Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1996-SAfrica.pdf

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GOSPEL TRACT CENTRE54 Fif th Avenue - Alber ton Nor thP.O. Box 1347 - Alberton, 1450

dbFax: (011)907-8651HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear Co-workers,

We praise the Lord for each of you, and yourhelp to make this the best month we have everhad in the spreading of literature and Bibles.Pray with us for His blessings on the yearahead.

Tel: (Oil) 907-1533

January, 1996

boxes, but that can be done gradually as theyare transferred upstairs to the shelves of theshop itseif. This way the computer can keep anaccurate record ofwhat is actually ontheshelves. Ijusthaveto remember todo a "goodsreceived" entry, and a "cash sales"slipat the end of eachday.I also went back over the manuscripts that 1had entered into thecomputer and did a final printout of them inpaged format, but lacking the title page and publication dates so that they are now in the file cabinet and readyfor thosepages to be added andquickly printed as they areneeded.As itappears that we shall probably beprinting more booklets in future, I asked the serviceman tocome andrepair the collator and binder machines. He only showed up a few days before the amiual holiday season, andthen went onholiday, so the machine is sitting here minus some ofit's parts that he took back tohis workshop.I assume thathe willbebackin early January to finish thejob.Wecould haveusedit today as I was askedtoreprint 500 copies of a 32 page booklet and bind it. I did the printing last Saturday afternoon, and mycustomer, hisson,and1finished them this morning. Hewas very pleased, andI will probably getthejob todo regularly. Itisabi-monthly "prophecy" newsletter. I quite enjoyed reading the sample copies he lef^ withme. One dealt with the"Toronto Blessing," which hedefinitely considers tobea false sign of Satanic origin.I also phoned a local service man for thecomputer. Hetoostarted thework, and then went away, butasI owehim for his work already done, a small board, and anewcable, hewill certainly be back. It isworking muchbetter already, but he plans to install the video editing board we already had, a chip to speed the machine up,and probably aCD Rom drive since most new software comes on rom disks these days. Apparently, I do notneed to have a larger hard drive ashewas able to clear away anaccumulation of "garbage" and fragmentedrecords. The faxnow works in thismachineand it could handle "E" mail, but as it has a problem separtatingordinary calls fi-om faxes, Iwill continued to use the proper fax. I can leave it turned onat night as well.A few days before Christmas, anelderly customer, MrRichard Jelley, asked tobebaptized. We had a verygood discussion as to his understanding and his beliefs, and were happy to receive his confession offaith andto baptize him on the 20th ofDecember. His wife, and his grown son also came with him and we were ableto taUc with themaswell. Do pray with us for his familyto join him.Sincerely Your's in Jesus Christ. June Anderson, F/A

P.O. Box 3951Urbana,lL 61801-8051


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GOSPEL TRACT CENTRE54 FIFTH AVENUE - ALBERTON NORTH

P.O. Box 1347, Alberton 1450phone - 011-27-11-907-1533 / 24 hour fax -011-27-11-907-8651

January 30, 1996Dear Co-workers,

After days ofgloom andrain, wehave a beautiful day today again. Thedams inourareaaremost of them overflowing.Ourstorage basement is starting to showdampness, but if itholdsoff raining for a fewdays itwill evaporate anddry outagain. There is alsoa damppatch of floor in the Bible shop too \^diere water has seeped through the vs^ll. Wethank theLord that we don't have actual flooding here, however.Yesterday, I printed the "Trumpet Call", 500 copiesof a small 24 page, bi-monthly paper.As this was printed forsomeone else, 1was really only responsible for the printing, though they came and assembled it here. I assistedwithstapling ittogether. He also had an insert printed,. The insert is basically a subscription form and order form for videoandaudio tapes that he distributes. As thesedealwiththe "T^IewAge"and"Satanic"problems, both are veryrelevant.I suggested that I would accept the tapes toward part of the printing costs. He accepted and has now delivered the 10video tapes. I haven't had time to look at most of them.Today wehave printed 500 copies of our book and tract catalog and 100 copies of the Mission Minister's directory aswell as a number of funeral service programs for one of the local funeral homes..Ijust had rather a nasty shock! I sent a fax and the lady answered on the voice phone at the other end so I had to speakto her to ask that she push the ^'receive'' button on her fax.When I picked upmyphone, there was an ant nest being builtunder the mike end and ants were all over it. I had to blow them off and speak into that mess! Thanldlilly they had leftthe earsideclear or theywouldhave beencrawlinginmyear aswell.{Onejust nowwandered across myglasses.) Theyhad probably moved nest because ofmoisture under the carpet tiles inthat comer. I was faxing the Computer repairman.He sent a young fellowyesterday, but left the computer in a real mess. The screen now is covered with text and graphic"confetti" and changes color like a neon sign.-He has since collected the computer, and found the cause of the problem.Last year the shop replaced the mother-board but they put one in that was the wrong voltage. Now, at a price, ourcomputer has been properly up-graded to do about anything we need to do in the desk top publishing including usingCD disks for illustrations, photos, and sofhvare.All the rain has called my attention to the fact that the roofof the church building just bas to be painted and the fascia-boards and eave troughs repaired and painted. I had two quotations and have accepted the slightly lower one, which alsohappens to be the more professional, and which gave seventeen references on recent jobs done so we could enquire asto their satisfaction. We expect them to complete^jbls this monthPlease accept mymost humble apolog>' to those who have not been getting our newsletter. It is my fault. A few monthsago, I was "house cleaning''' my computer's hard disk and found that tliere were two newsletterfiles. One was a very oldone, and the other was much more recent, d know that now.) I deleted what I thought was the old one, when it wasactually the newer one, and we lost a lot of addresses. Only this month, I came across a printout of the new list in mystationery drawer, and ihey have now been replaced, however in the case of churches and SS classes, we may have thewrong correspondent's name. If there are errors, please let us know.Phyllis was saddened this week to get a phone call from our daughter Dorma, to let us know that her father has died. Hewill be buried beside her mother in Boise, Idaho. Edgar was 97 and had lived in a Veteran's Hospital for some yearsbe fo r e h i s death.

SincerelyYours, ^ June Anderson, F/AP.O. Box 8951Urbana, IL 61801-8051

^ncerely Yours,

BIBLE SHOP - COPY CENTRE -PUBLISHER - CORRESPONDENCE BIBLELESSONS - CHRISTIAN CHURCH

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GOSPEL TRACT CEN TREP.O. Box 13471450, Alberton

Phone: 011-27-11-907-1533 24 hr Fax; 011-27-11-907-8651Bible Shop - Copy Centre - Publisher - CorrespondenceBible Lessons - VideoRentals - Christian Church

Dear Co-workers, March, 1996Ourgranddaughter allowed herhamster to excape itscageintheBible shop, which hasthewalls lined withlovelyhiding-holes behind theshelves. Thefamily moved toBloemfontein the day it escaped sowewere left with theproblemto solve. Fortunately it loves chocolate, sowebaited a plastic bucket with chocolate andanoutside ramp. Thefirstnightitatethechocolate, butlastnight it remained inthebucket andisnow safely backinits cage. Like humans, how manytimes aweakness leadstodownfall! Deidrawill be delighted when she returns withhermother today or tomorrow. Shecan takethe "littlemonster" back to her ownnewhomewithher.Wewillmissthefamily! Hardly a daypassedthatsomeone d id no t visit us .

Ourrainscontinue. I bailedout 25 pails ofwater fromour basementduringthe last rains. (Nodrain.)These latterhaveratherentered underthe frontdoor froma batteringrain. Yesterday thewalkwasa heavyflowing sti-eam. Peopleare stillbeingflooded outof theirhomes, mostlyin thesquatter-campswheretheyhavebuilttheir shacksrighton thebanksofthestreams.The latestthreat is waterpolutionfromoverflowing sewageworks.Wehavestartedboilingdrinkingwaterfor thetime being.Thecomputeris nowworkinglikenewandthe upgradehasbeen installed. Themanagerhad oneof his apprenticehelpersdo the installation andhe ran intocomplications, largelydue to the, unconfessed, lackofknowledge ofwhathewas doing, but also because of a faulty"mother-board". I had to send the whole thing back for more adjustmentswhenthe printer refused towork, but now it is back and isworkingbetter thanever. Actuallyit is alsovirtuallya newcomputer in the old casing. 1find though that 1am going to have to have the larger hard disk, but since the Masons areplanningto return toAmerica and are sellingeverything.Dale has offeredto sellme the 540 mg hard diskfromoneofhismachines andinstallit in thisoneparallelto this existinghard disk. Hewill leavetheoriginalsmallerdiskin theonehe is selling.Sometimes it is amazing how rapidly ones plans have to be abandoned or completelychanged. First, Phyllis's father(EdgarNichols)died and the familyhas asked her to come for a memorialservice to be held in the Spring. There is aproblem in settling on a date acceptable to everyone. 1had originally planned to come back to America for ourgrandson's graduationfromBible college inMay, anddecided to forego that trip so that she could be with her family.Now,we fmd thatit may be impossibleto get a plane booking.It does seemthat theremay be space onAlitalia,bywayofRome.Thatwouldnot normally bemychoice,but it doeshaveenoughtimeon the return legof the tripforher to goona tourof the cityif she chooses.Even thoughit is the cheapest connection,I still don't plan tocomewithher as itwould leave the tract centre and the church closed while we were away.Inanticipation of Shannon's return andhelp,I havestartedto encourageenrolhnentsin theBibleCorrespondencelessons again. I had removed the order blanksfromrecenteditionsof the books, but amnow including themas"enclosures" in the new mailingsand aswe now havea baptistry,wealsoenclose anoffer tobaptize studentsrequestingbaptism. I expect the em-ollment to rapidly build back up. Prayfor us thatwecan cope, and alsofor a ministerfor theCentral Christian Church. I would like to handover responsibiUty for that and related projects to a youngerfaithfulreplacement.

Sincerely Yours in Jesus Christ, June Anderson, F/AP.O. Box 3951Urbana,IL61801-805l


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GOSPEL TRACT CENTREP.O. Box 13471450, Alberton

Phone: 011-27-11-907-1533 24 hr Fax; 011-27-11-907-8651Bible Shop - Copy Centre - Publisher- Correspondence BibleLessons- VideoRentals - Christian Church

Dear Co-workers, April, 96We praiseGod for His abundant blessings, guidance, and care. We have so much to be thankfulfor. This morning Imet our neighbor (before we moved to the apartment here at the Gospel TractCentre.) Connie, awidow inher seventies, was recently attacked in her home by armed burglarswho beat her, and threatened to cut her throat. She has cuts on the throat as well as terriblebruises around the eyes andhead. They finally left hertiedup and locked in a clothes closet. Shejustcould not give enough praises to the Lord as she talked with us. She told them that if theykilled her theywouldnot onlyhave to answerto the police but to the Lord as well. It wasthenthey tied her and left her in the closet. Fortunately one of the double doors of the closet had a boltnot securelyhomeand shewas ableto force it open.When theother missionaries here learned that I was planning to send Phyllis to her familygathering andmemorial service forEdgar, they insisted that I must gowithher. Cinda Schaeffer isto stay inour apartment, andwill opentheBible shopand carefor the dogsforusaswell asseeus of f and meet us on our return. Another of ou r friends also offered to house-sit and care for thedogs, but as she could not open the shop, we accepted Cinda's kindoffer. We havethe tickets inhand nowand expect to arrive inChicago onAlitalia Airline at 4:15 onthe evening of 8thofMay.Shannon's graduation isonthe 10th, and theNichols gathering onthe 17th inBoise, Idaho. Bythe 18th, we should bebackonAlitalia headed back to Rome, Tel Aviv, and Johannesburg. Sincewe have not hadthe slightest excuse ofa vacation for several years, we planto take a layover atTel Aviv, see our granddaughter there, and spend aweek intheHoly Lands ontheway. God iswonderful! We are lookingforward to that break in the country where our Lordwalked!Normally, we have more thana nine hour day, seven days aweek, andit isbeginning to show.I anticipated a rapid reboundon enrollments in the Bible Correspondence lessons and thepreparation ofover fifty packets of lessons thismorning showsjust how quickly. Withthat kindofrebound, we will also havemore printingto be done shortly.We also havemore demands firom the publicfor quick printingand photocopies.We are thecheapest place in townfor that service, and also for Bibles, andthe demand shows it. Oneyoungman, buying for a week long "mission" to Venda, bought 25 Bibles to takewith theirgroup ofyouth and alsoprobably thirty of our own publications inAfnkaans and inVenda, for teacWngmaterials, and is takinga quantity of our tracts inVendafor distribution. Wepraisethe Lord forthis ability to minister via the printed page.I have beenpraying for a "minister", and Phyllis for the building to be filled with "happy,joy filled Christians."Both prayers were quite literally filled for a time, when a local congregationcameseekinga temporarymeeting placeas they were forcedto leavethe "Municipally ownedScout Hall",whichunder the newgovernment is no longeravailable for a church to use. Thispastmonth, the chapel has been used for four services every Sunday. They start arriving at 7:00 andstayuntil just before 10:00 and they are a hand-clapping, chorus singing, group with their own

small band who at times have to set up more chairs at the back! The preacher preaches inAfiikaans, and every Sundaygives me a big "hug ofappreciation" as he thanks us for givingthema place to worship while they build their own building. Our own services start at 10:00; then there


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are Black services at 3:00, and we have our evening fellowship service at 7:00.1 was a littledoubtful at first, but there are no "tongues". Communion is served, and there was a baptism thefirst week. My only real reason for complaint was that myhead was throbbing in timewith thebase drum before the benediction, and that is from someone who played drum in high school. Itjust shows low long ago that was and how high the amplifier was turned up.After the larger hard drive was installed last month, I also bought software for QuickBooks, sinceit has "stock control" and is set up for running a business. So far, I have spent many weary hoursdoing a new inventory of the shop and basement stores. I started using it the first of this month,and amkeeping the old one running parallel for this month at least. I have only started thebasement inventory, but it is nice to do a cash sale slip and know that it automatically adjusts theinventory record and can tell me what the stock on hand is worth at any time. It will be moreaccurate when all the stored materials are also counted, but that is going to take time. I try tocount the contents of a few boxes each day and Cinda will continue to count those while we areaway as there are other things such as the entries into the computer and accounts that she willsave for u s to do on our return.

Sincerely Yours in Jesus Christ, June Anderson, F/AP.O. Box"3051Urbana, IL 61801-805

A '

The mountainsand hills shalbreak forth...into singing."

Isaiah 55:12


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Phone: 011-27-1 i -907-1533

GOS PE L T RACT C EN TR EP.O l io \ l .-(47

1450. Alhciloii. CiauicnyRepublic ot'Soulh Alricii

24 hi-Fax; 011-27-1 1-907-8651

Bible Shop - Copy Cenlre - Publisher - CorrespoiKleiice Bible Lessons. - Bible Video Rentals - Chnsliaii Chinvh

Dear liioihers and Sisle rs in ihc L.ord, Mav an d J un e %!! Ownig lo ou r flight to America al die start ofMay.I this is a combiniuion newsletter Wellew toChicago and from! there drove toUrbana. and byway ofOmaha lo Norfolk," Nebraska wherewo [horoughiy cnjovcd our reunion withI Shannon and his graduation IromNebraska ChrisHanCollect'.Now lhathedocsnot hav e school pressures, heisIstarling in earnest to seek to presenl his plans lo come lo SouthI Africa andeventually to caiTV' on thew-ork of theGospelTractI Cenlre when the time comes for our own vei"ihicenieni, thei Lord willing. Please be inmuch prayer forhim as itwill not be

-J easv for him to raise the necessan- funding

Boise Bible College and burial ashesMabel's gra\'e. Alleightof thecousinsremaining-who hadbeenchildren together inChina were present for this famil>- reunion. They yk Pare pictured lefl to right. Phyllis's adopted brother ; ;AndrexO'cc from Ilawaii. John Nichols, Lois il|9||H(Nichols) Bangs. Ph\His (Nichols) Mills, ' i fMargucrne (B'U'c'i Lairbroiher. Dorothy Nichols. | I -jNichols. :anoihcr formain \ears. a great limewashadbyall in renewing oldmemories .Ourreium flightswere \ eiA soonalter lunch lhalda\ sowe had lomsh to the airi^orl tostart retracing our steps.

M We amved safely in Tel Aviv, l.srael on the*j 1' 19ih, spent the night there, and caught abus and a taxi> I lo Jeiusalem where theyoung ladies at Uniicd Tours

ilie eonducied tours li is aven moN ing experience to stand on the Mounl ofOlives, lo look across k) ihc (ui'lc calledBeaulilul. and remember the wt.)rld ofour Lord, who probably stood N'ciy near there and cried out. O Jei usalem,Jemsalem. thou lhat killesi ihe prophets, and stonesl them which are sent unto thee, ho\v often would 1have gathered thychildren logelher. e\en a.s ahen galherelh her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"" .\/anhew 33:37.Once back in Johannesburg, we found lhal satan had been aetu'e while we were awa\. and pooi Cinda, who didawonderful iob ol'canag for things here, was really read\ lo nune back to her own home and luni ev-en thing back to u.s.We ha\ eapile o\' ic.s.-^ons lo mark, lellers to answer, accounts lo ]-)av. anew conijuiler monilor lo order since our old onewas "losr' in a siiop insoh-ency. and who knows \\hat lias not yet surlaced'

T

,m^

SincereK Yours in Jc.sus Christ.Bob and IMiyllis Milis^^^ j* ^

June Anderson. IVAP .O . Box 3051IJrbana. iL6180l -8051


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GOSPEL TRACT CENTREP .O . 6 0X 1347

1450, Alberton, GautengRepublicof SouthAfricaPhone; Oil-27-11-907-1533 24hrFax: 011-27-11-907-8651

Bible Shop - Copy Centre - Publisher - Correspondence Bible Lessons - Bible Video Rentals - Christian ChurchDeal" brothers and Sisters in the Lord, July,96Iam still nearly "snowed" with work, and that is why the news letter is late this month. Being away for afew weeks left .us with so much to catch up on! Almost simultaneously, stacks of new work arrived as well. One could almost say weare also literally snowed, since aJuly cold wave, the coldest in yeais, hit us for the week-end just past. The high\^my toDurban is still blocked with huge drifts of snow, and there have been many die ofhyperthermia. There are anumber ptgroups ofhikers in the mountain areas nearly fifty ofwhom are unaccounted for smce first falls. don't know howS)on the traffic will bemoving again, but South Africa has virtualy no equipment to move snow off the roads, and nocinders or salt is spread.The litUe town ofLadysmith is p&cked with extra people sleepmgmthe church halls andschools, and in private homes, the few shops are sold out of basic foods and army trucks are bnngmgmemergency foodto them.

Our DVBS started last week and has weathered the bitter cold, though this week it has all but died. The ladies push on.Deidre our youngest granddaughter has been visiting us from Bloemfontein, four hour's drive away. She will be with usuntil Friday ."the last day. Someone from her family has phoned her almost every day. Ibelieve the road is open thatdirection, but ithas been several degrees colder there than itishere.One of the jobs that has caused such arush just now is that the South African Sunday School Union fu-st bou^t and soldabout 250 ofArrilla Harrington's booklet, "KnowYour Bible*', then returned for an addiUonal 20 copies mEnghshand ten in Afrikaans that they had taken orders for. They also asked for more copies to be print^ in an urgent new'edition and re-pnntmg. Mr Jacobs just phoned to ask that Ihave two hundred more copies ready to be picked up laterthis week 1already have them printed but they are not all bound yet as he had also asked me to prmt 500 copies or anon-standard size booklet. That one gave me sleepless nights and nervous and physical exhaustion ance he gave meonly acouple ofdays to do it, and the typesetting was done on acomputer that is not compatible with me one Iuse. 1almost refiised to do the job because of the odd-size, and now wish Ihad since he re^ed them all today, and there wasnothing to do but to return his payment. Iam out the time, labour and materials! And also have 500 copies of an overlyexpensive booklet because of the inches ofpaper that was trimmed offon all three sides. That had to be discarded aswaste. It is aso abooklet that Iwould not have accepted for my own stock, not that there is really anythmg wrong with it.It isjust a "vanitybookletAnother manuscript is laying on my desk that will have to be returned The subject was good enough but it has beenslapped together and the first draft must have been sent to me. Itwould have to be re-wntten from the first word to theend before Icould publish it. and the content isjust is not worth the effort.Only afew dozens more boxes in the stores room to count and our inventory should be fmished^ I^ amazed how muchis there. Today, Iasked the new computer shop to assemble asmall computer for our "pomt-of-sale ^things mto the computer as we go. Itwill be about as simple as Ican get to handle the job, but must be able to handleWindows 311 and Quick Books, as that is what we have our books on. Iasked that they use the hard ^ive from moldmachine we can no longer use. We will also use the keyboard and move the memory to another1plan to order anew back up-system. Our back-ups of accounts, word processing and desk-top-publishing are too largeand too vital to the work tohandle inany other way these days.Earier this month, we saw our grandson Cameron Bright, onto aplane to fly to America to live in Ohio with His father.For me at least that was atraumatic departure. At least all the others had plans to return someday. Please pray forCameron. We love him. and wemiss him. As far as Iknow, he has not bothered to let ^yone know that he even amvedsafely. If he phoned his mother, she did not share the information. Surely had he not arrived, his father would havephoned someone toask concerning him.1have had several long discussions with Hilton Hogg, ayoung man of 34 or so. Hilton first came to thechurch for the last two Lord's Days. He is rather lonely and divorced. He readily acc^ted Phyllis mvitation to st^ forSunday Dinner both Sundays. He is from aPentecostal background and had expreted us to be atoge conpegauon mdto be ofa"charismaiic"nature, but he readily accepts our position aside from Aat.1 h e A'"' !liJJiLevening Bible Study class when it resumes on the 16th, Hilton is somewhat handicap^ physically at least, and P^hapssomewhat mentally as well since he attended aspecial school md not the pubic school s5;stem, Ihou^ if s, tis not allthat apparent. He infomed me that he was praying for the Lord to bless us with giowth since is is convincedLord sDoke to him and told him to come worship with us rather than the "charismatic group he had intended to go to. 1rather think he had been more impressed with numbers than with quality, forgetting, that the Lord said the way is narrowthat leads tosalvation and that there are few who will find it.We continue to pray in this difficult day, that the Lord will lead us all to that narrow way that wemay look forward toeternal fellowship with one another and with Him..

... -I JuneAnderson.F/ASincerely Yours in Jesus Christ. PO Rox 3051Bob and Phyllis Mills Urbana.IL 6180.-8051

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GOSPEL TRACT CENTREP.O. Box 1347

1450, Alberton, GautengRepublicof SouthAfricaPhone. 011 -27-11 -907-1533 24hrFax: 011 -27-11 -907-8651

Bibte Shop - Copy Centre - Publisher Correspondence Bible Lessons - Bible Video Rentals - Christian ChurchDearBrothers andSistersinChrist, 5thAugust, 96

. South Africa isrejoicing intheir Olympic gold metals today and laying plans for a"ticker tape" down townparade when the contestants return. This reminds me ofthe far more significant reception we are all preparing for, thereturn ofourLord and His glorious welcome when we look forward to eternal awards. Let us be all the more diligent aswe see the time approaching.Today we have asoaking "spring rain " though the outdoor temperature raises questions about the springpart. It's muchmorelikewinter! "Brrrr".Ipraise the Lord that the countingofour own printed stock in the basement is now completed. While Iwas atit, I also bought anumber ofreconditioned steel shelfunits to lift everything offthe floor in that storage area, andarranged the boxes in stock-number order. To do this every box had to be passed through the window-hatch to this floor,

the contents counted, the quantitv' entered into the computer, and then to be passed back to the basement and placed innumeric order. Smce many ofthem had not been sorted that way before, therewas a lot ofback-breaking lifting andmoving to get them in their proper places. This did not help my hiatus hernia one little bit, but Isurvived it. (Jusibarely!) Ialso discovered that several titles had been reprinted when there was actually stock still on hand, meaning weare overstocked on those, and that far more are, for practical purposes, all gone or there isnostorage box atall for them!So far Ihave printed anew edition for one ofthose, and re-printed at least two of the others and a tract that was totallyused up.

Two days ihjs week were rather hectic in that Cinda had movers here taking all her thmgs out and packing theminto a removal van for hermove toPort Elizabeth, and the same day, wewere called upon tohelp ourdaughter Kathy tocleai- out her tliird floor apartment. We brought one pick-up load here, and brother Mkundlu who, supplied the van, tookabig load to Katlehong. Isuggested that perhaps he needed to have a "garage sale There was a large rug. arecliner,two couches, abicycle and boxes and bags ofother things. Kathy really kept only her clothing and kitchen things. Sheplans to U-ansfer to Johannesburg General Hospital to take mid-wife special training. 1am sony to see her do that asthis will expose her far more to the danger ofAids. The doctors are most of them refusing to attend black births thesedays because ofthat danger. On Friday, when the missionaries came for their monthly prayer meeting together, therewere also two funerals in our chapel. The only real problem was to keep space for the hearse to get in. In the end, theundertaker had toask the organist tomove her car for them. She had parked partially across our drive.

Our booklet assembly and binding equipment has "biiten-the dust" and this makes that soit ofwork slow andexhausting. 1wonder ifthe serviceman we called months ago will ever come to fix that very elderly machine! He hasphoned to promise that he is still coming, so our hopes are not quite dead and buried in that respect.The "point-ofsale "computer is installed and working. Since it is ''windows 95" and the "Quick-books" isnew to me as well, Iam spending alot oftime looking up diings in the manuals and tr>'mg to repair my mistaken entriesin particular. Ifonly Ihad taken accounting in school. Imight at least understand the terms. (I am not finding it as smiple

as the advertisements say.)Hilton returned to his previous church, but he still comes into the shop at least every week to buy Bibles,Testaments, and other supplies which he is giving away to others. One can not help liking to talk with him about theLord, bui he demands your full attention and stays so long! He prefers to put his hand on your arm so you can't even getaway to do anything but talk with him. The boy is lonely as he lives alone and works for his father as an upholsterer, buthis father hardly speaks to him atall, I am told. 1find that he can hardly read atall.Both Susan and Thomas have returned and arestaying with us this month. We both enjoy having them around,but they are definitely "night people" while we are "day people." They are ready to go out with their fnends about thetime we are ready to go to bed, and naturally they prefer to sleep most ofthe day away. Both are looking for temporar>'jobswhich they could notfind inBloemfontein.

May God bless and keep you safely in him. Praises for your faithful prayers.

Sincerely Yours in Jesus ChrisLP.O. Box 3051Urbana, IL 61801-8051


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GOSPEL TRACT CENTREP.O. BOX 1347

Alberton Rep. o f South Africa

Dear Brt)thers and Sisters: io/sept/96This has been a very difficult month of t es ti ng fo r both Phyllis and me. For a very longtime, I have been very concerned that we did not have a proper back-up system for thecontents of the hard disk in the computers , so late last month i arranged to buy a zipback-up which cou ld handle a hundred megabytes back-up a t a t ime on each disk safely.This one had the advantage that it can also be moved from one computer to another.A friend of the work, Chris, bought it and installed it for us.He is insistent that it was npt the Zip which did it, but th e first time I used it the harddisk of our most loaded computer crashed, what a desolate feeling! All our recordswere gone in a moment! He immediately offered to take the computer to his place andto recover what he could for us . I am s ure that He has recoveredmuch it , or if not thatwe can find what is lacking among our own storage disks, but there was a problem inrestoring the windows 95 and i am having to do a great deal of re-learning. Chrisdescribed our problem as being a "sleeper virus" which came to l ight only on that date .My virus tools were not up to date enough to catch and correct it, nor was the virusprotection software bui lt i nto the windows 95 program. His tools found it and herestored some things, so i am using the word Perfec t for the first t ime a ft er t he crasht oday , and it operates differently yet again, it appears now that I may have to handwrite all the addresses, and that the latest changes are totally lost. Hopefully, when heis able to replace the zip, he may find that most things are saved on those disks.On the very day the computer crashed, l came down th e victim of the flu epidemic thatis sweeping the country. I first tried flu remedies f rom the drug store, but when thesecond course had not helped, Phyllis insisted tha t i go to the doctor. He gave me athorough going over; listened to every inch of my lungs; and then prescribed penicillin,new cough medicine, flu pills, and headache tablets. To cap it all off. he said go homeand go to bed and s tay there! This is a type of flu called "bomerang" or "echo" here asit keeps coming back again and again. When i mentioned it to a friend, his encouragingwords were, "Takecare, that kind comes back with a body bag." what actually happensIs that it can turn to pneumonia very easily. That is why Dr Meyer had listened to mychest so carefully, and why he said, "stay in bed , and fo r some reason, "Stay out of thesun . "

I just praise the Lord that I am beginning to feel human again, and that even though 1was often battling with dizziness, weakness, chills, nausea and a terrible cough at times,things are now looking right again, several of our new customers have started to buyour booklets by the dozens to use in their churches, prisons and home study groups.That is a blessing and ju st wha t we had hoped would happen.Another recent blessing is that one of the newspapers has started to publish a weekly"Free advertiser" which is being distributed via the black taxi ramps, cafes, trains andbusses. We tried a "classified" in it, and the response has been very promising.we want also to express our appreciation to our brother Jack Pennington formeriy ofZimbabwe, who has made his series of short studies available for reprinting. There are21 booklets in the series. Having only glanced quickly through them so far. 1see thatthey should all be scanned and the type changed. That will be no small task. 1have alsojust put aside two of our own booklets that need to be scanned and edi ted before theyare reprinted. For some reason there is a new film negative layout, but no ha rd copy fo rthem. They should be on a disk somewhere , if I can find them!Thank you for your much needed prayers. Please note that June's zip-code has changedt o 61805-3051 .Yours in Christ Jesuj^ JuneAnd

V- urbBob and Phyllis Mills ^ 6 1 8 0 3


10/13

GOSPEL TRACT CENTREP.O. Box 1347Alberton, 1450,South Africa

011-27-11 -907-1355 Fax 011-27-11 -907-8651

Dear Brothers &Sisters in Christ Jesus, October,96Praises to the Lord that we are both well. I have now recovered almost completely from the flu.The problem resulting from the computer virus is also now completely restored. Chris, the man whofirst installed the program, helped me with my back-up disks dating from "ancient days" and restoredthem to the hard disk, so we have more of our important manuscripts on it now than at the time of theproblem. This newest version of Word Perfect is able to translate all of those old disks to the latestforemat! Imust still re-install one or two of the software packages that I used only occasionally, but Iwill do that when I need them since I have the original disks. The first line of defence is that I willbackeverything up again on the zip. It did have a backup of most of the lost material in the end, but thisneeds to be brought up date regularly. The end of the month is a good time ifnot weekly after this.As soon as the computer and I were both well again, I set to work and re-printed booklets for thoseboxes thatwere in v ^ low supply.While I was at it, I enlarged the print size on most of them and didone completefy new edition. Most have much improved cover designs. I think there were four of thosethis month. I also printed four new tracts for which the author sent me laser printouts. As I added colorto the covers of those, and sent him a packet of samples. The Tswana edition of "The Church in theBible" has also just come off the press, and finally, I printed new language editions of our tract usedfor our free-for-distribution table. People come in and get those for the employees where they work,prison distribution, or simpfy to use for street distribution. One couple who go to the prison to sing andwitness to the inmates, took many more this past week than they had ever taken before, and made thecomment that "especially" our tracts were well received. These new editions are in Portunges forSouth Africa, Mozambique, and Angola use, Chewa for use both here and in Malawi, and finally,Shona for here and Zimbabwe. Since die "new" South Africa, there has been a virtual invasion ofpeople fiom all over Africa into" this country. I am planning to do that particular tract in French as wellsince there have recently been many people come from Zaire and West Africa. We already had that,tract (Jesus Saves!) in eleven languages! This will make 12. Our Gospel Tract Centre classifiedadverts in the "CITY VISION" newspaper, distributed to cafes, bus and taxi stations, and evenapartment buildings, has resulted m a number of phone calls for catalogs and samples andseveral new people coming to the shop. The last few weeks I have been dropping off church bulletins,which contain more than simply the order of service, at some of the apartment houses near us, andwe have had a few responses from those too. I am considering placing an advtisement on behalfof the Cen tra l Ch ri s ti an Church in the "ALBERTON RECORD" a door-to-door advertiser.We have been hard hit this month by the computer virus damage and a plumber repair bill to cover anunderground rusted water pipe. Now the thermostat in the oven has flailed. On the health side, ourdmg store binwas as big as the plumber's, plus a visit to the doctor, and the water bill is still to comefor th e water that ran down th e street!

Yours in Jejgus Chris t^ ^ June Anderson, f/aP.O. BOX 3 05 1Urbana, IL 61803-3051

Bob and Phyllis Mills

ours in Jesus Christ, ^


11/13

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, November, 96TheLoni willing, ourgrandson Shannon will be returned by this timenext month, and will be taking his placein theLorcl's woric here at theGospel Tract Centre and Central Christian Churches. It seems so short a time sincewe saw him off to America to Stanhis training at Nebraska Christian College. Now he is returning with his B.A.degree. He is arriving just in time to take part in the formal church blessing of his sisterRhonda'swedding earlyin December. The wedding is to be here at the church, but the reception on the far side of Johannesburg.Only this coming week end another grandson. Thomas will be flying back to Israel to join two of his friends whoare there ona working holiday. 1will miss Thomas. His sister,Susan, will continue to live with us as she hasa promising job in Alberton. She found work at the Univa factory. They manufacture kitchen electricalappliances. Susan went there asa "temporaiy" but they soon found thai shehad talents they needed, so they areplanning to open a central office to handle most of their computerised records, and are training Susan to takethat over as a permanent job. At the present lime they have computers in various offices scattered about thefacility, but nocentral coordination, so they want Susan to learn to operate all of them. At the present time sheis doing "accounts" and has been working with the accountant to reconcile three months of back work that theprevious lady just put aside. They have had one grand time trying to locate missing documents. This is an idealjob for her as she will not only leam eveiything, but they send a courtesy bus to our doorto take her both to andfrom work, and she can get experience using her computer training there,Speaking of computers, we thank the Lord that ours have continued to work well, though I have installed "DrSolomon's" anti-virus in them to try to prevent an mysterious virus infection such aswehad before. This oneworks in the background every time you turn themachine on.We are still straightening out complications thatvirus caused as we had to install somenew softwareto get back to full capacity. An unexpected blessing of thenew addition is thatit also restored the ability to access our favourite Page Plus Art Pack that we. found we couldnot get to work before! The only real problem I have noticed is that we need a little more random memory thanwe have now and a larger disk.Even so,ourbrother Jack Pennington before his retirement, gave us copies of his series of 21 small booklets withpermission to do reprints of them for South Africa. I have managed to get five booklets into print this monthincluding three of those. 1also reprinted three of our own tracts which were in low supply. We thank you Jack,these topics are just as badly needed for the Lord's church in South Africa as they were in Zimbabwe. I wouldsay that Shannon and I have work to do to get them into print as we will probably be typing them all from thebeginning.May we ask that you include the Central Christian Church here inAlberton and the Kimberley RoadChurchin Johannesburg in your prayers that the Lord will lift us up and provide a full time ministry for both. TheMessimer family who now minister at Kimberley Road are returning to America for at least a two year breakwhile their children finish high school and enter college, and there is just more thanwe canmanage here atCentral Christian with the printing, correspondence studies, and Bible shop. A retired evangelist couple who haveSocial Security income would be ideal. It is hoped that in a few years there will bea training facility here inSouth Africa, but right now we need experienced and proven leaders to bridge the gap and help train localleadership.Many people are concerned about personal safety in South Africa, but the biggest risk as 1see it, isin cenainhigh risk areas near the squatter camps, and in central Johannesburg. There are many auto hi-jackings in thoseareas, especially at night, so we try to avoid them as much as possible. I walk the equivalent of seven blocks toour post office almost daily and we have adequate security at night; unfortunately with the Bible Shop the doorshave to be wide open during shop hours. The greatest security of all is to assure that the Lord is with one bybeing about His work, ("and lo.1am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matthew 28:20).We pray the Lord to be with each of you are care for you in His work. Keep up the Good Work!

Sincerely Ypurs, June Anderson, F.A./PO / / ,iaJ (Ifi P.O.Box 3051WuM UrbanalL 61803-3051Bob and Phyllis /


12/13

GO SPE L T RAC T CENTRERobert S. Mills, Manager

P.O. Box 13471450 Alberton, GautengRepublic of South Africa

Phone :O i l 907-1533 Fax: O il [email protected]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, December, 96Here itis almost the end of the yearalready. We have been blessed in so many wonderful ways thisyear, thoughof course there have been rough times as well. One of the blessings is that Shannon has returned. Wenow havegrandchildren. Shannon andSusan staying with us full time, andI understand thatMichelle willsoonbejoiningthese two and that later inJanuaryMabel Joseph, whose fatherministers in the Kimberley area, plansto come. Ijokingly commented a fewweeksagowhen SusanandThomas first came, thattheGospel Tract Centre ChristianYouth Hostel had opened. It is almost an unofficial reality, though Thomas has since returned to Israel.Shannon set type for a small booklet this morning, and 1just completed the printing. It still must be assembled andbound.

During November, 1printed and placed on the shelves, a selection of eight other booklets of similar size to this one.Oneofour regular black customers saw themand bou^t a copyof eachof them. Hewill snapup these newonesas fast as we place them on the shelves .Shortly before Shannon left to return to South Africa, he loaned the use of his computer at the MissionaryConvention as an e-mail terminal. In the confusion of the clearing things away at the end of the convention, it wasstolen. The bottom line was that they replaced it with a brand new computer and he arrived back with a brand newcomputer and boxes of software. His sister and her fiancee met him at Johannesburg International Airport, and 1guess they had a fme time getting ail his luggage intoNeil's small car. Since his plane arrived during Church hours,we could not get away.Shannon has been tidying up my computer installations, and we explored one of the CD's to work out how to usethe photographs it had in designing Booklet covers. We came up with an excellent cover for one of our booklets,but as there is a good supply of that particular one on hand, this little "training exercise" will probably remainunpublished! As they would say here. Shame! That can be the answer for almost any situation, good or bad.Shannon has felt a linle out of touch with the world, so he has just sent a fax to get his e-mail connected here. Wewere both surprised to get a fax backwithin 24 hours, with all his details. His E-mailaddress is [email protected] also has a second address and a web page included inthe deal, 1understand. It is handledvia a localtelephonenumber for which he suggested he would pay everything above the normal cost.

I took him to the Licence department and he was happy to get his drivers licence validated on the basis of havinghad one in Nebraska. Af te r l unch h e w en t with me to co ll ec t 32 Xhosa and 3 2 Z ulu Bibles as well as a smallassortment inother languages. Bibles in the black languages are often selected by employers for their African staffso my stock was getting a bit low in those major languages.In the last twodays, we have had people coming to the Bible shop to ask for prayers. Itis usually "hobo types" alsoasking for moneyor food. They prefer moneyas with that they can head for the nearest liquor store, so we usuallygive food and prayers. They need both.We all thank you for your prayers and remembrances. Please, also remember our very helpful forwarding agent.Withouther, we would not be able to work here as we do. June has had both physical and emotional problems thisyear and it has not been easy for her. She had illnesses followed by the loss of Andy, the strain of adjustment tobeing alone, and then recently eye surgery from which she is still recovering. The Lord will bless her devotion toHim a nd H is w ork .

Yours in Jesus Christ,

obert & Phyllis Mills obert & Phyll

June Anderson, FAP .O . B ox 3051Urbana, IL 61803-305


13/13

t"

FINANCIAL REPORTDec 1, 1995- Nov 30,1996

R4.64 = $1.00Rand s Dol lars

Starting Balance: 7033.82 ($1515.91)Income :

Bible Shop Income 39135.73 ($8,434.42)Dollar Subsidy 71836.50 ($15,482.00)S.A. Donat ions 1601.15 ($345.08)Chapel Rentals 8875.00 ($1912.72)Interest on Curr ent Accoun t 544.41 ($117.33)InsLirancfiLRebaie _ - 726.00 ($13659)

Total 122719.39 ($26,448.14)Expenses:Rands

Repair and Maintenance 3874.17Fire Extinguisher Servicing 720.00Furnishings 1049.98Misc . 4002.16Mills Salary (Dec - April) . 5000.00Church Roof 10420.00Refund on r e tu rned Sa les 229.97Postage 2530.10Telephone & Fax 2010.17Petrol Account 2161.41Servicing 1683.24Church & Bible Shop Advertisements 2049.07Utili t ies 3818.98Equipment 15426.13Insurance 9614.44Weekly Cleaning Services 1835.00Dffke and Printing Supplies 8924.59Bank Charges 1088.85Shop Stock 23518.7599957.00

Cash on hand R 20516.19

($834.95)

($2245.69)

($5068.70)($21542.46)22762.39 Balance .($4905.69)

Mills-Robert-Phyllis-1996-SAfrica.pdf

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