“Brother Sim, I love Jesus. I love Jesus a lot,” is Olwethu’s daily anthem. by Simdumise Poswa
“I only realized during the short break how much I have learned at Purelight,” said Nosipho in our first chapel meeting after the fall school break. She went on, her face beaming with excitement, “I was able to share with my family and home church the things I learned in Conversion and Righteousness by Faith and Fundamentals of the Christian Faith.”
Nosipho Zulu is a Purelight Missions student from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu Natal. She was impressed to receive training at Purelight during a Present Truth Lifestyle Conference held in Botswana in December. Before making this decision, Nosipho was a chartered accountant at Earnest and Young. Her economic future was blindingly bright, to say the least. Yet she had a longing for something more than money can provide. So she decided to trade the auditor’s desk for a missionary life.
“I was able to share with my family about the trustworthiness of the Bible,” she continued. “The study helped a lot and my sister’s questions about the Bible were answered.” These words were very encouraging for us. We know that we are not wasting time with our students.
Nosipho is a great blessing at Purelight. She is a great help in the business office and came at a time when a volunteer accountant was about to leave. Now she has made our accounting look respectable. We thank God for His providence.
“I praise the Lord for the opportunity to study here,” Nosipho says. “I want to do both health and Bible because I want to be effective as a missionary. There are so many things I want to do back in my home town.” Indeed we hope and believe that the Lord will do great things not only through Nosipho, but through all of our students.
This testimony was not the only one that encouraged and thrilled our hearts. “I have been asked to share at two camp meetings this year,” said Mucondi Rambuda, a Purelight student from Venda. “I tried to share what we have learned in class with as many people as I could. I was able to share about the state of the dead and second coming at my church, and it was wonderful,” she continued with great enthusiasm. “I was so frustrated, thinking that I was not grasping the things we learned, but God has shown me how much I am learning.” This is all after just 10 weeks of classes. Mucondi has not only benefited from the academic instruction at Purelight. She adds, “I was so happy when my mother said she is happy with the change she sees since I started studying at Purelight. I always thought I was not making any progress spiritually, but her words encouraged me.” We are so delighted to know that our students are becoming lights in their own homes and churches.
If you read our report in the October–November issue, you will remember the conversion of Olwethu Sokudela after the outreach training that Simdumise and Loago conducted in East London. He was addicted to drugs and involved in various acts of crime. After he gave his life to Christ, the church family in East London organized for him to go to the Present Truth Lifestyle Conference to get help for his drug addictions. While there he rededicated his life to Christ and decided to serve Him for the rest of his life. “Brother Sim, can you accept Olwethu as a student at Purelight?” asked Zandile, one of Olwethu’s sponsors. Purelight made the decision to accept him, because inspiration says, “Every school should be a ‘city of refuge’ for the tempted youth, a place where their follies shall be dealt with patiently and wisely.” Education, p. 293. We have never regretted the decision. Olwethu has a burning desire to tell people about Jesus. He has visited all our neighbors, sharing the love and peace he has found in Jesus.
“Brother Sim, I love Jesus. I love Jesus a lot,” is Olwethu’s daily anthem. Besides the personal ministry he does in his spare time, he also goes for outreach on Sundays with the rest of the students. Mpho Mogampane, a Hartland pastoral evangelism intern leads the students on these outreach efforts. They are preparing Machadodorp Township for an evangelistic effort before the end of this year. The outreach has done much to encourage the church members as more people are visiting the church. A lot of backslidden members have been encouraged to reestablish their walk with Christ. The afternoon Bible studies done by the students have done a lot to revive the church. We praise the Lord for that.
God is doing a mighty work through the students at Purelight. Only eternity will tell how much impact this little institution, with such feeble mortals like us, has done. We invite you to partner with us in finishing this work. We need prayers as we have decided to start our agriculture project. We recently harvested corn, butter beans, and pumpkins that we had planted as an experiment. Now we are looking to focus on developing agriculture as an industry that we can use to finance our building projects. We also want the students to get the benefit of being instructed by God in His classroom, the garden.
We thank you for your continued support and for partnering with us in spreading the everlasting gospel where we are.