Needs coming up

To all our family and friends,

We have had a need coming up for quite awhile concerning a vehicle. Our old land cruiser is really showing signs of retirement mechanically. It is not reliable for longer distances but is still fine for around our base camp.We have searched and searched and prayed and prayed for nearly six months now.Two days ago we found a vehicle that we feel very much at peace with. It is a very great bargain and in excellent condition. The owner brought the price down because of a slightly shuddering clutch plate that is busy fatigueing. This clutch plate can still go for awhile but it is definitely something that needs attention in the near future. But that is really the only slight negative about the vehicle. This though is no major issue. It can easily be replaced and can be done very cheaply if I do the work myself. We include some pictures so that you can see in what condition it is. The vehicle is about four hours drive from where we are so I asked my brother-in-law Pieter Noeth, also a Christian pastor, to take a look at the vehicle for me. He was very positive about the vehicle also having mechanical background himself. He advised me to buy the vehicle because it is a bargain. The vehicle is excellent for our situation with a big family. It can easily sit eleven people which is what makes it very practical for missionary work and our large family. . It is commonly used by relief and medical organizations in Africa also as clinic and ambulance vehicles. And the UN has many many of these vehicles because of their incredible durability. They are called Toyota Landcruiser troopers. These vehicles are known to go for many more years than normal 4x4’s. They are extremely hard working donkeys.Here are a few pictures of the vehicle.

From Go Tell My People From Go Tell My People

From Go Tell My People

We have searched a lot for prices and different options. And this is what we came up with. We found a Land Cruiser Trooper after searching several days on the internet. It is a Land Cruiser that was advertised on an internet auto selling website for 55,000 Rand which is 7,800 dollars and somehow was never sold. I saw a link for it on another 4x4 club website. I took a chance and called the guy to see if it was available after 3 months. And sure enough it was not sold and is still available now for 50,000 rand which is about 7,100 dollars. It is totally complete. The pictures show how well it was taken care of. The deal is not finalized but we asked him if he would give us time to get our things organized which the owner was fine with for the whole of next week. He is willing to keep the vehicle till we can go and look at it sometime in the next week. My brother, Roelf, was also very helpful and offered to take us over there with his vehicle since ours is not very reliable for such a drive.

The vehicle has a petrol or gas engine in at the moment. They are extremely heavy on fuel around 5-7 km per liter. The diesel engines are about 10-12 km per liter. The other advantage that diesel engines give is that you have twice the distance you can travel with the same amount of fuel that you carry on the vehicle. This is almost a must when you go into Africa because diesel is more available there than gas. Diesel in Angola where we would be working is 2 Rand a liter. Diesel here in South Africa is 7 rand a liter. This makes putting a diesel engine in much more economical for these two reasons. Diesel is much cheaper where we will be working and you can travel almost twice the distance with the same amount of fuel you carry on the vehicle this is vital because you travel extremely long distances before you can get fuel again. These diesel engines are an ADE 236 Atlantis engine. They are very known for their durability and very cheap to rebuild for approximately 300 to 500 dollars (or 1500 to 3500 Rand). But their initial purchase cost is 2,000 to 2,500 dollars (around 15,000 Rand). And they go perfect with these Land Cruisers because Land Cruiser themselves made an adapter plate which makes the conversion absolutely problem free. It is not a backyard conversion which is a recipe for gearshift problems. This brings the amount of this specific vehicle to about 9500 or close to 10,000 US dollars including fixing the clutch. This is the cheapest option we have found after many days of searching the internet. We've been looking off and on for about 6 months for a vehicle and it is the first one that is such a bargain.

We have just enough funds to be able to purchase this vehicle but then we will totally deplete all our reserves. And have nothing left for any medical or other emergencies or anything such as living costs and other mission expenses. If at all possible we would like to try and not do that. So we felt to make our need known and to leave it in the Lord’s Hands.

We certainly do not want to make people feel obligated. It is simply to state the need that we have at this stage and to see what the Lord would freely do. We prayed about it and felt that we should put it before the Lord's people sharing our immediate need. We want to ask all our friends for special prayer for the Lord's Hand in meeting this special need.

We are also glad to have found a tent for ministry today. Sometime ago a brother gave funds to purchase a 5x10 tent for ministry. We have searched and searched and just today we found a second hand one for a good price. We thank the Lord for that. We will pick it up when we go to get the vehicle close to Johannesburg. This has increasingly become a bigger need to start having tent services in the community and other places. Now we just need some simple benches. This we can make with some 2x10 planks and some metal welded legs that can just slide over the planks. That way it can easily be assembled and disassembled and packed away. We don’t know what they would cost yet. We would need approximately 8 pieces of wood 4.5 metres long. And metal for the legs which would be around 2000 Rand (300 dollars).

There is another need. We can really use a video/data projector with sound speakers and spare bulbs to show good teaching videos. Up till now we have used our desktop computer but the screen is small and hard to show to a larger group of people and it’s not good for the computer to be moved so much. These can be picked up secondhand for around 5,000 Rand (700 dollars) and new for around 10,000 Rand (1400 dollars). Sometimes we are not close to power so it would be very useful to have a small generator. If there is anybody who can help with these kinds of things we would be very glad for it would help us a lot.

If anybody feels impressed by the Lord to help in these needs after prayer, contact Philip Stence or David Lalone if you are in America. Their details are on the blogspot under the Table of Contents click on the Contact Us label. There you will find their details. They are taking care of our affairs in America.

In South Africa, we do not have anybody yet that can take care of these things so contact us personally. Our telephone nr is 0792632965 or 0736945076.

Hudson Taylor always said he would rather have a consecrated shilling than an unconsecrated pound. We have lately been greatly blessed by Hudson Taylor’s life as we are reading his biography together as a family. We can strongly recommend it to any person. He was also a great friend of George Muller. When one studies these men, how much we have to learn!

May the Lord’s Will be done. Please look with us to Him alone.

Greetings with love,

In His Service,

Stephanus (Fanie) and Rose + all the Children.