Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1980-SAfrica.pdf

7/29/2019 Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1980-SAfrica.pdf

1/13

January, 1980.Dear Co-workers,

SS^.

VWe had^an uryexpected heavy e)y)ense this month when brother Qwemesha^al 1ed theentire executive committee and all the missionaries to meet at^Crado^?aboutthe continuing division in the congregation. Since it is over 600 miles eachdirection and I would have to drive alone, (petrol is also about 64c a quart),we decided to both go and to drive to the Lynn Stanleys at Umzumbe instead.Phyllis remained with Lucille and I rode with the men from there- Thisnecessitated going trough Transkei, re-entry visaes, etc, but saved me a harddrive, especially after a difficult meeting. We found matters deterioratedthere and left with grave doubts as to the final results after several days ofcontinually meeting with one or the other faction. I have never heard or seensuch action among Christians, do pray for them and ourselves. Brother Nic wastaxed to the extreem to keep order and at times I thought he would not be ableto go on physically. The Stanleys returned to Alberton with us and spent a fewdays with us returning by air to Durban as the trains were totally booked.(Peak holiday season in Durban) We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and Lynnhelped me immensely to recoup some of the lost time caused by the trip.Last month I posted our financial report and photos which I hope you will havereceived by this time. As they were in envelopes and at peak Christmas rush,they may have been delayed. We find postal service to America dissapointing oflate.

Another shock came when the Rhoneo Vickers company informed us that our postal-^meter deliberately went redundant at the end of 1979. It can not be set for a' 1980 date. The replacement is $1000, so we have gone back to stamps again. Wesimply did not budget for something like that. We mailed 3695 envelopes oflessons in Deconber, so that will be lots of licking. I plan to use everyeffort to get them to update the date stamp, I simply do not accept thesalesman's insistence that they will not do so. He is a high pressure manafter a commission, and tried to get me to sign a lease or purchase directlyand has phoned^repeatedly since. I would prefer to change companies ratherthan give him the satisfaction of a commission now.We ran out of two books and several tracts again early in the month, and evenwith the interruptions managed to get them re-printed; 15,000 tracts and 7,500books in two re-pr ints .We had an enjoyable Christmas eve as our daughters, their husbands and all thegrandchildren were here for the evening meal and Christmas tree together. On Christmas Day things were quieter, we attended church as is the custom here inthe morning but lunch was left overs and no one came by all day, with theexception of a neighbor with a bouquet of flowers. Boxing Day (the dayfollowing, also a holiday) was also quiet with Chris, Becky and their twodropping in twice. We spent the day reading and I forced myself to stay out ofthe office untjl this morning. I think I would have gone fishing yesterday hadI remembered to renew my licences for the year. I didn t , so read instead.Today i t is back to work for everyone not on vacation of course.

Chris t ,

s Mil l s(+27 \y) 86 9-8331 phoneMr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 E. Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber St ree t Church of Chris t , sponsors(217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone.


2/13

Dear Co-worker, 5'5^ FEB ^Praise God for a very dear friend of the work through whom He was able toprovide for a very real need. She tells a very interesting story of how He didthis. It all began several years ago when she, as a favor to a friend, boughta share. Years later on enquiry she found that the share was worth l i t t le bycomparison so i t was marked "for missions and put away. This year she cameacross i t and sold i t expecting to get less than a thousand dollars. Much toher supprise, i t brought $4000 and just when we mentioned the need for a pressreplacement. She promptly forwarded this to our forwarding agent and she to

us. On follow up, we were disappointed to find that the press had hoped tobuy was not suitable, but did find available a photo typesetter for which wecould borrow another $4000 and buy for cash. This at the very time that wewere hit by two very hard blows in one day. Praise God for His anticipationand provision even far in advance of the need being realized.The first blow is that paper and envelope costs rose by 15% on the firstday of February without warning. One way to combat this rise is set type moresolidly using a typesetter to get more on the page, and thus less pages andless paper used. At the same time quality would become professional.The second is that the post office did away with second class mail on the

first of February. All mail must be in sealed envelopes, and if they are notof standard size, they are sur-charged double rate. The rate also rose. Ourpresent booklets, being non-standard, will jump in post charges by more thandouble, (From 4c to 10c). We can bring them back to near the present rate (5c)by giving them a new smaller size, and seeking the bulk 20% discounts. Thereis nothing we can do about material already printed, but new materials can bereduced in size by compressing the type with the photo typesetter rather thanusing typewriter styles. Last month we posted 4604 envelopes of lessonmaterials and our postage bill was nearly $250, There is no way that we canmanage double that. We simply MUST reduce the foremat to fit smaller andcheaper envelopes as soon as possible. Praise God, He is making provision tomake it pos s ib l e .

The press was busy during the month and we produced 35,000 tracts toreplace depleted stocks in three languages. These were all tracts on Baptismor God's plan of salvation. We also re-printed the lesson book on the NewTestament Church in three language editions th is month.

We did not have the postal meter replaced, but I rather used "Dymo tape"to add an "80" and we have used i t all month with no query from the post officeat al l . Since then, there have been advertisements in the paper of a firmwhich is prepared to change the date on these machines. We may have i t doneproper ly l a t e r .

We praise God for His merciful care in preserving our daughter Becky, herhusband Chris and their two children Susan and Tommy, when they had a trailerfire this month. They would have been certainly burned to death except thatBecky neglected to take a pain killer at bedtime and was wakened by Tommycrying in time to see the flames starting on the curtain and wall. Chrissleeps like a "log" usually. They are now staying with us and have the trailerup fo r s a l e .

Kathy and Ruth are neither of them well, and Ruth was hospitalized forseveral days with a kidney problem. Kathy's may be a re-occurance of hernervous problems. She has the care of the three small children. Please keepin pr aye r .Yours in -J es us C h r is t,

ills

Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F, Agents706 E. Washington, Urbana, IL . 61801Webber S t r e e t Church o f Ch r i s t , sponso r s


3/13

. ^ Dear Co-worker , MAR 1 1' Even though we posted less than half as many items th i s month than l a s t ,

^ and we held some over to go. out in March, a f t e r the posta l r i s e s , o ur postagebill was f a r in excess o f last month*s I t was wel l over $300.' Also, we were warned a t the onset of the month tha t one of our majorsupporting churches wil l be withdrawing most of i t s missionary budget,including a l l we received, to place the money in the loca l building program.

With these two fac to rs , plus genera l i n f l a t ion , and thenon-material isat ion of the personal loan we had counted upon, we have decidedtha t th is would not be a good time to take on addi t ional debt with the purchaseof th e photo-typesetting machine. Instead, we have purchased a new mechanical3-M headl iner and a re continuing with the typese t t ing of the text being done onthe typewriter. Smaller envelopes and smaller printing foremat will have to beshelved a lso , in spi te of envelope cos t r i ses . Reluctant ly, we are cut t ingback of the encouragement of so many new enrollments in the lessons ins tead.

With so many t i t l e s and so many languages of teaching mater ia ls and t r ac t sto be kept in print and displayed now, we have found tha t the luggage t ra i le ri s much too sm all to display them a t church meetings. So, t h i s week, I boughta collapsible camping t r a i l e r into which I plan to f i t racks so that I candisplay under cover a t these meetings. The f i r s t is to be the Minister 'smeeting this month. For the f i r s t t ime, I plan to take a t l eas t ten copies ofall our books and a hundred of all t r a c t s in the common languages. I t wi l l , infact , become a mobile-bookstore. I am contemplating gett ing a "hawker*sl i cence" , and using the same un i t a t reserved sa les s i t e s in th i s area onSaturdays when many Africans do their shopping. We will be se l l ing the luggaget ra i l e r s h o rty .

I have spen t considefable time th i s month in set t ing type for f ive newbooks to be printed shor t ly . I t i s unfortunate tha t they can not be done inproper typesetting and cannot be ready in time for the minister 's meeting, butwi l l have to wait un t i l conference ins tead . One reason , however, i s t ha t Ihave just been notified that I am to take two lecture/discussion periods at themeeting, and I have to take time to prepare for those .

Early th i s month we had a del ight fu l v i s i t to the church a t Krugersdorp,near Johannesburg. Attendance in a school classroom was about f i f ty and i t wasa most enjoyable day in a l l . A veri table feas t was served afterwards in thehome o f an elder.

We are happy that Kathy is doing so much bet ter . She has taken a halftime job in the office at "Aletheia", the Christian boarding house operated bythe Stuar t Cook family, where they also l ive . Ruth seems to have recoveredfrom her i l lnes s , and Becky and Chris are busy making preparat ions for a fewweek's holiday t r ip , and perhaps new home and work i f they find a place theywant to stay and work. They hope to leave in a few days for Transkei and the"Wild Coast" in par t i cu l a r . -

A1 Hamilton rev is i ted Johannesburg, and the work he s ta r t ed some yearsago, to hold a very shor t reviv al for the Kimberley Road church this month.This has jus t ended, and there have been three baptisms with perhaps more tofol low. I t has been a time of blessing to t he cong rega ti on and those who knewA1 and Annet te in pa r t i cu l a r .Yours i n J e su s Ch r i s t ,

Mills

Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F . Agents706 E. Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber S t r e e t Church o f Ch r i s t , sponsors


4/13

Dear Co-workers,cilb

PUDUSHtNG HOUSE^0 .e& 1347Atbcrton, S^uthAfrka

UKD ec. 1979

We praise our God for His care and provision through you all for anotherwonderful year in His work. While the over-all growth has not been as rapidas last year nor production quite as high, we feel i t is far more importantthat we have producted much new material to strengthen the local churchesthis year, while continuing with the evangelistic out-reach of the lessons.The enclosed photos have been done on the Pos 1 for your bulletin board. Ourmost s incere greet ings you al l in this festive season.

FINANCIAL REPORTDec 1, 1978 - Dec 1, 1979On hand Dec . 1 s t .From Forwarding AgentFrom S.A. donat ionsFrom Reserve fundsSale of EquipmentBorrowedSa l e o f booksPrinting for othersInsurance refundReturned checkSale of used stamps

19 . 4018091.513436.351700.00825 .00500.00232 .11176.3034 . 5823 .2024 .75

25063 . 20

Salary 4800.00Redactor II word processor 3000.00Supplies 4984.01Renewal :Tape Recorder 66.29NuArk Vacuums Light 980.20

Cei ling Fixtu re 25.00Tra i le r tow bar 75.81Pos I Camera system 2500.00Postage 1408.50Auto & Petrol costs 1402.19Redac t o r I I main tenanceagreement. 781.04To reserve fund. 1408.34Office & print shop rental 720.00Typing 273.00Repayment of loan 500.00Telephone 98.16Trade Journal 15.00Bibles 26.32Visa for Rhodesian Mission 23.20Equipment repairs 32.09Travel 183.45Insurances 130.64Advert isements 22 .80Bank Charges 13.90Casual help 10.00James' registra t ion fees 14.80

23494 .74

With this we have printed 861,450impressions including 42,150 Biblestudy booklets, and 106,000 GospelTracts, and have enrolled 23,494new s tuden t s in t he l es so ns . Weposted 33,649 sets of lessons andtracts.

Of ^he lesson books publi shed, therewere 29 totally new books o r edi ti on swhich means they hud to be typesetfrom th e s ta r t , some were quite largebooks as well , and near lyal l were inlanguage t ranslat ions.There are presently 230,194 personswho have been enro l led in th e s tud i esa t one t ime o r ano t h e r .

PRAYER CORNER1 . A d di t io na l a s s i s t a n c e .a . pr e s smanb. typis t2. Press renewal (Davidson 700P)(Our press is unreliable and a largerprinting area is needed fo r ch artsand posters.)3. A recording phototypesetter{To improve quality and retain theabil i ty to facil i ta te th e translatedcopy to typeset.)

Dec . l BalanceRes e r v e Fund

RAC?

Afr tu

tR 1568.46R 253 .44

Yours in ^sus1 ^Robert f Phyll is Mills(+27 11) 869-8331 phone

Christ , Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 E. Washington, Urbana, IL . 61801Webber St ree t Church of Christ , sponsors(217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone.


5/13

Dear Co-worker, APR 1 4 1980Probably the most exciting thing that happened this month was the annualMinister's Meeting which was held at Estcourt, Natal. Almost all of themissionaries in this part of South Africa managed to attend at least part ofthe time as we held a Missionary get-together at the same time and place. Itwas also an executive committee meeting, so "your's truly" was really occupiedthose few days. In some ways, I need a "vacation" to get over the break. Itwas just too much of a working break. My message on the vwrking of the elders

and Ministers together was so well received that they have insisted that I mustbring the same message to conference in September. I had expected not to be aspeaker this year after three years running already.

We were foiled in our plan to take the t ra i le r to the site for the saleof books, however. A heavy rain occurred in the mountains a few days beforethe meeting, and the resul t was tha t the r iver was in flood for the ent i re timeand Vie had to cross on a pole bridge and be met the other side by MichaelStanley's car, which was marooned on the other side. We personally got there,though we could only take what we could personally carry in our arms. Some ofthe roads v/ould have been impossible for a sedan in any case. As i t was, adisk brake sheared the bol t s and had to be re-fastened l a t e r on our car af te rthe t r ip anyway. We could not imagine what the cla t ter was. Sometimes theLord provides for a need in unexpected way, however, and our camping trailerbecame "headquarters" to the entire mission group. Some cooked there, theevening cook-out was done there, and all the missionary gatherings were heldthere. This is because our tent was the ONLY one that could hold so manypeople. (20) We did not plan i t that way, but the Lord used It , and I trulydon't know v/hat we v/ould have done without i t . We look forward to using i t forthe purpose for which we bought i t in September at Conference, the Lordwi111ng.

All the Missionaries s t i l l there took one morning to visi t the near-by"Giant's Castle" National Park, and see the Bushman Paintings there. They arerock paintings done on the walls of caves in the mountains. We found them veryinteresting and really enjoyed the beauty of the mountains as the caves are agood half an hour hike f-rom the parking lot . It is a park we would like tore-v is i t when we have time to jus t " res t a bit" and relax.

On our return, the 3-M headliner has been given a real work-out. We haveset and p rin ted fou r books and have another ready for the press as soon aspaper arr ives from the suppl ier . I t has been put to good use In all these , andnow that the type style we requested has finally been delivered will greatlyimprove the quality of the work. We plan to use It'^onjunction with this typestyle on the typewriter for text. The entire thing will be used at 90% sizeprobably. We found 75% too small for our liking. We also re-printed 37,500t rac ts to re f i l l empty stocks.

Becky and Chris are t rave l l ing , having moved on from Transkei to EastLondon, Port Elizabeth and points beyond. We really only know v/here they arewhen they drop a post cajd or phone us. Their mail is rather accumulating tooas there simply is no place to send i t to them.Kimberley Road has had a bit of an attendance slump since the meeting isover. Plans there are to clear the building si te while they wait for the

approval of the building plans and try to accumulate funds to build. Buildingcosts are s oa rin g every day we delay.

us Christ , Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents' f '70 Washington, Urbana, IL, 61801Webber Stree t Church of Chris t , sponsorsMi l l s1, phone (217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone.


6/13

0"W .Dear Co-worker,' We-have a great p ile of printing accumulating as we were short of fundsfor paper this past month, so I had James work at t ranslating much of the timeand I worked at the typewri ter 1n typing up the material he translated thencorrected the copy and prepared i t for paste-ups and the camera. Much of thisis now ready for the press as soon as the State Library forwards the booknumbers for them. There Is the booklet on the Ministerial / EldershipRelationship, which will be used as my Conference sermon. It is also to beavailable in Xhosa and Zulu, A booklet on Stewardship, also available in threelanguages. Two chart tracts and a new tract In Xhosa that we formerly did nothave in the series, not to mention a booklet on the Sabbath problem. Threebooks are also ready for reprint ing. In al l , i t looks like we shall be busy.I think there are ei ther nine or ten booklets. We also did the t ransla t ion forthe History of the Mission into Zulu, though an up-date chapter Is sti l l to bewritten and translated. In fact, we probably will not be able to finish i t allas I also have to do Mission supplies, baptismal cer t i f ica tes , etc .

Phyllis and I have been invited to come to Kyle Park in Zimbabwe topresent our work to the meeting of the Central Africa Mission as their guests.We thought long about I t as gasolene is costly and i t would mean staying in ahotel at least on one leg of the t r ip, but we have decided to go, and now haveour passports, re-entry visaes, border documents, and extra insurance coveragefor the car ready. The Lord v/llling, we will be leaving here on May 13th andprobably returning on the 19th. This is the f irs t time I have ever been toZimbabwe (Rhodesia) in the 27 years that we have been in Africa. I will findi t particularly interesting as we have had over 22,000 correspondence studentsfrom there over the years, many of them from the Fort Victoria area.

With .definitely cooler nights upon us now, we were not supprised to hearfrom Becky'and Chris that they have left Mossel Bay (winter rains area) forUpington and South West Africa. (Namibia to you.) They should be there now,but I do not expect them to stay there very long. They have very cold weatherthere as well at times, and I doubt I f very much to offer in accomodatlon orwork. Windhoek certainly did not have much to offer when we lived there yearsago. We expect them back shortly now. (They just drove in.)The Kimberley Road church building programme is rather bogged down againas the Building Inspector has stopped demolition of the old buildings andthreatens prosecution i f we touch them. We had letters from the Town Engineer,

the Electrical Dept, etc. actually ordering Immediate demolition, butapparently not a document from h1m. Unfortunately he was rather offended bysome comments made by various persons so we may have real troubles. It doesnot pay to offend the Building Inspector. The Engineer had given 30 days toclear the site, so we are between two "threats", not to mention a Catholicneighbor who opposes the whole thing and is going to the "highest authorities"to stop construction. Actually, she may have gotten to the inspector at that.One wonders i f she would prefer a factory, which i t could be if we don't buildthere. In any case, we know that His will will be done.You^:s-Tn^Jesus Christ, Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Street Church of Chris t , sponsorsRobert an^Phyllis Mills(+27 ll)/869-8331 phone (217) 328-2955, Anderson' s phone.


7/13

June 1980Dear Co-worker, JUN

^iT^ 3 1980

The t r ip to Zimbabwe went very well on the whole. We drove as far as theborder town on the South African side of the Limpopo river on the Wednesday andstopped at a motel for the night. It advertised all sorts of features thatwere lacking, and no mention was made of the boards in the beds and thinmattresses, but i t did have air conditioning so could have been worse, at leasta little. It was filled with Zimbabwians going home after the school holidaysand they all left about the same time we did so the border post was absolutelyjammed. The lines extended clear outside the building. This accounted forperhaps two hours delay. Once cleared of the formalities, however, we reallyenjoyed the drive through "bush" country literally all the way. There were notowns at all on the trip, and very few other possible stops. One Tea Room,shop survived the war and we could have stopped there, but nearly all the otherfarms, shops, a motel, and the like had been gutted by fire and had the doors,windows and roofs stripped. They stood as stark monuments to "terrorism". Wewere supprised to find the tarred road in superb condition and only realizedwhy when we returned home and read the paper here which mentioned that theroads were kept in perfect condition so that land mines could not be hidden inpatches or pot-holes.

At Kyle lake, the accomodation was lovely. Our Rhodesian missionaryhosts had booked the entire hotel, which we all more than filled. A few guestshad to commute to Fort Victoria. We enjoyed the fellowship with missionarieswe had known only by name before, as near as they are, sat in on their businessmeetings, visited the CAMELS press for which we had carried up a stock ofsupplies and the Book Store. The Johnsons took us to the Zimbabwe ruins andMarsha Thompson to the game park where we enjoyed the Rhinos and Warthogs inparticular. They are rather rare in South African parks by comparison. OnSunday we were able to attend the Fort Victoria church services and to hearMarshall Hayden speak for the second time. His two messages were worth thet r ip in themselves.

The return trip was without event, though we were intrigued to meet fourhuge lorries filled with terrorists being returned to their villages now thatthey have been "demobbed", demobilised. We drove right home without stoppingfor the night and arrived in time for supper at home.The derelict buildings on the Kimberley Road church site have been nearlyall demolished now, except that the last room is giving a real problem. It is

very st rong.I set to in the print shop on our return and we have finished four booksand all but the covers on two more before we ran out of paper and printingplates, also money. We are also out of envelopes, so I am waiting supplies.We only printed 8,500 tracts this month. The typing of the text has been doneon two more small books so that they can be done this month, the Lord willing.Rather interestingly, I ran out of the computerised International Standard BookNumbers this month and had to send an urgent letter to the State Library formore. She phoned them to me so that I could go ahead printing, and the paperwill come in the mail later, but she said she shorted me because we have usedup the computer capacity on our original number and she will have to assign meanother one in future. Praise God. We now have 229 items in our "available

lists" and I am thinking of opening a Johannesburg Depot open to the public ifthe Lord leads so .Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Street Church of Christ, sponsorsand'^^yllis Mills(+27 11) 8/9-8331 phone (217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone.


8/13

.-dt i ,.

July, 1980- JUL 1 6 1980Dear Co-workers,

The present bi t te r ly cold nights with hard f rosts , cold v/inds and even afew snow flakes here, much more o th er p la ce s, reminded us of the need of someof our elderly ministers so Phyllis and I bundled up some shoes, socks andwarm sv/eaters and posted them to one dear friend we knew would be in need.We completed th e p rin tin g of four new books, three more are int ranslat ion stage. We always prin t a minimun of 500 copies of any newmaterial , one of these printings was of 2500 copies. Any fewer copies iscompletely un-economical. Our Ministers need these translated materials, butat the same time they seldom use more than a hand full of copies in any onelanguage. This leaves us with a storage and distribution problem for thebalance no t to mention the investment in time and money. As a resu l t , I havestepped out on faith again in that I have taken a six month lease on a downtown office and have opened the "Gospel Tract Centre, Johannesburg Depot" wherewe hope to sell these extra materia ls to the African public. If we can pay the

rent , and advertising, I will be happy, and absolutely overjoyed if we couldhire a typist clerk to be there. It is going to give me much more work to dopersonally, at least for the time being. To make i t v/ell known v;here v/e are, Ihave taken a small block advert isement in a door- to-door adver t i se r d i s t r i bu t edin Soweto a black suburb of more than one million people and since there was aspecial price, one advertisement in the national week end black newspaper , thePost. This will appear weekly during this month. That, plus the fact thatthe office is only one block from the main Johannesburg black railvjay sta t ion,should draw people in . We have more than 200 translated items in stock. Dokeep us in prayer that God may bless, as we feel that He has led in such anideal position and at a very reasonable price. We will be letting you knownext month how the response has gone.

Judging by a le t ter from a friend in America, South Africa is againfeaturing in the news there, apparently grossly over-exaggerated as usual.Yes, the Sasol petrolium from Coal plant did have a storage tank blasted byterror is t s , but i t did not effect the availabil i ty of petrol or raise the priceof petrol and of course i t is about fifty miles away from us, just near enoughthat the Alberton f ire stat ion sent the i r new foam tanker, the largest in thecountry, to help fight i t . We have been more concerned about the volcano inWashington.and the accompanying earth quakes in California. The presentstrikes and school disturbances, too have been of concern, but of no directeffect on us personally, at least as yet .

The Flu has struck Johannesburg with a vengeance, attendance at churchhas been down considerably. I was quite i l l last night during the night but wepraise God that we have not been seriously i l l as yet. My trouble may havebeen food poisoning as I had lunch meat out during the afternoon. It has alsobeen a month-of-moving for the daughters of the Mills household. Ruth, Beckyand Donna all moved house this month. We have helped shif t Becky s thingssince they were living here before, store Donna's t i l l her flat is available,and jus t dried laundry for Ruth. She has moved to our s t ree t , tv/o blocks upand has no clothes l ine j us t yet .Yours in Jesus Christ , Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Stree t Church of Chris t , sponsors

(217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone.Rober-LJf-Phyl 1is Mills


9/13

August, 1980'Dear Co-workers, ^) '

Each morning, including Saturday, I have been leaving for the Book Showroomin Johannesburg at 8:00 a.m. where I also open my mail and do the book markingbefore returning at noon; then pitch in on the printing press or typewriteruntil five or so. I am afraid i t is beginning to tell on me a bit . I have atendency to "collapse" in my chair right after supper. We have distributedquite a number of books through the showroom, though growth has been muchslower than I had hoped for, and financially i t has been a big drain.Probably, a month Is too soon to expect to make ends meet through, and withoutdoubt, the fact that we are in a fourth floor office and not a window shopmakes a difference, even i f several religious book rooms are so situated. As Iwant this particular project to carry I tself , I paid the rent this monthprimarily through the sale of used stamps which come in on the mail. I didhave to have a telephone installed there so that will be an additional cost. Iam presently looking into i t , and i t will be wonderful i f we can also havetypesetting equipment instal led so that I can make better use of the timethere. I had hoped to have completely paid off our hire purchase payments onthe Redactor before entering into a lease, but we shall see how the Lorddirects.

We have managed to get three new booklets printed this month, as well as anumber of tracts, and they are on our shelves already. I will now have to turnmy attention to preparations for the annual conference. It is only just overfour vjeeks away. I have the financial reports to prepare, my sermon to get infinal form, the car and trailer to be readied for the trip and so forth.Johannesburg has just started to recover from a week long dustman's strike.I kidded Phyllis that I would soon have to start to carry a walking stick toclimb over the debree and fight off rats. In reality, I never saw a rat, andthe debree was pretty well confined to the gutter and vicinity of trash cans

that had not been emptied. The area of the Bookroom was starting to get prettymessy because of the habit of the blacks in particular of throwing down trash1n the street. They used to say that since the signs showed white men on agreen background it did not mean they were included in the no littering signs.We had a shock this month when the overflow of our hot water heater frozeand caused the heater to burst. Consequently, we have been without water mostof the month and the replacement is to be shockingly expensive. I have i t onhand now and we hope the plumber shows up this evening to install it for us.The plumer's labor is the expensive part. Fortunately there was no waterdamage to be repaired as well. Phyllis's sewing machine also "packed up" this

month and had to be replaced. I suppose after over twenty years we can notcomplain.The present unusually warm spell reminds us that Spring Is just around thecorner and that there is a lot of garden work that can not be delayed muchlonger. I will have to spray the fruit trees, dig the grass from the edges andin general, tidy up. I did the pruning weeks ago, however it is still sittingin the corner of the garden in the form of a brush pile. That has to becleared soon. In a way, I dread Spring, for I don't have time to garden, eveni f i t is a favorite time of the year otherwise.

Yours in Jesus Christ, Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Street Church of Christ , sponsorsRob^t-&-Rhyllis Mills1(217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone


10/13

SeptOTbe;^ 1280* .t ., ' -' ." SEP 1 11919Dear Co-^6r^erfr, ' ' *^ . Our^hone rang last n^ht just as we were going to bed. It was one ofthe church ladies to tell us that the Whisman's had just had their car stolenfrom in front of her house, Ron had stayed on after church for a while, whichthey often do, I understand that the car also contained his guitar, camera andother valuables. We have not heard anything further yet this morning. Thecar, being a Valliant is a prime target for thieves here. Africans like themfor "taxis". Apparently he had no insurance. Please pray with us that hisbelongings may be recovered.

The annual Mission conference starts in one week's time and I have muchto be readied. I have gotten the financial reports typed up ready for thecamera and printing, have books sorted out to be taken, the basic outline of mymessage is ready to be typed; now the car must be serviced and checked over asi t is a very long trip this year towing the camper as well. I am reallydreading the drive. If i t had been our car that was stolen just now, we wouldhave real troubles getting there with everything we are expected to take.Alvin was not able to get here to collect the mission printing so we have thatas well, a t leas t as much as we can manage of i t .

The water heater and the sewing machine have been replaced now, 1 wasrather interested to see that the Sewing machine, a very popular South Africanmake, probably British in origin had an instruction booklet bearing the name"Montgomery Ward" on the photos of the machine in i t . Ours says "Empisal"there. Of course they are actually made in Japan.PRAISE & PRAYER PROJECT

At the present time we have enrolled 242,788 persons in the BibleCorrespondence lessons. This is just a l i t t le over 7,200 short of a quartermillion. We also have a catalog of almost 240 items, representing 20languages, which we try to keep in stock at the showroom and available by post.It seems me that the time is ripe that we invest in proper typesettingequipment rather than relying on typewriter-set materials. In praise to Godwho has blessed so abundantly, I would like to start a special fund to makethis possible. The f i rs t project would be to pay off the debt on the wordprocesser, which makes this many students possible as well as the printing.When that is accomplished, ($7625) we would immediately take a lease or hirepurchase on a Quadritek 1201 phototypesetter fit t ing i t into that slot in ourbudget. I have done some research and this machine absolutely fills the need.They are quite prepared to lease one to me at a very low interest rate evenwith the outstanding word processor account, but I am not willing to take i tuntil that monthly obligation is first cleared away. Pray we may be able to dothis that we might top a quarter million students to His praise with this newequipment ready for use. I t will also f i l l a very real need in providing aproject to be done at the showroom during the morning hours when I am away fromthe word processor. 1 would like to be re-setting the books as well as to makea s tar t on the autobiography of Edgar Nichols, my father-in-law. Tell ourforwarding agent if your special offering is meant for this project , please, sothat she can pass the information along to us.

rist,

Mills(+27 11^69-8331Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson , F . Agents706 East Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Street Church of Chris t , sponsors(217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone.


11/13

October, 1980Dear Co-workers , OCT 1 4 1930

Conference turned out to be lovely though as a member of the committee Idid not enjoy i t as much as I could have otherwise. There was far too muchbusiness to be attended to. For one thing i t was the largest group to becatered to that we have ever had, there were 331 to be cooked for and they didall three meals each day over a wood fire and in iron pots. The meat bill wasabout $1000, since they used one complete ox and three quarters of another,plus a sheep. We came out in the black on the table money, however, thanks to JohnKernan who delivered each day's rations as they were needed. It made a lotof extra work for him, and he had a rough time as i t was different than theyhad ever done i t , but all came out well in the end.

The authorities had not wanted to issue permits for the white missionariesto be in Zwelitsha oweiny to student unrest, but in the end they gave "halfhearted" permission. On opening night we found out why. The township wasunder evening curfew and the welcoming officials repeatedly stressed that underno circumstances was anyone to walk home alone, they must be escorted,preferably in cars. There were no problems as far as I know, however. Theweek following the principal of a high school in a near by town was stoned andkilled by his students. As treasurer I collected, receipted, and carried outand banked $5746 of their table funds. Pension funds and Evangelism andBuilding funds. The Lord watched over and there was no hint of any danger.We again used our tent camper as gathering place for all the missionariesin attendance and Lynn and Lucille Stanley and Alvin and Vernita Nicholson hadmost meals with us. The Stanleys slept there as well. Everyone had a "steakfry" each evening at our place. I turned the book sales over to James as thereis simply no time for the treasurer to do that sort of thing. He sold over 250books, thanks to the fact that I gave away a complete catalog of materials we

have to everyone who wished one. fly message, which I called a "book reportwas wonderfully received and he could have disposed of many more copies of thathad they been on hand I am sure. I was stressing the working togetherof theelders and the ministers in the work of the Lord. One of our most seriousproblems has been the strivi_pg for authority and clashing of these two groups,rather than recognising the Lord as authority and working to His glory.This month is off to a bad s tar t with a slip on the part of our Americanbank shorting us by some :t)640 of budgeted income. We were already in a bad wayafter the annual service charge for the care of the word processor last month,so I will have to dip into the emergency fund the second time in two months to payaccounts. We trust that this next month will be right again. I am sure theLord permits such mistakes to make us realize our utter dependence upon Him.Please remember our PRAISE AND PRAYER project of clearing away the balanceof the word processor account to enable us to purchase new and neededequipment. There is so much to be done, and so little time, we want to useevery moment we can. The Lord willing, our forwarding agent will be taking aworkshop at the Missionary Convention in Springfield. I am sure she would loveto see you there and talk with you. She is standing in for me as we wereunable to accept the "11th hour" invitation issued to us to take part.Nothing has been heard of brother Ron's stolen car. At the moment, he is

in Hong Kong, a trip that he had planned before this happened.Jesus Chr i s t ,

Robert /Phyl l is Mills(+27 ]/) 869-8331

Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson, F. Agents706 East Washington, Urbana, IL. 61801Webber Stree t Church of Chr i s t , sponsors

(217) 328-2955, Anderson's phone.


12/13

November , l yeU 'C-P'"Dear Co-workers ,

We have posted o ver 2000 packs of lessons and t r ac ts th is month an d a res t a r t i ng th e new month with our a dd re ss ty pin g pret ty well caught up fo r achange. Pr in t ing i s ano the r mat te r . We pr in ted some 12,500 t r a c t s , bu t haveonly barely enough paper on hand to pr in t th e D ire cto ry of t he M in is tr y fo r theMission and Revival posters fo r the Kimberley Road meet ing. Af te r t h a t , wewi l l have to forget f ur th er p rin tin g as we can not afford the paper .

We have been hampered through l a s t month by f^^ds as we weretrying to make up for the bank's mistake of the pr iSia^inoTrth 'a cT'at the samet ime to r ecover from th e charge fo r th e se rv ic ing of th e Redactor I I . Thismonth i s little b e tte r r ea lly as we have to cover over $335 of insurances whichf e l l due on th e equipment. U ntil th e Redactor i s fu l ly paid f o r , we have tokeep it insured of course. At the present t ime, our forward ing agent has notyet mentioned any sp ec i a l funds des igna t ed fo r th e c lea r ance o f t h i s deb t . Afew days ago an agency did phone to of f e r a used Quadri teck 1200, but we dareno t se r ious ly cons ide r making an o f f e r j u s t now e ven th ou gh th e f i n anc i a lagenc ies a re eager to accomodate a l oan .

In f a c t , we must keep a t i g h t re ign on a l l expenses a s it now takes $1.35to exchange fo r one Rand and pr ices have also r i sen 20% t h i s year a lone . I thas been seve ra l yea r s s ince we have had a sa l a ry adjus tment so Phy l l i s i ss t ruggl ing to feed us on the al lowed grocery budget .

I h a v e come to the c o n c l u s i o n that the e n f o r c e d s l ow down at the Bookroomi s probably the L ord 's doing. South Africa i s reported to have the h ighes tr a t i o o f dea ths by h ea r t a t t a ck i n th e wor ld . A very r e c en t f ea tu r e a r t i c a l i nthe paper l i s t ed 16 q uestio ns fo r se l f examination to see i f you a re l iv ingunder too much s t r e s s and t hus making yourse l f a l i ke ly cand ida t e . I foundt h a t o f the 16, I have to answer 10 pos i t ive ly and f ive were open to q ue stio n.Of course th e average South Afr ican a lso smokes heav i ly and uses a lc oh ol a swell as ea t ing a die t with a lo t of meat. At l e a s t a l l of those a re in myfavor . Anyway, I have t r i ed to reduce the s t r e s s a b i t where poss ib le and Ihave had more t ime fo r prayer , s tudy and read ing than for a long t ime. I haveread a number o f th e r e l i g i ou s books t h a t I have had fo r year s and never hadt ime to open .

Bro the r Ron i s back from Hong Kong and i s aga in pu t t ing every e f f o r t towardge t t ing f i na l approval on th e b uild in g plans so t ha t he can have a fund r a i s ingr ev iva l meeting l a t e r t h i s month. His ca r has no t been recovered so he i s a l solooking about fo r a poss ib l e replacement . It i s made more d i f f i c u l t by th ef ac t -t-hae-4^^-plans a fur lough in l e s s than e igh t months t ime. Our own furloughhas had to postponed i nde f in i t e ly fo r th e t ime being.

We a re awai t ing th e a r r i v a l any moment, of Shannon an d Rhonda, tw o o f ourgrandchildren. They wi l l be making t he i r home with us for the t ime be ing .Shannon un t i l th e end o f th e school year in Dec embe r, a nd Rhonda j u s t u nt i lt h e i r parents a re ab le to f ind a l a rge r apar tment . They have had to accept at iny one bedroomed apar tmen t fo r th e t ime be ing and can no t all squeeze in toit. Mrs Haupt (Hope) a d ea r n eig hb or , has been s tay ing nights with us th i sweek as he r room i s needed fo r v i s i t i ng r e l a t i v e s . She l i ve s with he rdaughte r . She wi l l probably not be with us a f t e r ton igh t . I t has been a joyto h a v e her w i t h u s .

You r s u s Christ

Robert &^yllis MillsPhone (+29 1 1) 8 69 -8 33 1

Mr and Mrs Raymond Anderson , F. Agents706 Eas t Wash ing ton , U rb ana, IL . 61801Webber S t . Church o f Chr i s t , sponsors

(217) 328-2955, Anderson 's phone


13/13

December, 1980Dear Co-workers, DEC Q)93Q

We wish you a most j oyous Ch ri stma s in our Lord ' s serv ice .Praise God for another wonderful year in His work. I t has been necessary

to " tig hte n th e b elt" because o f rapid ly r is ing cos ts , but still much has beenaccompl i shed , par t i cu l a r l y in th e publ i ca t ion o f new s tudy books and l e s sons .We r e jo i ce t h a t th e m i nis te rs a re making more use of these in t h e i r l oca l worka s well.

F inanc i a l ReportDec 1, 1979 - Dec 1, 1980

On Hand Dec 1 , 1979 1568 . 46 With t h i s we have p r in ted 618,800 imFrom Forwarding Agent 18123 . 27 press ions inc lud ing 31,600 Bible StudyS .A . Don a t i o n s 958 . 13 bookle ts , and 110,500 t r a c t s , and haveFrom Re s e r v e Fun d s 1975 . 00 enro l l ed 14,614 new s tuden t s in th ePr in t ing fo r o the r s 1 9 1 . 24 l e s sons . We pos ted 20,796 s e t s of l e s sonsS a l e s o f b o o k s 1 2 2 . 67 a nd tracts. We issued 3873 certificatesTyping done fo r o the r s 1 0 , 00 fo r completed books t h i s yea r with 870 of

them being fo r complet ion of th e comple teR22,948. 77 series o f lessons.Sala ry 4 8 0 0 . 00 In round f ig ure s, th er e a re now a qua r t e rRedac to r II payments 2759 . 58 million students who h a v e b e e n enrolled inPostage 1814 . 1 9 t h e series at o n e t im e o r another. PRAISESuppl ies fo r p rin tin g 4 0 9 2 . 4 4 THE LORD for t h em .Auto expenses 1 3 1 1 . 01Re d a c t o r maintainance & PRAYER NEEDS:

Insurance 9 0 6 . 88T r a n s , to Re s e r v e - F u n d ' 2500 . 00 1 . The Book Room needs l i f t i ng up in prayerRent fo r o f f i c e & shop 720 . 00 We nea r ly closed it t h i s month, as weTyping 142 . 90 have been carry ing its f i nanc i a l l o s sTelephone 9 3 . 0 9 from our sa lary and we can no t afford toP .O . Box rental 10 . 00 do t h i s much l onge r . We have decided toA d v e r t i sem e n t s 178 . 3 5 g ive it one more month grace .Au t o Insurances 186 . 87Equipment: 2 . Funds a re u rgen t ly needed to c lo se the

3M He a d l i n e r & fonts 695 . 24 Redactor I I a cc ou nt, (ab ou t $6750)Tent Camper 1 0 0 0 . 00

Cradock Hote l fo r meeting 1 1 . 00 3 . A record ing t ypese t t i ng un i t i s neededTravel 30 . 50 to both mak e better use of t i m e a n d toTranslation 2 0. 0 0 improve qua l i t y and save paper on everyEquipment Repair 59 . 30 p r in t i ng , t hus money.Hymn Books 27 . 00F i lm s 9 . 60 4 . Our aging Davidson press u rgen t ly needsRefund on a book sales 3 . 00 r ep lacement .Bank cha rge s 2 . 1 0James' r eg i s t r a t i on fee 1 4 . 8 0 Balance on hand Dec. 1, 1980Fi re Insurance on Equipment 9 7 . 90 Gene r a l Accoun t R 1347 . 8 0Transfer to Book Room f u n d 1 1 5 . 22 Re s e r v e Fund 853 . 5 1

Book Room Fund 243 . 22R 21 ,600 . 97 TOTAL R 2444 . 5 3

Yours in J e su s Chr i s t ,

ills

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

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