JAMJiiRY 1980 SAiror'S SAYINGS ' 'o.

y JAHUARY I98O
ZULUIAND CHRISTIAN MISSION,
SANDY AND CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,
BOX 111, ESHa, ZULULAND, 38l5,
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, February lii, I98O
Dear Friends and Brethren,
It*s been 5 weeks since ovr last newsletter and the bossiest
time of all, for since my laat newsletter we have had our prayers answered in a most ^
significant way with the decision by Ron and Cindi Elerick to join us in the Zulu A-""
work, Ron and Cindi pioneered the work of the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ
in Malawi, and more recently moved to South Africa due to health hazards which caused
problems for their family in Malawi. Since March they have worked with Stu Cook at
the Aletheia Christian Center in the heart of Johannesburg's Hillbrow area where th^
assumed oversight of the center allowing the Cooks to return to the States on furlough.
We had gone up to Aletheia for the New Year's Eve prayer meeting and shortly afterwards
Ron also came for a visit to Eshcfwe, After discussion and prayer, comparison of our
ideas and missions philosiDphies, and Ron's review of the type of work we find here
in Zululand, he agreed to come and make his home in Eshowe. In doing so, Ron and
Cindi were returning to the kind of work they had in Malawi, and the kind they like
most, African bush evangelism and new church planting with leadership training.
We were able to find suitable housing to rent and at the end of January I drove the
i'ougeot tmck I was keeping fcr Don Mechen, new missinory going to Malawi, to Joh
annesburg and we loaded their things in the back and our three car ccnvoy we return-
od to Eshowe 300 miles away.
Since then we both have been ejcbremely busy getting them settled, many Christian people
here in Eshowe donated or loaned many items of furniture and appliances for them to
use as all their effects were still in Malawi, and several trips were made to Durban
together to complete their move. Yesterday we went to Ulundi, the KwaZulu's new
capital and were delighted to learn that Ron and Cindi's permit to work in KwaZulu
as missionaries was approved. On Saturday February l6th we will be together at
Mtubatuba for the first big' meeting of I98O at which time wo will introduce Ron
to our Zulu church leaders.
In between all. this moving I was kept occupied with a host of events that took me
all over Zululand. We had a problem in the church at Xngwavuma that took two days
to get to the bottom of. This stands as the longest meeting I have ever attended,
beginning at 6s00pm on Saturday the meeting went nonstop through 3800pm Sunday after
noon, only to finally discover that the man who had called the meeting only had had
his feeling hurt.
The foUcwing week we went to Mbazwana, a now church and had a wonderful time of
preaching and teaching in the little building to the new congregation. This church
is far to the north and takes about 5 hours to reach from Eshowe, of which 3 hours
driving is on gravel roads and dirt tracks.
The children began their new school year January 23rd, and we now have three in the
Eshowe High School. Ron's daughter Rhonda is also in High School and is in the same
class as our son Wayne, Std 6, or 8th Grade which is the first year of High School
here,
Zululand is experiencing very hot weather and too, little rain and we are in a serious
drought situation. Many of pur prayers are for rain and parti&ilarly our African
brethren who farm for a living. Many of them are facing financial ruin at this time,
for in many areas it is too late now for the crops in the ground. As you pray for
us, also join us in prayers for rain over here.
God bless, must close for now,
Yours in Christ/
Sandy &Chariotife Sinclair &5
APR 2 1900
KEERUARY-MARCH I98O SAMDY'S SAYINGS FEERUARY - MARCH I98O
ZULUIAND CHRISTIAN MISSION,
SANDY & CHARLOTTE SINCIA3R,
BCK 111, ESHOWE, ZULUIAND, 38X5
April 91980 Republic of South Africa. April 91980
Dear Friefads and Brethren,
I am writing on a warm afternoon after the moat hectie past month since we arrived
back almost 9 months ago now# The work is taking shape, the churches are grom^
and there are greater and greater demands on our time and finances than ever" before#
On February I6, and 17th we had the first major meeting with Ron Elerick present at
Shandu's village near Mtubatuba. As expected the meeting only got under way about
9:30pm Saturday night, Ron preached his first message to the Zulu'brethren at about
midnight and we continued with prayers and preaching until 3s00am, when we returred
to the truck for a few hours of fitful sleep while the brethren preached on. Caxp^
had come with us from near Eshowe and his powerful preaching exalted the Savxor well
into the dawning of Sunday morning. V7e were awoken to cups of tea at 6:00am and we
had a business meeting at 8:30 lasting until churchtime at 11:00 which then ended at
3:00pm at which time we ate for the first time since the day before. This is the
traditional pattern for our meetings, try as we might to try to keep better hours it
is impossible to do sc. We are always exhausted afterwards. Similar meetir^s are
being held almost every week-end at this time of the year and they will persist until
the rains return in September.
Minister's Week this year was close by, relatively speaking, at Nfcabaahl^j: (White
Mountain) near Estcourt about li-g hours drive from here# Floyd Stajmti, missionary in,
Durban accompanied me there, Ron Elerick came later as he was on route to Malawi to
close up his affairs there and meet the minister of his hoiuo congregation,,. Hap Prough
and his wife Jan on a brief visit to Malawi and South Africa# Floyd and I camped
out together as did' all the other missionaries who came to this mountainous area#
Rain fell every day, the river flooded and we had to walk the last l^ miles to church
each morning as we could not drive across the flooded river between us and the church#
We had a fine get together, after, minister's meeting, the missionaries stayed for an
extra two days for fellowship and group planning. It was a good meeting, another, is
planned for April 11-13 during school holidays (Easter break) so our wives and sohool
aged children can attend too.
On March 6th I wrote my marriage officer test, but have not heard the results yet,
TfJhen Ron returned with his home church preacher and his wife we headed into the
heart of "Zululand again for two lengthy meetings, one at KwaSiqumbe the other at
KwaNkulu. Due to time and distance Jan Rrough stayed to visit with Cindi Ele^^ck,
but we had a couple of excellent meetings although the heat was intense. Caiphas
was on his annual vacation from his job on the railways so could accot?)any 1^. While
between Mtubatuba and Nongoma I took then for a brief walk to stalk some Rhino near
the road, after, dosing in on then though we decided it prudent not to get too close
as of the ^ Rhino we could see, only two wore the docile "White" Rhino, the others
were black Rhino who charge everything th^ see or smell. This was the first "black"
variety I had seen in that area although they are knovm to be there in large numbers#
(You cannot tell a "black" and "white" Rhino apart by color, but by shape and habits#)
On tl:^ way back we ran into two waa^thog and distojrbed a large dark snake# (Black mairdia?)
Easter is a big event amouflg the Africans. This year there were tvo meetings, one at
Maputa in the very far north, 2^0 miles from Eshowe, the other at Bhadeni another 200
milQS from Maputo, We tried to take in both meetings which became an epic jour^y of
tremendous proportions. Accompaiving ns was Ron Elerick, T^ank Alexander visiting us
from Zambia and 5 African leaders. We left Eshowe Friday morning, we never made it to
Maputo, bub did get to Bhadeni where we dedicated the new church bdld^ on Sunday
afternoon# I will elaborate on the eventful long yeekend in next time#
God bless you all, / 1 ( [JiA/nlfo
Until then, ^ VjMMOlAJo
Sandy (^h^lotte
APRIL 1980 SANDY'S SAHNDS APRIL I98O ' I S fn
ZULUIAND CHRISTIAN MISSION,
Ci V SANDY &CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,
BOX ill, ESHOWE, ZULUIAND, 381?,
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA. May 2 I98O
Dear Friends and Brethren,
We hope all of you are well as we are all fine, but we are
afraid that our part of Zululand is facing an imminent disaster. It is supposed to
be the wettest past of South Africa with l-si annual rainfall of or more. As a
result there are small dams for each community as soaking rains are frequent and reg
ular. But this year, and last year too for that natter, there have been no rains at
all. We simply, and inexplicably^ had one clear day after, another week after week_^
right through the height of the rainy season^ Wiile other areas in the interior got
heavy rains, Zululand, and most of Natal province remained dry. In some areas it has
reached disasferous proportions^"Today they closed the sugar mill at Amatikhulu, a
town about 20 miles awayj they plan to evacuate the town as the water supply is com
pletely exhausted^ Cane cut in the Ging;".ndlovu area (12 miles from E3ho>ra^)i3 only
sucrose (as opposed to a normal it is mostly wcod stalks and worthless
as a sugar crop. It is rejected by the mills as too Iovt to crush. Eshowe is on water
rationing, the local prison has closed ?-nd all the inmates removed to other prisons,
^the High/School hostels plan to close in a few weeks 0 It is known locally as a "green
drought" because we still got heavy dew each night that keeps the grass green, but the
water table has sunk out of sight and the dam is only 10^ full. We have only a few
weeks left and this is just the hc-giniiing of the dry seasch. Seasonal rains will not
fall before spring rains in Octob.:ro iTay for us and oiir African church folk who are
facing hunger as their veget.able gardene fail and their cash crops and cattle die" off
It "is"the""w6Fs''t~di:-oughF"in~T00 years~ahd serious.
The Easter meetings this year were at Maputo and Bhadeni. We tried to
attend both but had to turn back from tlve Maputo trip and head for Bhadeni. On
Easter Sunday morning we dedicated the new building at BhadoraL. The church there la: a
fine congregation under the leadersliip of Zschariah Khumalo, their building has been
under construction for several years and consists of brick and cement walls, a cement
floor and corrugated iron roof. The church thev; paid for their own building 100^.
We have started using Bible slides during the evening meetings and with a battery
powered projector recently acquired, the Interested of people upjaded by movies and
television is phenomenal.
During the Easter school break we (our family) werb down to Port ShepataiB
for a meeting "tJith fellow missionaries in South Africa. We took Zambian missionariea-
we knew for many years, Frank and Evelyn Alexander and their 3 children down with us,
as Ihey were also staying i-jith us at the tim-io We all enjoyed a tremendous time of
fellowship, discussions about future goals for South Africa, and a aTi round good time*
Our newest arrival in South Africa among our missionaries, Alice Fishback was there
too. Alice plans to work in the Transkei. Missionaries in Natal hope to have bi
monthly meetings, the next scheduled for Durban June li^th. Another new family has
come to work within the Durban urban .jrea, David and Colleen Brown formerly from
Salisbury, Zimbabr-re-Rhodesiao
April is a busy birthday month at our house, Michael turned 17 6n
April 25th and Charlotte turned (censored) on April 2^h. Two more come up
soon with Richard June 1st (l5 years old) and Michelle July li^th (11 years old)
and then thats it for this year, for those that are still counting that is.
The four of us missionaries here in Eshowe, Ron & Cindi, Charlotte and
myself are taking Zulu, but tliis time I have ended up being their teacher. So now
I have had to get deeper into Zulu language learning too keep ahead of the students,
and now we hope to maintain the momentum come what may until we have mastered or
come to terms with the Zulu language in one way or another. Perhaps witi the steady
progress that diciplined leai-ning makes, we can all be competent in Zulu by year's
end. It is all too easy to stop stud^^ing when you reach a certain, conversational a ,
level and stay there while there is so much more in a language ntiil to acqui^ei \l^
I'm out of space, must close fcr no\-j. All our love,/0^'^^\^ ^
Sandy cr^ftarlotta
MAY 1980
SAMDI'S SAYINGS ^ 1980 '
ZULUIAND CHRISTIAN MISSION,
SAND! & CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,
BCK 111, ESHOWE, ZULUIAND , 3815
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AIRIGA Jwie U 1980
Dear Friends and Brethren,
It is a cloudy, windy, blustery day here in Eshowe and about
an hour ago it actually raiiied, but only -rery little, but looks .like we mi^ht get mora.
It has aottially rained a few-times since my last newsletter, but each rainfall was only
a short shower and did little more than settle the dust. Eshowe hM 149 ^
left as of today, and plans are being made to pvm^i water up from the Mpush^ falls
which is still running and also ship -water up in rail tank cais. neighbi^ng
Gingindlovu (the swallower of the elephant) is dry and all their water is r^led into
town from the Tugela river. 1; - Some of our African church leaders may not te able to
attend Conference, this year at ZweUtsha near East London and Kingwilliamst^, d^ to
their crops failing. Some of the -women are making baskets they bring ^ ^
them as their gardens are producing no food. We have received many letters from our
readership expressing their conceni and telling us of their prayers for the people here.
We want to thank you.
The church in Ifoington has been writing me for many months asldng me to come and be
with them for a week-end. Due to the special gift of a friend in Ohio we w^e able to
make the trip, 1000 miles each way, by train, and enjoyed a very pleasant trmp ,
spite of bitterly cold weather on the way. Snow fell on the Maluti mountains the raght
before we crossed the Orange Free State, but as I was offered a ride in the cab
steam locomotive hauling our train it was a warm and exhilarating tide, one which few
people in today*s modern world (outside of South Aftica and China) ever see any more.
In I^ington we had an unexpected funeral of a young baby sore 60 miles out in the desert.
It was a heartbreaking Saturday afternoon, especially for that young mother and her
family, so the planned program was changed. Saturday night I met with their minister
and elders for several hours and promised to do what I could to solve some of their big
problems. Sunday was a full day, I preached in Afrikaans, and held other meetings in
Zulu, even though most of the people understand Xhosa, Zulu is a close related 3.^^age.
The afternoon meeting ran li hours, 3z hours of what is known as penny-slapping during
which time they raised about R65.00 (|83.00) The Upington church was completed when I
was involved in church buildings in 1977 as Director of Buildings and Eva^elism, an
office voted upon by the African Christians at their annual Conference. I had not seen
the completed building until now and must confess it is one of the nicest buildd^ in
South Africa among our people. Upington lying on the edge of the Kalahari desert looks
very much like western Arizona with the mountains and sagebrush. Upington is as active
chtirch with several students at the Umzumbe Bible Institute.
About l&HreewGQks ago the Honda dealer called me to say they had a bike like the one we
wanted in stock, but would go quickly and no new 185*s would come in until about Aug^t.
Did I want it? As afe that moment I did no know from our forwarding agent if we had had
any response to our request for help on the biks, but stxU said "Yes" and went ahead
in faith. Shortly thereafter we heard that nearly 1600.00 had come in earmarked for
the bike, so we were able to make a substantial downpayment OK and finance the balance.
We picked up the bike on May 2l|th, and already have done 621 miles, and the savings -m
envision over the use of the Mazda truck, and the new areas we can now get to, make it
a valuble assett to the work here.
Zulu study continues with the four of us every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Progress
is being made. The most recent mooting was at Kwa-Siqumbe with Shadrack Mazibuko near
Mtubatuba. Cindi Elerick was sick so Ron Stayed home, but Floyd joined me in the nest
ing that like all of them, started at 8*00pm Saturday and ended at 3500pm Sunday after
noon.,.it was not on my account, ny Zulu sermon was the shortest of them alii IJ
Preachers present at the meeting reported 9 baptisms at Sokhulu and In at Nkundusi in May.
If you get a chance to see "ZULU DAWN" at the movies, it is very good, although 100
ago, according to history, much of the scenery depicts Zululand today many of
53^
scenes were filmed near?- Eshowe.
Out of space again, must let you go for this month. All our Love, ^
Sandy otte& 5
SANIffTS SAYINGS AUG 6 1980 .
JUNE 1980 ZULULANU CHRISTIAN MISSION, JUNE 1980
SANDY & CHARLOTTE SINCUIR,
BOX 111, ESHOWE, ZUUJLAND, 381$,
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA July 21 I98O
lEAR FRIENDS AND BRETHREN, ^
Well, our cloudy and rainy day I wrote so optimistlGftiyr last
newsletter disappated within a few hours of finishing typing, so there was no break in
our draught situation and emergency measures are being proposed eveiy few days. The
most serious problem is that of fires and we had to battle a fire in the bush next door
to our house for several hours in high winds last month, for a w^le we thought the -
neighbors house was going to go up in flames. The town has no firefighting equipmet to
speak of, but nearby svigarcane farmers brought their tractor-towed water wagons th^use
the tractor*s power-take-off to pump water through the firehose to cjuench the fires. It
was close. a.u
This month marks the first anniversary of our arrival back in South Airica, ana
there is a lot to thank God for. Every year we try to realistically trim our mailing
list on or about the anniversary of our return. Mailing lists are made up mostly ftrom
the names of those who ha^ve signed our mailing list during the previous furlough ^d
of coiu'se those whom we know well and are members of churches that support our work.
At the mement is takes me two fall days to hand copy the addresses on ourmaiiUng list.
Many people we never have any contact with and thus if you miss our next month s
letter and you wanted to keep on our mailing list do PLEASE drop me a q^ck postc^d to
let me know. Regular supporters and known persons cf our readership will not be dropped.
We do appreciate the spate of regular letters we have been receiving :^om many of you who
get our newsletter and your kind comments iji them. "We really appreciate hearing ^om all
of vou. Many items we never get to find out unless a thoughtful persons SQhds us vhe
news, items such as the major league baseball standing at this time of the year. (Hint,
hint.) Nob even volume two (TIME magazine)carries them. (The Hble is vol^e onel..;
My mother came to stay with us for a few months, arriving June 19th, and will
be here for several months, enjoying our mild winter climate.
July is the busiest month of the year for us and I have been away over
the month. We had our largest meeting et eSiphondweni which is a congregation f^ to the
north on the Makathini flats. About 300 persons gathered from far and near for the two
day meeting. They preached all night Saturday and well into Sunday and we had 2b baptisms^
Albert Masango is the leader throughout the area and Mike Jobe is the elder to charge or
the local congregation. We have a new congregation being established near Ubombo at this
time, which makes 6 congregations with nearly half of our membership up thereI njoy
working and camping in that area as it looks like the real "Africa" and there is still
plenty of gams in localized places to that area including a herd of about 120 eleph^ts.
On the Lebombo mountains that overlook this plain we also have a number of congregations
under the leadership of Philemon Myeni who is actually the only qualified Church of
Christ minister up there, the other men being untrained, but who ^ caj^ble
preachers of the word of God. Masango did complete two years of TEE under me last tarn.
This past Saturday, Charlotte and I set off for a wedding I was to officiate,at,
accompanied by two of our ministers, Sabelo Nzuza and Alfred Mathenjwa and his wife.
The wedding was to be "near Melmoth" a town about 30 miles away. An ''umfaan" (little
African boy) was to meet us at Eiyela Store about 10 miles off the main road. We pre
sumed it was nearby...were we in for a shock...2^ hours later the umfaan was daxecting
us down a road that would be difficult for an Arizona jackrabbit .to go down. we
finally got there, the bride had not arrived, nor would she as her brother had that very
morning refused his consent to the marriage due to vague financial demands, fortumtely
for hijn he was not around. It was dark when we made our way out of that valley, time
will tell what will happen, but we for our part made steps today by means of my Zulu
newsletter to make sure consent is secured and ia my hands, before the celebrations.
Must close for this time, Sandy & Charlott
v/
0 2W80
JULY 1980 Sandy's Sayings JULY I98O
ZULUIAND CHRISTIAJI MISSION,
SANDY & CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR,
BOX 111, ESHCWE, ZULULAND, 38X5,
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH A5RICA AUGUST 21 I98O
Dear Friends and Brethren,
We were just remarking the other day how much it felt like
springtime, many of the trees were in blossom and the bright sunshine was so nice.
Thsilast week a huge storm swept up from the south, those great empty southern
oceans between us and the south pole and antarctica breed tremendous winter storms,
which covered South Affica with bitter winter weather. It started snomng at no^
on the Natal's southern Drakensberg (Dragon mountains) and continued all night, ay
the next day most of the country was snow covered and below freezing temperatures
prevailed in nearly all places except near the coast. At our house we i^ed up o^
coal suppy with cosy evening fires which we enjoyed so much while watching imported
US shows on our black and white portable TV, and hearing the news of the record-
breaking heatwave in the US, while our lowest tenqperature was a chilling 3 Fuilesotho.
We have enjoyed many responses to our newsletters lately and glad they are enjoyed
by you. Many of the letters mention how we are being prayed for and we can cite
numerous incidences where prayers for our safety and weU.-being have Ueen answered.
Some of our answers to prayer were really marvelous indications of a watching and
loving heavenly Father.
The Natal missionaries all came up to Eshowe for a day of fellowship at our house
on August 8th, We enjoyed the visit from Stamms, Nicholsons, Stanleys, and Elericlra
of course, and also with them was Diane Scholey, a 17 year old AFS exchange student
from NY who attends the Christian Church in Wapp-Jngers Falls, NY, who is attending a
High School in Pinetown, near Durban and who also ultimately hopes to become a miss-
-ionaiy. -It was fortunate for us as we were discussing our need for new_recr^ts and^
how to go about getting our needs set before the right people with the right kind of
appeal which she was able to help us with.
Aug 16,17th,
Our largest meeting this month so far was at Nkondibe/ near Mtubatuba at the congre
gation of David Thwala, As usual the meeting began with singing and choir numbers at
aboDut SsOOpm, and thd; took us to about midnight, I preached and so did Ron E3^rick,
and then at about IsOOa^ we retired to David Thwala's home for a leadership meeting
with some of our church leaders such as Isaiah Siyaya who we have not seen for some
years and who we thought had left our fellowship. We rejoiced to know that was not
the case, he has been working for the Lord in his area more than ever before, now that
he has retifed on a government pension and actually brought me a church site ajylic-
ation to complete for a church he has established and is growing to the point they
need to build. The spirit of love, unity and fellowship at that meeting was so fine,
I could not help contrast it with some of the meetings in similar circumstances about
3 I4 years ago, could this be the same men. God is a wondeiful healer of all men.
Albert Masango, another one of the greatest, yet most humble, men we have workir^ for
the Lord as an unpaid preacher, reported that he now has 12 groups meeting in various
places on the Makatini flats to the north of Mtubatuba, He also reported a new church
at Ophande to which he invited us all for a meeting on Oatoberltth. We also learned
that old chief Moses Zulu had died, he had proven a difficult obstacle to the growth
and establishment of the church at Maphophoma near Nongoma. The group decided to
go to the chief's main kraal on September 27th and pay their respects to the chief s
family and in a roundabout way find out the status of the congregation there now
with a new chief coming in. The meeting went all night, ending for services at HAM.
Next month is the annual Church of Christ Conference, this year at Zwelitsha in the
Ciskei near King William's Town. Floyd Stamm,pRon Elerick ^d I will trayel_there
together for the meeting that will run from Se^ember 10 - ^jh .d Zwelitsha is about
800 miles from Eshowe. ^ {ikMt
Space is gone,, must close for this time again, un^fi^ext month,
^ SariayT^Charlotte &$
ftmryyrZTJLUIAl^U CHRISTIAi'I HISSION, AIJG-USTmSEPTEMBER 19o0
" ' " Smn &CHARLOTTE SINCIAIRj C5^
BOX ESHCWE, ZTJLUIAND, 381^,
republic' of south AERIGA. October 1 I98O
Beax- Friends and Brethrenj \ 4;
We have had to uhange the format of our newsletters because
of new Post Office regulations (In R3A) tliat have abolished second class mailings
Now we have to use an envelope at twice the postage,^ or an airletter like this one,
but which usually is very hai-d to feed through the jriimeograph machinee Because of
this I had to order 300 unstamped airletters which took over a month to come and thus
we are late in sending out this monthhs newsletter#
September is the month of our annual South African Church of Christ Mission Conference^
when the whole church'gathers for preaching and fellov^ship. This year's conference
was held at Zwelitaha, Ciskei, near King William's Town about 8OO miles from Eshawe
It w as a time for reflection. When you look back on 3? years of missionary work in
South Africa, it is inevitable tha t we lock at vrhere we have been and where we are
goingc The "finished product" of the missionary task "was represented here, the self-
supporting, self propogatihg; independant, indlTersous Chorch. The congregations
here in South Africsi have been planted, they have been watered, and they have grown.
An indigeneuus leadcp-ship has emerged, they are making their own decisions.
This must be so, and they are maturing as vje can see every year at the annual confer
ence. Just like a child grows up and eventually must leave home and lead his own life,
with the prayers and hopes of the parents going with them, so is it "viith these churches
in South iifrica todiy. The missionary goec on to work -with new groups, establish new
churches, teach new leadership, open up new areas and thus the process is repeated
when these new leaders come to the conference to join in fellowship with the others*
It has been heartening to see these younger churches maturing and sending out their am
evangelists to establish new churches and work with weak and leaderless ^<^ps.
I feel tijere is ar^ 'mDortant distinction that must be made between the minister of a
local ch-orch and tne "missionary (defined as a cross-cultural, commonicator of the Chr^t-
ian faith) in thai while the minister works -with individuals, the mi3sionai7 works with
churches^ sometimes with as many congregations as some ministers have church members.
All the while, the missionary must relinquish control over the churches as rapidly as
possible and build up the local leadership (ministers) to take over his job so he can
move oHc This vre believe is the New Testament pattern for church growth.
Conference this year confirmed our faith in this process (a neveivending process) as we
saw growing Christians and mature church leaders in action. Many of our Zulu men and
three of the worcern also attended this year.
Last- week-'cnd, Septembe-r 27,"28, was a busy one for me. We met with most of the Zulu
chui'ch leader's "In Nongoma at noon on Saturday and journeyed together to the kraal
of Chief Hoses Zulu, uncle of the present Zulu King^who die;f in July this ye^. We
gathered in one of the huts with 6 of his 8 wives and about 30 of his 52 ohil^en.
We all had a chance to witness and I preached for about 1|0 minutes on the meaning
purpose of life. It was like somthing out of an old Tarzan movie, unreal. The meeting
lasted about 3 hours, and then we all "went to KwaNkulu church at lOmmalo's village.
The preaching meeting lasted until 1:30am, resuming at 6:00am with a committee meeting,
following late moiTdng by two weddings, preaching and breaking of bread at 3:00pm that
ended at 3:oopm. All the while it was raining and we had rivers to cross, fortunately
we got out at dusk ok before the river rose too high.
With the rains the severe drought has been relieved, but the food sit'uation remains
critical. With the help of International Disaster Emergency Service we are dist^but-
ing food to those of our churches who are in greatest need. We took 10 bags to Khumalo a
village ijith us as well this time.
Space is gone, must close for this time. Do drop us a line soon,
Sandy &Charlotte &3
^UUUJjn.
&CHARLOTTE SINCLAIR, ^
BOX m, ESHCWE, ZUHJIANL, 381? ^ 1
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA Nov 5 1980
Dear Friends- and Brethren,
This morning our son Wayne (13) got up at nearly ^sOOam to
tune into the Voice of America to (ret the early returns on the election results.
At that time it was still Election day in America and only 7:00 pm on to west coast.
By 6 in the morning, our tijne, he was jubilantly waking us an ly as the c^didate (s)
of his choice were coming in strong. Wayne is the most politically aware of our ^ds
and takes a keen interest in world events, even reads my issues of Time mgazine from
cover to cover each week. We bothtod voted by absentee ballot two weeks ago.
Es^h month seems to get busier and busier and we hardly know where the time goes.
Cct.ober was one such month. I was called to a special meeting in a small town caned
Campben in the Northern Cape abcot 6$ miles west of Kimberley about oOO miles from
Eshowe due to a problem in the church there. We were happy to find the problem wa
due to a lack of communication and understanding as no missionary is n^ resident
in that area,for many years now, so nobody knew the circumstances at the C^pben
church. I went because I can understand and speak Afrikaans , and returned to Nat^
thanking God for a fine church under very capable leadership there. (October 2ii-27;
Closer to home we continued our outreach, traveling to several congregations on week
ends. One big meeting was held at UmBumbulu where a preacher names Gcuda is leader.
There an entire kraal (hamlet, which is a village where all llvii^
to each other) accepted Christ, from the oldest grandfather to the teenage children.
While this may rankel our western concepts of individual dioision
in keeping with African decision making processes, and we had hi s to baptize
and teach. It was not ' a spur of the moment decision, bro Gcuda had been worki^
with them for some years and the oldest man,the grandfather,had to make up his^mind
that Christ was the One to follow and immediatly all who already believed rejoiced
and stood together in their collective decision. The kraal stood on \
hill with a thousand foot dropoff in each direction with streams runmng thro^h the
valleys below. We had to walk for an hour to reach the place. (October li-ii;
Anew TEE esctension leadership class was begun oir Thursday evening at a nearby church
where Caiphas Ncanana preaches. They are covering the book of Romans now.
We have a new temporary member of our family, her name is Philippa Quann, she ^ l8,
and has been placed in our care by court order and child welfare. Her personal
story is beyond the scope of this little newsletter, but we do ernestly yo^
prayers on her behalf and she tries to get away from a bad home environment and seek
a tLt beginning for her young see the need to put _
Christ into her life and her future. We don't know how long she will be with us,
possibly for several month^s until the welfare courts decide where to send her.
As my mother is also staying with us now, there are 9 people for each meal, breakfast
and supper which puts a load on Charlotte too, who spent three days in the hospital
this month for a minor operation, but idio has also been suffering from fatigue more
and more lately. Other than that we are all fine, the kids Michael, Richard and Wayne
write ther finals for this year *s exams this month and school is out for the summer
at the end of November and early December. Exams are taken very seriously here with
much more emphasis placed on passing or failing the finals deciding whether you pass
or fail the year.
We have several big evangelistic meetings planned for November in various parts of
Zululand which will keep us busy and continue to strain the budget. But the growth
is so good at this time we must press on regardless. The first is this coining
Saturday - Sunday at a new congregation called Ophande in the far north. It will
be the most important as the results of this will (we pray) firmly establish yet
another new congregation on the Makhathini flats. We have not been there before,
the new church is the worklpf leader AlbejPt MaSiar^o.
* Charlotte and I, that is/
Must close for now
/if OiavvTalT
Nov#'1980 Sandy's Sayings Nov I98O 0q q ^ ^
' Zululand Christian Mission, ^
Sa ndy & Charlotte Sinclair
Box 111, Eshowe, Zulnland, 3815
Republic of South Africa. December 9 19o0
Dear Friends and Brethren,
We want to first of all bring you the best Christmas
Greetings from our house to yours. The Christmas season is upon us again and
we remember the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the world to save
us, and His birth, life, death and resurrection is the reason for the Hope that
lies within us. He abides with us still and our personal relationship to Him gives
us the Love, Joy, Peace and Hope both in this life and our eternal life to coiro.
November at our home was a busy month again, but it was different from all the previous
months of this busy year and we have come to experience a closer walk with the Lord
as a result. So much of the time we get so busy going about the Lord's work we neglect
to keep in mind exactly whose work it is after all, and why we are here and what our
ulitraate purpose in all of it is. Then,at times of His chosing the Lord reveals Him
self to us again and we are brought into a deeper relationship with Him and as the
chorus goes, we fall in love with over and over again.
At the same time I was undergoing a deep inner searching for a revitalizing of nqr ^
spiritual life in the Lord, my co-worfcer Ron Elerick was coming to the same con
victions by himself. Together we spent the past three weeks in daily prayer and
study of the word and we sought new momentum and direction to our lives and our
ministry. It was truly been a blessed experience for both of tis^* There is_ a
renewal already present among our churches. Led by the Holy Spirit revival is break
ing out already in two or three areas. We have had our eyes opened to the presence
of Satanic forces in the church as leaders have confessed to being involved in witch
craft and strong stands are being taken and will continue to have to be taken in the
near future. Many of our studies of God's word have led us recently into strong
confrontation with persons in positions of leadership who continue to work magic and
other forms of occult contacts convincing us this is the truereason why in sane areas
we have had no growth and there has been much strife among the brothers.
We urgently ask your prayers for us at this time and especially as we begin the new
Tear.
It is mid-summer down here now, the children are out of school and Charlotte has a
mornings only job at a local hotel as a receptionist to try and make a little extra
Christmas money. She will only work at the Royal Hotel for this month, bub is
considering working on at another job in January, e.g we are simply not keeping up
with inflation any more. There is an economic hocm in South Africa at the monent
and a surge in the inflation rate, a rise in the strength of the Rand and a conse
quent drop in the relative value of the dollar. By the time our salary is deposited
in our local bank account it is less than R6OO. and food costs alone account for. over
half of that and there is little left for the necessities of the seven of us any more.
Last year the same dollar amount brought in RS^O and food was 20% less es^ensive.
We know the Lord will contine to provide, but we just felt it fair to bring these facts
to the attention of our supporters.
Christmas will be spent at home this year, but it will be a happy one at a happy home.
We trust that God will bless you and yours at this Christmas time too.
God bless all of you,
Sandy & Charlotte Sinclair