“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40

Our Baptist partners here in Durban are responding to the call to plant churches in surrounding rural areas.  On August 22-24, I traveled with 20 members of Phoenix Baptist Church to the settlement of Mathendeni. We worked with young Pastor Bongamusa (age 26) who is planting a Baptist church there.  I screened people for diabetes, high blood pressure and HIV.

Recently it has been shown that treating HIV patients with powerful anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) can lead to a life expectancy of 64-70 years for a twenty year old that is HIV positive. That flies in the face of common perceptions about HIV here, where people are expecting to die shortly after they are diagnosed. This weekend, 20 percent of the people I screened were HIV positive. Working with Pastor Bongamusa as a translator, we were able to encourage them to be treated and to avoid passing on the infection to others. One man said to me that while he was unhappy to know he had HIV, he was very appreciative of being tested. ARV treatment is available about 15 miles away. Now that he knows he is infected, he will go there for treatment.  Only 10 percent of South Africans are tested for HIV.  In South Africa today, about 480,000 people receive ARVs, out of an estimated 1.7 million who would be candidates.  There are about 5.7 million South Africans who are HIV positive.

Some of the people who discovered they were HIV positive also came to the Jesus film on Saturday night and came forward for prayer at the Sunday worship. This past weekend some 30 people accepted an invitation to make Jesus their Lord and Saviour.

During the upcoming months, Anita and I will be spending one day a week training members of the Baptist Church of Mathendeni to be health builders. We look forward to following up with people that I met this past weekend. We are excited to be able to further develop the language and other skills which will be able to service the rural Zulu community. We will help extend lives, prevent transmission of HIV, disciple new believers, and bring Zulu Bibles. We will help young Pastor Bongamusa to help this new Baptist church plant to thrive and grow.

Your giving towards our mission will help us as we invest in the ministry of this Baptist church of Mathendeni. Please pray for Pastor Bongamusa and the team as we build capacity for life in the rural areas.

Siyabonga (we thank you),

Rick Gutierrez