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I am in South Africa at present, ministering in some very needy places as well as helping Deborah with her project to skill and equip African women in rural areas who have Aids (and whose kids are HIV positive) to create a home industry with sewing, dressmaking, quilting, embroidery etc to enable them to sell to the departmental stores and raise funds to feed and educate their children. Deborah has helped create a sewing center at the Riversands Centre at Diepsloot out in the country NW of Johannesburg for these African mothers. Diepsloot is a shanty town of over 200,000 needy people NW of Johannesburg.
Ridgeway Community Church pastored by Peter and Debbie Veysie, longstanding friends of mine, has a great children's pre-school and a feeding programme for 780 primary schoolers as well as a medical clinic in Diepsloot.  Deborah has linked with them to facilitate this sewing centre. We’ve bought and installed 23 sewing machines with more on order, and a lot of materials and requisites. The programme is going so well and the ladies are growing in enthusiasm and competence. Deborah is also training local women to lead the project as well. The project is going well, with the ladies very happy with the way the teaching programme is going. Singer Sewing Machines (South Africa) has been prepared to give us 25% discount on every thing we buy from them. What a bonus from the Lord, as funds are short. I got the African ladies at Diepsloot to shout out their thanks over the phone to the director of Singer. He got so choked up. He said he’d never experienced such mass gratitude. Please stand with Deborah in prayer and support for and this wonderful project. 
The ministry I have had in different local churches has been wonderful. The Ridgeway Community Church, with whom Deborah linked for her sewing project, hosted me the first weekend with the prophetic operating to encourage needy people. The lunch with the 30 leaders of the church was tremendous with questions and answers meting so many needs. Fourteen people committed their lives to Jesus at the morning and evening services.
The second weekend saw me at the large Chinese Grace Family Church in Bez Valley, Johannesburg. The people hungrily received the word of God and many were touched by God’s power in the altar call ministry. The evening meeting at which I preached was with Liberty Fellowship’s Discovery Campus. I had the joy of leading the pastor, DJ McPhail, to the Lord at his country high school in 1975. The Holy Spirit began to minister to people’s needs almost immediately and the prophetic word encouraged so many.
Over this last weekend I was ministering in Swellendam near Cape Town in the very sweet Swellendam Family Church. I was driven there by my Cape Town hosts, Ron and Phyl van Rensburg. The Saturday night and Sunday morning services were tremendous with God’s presence very evident in the sweet fellowship with God’s people.
Love and blessings,
Dave,
20 March 2007
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