laughren peter fran 2005 safrica

7/27/2019 Laughren Peter Fran 2005 SAfrica

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The Laughrens ,Pe te , Fran & Denzii

Trip to the U.S.A.Due to our being gone from SouthAfrica for ten weeks,

and our trying to ge t caught up after our arrival back here,this newsletter will comprise two let te rs in one. The firstpart we would like to share with you is about our trip to th eU.S. for, as it turned out, t en weeks .

We left South Africa o n O cto ber 1 7 to be a t F ra n'ssister's wedding in Bethel, Missouri on November 6. Sonjamarried Dale Hawkins and we were glad to be able to returnfor t hat joyous event. We arrived in Georgia on th e 18thand, after two nights there, flew to Texas to be with Fran'sfamily. When we got to Texas, her other sister, Karen, hadalso just arhved with her family for their furlough and Itmadefor a great family reunion. But the reunions were only starting.

Fran went with her family to Missouri from Texas whileIflew back to Georgia for two nights to pick up a vehicle forour trip back to Georgia. The plan was to join all at th ewedding and, after the wedding, while Fran's family wouldhead back to Texas, we would head back to Georgia andspend three weeks there before flying back to South Africaon the 30th of November .

Theweddingwas beautiful and itwas a grand occasion.To have the whole family together for the week precedingfi the wedding was

l so special asthat family doesnot get togethermuch s ince wel ive in th e fourco rne r s of th eworld. We saw alotof people therethat we had no tseen in a longt ime an d w eenjoyed ours e l v e s t remendously. Dale andSonja Hawkinsare a very happilymar ri ed coup le

Mr. and Mrs. Dale Hawkins and an example

Winter, Spring 2005 - Vol. 15 , No. 3 & 4

for Christ of how things should be done. We pray for themGod's richest blessings and for a long life together.

On the 7th of November, after the couple had left fortheir honeymoon, the rest of the family spent one last nighttogether and we said our good-byes as they headed back toTexas and we headed mto Georgia for three |weeks. On the way |home we stopped for a I IF..night in St. Louis and , ,had a great meal withmos to f th e in terns from2004 . W e m e tfellowshlpped fo rsevera l hou r s and itwas g re at to be withthPm anain and rpha;h During our travels in theU.S. wehadnemagainand renasn ^ ^004.memories from their Pabarcus, from the Fergusonthp. They were a great church inMissouri, was a great helpgroup to have in South lastsummer. Want to come andhelpAfrica. Thanks must goto Stacy Garner for setting the evening up for us!!

We spent two nights in Mt. Vernon, Illinois with specialfhends Don and Claudia Dorris and, after a great time ofvisiting, we headed south to Georgia for the remainder ofour t ime with my side of the family.

We arrived inGeorgia and, during th e first week there,we spoke at the mid-week services of Berea Christian Churchin Hampton, GA. Later that week, after weeks of illness,mysister, LisaAndrews, had surgery related to an illostomyof 8 years ago. During he r t ime in the hospital, Fran spentseveral nights there helping where sh e could, and takingturns at night with Lisa's husband, Mark. We were glad thats he w as able to re turn home on th e 29th of November after10 days in th e hospital.

During the last few days of her hospital stay, we wereencouraged byseveral people inGeorgiaat the Berea churchto consider staying on through Christmas since we hadhonestly not had much t ime to visit or adequately preparefor our return trip. We had not had time with family as weplanned and, after much prayer, thought and negotiationswith th e airlines, we changed ou r tickets to return on th e


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We are thankful that the wedding went well; thankfui thatthe patients are recovering: and thankful for Karen's andToai's new life to take care of. We ar e thankful for travelingmercies and we are thankful to be home in South Africa.

Janua ry t h rouqh MarchAfter arriving back home on January 1s t and adjusting to the change in seasons (itwas the middle of summer

upon our arrival), the last three months have seen us busywith different things. There is always a iull this t ime of yeara s workers t ake 6 weeks of f fo r Chris tmas and t h e s c hoo l sdo not start until the third week of January. When the schoolsre-started, we re-started the weekly Bible studies and Sunday Schools here in George, i have preached every Sunday here in George except for the couple thatwe have beenout. We visited the church in Knysna and, as they are astruggling small group, itgives us and them encouragementwhen we visit. We try to visit there once a month as AndrewCaivert is their minister and, unless we take him there, he isnot able to visit them.We made a trip to Port Elizabeth to visit a churchthere that was having problems internally. While I understood what they meant in their letter that was sent to me, Istressed to them that I was not th e "higher authority" thatthey needed to come and solve their problems. One of thesetbacks over the years in South Africa has been this attitude of always having someone solve your problems foryou. This has carried over into the local churches. Ifyouhave a problem, cail someone and get them to make thedecision for you. During the meeting Istressed to them thatthey were grown men, that they needed to stop looking ateach other's faults, and they needed to start looking at howthey themselves should change. Ifelt before I went to themeeting that nothing would really be accomplished, and Iwas right. After three hours of discussion, nothing wassolved. I urged them to all go home that night and look atthemselves and see what they could do themselves to makethe situation better and to pray for forgiveness. When Iwalked into the meeting, the first thing that Imentioned when

Andrew Caivert preaches before the baptismal sen/ice.

I saw the 50 men there was that I sure wished tha t manymen would come for Bible study and not just for meetings.But the people here love their meetings and they love longdiscussions. Please pray for them as they try to work theirproblems out. It seems to be a never ending theme amongthe churches here, but we work with them to guide them tostand as autonomous churches that can work theirown problems out. After we left Port El izabeth I traveled to Graaff-Reinet to meet with the church there for a Sunday eveningand then headed back to George on th e following Monday.

One joyous occasion thatwe had in January was thebaptism of Denzil. He had been contemplating a decisionfor a long time and he told us tha t he really wanted to bebaptized. That morning I preached from Acts 2:38 on thePlan of Salvation. I told him beforehand that one of thepoints that Iwould be making was the idea of what age to bebaptized. Many parents here will not let their chi ldren bebaptized until they are adults. They say that they are tooyoung. But then it is often too late. I told Denzil that, by hisexample, some of the kids who had been wanting to make adecision might do the same thing following his example.We were very pleased that no t only was Denzil baptized,

We are very proud of Denzil for his decision to be baptizedan d l ive for th e Lord.

Besides Denzil, there were four of the youth baptized inJanuary. We are really proud of Emile, Sonja, Stella andJody. Please pray for them as they start their new life.


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mije npe WhittlesGEORGE, SOUTH AFRICA t

The Laughrens,Pete, Fran & Denzil

Confe rence 2005Greetings from South Africa!

Our annual preaching and teaching conference tookplace at the end ofSeptember inthe towncalled Douglas.When we first arrived inSouth Africa many years ago, wewere told by Al and Jean Zimmerman, the missionarieswho retired when we arrived, that the annual conference is,to some, the highlight of the year. This year itwas held inthe remote town of Douglas in the northern Cape. Peopleasked how to get to Douglas and I jokingly say that youmust go to the middle of nowhere, and turn right. It is justdown the road on the left. Itactually is a very beautifullittle town situated at the convergence of the Vaal and theOrange rivers inthe heart ofthe arid region known as theKaroo. The hospitality ofthe local church was very goodand the whole time togetherwent well.The week started with the evening service onWednesday night and ended with the morning service onSunday. People came from all over South Africafrom suchplaces as Cape Town, Graaff-Reinet, Port Elizabeth,

Andrew Calveri stands with th e l


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Fran taught a ladies classand some children's classes andI preached and taught twice. Wealways enjoy conferences as wege t to be with fellow Christians an dspend quality time with them.

For th e past two years Ih av e s er ve d a s t he c h ai rm a n ofth e planning committee for theannua l conference , it ha s alsobeen my pleasure to do this formany years before this specif ictwo-year term. But since th eterms are two-yearterms, and wewill be starting our furlough at theend of 2006, a new chairman waselected. I am very pleased thatall six officers of th e planningcommittee ar e now filled by thelocal brethren and Iknow that theywill carry on very well. I havecomplete confidence in all of theb ro the r s e l ec ted .Plans are already underway for the 2006 conference to bein th e E as te rn Cape town ofQueens town. The last t ime thechur ch th e re h o s te d th econference was in 2001 and theywill do a fine job. Please be inprayer for the 6 officers of theplanning committee and for thechurch in Queenstown as theymake their plans fo r nextS ep te mber. T ha nk s for yourprayers for this year's conference.Itwas a great success.

The se 6 men will l ead th e conference fo r th e nex t tw oyears .

Brian also preached at the YouthWorship at Conference.

Fran an d Pam taught the Sunday School children at the Conference.

2005 Missionarv Ga the rin

Wayne Shaw delivered somegreat sessions while he waswith us at our gathering.2

The first week of August saw most of our missionary co-workers from around SouthAfricacome to George for our annual Missionary Gathering. We always look fonward to thesetimes because, for some, it is the only time that we see them during the year. The week is

were very blessed to haveWayne and \ "Janet Shaw from Lincoln Christian '/ V /fc MSeminary with us for the full time. l MWayne and Janet taught the morning ^iiclasses while Wayne also preached Fran taught the missionary kids during the gathering.


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every evening. They were suchan encouragement. Inour workhe r e it s e em s th at t im e s ofspiritual refreshment ar e not asreadily available as they are forstateside workers (such asconventions etc.), so thesetimes of refreshment with peoplelike th e Shaws are very valuableto u s all. All in al l t he re w e re 25of us in a tt end an c e and t h e weekwent very well. Between theclass times, we did some sightseeing and had some good timesof fellowship. We were verypleased with the number thata tt ended and we ar e lookingforward to th e gathering nextyear that will take place in theJohannesburg area.

k. -

We had a great time here in George during our Annual Missionary Gathering.

Other Activit ies dur ina Julv, Auqus t andSeo t embe r

When we are inGeorge we participate inthe localchurch by preaching,and byleading the Sunday School, BibleStudiesand Youth Group meetings.But it also seems that we ar e gone much of the time to other places.During the last three months, we were several places for various reasons.The day that the missionary gathering ended, we had visitors fromEuless, Texas arrive and they were here for 10 days. Mark, Janet and

Jaeger Layman literally arrived 20 minutes after the gathering ended andwe had a great time together. We took them to see a lotofthe local sightsand while they were here, Mark preached and taught at the church here inGeorge. The next week, we went to Gape Townand Markpreached at thechurch in Mfuleni and we also witnessed 10 baptisms that morning beforethe service. Thank-you Mark and Janet for coming to visit. We reallyenjoyed our time together and we really appreciate your kindness andthoughtfulness. They were an encouragement to everyone that they met.

Three days after they left, two local brothers and Iwent to Douglasfor our usual "pre" conference visit to make sure that everything was inorder. We want no surprises during the week of conference, so Ifeel thatthese visits to the sight of the conference beforehand are very important.The church there was ready and we were pleased that we made th e trip toconfirm their readiness .

In September I went to Graaff-Reinet to teach for a week and theattendance there was good. Iaveraged between 25 and 35 students eachnight and Iwas encouraged. When we go to Graaff-Reinet, the people arealways eager to leam and itdoes our heart good toteach those who are reallyinterested. 1have twomore trips planned for there before the end ofthe year.Andrew Calvert and I also visited the church in Knysna. We try to

get there once a month, but that is not a lways poss ible. We got there inAugust and they are stilla small group, they are faithful. We have suppliedthem with many lessons and Sunday School materials that hopefully willencourage them in their work.We enjoy living in George as it is centrally located and gives us agood place to travel from to these various places. Please pray for us aswe try to minister in these various places in every way possible.

Marf< Layman preached for the church here inGeorge during their visit.

We were very pleased to witness 10 baptisms inCape Town in August. ^


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laughren peter fran 2005 safrica

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