working on the typesetting of the Benjanin book inZulu. I have reached chapter nine of thirteen and will continue innediately onthe Xhosa translation as well. I would really like to have all of these readyfor the annual conference tine. It will not be particularly easy as there arelots of other supplies that sinply have to be ready for distribution atconference and as treasurer,, I have a report to get ready In addition to theusual super in tenden t' s p repara t ions.This nonth Burroughs cane up with two new type styles for the Redactor, one ofthen, I an .using for this Hetter. This one can be used as proportional spacingthough I really like it better with nornal spacing. I will be using it for thenext book we'set up, probably.We clear^d.-:awSy the back- -desk work of narking books and certificates once thisnonth, but the pile is already growing again. Of course, this is an unendingtask with so nany correspondence students. {217,034 enrollnents)The footings have been poured for our car-port addition to the house and thelaundry off the kitchen. These will relieve the congestion In the garage andwe hope to nake use of that space for the storage of printed naterials andsupplies. Hopefully they will be finished by the first of next nonth. In theneantine, I an not doing nuch printing because of the fact that the inspectorcan pop in at any nonent and he night take exception to ny rather conplexprinting equipnent operating on private property. Even though at the presentIt IS not connercial" he could nake conplications for us and force us Intoconnercia l proper t i e s .Becky, Chris and their two children have Just vacated our spare roon and novedinto a caravan (trailer) at a caravan park. It was nice having then with us,for the nonth of June and even nicer having then back In Alberton fron Tzaneen.Phyllis IS caring for the children again and Chris brings then every norningabout 5:30 or so and picks then up again at 4:30 in the afternoon.

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You r s Jesus Chr i s t Mr and Mrs Raynond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington St., Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Street Church of Christ, sponsorsRobert ^hy Mis Mi I Is(+27 11/) 869-8331 (217) 328-2955, Anderson's Phone.


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Dear Co-worker , AU6 I c August, 1979 S5S3-The Kimberley Road church had a very successful D.V.B.S. again this year,especially when you consider the f a c i l i t i e s available. (One room with aparti t ion to make three areas.) Phyllis went every day with a couple of loads.Our ca r gave out complete ly the week prior to Bible School, and as we had toprovide transport, we bought another quickly. It is another four cylinderengined car and a bit smaller In capacity to try to save on expensive gasolene.We hope that it will last many years. We use It weekly to carry from ten to adozen extra persons to church, making an extra two side t r i p s .The building of the carport and sun-room-1aundry is almost completed. Theyshould finish today and s t a r t on the cleaning up of th e mess. Once they emptytheir building materials out of th e garage, I hope to make use of I t forprint ing materia ls . In f a c t , I am expecting a delivery of a double order ofprint ing paper and could well use that area to store i t today. We must tacklethat again after spending the most of this month in setting type for th eprint ing of two new books, t ranslat ions of the Benjamin book. "Dad" Nichols'book must a l s o be f i n i s h e d as wel l as th e m a t e r i a l s f o r d i s t r i b u t i o n a tconference in a few weeks time. I used up all my paper stock to printbaptismal c e r t i f i c a t e s y e s t e r d a y .This month's mailing was the largest we have been able to process this year andwe are pleased to have gotten so many lesson books mailed, but I t also meansthat we have depleted our stocks of at least two languages of materials andhave to r e - p r i n t them b e f o r e we can c o n t i n u e . The " i n " box i s stillove rf low ing with requests for lessons. There is no quest ion but tha t wedesperately need a full time typist to do this and to set type for printingcopy. {Perhaps you could make this a prayer project for your group.)R u t h ' s m o t h e r - i n - l a w had a h e a r t a t t a c t t h i s month which meant t h a t C l i n t o n andNikkle have been with us each day as well as Susan and Tommy. For a week ormore, Kathy, Shanon and Rhonda were a l s o s taying here s ince Lee was out oftown. This made the place pret ty caotic virtiat with Phyll is cooking for morethan a dozen people for lunch every day, the place overrun with b u i l d e r s andD.V.B.S. at the same time. I can not imagine how she did I t , even temporarily.Natural ly grocery expenses were completely out of hand for a while .I am a few days late with the news l e t t e r this month owe Ing to the fact thatjust when I should have been preparing i t . We were gett ing a stream of longdistance-phone c a l l s and telegrams concerning a r i f t between th e minis ter and apart of his congregation in our largest s ingle Afr ican c i r c u i t . In the end i twas necessary to c a l l an emergency meeting to a r b i t r a t e the m a t t e r , and I wasaway to make a f i f t e e n hour t r a i n t r i p each way there and back, plus hotele x p e n s e s t h e r e . One o f our c o - m i s s i o n a r i e s and t h r e e A f r i c a n m i n i s t e r s met methere as well . We do hope and pray that the problem will be s e t t l e d , though Idoubt If i t is that eas i ly over . (Prayers are requested for Robert Geldenhuysand the C radock church as well . He plans to change congregations at the end ofthe school year . ) Robert was so concerned for my personal safety a f t e r themeeting t h a t he enquired i f there was not a white only wai t ing room a t ther a i l w a y s t a t i o n an d t h a t I c o u l d not walk t h e r e so he came w i t h a t a x i and agroup of C h r i s t i a n s to e s c o r t me t h e r e .

Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington S t . , Urbana, IL. 61801Webber S t r e e t Church of C h r i s t , sponsors(217) 328-2955, Anderson's Phone.

r s I n / l e s u s Chr i s t

(obert ^/Phyllis Mills(+ 27 l/) 869-8331


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1 -,Dear Co-worker, September, 1979The additions and al terat ions to our house are now complete and I have shiftedmuch of the printed material out of the camera room to the old garage and hadthe envelopes delivered there so that we now have a l i t t l e more room enablingme to darken the camera room and use i t as a dark room ra ther than using thetoi le t . I also changed film suppliers to a type which will permit developmentunder a gold l ight ra ther than the almost pitch dark ruby lamp. This may notsound l ike much, but i t may enable us to ins tal l a new camera and makes filmdeveloping and plate preparation far easier . The camera I would l ike toins ta l l is a nuArc VIC 1480 as i t both meets any need we now have plus anyl ikely need in th e for eseeab le future, as i t can handle film large enough for aDavidson 700P, the Lord so leading. Its South Africa delivered price is $3739.Dad Nichols' 93 page workbook on the Gospel of John is now complete in time forconference, though three others we also v/anted to have done will no t make I t .We do have two re-prints ready so that we have started mailing stacked lessonreque st s aga in . Hundreds have already gone into the mail, all for Venda whichis to have independence next week.We are In the rush of pre-conference preparations now with less than a week togo. As t reasurer, I have a financial statement to prepare and an itemisedreport of church giving and also catering purchases for the table food for upto 250 people for five days, as superintendent, a message and a "welcome" toprepare, plus a business meeting to "chair", and documents and supplies to getready and the program to prepare, then as the printer there is everything to beprinted and transported there. I need to be three people and most of all needa bet ter "memory". I am sure tha t I will forget something vi ta l . I also wantto take our printed booklets for distr ibution as th is is the best opportunityof th e year to do i t . Fortunately, I have James to help me with some of thesethings. At conference I t sel f there will be the finances and supplies anditemised, indivitual receipts to be done and the banking. Of course I candelegate jobs but I am persona lly responsible for any inaccuracies andexperience cautions me to be careful in that area.Our eldest daughter, Kathy, is expecting her new baby any moment now and weexpect i t will probably be while we are away. She is counting on us to carefo r the i r two older children a t the time and th i s may mean we shall have themwith us at conference. As we shall be rather "camping" i t is not veryconvenient, though perhaps necessary. Becky will stay at our house that weekso that her daily help can care for Susan, Tommy, Clinton and Nikkie here. Isuppose we can be grateful that we do not have to cope vnth s ix p re -schoo le rsas well as our routine while campinglThis week end was brightened by the v is i t of Miss Marcia Thomson of FortVictor ia , Zimbabwe Rhodesia, on her way back to her mission f ie ld af te rfurlough. Stu and Marilyn Cook also had a meal and evening with us as theyleave for a short furlough the same day we leave for conference. May Godr ichly bless , and do remember us in prayers .Yours in^jle^us Christ , Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington Street , Urbana, IL . 61801Webber Street Church of Christ , sponsorsRobert &R^llis Mills(+ 27 11/ 869-8331 (217 ) 328-2955, Anderson's Phone.


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/Dear Co-wprker, October, 1979As I said in the last letter, I had many preparations to make for the annualconference at the last moment. This was primarily because I had threeresponsibilities, those of treasurer. Superintendent, and as the missionpublisher, my own real ministry to them. Unfortunately some of our visitorscould not come, and one of the missionaries of the few who were not on furloughthis year, was taken i l l . This resulted In last minute anxiety. Little was Ito anticipate all the burden of problems that would be "dumped" Into my lap atconference itself. As a result, I simply could not really enjoy the gatheringas I had hoped, and decided that i t would not be wise to try to continue in allthree capacities. I, therefore, declined nomination for superintendent as i tbecame apparent that they planned to "railroad" me into both Superintendent andtreasurer again. These just Involve too much responsibility for one person. Ifelt the pressure terribly this past few months. As a result, they votedbrother Nicholas Qwemesha as Superintendent until brother Nicholson returns inJanuary. This is the first time that they have chosen a black superintendent,but they chose a very capable man for the job.Even.though we were not able to print four books we had hoped to have availablefor conference, through lack of time, we still distributed more printedmaterials that we ever have before, to the smallest gathering we have had forsome time. The high cost of travel and distance meant that many could notafford to go this year.On our return to Alberton, we v/ent straight to work trying to catch up on thebacklog of accumulated work. We had to print 17 thousand tracts immediatelyand to reprint one of our lesson books, and the cert if icates for the lessons.This being done, we started mailing out lessons and managed to get over 2000into the mail before we ran out of time and postage. I also finalised thedraft of the directory of the Mission for printing and prepared the negativesof that for the press. This means another book to be added to the waiting fournot to mention the fact that we are nearly out of stock on two more lessonbooks. It looks like another high pressure month ahead.Kathy had her baby this past v/eek and they named him Cameron Michael. Phyllismade daily visits to see her at the hospital in Johannesburg and took thechildren with her. Both Shannon and Rhonda ended up staying with us for theweek. This week we have only Clinton, Nikkie, Susan and Tommy. Last week i twas a l l s ix o f them.Please keep us in prayer that God will lead in opening the way to equipmentrenewal and a larger staff to use i t . I simply do not see how It 1s possibleto catch up, let alone expand as we are. We are already actually working underan ever growing backlog of requests and needs, {our enrollment in thecorrespondnce lessons now stands at 223,532 persons, and I have not been ableto mark papers and type certif icates for weeks.) I t is at times like this thatHe is able to show His great power. We certainly can not manage on our ownpower, either financially or physically. Each evening I find myself absolutelyd ra ined .

Yours Jesus Christ, Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington Street , Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Street Church of Christ, sponsorsRobert ^Phyll is Millsphone (+27 11) 869-8331 Anderson's phone (217) 328-2955


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NOV 121979 ^Dear Co-worker, November, 1979After nearly a year, the church at Natalspruit had a reception for James ast h e i r minister. The major service was on a Saturday night and they had invitedall the other churches near them as guests. I understand that there were about200 present for the all night services. We had been invited, but as I doubtedthat we would be given permission to enter Natalspruit at night, they asked usto come Sunday morning instead. There were about 80 sleepy people there forthe morning services. Even so, we had a wonderfully blessed morning. At theclose of my sermon, I was asked to give out four baptismal certificates forthose who had been baptised earlier, then six more came forward to make thegood confession and be baptised later. One lady who had been baptised already,asked to make t he c on fe ss ion as she had not realised th e need before thesermon, and one of the men who came to be baptised had been assumed to be aChristian as his family had long attended services.We s t i l l have not gotten all four of those books printed we wanted done beforeconference. The m i ni st er s d ir ec to r y and the Leadership book in the Tswanalanguage are done, but we had to take time to re-print two lesson books as wellso there are three s t i l l waiting attention. I particularly wanted the Tswanabook as we a r e s h o rt material in Tswana and a m i n i s t e r from Botswana, aneighboring country, has sent me a number of addresses of his people and nowhas written to ask to become a part of the mission. I have sent him thismaterial and written to see if I can arrange to v i s i t him and hi s work in a fewweeks time. It will require passport and visaes, so is not so simple beingacross an international boundry, even though relatively near in miles.In the mailing category, we have really been working haying mailed out 4675sets of new and return lessons this month. The office Is s t i l l piled high,but, we ran out of postage and as my car has been in the body shop for panelbeating all week, (Phyllis backed into a pole and did $240 damage), I have hadto v/al k everywhere this week. I can not walk with 500 lesson packets to thepost office, hence they have accumulated unmailed for the time being.We feel that th e Lord has answered one prayer this month in that we have justarranged to purchase a "new" camera capable of 12"xi8" work. I am to pick itup this evening. It is used but nearly new, and v/e will be advertising our"museum piece" and some other minor equipment ininedlately. We pray it willsell If only chiefly to clear the space. Also, I really feel the Lord isleading toward replacing the press as I went to a friend v/no has a rebuildingservice about a faulty part in the press and he Informed me that he willshortly be rebuilding a Davidson 700P press. That is just like ours, thoughcaoable of 15"xl8" paper. It Is exactly the press we have been looking for andrebuilt, will be like new. His product Is almost undetectable from newequipment. We pray that God will financially open the way as the camera hasnot only wiped out our reserves, but left us in an interest free debt of $600.I expect that the sale of the old equipment will more than cover that, the Lordwi l l ing .Thank you for your prayers, but keep on praying His renewal of the equipmentand provision of s t a f f fo r i t s operation.

Christ, Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington S t r e e t , Urbana, IL, 61801Webber Street Church o f C h r i s t , sponsors

esus

Robert &/?hyll1s MillsPhone (/27 11) 869-8331 Anderson's Phone, (217) 328-2955(PS: PLEASE pardon my ribbon problen this month, it is only temporary.)

Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1979-SAfrica.pdf

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