Bering Drive Church of Christ

1910 Bering Drive

Houston, TX 77057

Non-Profit

Organization

U.S. Postage Paid

Permit #8073

Houston, TX

Local Wedding

Chester & Angela took an overnight break and

met 6 month old lion cubs!

Intense Bible Study Taking a break for tea!

Look at what’s been going on!

South African

Newsletter

Chester and Angela Woodhall

cwood_za@yahoo.com

PO Box 211 Gonubie 5256 South Africa

Chester preaching at an in-home church.

Bible Study

WORLD CUP SOCCER - 2010

It was a first for South Africa, indeed for Africa. South Africa hosted the World Cup Soccer

championships from June 11 to July 11. There were many overseas visitors, and the main subject of

conversation was the World Cup. New stadiums were built. The new Soccer City stadium in

Johannesburg seats 94,000 spectators and is where the final match took place. Two good impacts

were a reduction in crime by 20%, and the price of gasoline went down.

On the night of the final match, in Gonubie, a teenage preacher named Josh, took the World Cup

Tournament as his theme. He compared it with our Christian walk and our final destination being

heaven. He had everyone’s attention!

ECBC - TRAINING CHURCH LEADERS FOR THE FUTURE

Converted to Christ as a result of World Bible Study School

(WBS) correspondence courses with partners in the church

in Clyde, Texas, David is one of the leaders of the Buffalo

Flats Church of Christ in East London. He is now attending

as a fulltime student at the Eastern Cape Bible College

(ECBC) in order to be better equipped in leadership and

preaching.

Kholekile has been preaching in local churches and active in prison ministry in the Transkei*.

Kholekile is studying full time at ECBC in order to have greater Biblical knowledge. (*The

Transkei is the old Homeland which is the eastern part of the present East Cape Province. It is

very rural and underdeveloped.)

Jack is an elder and preacher in one of the congregations in the Dimbaza area near King Williams

Town. The congregation has erected its own meeting place at its own expense. In his secular

retirement, Jack is a full time student at ECBC.

Sizwe realized that he needed to become a Christian while in prison. He was baptized shortly after

his release from prison. Sizwe is now an ECBC student.

This semester ECBC is offering thirteen courses with about 40

students full time and part time. ECBC was started about ten

years ago by Chester. Five students have graduated who are

active in church work in the Eastern Cape. An ECBC Diploma

requires the student to pass in 40 subjects.

REACHING PRISONERS FOR CHRIST

Chester is on the South African board for New Life Behavior Ministries (NLBM) prison outreach for

Churches of Christ in South Africa. One of the strengths of the NLBM materials is their emphasis

on rehabilitation.

There is a prison ministry by Churches of Christ in more than 30 prisons in South

Africa with at least 35 teachers and more than 700 inmates in regular Bible study

groups. Two of our South African prison workers, Tebogo and Machona, spoke at the

Pepperdine lectureship in 2010.

With the assistance of the Clyde church team of WBS teachers, we have several

thousand South African prisoners studying WBS courses. A steady stream of

prisoners are confessing their faith in Jesus and being baptized. At Kokstad, however,

the portable baptistry has been stolen from the preacher’s garage!

Clyde World Bible Study Team

Eastern Cape Bible College Graduates

Bulelani James

In some prisons the authorities are saying that it is too cold with the freezing temperatures for

prisoners to be baptized. Nevertheless, where possible, the baptizing takes place.

There are seven former prisoners who have started house churches where they have settled after

release.

CHURCH PLANTING

The Gonubie congregation moved from our house to the Gonubie

library hall because of the increasing number in 2010. The library hall

is now becoming full! Major strengths of Gonubie are membership,

leadership, and the fact that those who preach reflect South Africa as

a rainbow nation.

The downtown congregation is meeting in a former 200 seat movie

theatre, so it will take longer to fill!

In the Dimbaza area the number of congregations has

increased from one to five.

And the new church plant at Bisho with the Potwanas, who

have graduated from ECBC, continues and has both VBS and

Xhosa language WBS outreaches.

NOTE FROM ANGELA

On Saturday, 31 July 2010, I had the privilege of being the guest speaker at the Ladies Day hosted

by Buffalo Flats Church of Christ. The theme of the day was “People of God: Be still and Listen.”

There were ladies from 5 different congregations, and we all had a wonderful time of Christian

fellowship. As you can imagine, there was a lot of talking and exchange of news. One of the

highlights for me was the singing which lifted us spiritually over and over. Our hosts from Buffalo

Flats extended excellent hospitality and put on a feast for us to conclude the day.

60 BAPTISMS IN ZAMBIA

We spent twenty years in Zambia in evangelism, church planting, and leadership training. The

harvest of souls continues. The son of one of our now deceased Zambian co-workers has held a rural

open air Gospel Meeting, and there were sixty baptisms into Christ at the local river, regardless of

crocodiles. Praise the Lord!

This newsletter is published by the Bering Drive Church of Christ.

Pictures are random and may not reflect the article they are near.

Potwana Family

A few church attendees

Owen, preacher at Komga, in discussion with teens.

Teen’s Bible Study