More Highlights from Pretoria

Last night (Monday) I spoke at Moreleta Park Church in Pretoria to about 2,000 on "Growing a Spiritually Strong Family." Mostly a white audience, Afrikaners.

Afterwards, I met a former Muslim man from Pakistan. He had come to faith in Christ after contracting liver cancer and was healed. His conversion resulted in his being cast out of his home and thrown into prison for 18 months. His family disowned him and never visited him while in prison. When asked why they let him go from prison, he replied, "I had led eight of the prison officials to Christ, and since there were no charges against me, they had to let me go!" For the past five years, he has been here in South Africa evangelizing youths and carrying a cross around the country. Amazing!

I walked away thinking that heaven will be full of heroes like him ... men and women who have forsaken ALL to follow Christ in far more difficult settings than we face.

Barbara, Rebecca, and her husband, Jake, just took off this morning to go into rural areas about 90 minutes outside Pretoria. They will be visiting with HIV/AIDS patients, orphans, and the poor. I am certain that Barbara will have a few stories to write about ... perhaps Rebecca and Jake, too.

This morning, I taped a TV show with CRUX TV, from Johannesburg. Aloysias Maimane interviewed me for a program to be aired Sunday and next Thursday to an all-Black audience (estimated 800,000) between the ages of 18 and 30. Perhaps several will join us in Pretoria for the Sept. 9 Rekindling the Romance event. Aloysias is 2nd from left in the TV crew (bottom photo).

Television show producer David Seletisha (photo at right), a little man of 39 years and about 5 feet tall, asked if we had anything to help with his upcoming marriage. I gave him the "Preparing for Marriage" HomeBuilders. Interestingly, his parents are about to go meet his "bride to be's" parents to negotiate the dowry to get his bride. He's expecting to have to pay about $1,000! I told him our workbook would be the most important thing for him to prepare for marriage.

Today I talked to a key leader at the U.S. Embassy, and I think I've helped him and his family find a solid evangelical church here Pretoria. Did you know that 1,000 people work at the U.S. Embassy here? They serve needs all over the continent of Africa.

Tonight I speak at Moreleta Park about the importance of men providing spiritual leadership in the family.

I've had some computer problems ... more later.