Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We wish you a happy New Year and pray that this year will be a year of health and prosperity and that you will be witnesses for Jesus in every area of your life and many people will be influenced by yours and many souls will be saved from the darkness to the Light.

The past month was a very difficult time for us since we were cheated, robbed, people broke our rucksack; Jono lost his cell phone, and more. It also wasn't easy to be alone in a strange country, away from our family and friends during the Christmas season. … but it still is worth it, to preach the Gospel to those Christ chose to die for, though the sadness in our lives for the lost is sometimes unbearable and wish with everything within us that we could train and equip others to win the lost, but that is only if God permits.

Last time we mailed, we were back in, Katmandu, Nepal, after returning from an incredible outreach in the mountains. Since then we quickly went through India to Calcutta via cheap overloaded bus, donkey cart ride, incredibly cheap train ride and an overpriced taxi ride to a severally overpriced hotel room, which was all we could find on Jono's birthday. We then made our way to Thailand. (On our way to Tibet)

We were also relieved to find that there are churches and some missions’ organizations in the whole of Thailand, especially in Bangkok. We struggled to find tracts in Thai, so we had to look for English speaking Thai to share the gospel with and to whom we could give our English tracts, of which we had tons. We shared the Gospel with Burmese waiters at a restaurant we went to and then were invited to the wedding of one of the young men we shared the Gospel with. The wedding was interesting, but all we could give the couple is the footage of their wedding that we recorded for them. We preached to tourists and locals and many times they listened. Some were very positive toward the Good News, but others weren't, unfortunately.

We then went to a town in the South where we found 2 churches we could minister at, encouraging the locals to preach the Gospel. Disaster struck during the few days we were there. Jono left his money-belt in our room when a person got into our room and stole US $400, Jono's leatherman, and emptied our bank account! We are not sure how they found out what our pin no was, but we suspect that there were hotel staff involved and they had access to our birth dates. We used my date of birth as pin code like most people do. We forgave the thieves for what they did, but still, it was not an easy time. We were very tempted to go back to South Africa, but the Lord encouraged us to continue. We are truly grateful to the people in Cape Town who donated money, that we could carry on….Thank you Lord Jesus for blessing them abundantly. We actually received a little more than what has been stolen.

We then had to organize a bus to Laos. In Laos we struggled to find churches, because the churches are either under constant surveillance or in constant motion in order to not get caught, since Laos is under communistic rule. Most people don't speak English, which makes everything even harder. We even tried to speak to monks at a monastery. We could not find any tracts in Lao. We were so frustrated, but we still spoke to some locals and tourists about the Lord and the proofs of Him and the Bible. We had some truly divine appointments in a town called Luang Prabang. We did had some great spiritual times with some people and could spend some hours of quality time proving them that their ignorance, intellect or denial will bring only torment, regrets and darkness for eternity. We now just pray on a daily basis that the Holy Spirit will let grow…..

We then went to Vietnam. The bus we had to get on unfortunately had an accident before it reached us. Fortunately there was a English couple that were also supposedly to be on the bus. We all agreed to organize some other means of transport due to being stuck in this town for a week before the next bus would arrive. It took us 30 hours, instead of 17, via a minibus, a cramped dirty bus, a cramped tuk-tuk, a minivan from the Vietnam war, a cramped bus ride from hell (kamikaze driver) and then finally a taxi. We had a real problem on the Vietnam side of the border with a "motorbike syndicate", where they did not allow truck drivers or anybody to give us a lift. We assume it is some kind of a syndicate. We refused to go with them (on their motorbikes) and had to walk for kilometers carrying our heavy backpacks. The gang followed us and made fun of us… taunting us. When we finally found a minivan, the driver had to pay the syndicate to give us a lift. We had a prompting from the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel with the English couple since we met them and we had to cling to them. We even went off our planned route to stay with them and fortunately could share the Gospel with them on Christmas day for 5 hours. Sarah found it to be foolishness, but Andrew was very open and interested…. praise the Lord. Please pray for them and all the people that we ministered the Word to from the UK, SA, Australia, Sweden, China, Germany, Vietnam, Thailand, France, Laos etc.

We found Vietnam to be quite aggressive. We are now in China and do not know what to expect. Please pray for us during this next period. We will share about this on our next newsletter...

We desire to fulfill the call of Mark 16:15 to “Go onto the entire world and preach the Gospel” and we also desire for you to fulfill 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.

"It is true that many pray for a world wide revival. But it would be more timely and more scriptural for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and trust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival" - A.N. Pink

"The Gospel isn't a treasure to be hoarded, it is a gift to be shared" - Greg Laurie

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:
Account name: Travel Missions
Bank: ABSA Bank
Account Type: Cheque
Account no: 4063772319
Branch: Noord Einde
Branch Code: 632005
Swift Code: ABSA ZAJJ (For outside South Africa)