New Elders at MountainView

On Feb. 4th I had the privilege of joining another man, Doug Steytler in being added to the eldership at MountainView. For a long time it was David Brown alone as an elder, and he wanted to share the burden, so God allowed me to join with these two men in this awesome responsibility. We were blessed by a group of believers from our sister church New South Baptist who came over to join with us for this exciting occasion. Also, Dan Willoughby, a visiting BMW missionary from Germany joined in the prayer of ordination. Dan is on the left and David is on the right. So please pray for me as I seek to be faithful to this calling.

Let me take a little time here to tell you about Doug. He is the international director for Voice of the Martyrs--an organization that helps out the persecuted church and was started by Richard Wurmbrand of Romania who himself spent 14 years in prison for preaching the Gospel. I know this fact because I met Richard when I was 12 and got to see his back and all the scars from the beatings he took in prison, and my goal at that age was just to live as long as he was in prison.

In this picture Doug has just returned from a trip to Southeast Asia where he was taking a firsthand look at what is occuring there. In his hand is a new Bible for the country of Myanmar (Burma) and he shared just a little about his experience. This next week he speaks in church and I'll have more details for you.

It is a humbling experience to serve alongside of Doug and Dave and yet one that I look forward to greatly, so keep praying for us as we seek to raise up a God-honoring church here in the south of Joburg.