February 2025

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"Boy, you are really trying to hook me!” 

Peter smirked as he said it and accepted the gospel tract I offered. I chuckled. “Peter, you are a grown man and must make your own decision. I am only compelled to tell you the Truth.”

Monday was the third time I had seen Peter in three weeks. Each time the Lord had prompted me to share the gospel, and each time from a different angle. By this third meeting, we had addressed the general evidence for God and the trustworthiness of the Bible, Roman Catholicism, morality and his own sin and guilt along with the good news in the Person and complete work of Jesus Christ among other things. By the end, without rebuttal, I finally had to leave Peter contemplating his inevitable meeting before the Holy and Righteous God, as I offered him this tract, How to Be a Christian by J.I. Packer. 
 
Please continue to pray for Peter as he did promise to read this and I hope to follow up with him again. He works at a local print shop and has printed a number of our ministry resources. Lord willing, we will see him again, but until then, we keep casting our nets as fishers of men, trusting the Lord for the catch. 

 

And [Jesus] said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Matthew 4:19

 

In God's providence and power, I have been "fishing" quite a bit recently. Pray for a German couple living in our complex, Pieter and his wife. They were out walking when they passed our house and we struck up a conversation and I was able to present them the gospel and invite them to church. Honestly, haven't seen them at church nor walk past our house again unfortunately. On the other hand, pray also for Tyron, who owns a local coffee shop (and let me help out a bit behind the espresso machine for a short Saturday rush shift). He is a professing agnostic, but we have had a number of great conversations and he is open and warm to the Truth and has come over to the house a few times. Pray for Latisha and Jan who I met in that same coffee shop and was able to share the gospel. And we praise the Lord and request your continued prayer for five recently baptized disciples at Mountain View in December! Gladys and Cassidy are two of those disciples, pictured below. Cassidy was just months from her 16th birthday and her great grandmother was turning 82 the Monday following her baptism! Praise the Lord for His work to rescue and call all kinds and ages of people to Himself for His glory! The Lord is building His church as promised and we are privileged to be a part of His redemptive plans!

 

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Since our last update, our lives have been full! You’re familiar with the question, “Are you working hard or hardly working?” Typically, our answer would be working hard, but I am happy to say we did manage some periods of “hardly work.” Ultimately, we enjoyed an eight-day holiday at the end of December and into early January. In that week, we went away and spent sweet beach time with good friends and former MV church members in a little coastal village. We needed that time and I confess - and you can ask my wife - I did “hardly work!” I cannot say I did not work, but I did hardly work. I kept my laptop and phone packed away most the day. I am grateful for that time with the family and friends in Christ that are like family. Rest is a gift.

 

 

Almost all of the Bell Bunch plus our dear friends, Nicholaus and Sulani van Heerden with their children, Lente and Andries in Herold's Bay.

 

Apart from this period of “hardly work,” we have been “working hard.” We have been blessed to visit and be an encouragement and support for some of the like-minded churches in Sola 5 and other church plants. Since November, I have preached at MV at least 5 times while preaching at Dennemere Baptist Church in Eersterivier, Reformed Community Church in Bellville, and Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Gordon’s Bay. 

 

Outside of a busy season of pulpit ministry, visiting and preaching for these brothers and their churches, I have been studying and pursuing a biblical counseling certificate. The needs in our ministry (and the doors the Lord has opened) has lead me to ACBC certification in order to be further equipped for this ministry. Even as I began these studies, setting aside time very early, the opportunities have increased to minister the gospel in the daily struggles of life. At this point, I have wrapped up my Fundamentals coursework (through Pastor Brad Brandt, Wheelersburg Baptist Church and Tri-State Bible College), hours of observation and am busy with reading assignments – balancing this with faithfulness in the other areas of my life. May I request your prayers in faithfulness in my studying and in all the other areas of ministry – even as other needs and opportunities present themselves. May the Lord guide and provide wisdom and grace. 
 
I recall one particular week where I was studying in the early morning, meeting men for counseling and discipleship throughout the week, led our Wednesday night Bible study in 1 John, produced devotions for our church’s annual December devotional, taught twice on Saturday for two men’s ministries and then preached on Sunday. A full week indeed! I recall one particular day where we felt we celebrated the life cycle of our members. We started the morning with one family’s baby shower, then went from there to the birthday of our young ladies turning 27, and finally also had a memorial service for one of our men. A full day indeed!
 
On top of this, we have been dealing with some unpleasant matters of church discipline and covet your prayers as we seek to be grace and truth. But in many other ways, ministry at Mountain View has been very encouraging. We have now celebrated one year with our local pastor, Duan DuToit and family leading and serving MV with us. We are praying to see more biblically qualified men raised up to lead and will be working on updates to the constitution and church membership process – all to the benefit of a church plant also. Just last week we hosted a Biblical Parenting Conference, Parenting with Confidence with Chap Bettis, on a Tuesday night from 7p-9p. Remarkably, despite this time and date, the Lord blessed our time with over 150 parents from at least 11 churches. We were blessed to give away copies to Chap's book, The Disciple-Making Parent and you can find it and many more resources at his website. We pray He is honoured in our families as parents commit to raising their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. I also recently developed a Ministry Partner Questionnaire for our church’s current and future missionary partners as we assess like-mindedness and strive for faithful stewardship. Happy to share it too.

 

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-- HERE BEGINS THE BONUS CONTENT --

 

We praise the Lord as we have been connected to a ministry that seeks to enter public schools and teach the Bible for several years now. This year, we have managed to get a theologically-sound curriculum into the hands of 600 students and their teachers (in English and Afrikaans)! This is ABWE’s Good Soil resource, The Story of Hope, and features 40 major events of the Bible (20 from the OT and 20 from the NT) clearly presenting the truths God has revealed about Himself, Mankind, Sin and Death, Christ and the Cross, Faith and Life. Pray for all these students (and the teachers) who will be exposed to the Sovereign Lord who is worthy of their worship!
 
I have also been extended a greater opportunity at Film School Africa. I believe I have briefly shared about this unique opportunity in the past, but the American director of this film studio program is a Christian woman whom we met in our complex. She attended our Bible study for some time before moving. The program at the film school includes weekly chapel attendance. And while assisting in chapel on an as-need basis in the past, this year I have been asked to be more involved. I am now speaking there every other Wednesday and pray for more intentional discipleship relationships with the students. Pray as I develop and work through foundational Christian truths with these students. 
 
We also praise the Lord for the visits of a prospective missionary and my mother! Who’s coming next to see what the Lord is doing in Cape Town? We would love to talk about hosting a ministry team to do a holiday bible club (vacation bible school) among other ministry opportunities. 
 
And for those who have asked about property. Our discussion and interest fizzled out in regard to the previous property we shared as result of new information and certain limitations. We have managed to get some info about an ideal lot, across the street, even better than what we were previously considering. Currently, we are taking our time in prayer and asking questions. We are doing our research, consulting with the zoning council, building and architects. In the meantime, I am working to plan more strategic community outreach in this target church planting area. We continue to pray for the Lord to open doors in his time and if you would like more info on how you can get involved and help, please let us know. 

 

Thank you for the regular messages, emails and prayers. Please pray for wisdom and grace as we seek the Lord's will and follow Him in faith. And please share with us how we can be praying for you!

Grace and peace,
Nate

 

 

 

Our ABWE Account Number is 0170081 and one can visit our giving page, email donorhelp@abwe.org with our account number, or phone ABWE at 800-901-2293 to support our ministry financially.

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