Dear Everyone

We greet you in the name of Jesus Christ.

We are presently in Tanzania on our way to Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. We have been driving a lot this past month. It has been raining nearly every day since we left Cape Town, South Africa. The trailer with the roof tent and kitchen is so much better than out previous year’s lifestyle. It is still not comfortable to pack up and unpack in rainy weather, but we are getting used to it.

In Botswana we really had to work on our patience and obedience to the Lord. As we left Maun on the way to Livingstone we really felt uncomfortable of leaving a campsite. Len felt disobedient of not sharing the Gospel with 2 different individuals. As we left the campsite to fill the vehicle, Len made a promise to the Lord to go back, but then it started to rain heavily. He then decided to carry on and ask the Lord for forgiveness, but he still felt uncomfortable. After 86km on muddy roads, we got stuck in thick mud and after a while we got through, but a few kilometres later we got stuck in a slow flowing river. The water flowed right into the vehicle and some of our belongings started to flow away! Everything was soaking! We tried everything! We tried to use the winch, but there were no big trees to tie it to, so we pulled out groups of little trees and a big rock out of the ground! We nearly lost our high lift jack and our shovel in the mud! We struggled to get the car out of the terrible, muddy river for 4 hours to no avail! To make matters worse, it rained heavily again! We cried out to the Lord Psalm 50:15 and said that we have come to the end of our strength and the next moment a Land Cruiser arrived with a soccer team. He tried to rescue us, but also got stuck! Then eventually he broke our winch cable, but luckily the soccer team and wisdom from the Lord got us out after another hour. Left alone and inspecting the vehicle and trailer Len felt something keeping us there. Then a vehicle arrived from the opposite direction, tourists from the Netherlands. They warned us that we will not make it ahead due to heavy rain. We then felt that we should go back to Maun. We then took a detour through a different part of this muddy river, which was almost just as bad as the river in the road! We finally got back to Maun and had the privilege to share the Gospel with the 2 individuals. The one person, Peter, a man travelling alone through Africa, is a person who wants his space in life heard the Gospel, the realness of Jesus Christ and our testimonies for nearly 2 hours.
The next morning we got a phone call from Riana Groenewald from Shoprite to tell us that we need to go to Shoprite in Maun to collect a huge amount of vouchers. This story shows us the necessity of obedience and also to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

As we got to the Botswana-Zambia border, we made another mistake by not interceding for going through the border post. We had to wait patiently for 5 hours for certain paper work and we were practically abused by the men with authority due to the fact that we could not pay R21 500 as a deposit to enter Zambia with a trailer. We did not want to give Satan any satisfaction and ministered to people in the border post as well as in the Police station next door. Customs allowed the trailer only a couple of days in Zambia, so due to this we could not visit any of our friends in Zambia. We felt so guilty for not being able to go visit our precious friends, Gustav and Esmé Wessels, who gave us our Land Cruiser. We just moved through Zambia and did our best to purchase some necessary paperwork without complete success.

One particular day we decided to separate ourselves for prayer. As we went into the bushes, praying and worshiping, we suddenly stopped, because we nearly walked into a herd of buffaloes. The Buffaloes just stared at us and slowly moved forward till about 15 meters from us!

As we arrived in Lusaka, we received another gift from the Lord through vouchers from Shoprite.

Please pray for all the tourist and local people that we shared Jesus Christ with that His word will not return void and that every seed that has been planted will grow.

We have one more request. Please pray for us regarding the Carnet that we need for the car and the trailer and for the finances therefore.

We desire to fulfil the call of Mark 16:15 to “Go onto the entire world and preach the Gospel” and we also desire for you to fulfil that call as well. Your donation will aid us as we preach the Gospel in remote and unreached areas, impact others who will in turn impact others who will impact all generations worldwide with the truth and power of the Gospel. All gifts, great or small, will be appreciated.

Please visit our web site, www.travelmissions.org to see some photos of our latest experiences. For those of you that might have missed a few, our old newsletters are also available for viewing on our web site.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

In His Service

Len and Jono

Our Banking Details:
New Hope Ministries International
ABSA Savings Account
Account no: 9106492455
Branch no: 523410
Branch: Sanbel
Swift Code: ABSA ZAJJ (For outside South Africa)