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From
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December 25, 2009 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isa 53:1-10)
Dear Faithful Prayer Partners, A blessed Christmas! From those of us in Africa, to those of you around the world, we wish you and your families all the blessings of our God and our Savior. It is sometimes hard to get into the “spirit” of Christmas when the temperatures are hovering near 100 degrees and the land is awash in all its African summer splendor. Still, we have no trouble getting into the “Spirit” of the season. When we reread the prophecies of the coming Savior we try to see the tender child of the nativity and not the beaten and bloody sacrifice for our sin. I always have a hard time looking at the Child, knowing that He is destined for the cross. Christmas for me isn’t about the gentle Jesus, it is about love, sacrifice, redemption, and salvation. Maybe we have our celebrations all mixed up, Christmas sad and restrained, Easter happy and joyous. Maybe like some cultures we ought to mourn when a child is born and laugh and celebrate when he departs. OK, you are saying he has turned into a grouch or a Grinch and is trying to steal the happiness of Christmas, really I’m not! I just listened to the song “Mary Did You Know” and I keep thinking about what Mary did know, and what we know. Do we look at the child and see the cross? Do we hold the little hands and see nail holes? Do we celebrate the sacrifice of the Savior? Of course these days in the secular world, Christmas isn’t much to do about Christ or the Christ child and we tolerate the disrespect to a sovereign King, we remain silent to the loud and obnoxious railings of a pitiful few. I read the other day about a “gentleman” who successfully petitioned a city government to remove an Angel from the top of the city Christmas tree…he must have believed the angel figure had more substance than symbolism and even as a unrepentant nonbeliever he ascribed more importance to the figure than those confessing Christians among us. Perhaps I’m getting old. I guess I don’t want to take the birth of the Savior for granted…don’t want to take my eyes off the Cross or be distracted from the purpose of His birth. Tonight some of you will attend services in celebration of that birth, the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, the son of the Living God. I pray that your declaration this Christmas is the confession of who the baby Jesus really is and what He really did. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:26-33) And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38) We pray that we will always declare “let it be to me according to your word.” As we are facing the upcoming Stateside Assignment and the privilege of speaking in some of your churches and sharing what God has and is doing in Lesotho and in the Western Free State, we want to be servants of the Lord and faithful to our calling to tell His story. We are called to share the story…uncomplicated, unabridged, uncompromising. I was once asked by one of my siblings if I really believed that the scriptures were exact as they were written, didn’t I recognize the error of the writer/translator? Sadly, at that time in my walk, I was not prepared (you may read too much of a coward here) to declare my absolute belief that the Bible was complete, inerrant, and Divinely Inspired…please see Psalm 119:160, “The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever.” I have lived in regret for my lack of courage many times since then. If I am to accept any of the scripture as truth then I must accept all the truth of the scripture and my confession is that Jesus is exactly who He says He is (and I am exactly who He says I am.) We are so excited about our return to America as we are faced with the opportunity to again share the Gospel in our heart language. Please pray for our wisdom as we return to America, our courage as we share the message, and that Christ will be reflected in all we do and say. Today we prepare for tomorrow…you know how it goes…cooking, cleaning, schooling and more cooking and cleaning. The presents are wrapped and under the tree. Daniel and Mohau await the morning like all other children. Tonight we will read the Christmas story from God’s Word, enjoy some bible study, sing some Christmas carols, pray and love on one another and be very thankful for the life which God has given us and the precious time He has made for us as a family. The Christ child was born into a family and family is ordained by the Creator God as the basis for the way we are to live and associate with others (see the 5th Commandment, the relation of children to parents, 7th Commandment that secures the home and the 10th Commandment, things most common to family life: house, servants, animals ) As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, I pray we celebrate the gift of our earthly family. Tomorrow mid morning we will travel to Maseru to spend the day in fellowship and celebration of Christmas with our co-laborers in Lesotho, Larry and Sally Pepper (Adam, Kelly and Megan are in America,) and the Flora Family - Jim and Teresa, Grace, Anna and Rebecca. The Melvin family - Tom, Cindi, Zachary and Eli are on their Stateside Assignment and we will miss them for the Holidays. Extended family, the commonality of belief and experience sharing in celebration the birth of the Redeemer, the Savior, Messiah, the Great I AM. so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, (Php 2:10) We pray that in your celebration, every knee shall bow, and your tongue will confess Christ. …how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (Heb 9:14-15) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Mat 28:19) We pray that the blood of Christ will lead you to serve and you will see His death as redemption for all your transgressions. We want you to know how your service has changed the lives of those throughout the nations. In the 2009 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, millions of Southern Baptist sacrificed by giving and millions of dollars were collected and millions of lives changed…below are a few facts:
World evangelization
Missionaries
Church growth While we delight in what has been done, we are challenged by what must be done. Due to the financial crisis, missionary candidates are being delayed in their pursuit of obedience as the dollars don’t equal the demand of obedience. We pray that 2010 will see a resurgence, a revival of obedience from the pulpit to the pew as Southern Baptist are called and answer the commission. Please take time to visit the www.africastories.org website. There are stories featuring the Basotho people and some of our volunteers who have come to join us in telling the story of the Messiah. Also be sure to visit our team website. Thanks for standing in the gap for us, our team and the Basotho. We thank you so much for all you are, all God has made you and for all that you will become in His strength. We thank you for your prayers, for your passion and for your dedication to lostness in the world. We pray that God will bless you and your family this season and in the coming new year. We pray that we will be able to see you as we return to America and that we will be able to share our story of how Christ has changed our lives. God bless you. Thanks for loving us and allowing us to love you. In His Name,
Alan, Babs, Mohau and Daniel Dial
December 10, 2009 Dear Faithful Prayer Partners, It is a busy Spring time here in Southern Africa! Much is going on as we prepare for teams arriving, evangelism and outreach programs, “First Fruits” milk goat project, building programs (physical and spiritual) and developing new partner churches to work with the Basotho People in Lesotho and in the Free State of South Africa….OK, had to take a little break there, just thinking about it all. On top of that, we have the joy of establishing new Goals and Objectives for the Team and Cluster, budget development, and Strategic Planning. Now I’m really tired…time for an espresso! One last little detail to consider, we are scheduled to return to America on April 15, 2010 for our Stateside Assignment…visiting churches and friends, sharing the Good News, and how God is working in our neck of the woods, and we get to attend the wedding of one of our (many) faithful missionaries (Jaime) from Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida. We missed Amy’s wedding (also from Bell Shoals), but we will have a part in Jamie’s wedding, the famous duo of Jamie and Amy! Our available time in the states will be short as we visit family, friends, co-workers, in-laws, out-laws, prepare for future service and speak in (hopefully) your churches. The calendar is filling fast. Last month we had the pleasure of working with four South African mission team friends in the mountains led by our good friend Johanne. They were there for just the long weekend but it was every bit a good time in spite of the rain. This week Johanne and his lovely wife Corne have returned with a team of about 55. They camped and worked in some of our newer areas doing hut to hut evangelism during the daytime and showing the Jesus film at night. It was a great week and many responded to the showing of the Jesus film. As you must know by now, we love teams and love working with them. It has been such a blessing to be a part of so many lives as they come on mission here in Lesotho. Many of our teams, actually most, return to work again with us and they have become a permanent part of our lives. Teams bring certain spiritual gifts which we do not have and their thirst for God and doing His work encourages us. We love all our teams but on Nov. 17th we received a very special team led by a very special person to us… our oldest son Alan. This was his first mission trip and the first for others as well on his team. I cannot begin to tell you all that we did…words just would not do it justice but here is a quick rundown: Bible distribution, meeting human needs with hygiene items such as soaps, tooth brushes and tooth paste and vegetable seeds. This team arranged for six “Proclaimers” (sort of a Bible recorder which operates by solar or wind up or electricity) and they brought six additional ones from the First Baptist Church of Rockledge, FL. giving us a total of 12 Proclaimers. With this team we taught and demonstrated how to use them and placed them in strategic places with people who accepted the challenge to be leaders in the villages. They agreed to meet weekly (or even more often when possible) with the people of their villages with the Proclaimer to read, listen, discuss and pray about what they had read and heard. Please pray that the leaders entrusted with the Proclaimers will be faithful and instrumental in bringing their villages to Christ. Pray that God will use these Bible recorders for His glory and purpose. So pray for these leaders that they will remain faithful to God and to their people as leaders. The team worked in about seven villages. It was our high honor to watch and listen as our oldest son Alan gave his testimony and as he prayed with and for the villagers. One day was set aside for a village wedding for Alan Jr. and new wife Andria. We had no idea what would take place but it was a day never to forget. Five sheep were slaughtered for the feast along with all the traditional Basotho food. There was dancing, singing and lots of preaching that lasted until 3:00 a.m. the next morning. And it was a Christian wedding so there was no drinking of the joala (local beer) or smoking of the matikoane (marijuana). When asked to speak Alan and Andria testified to God’s goodness and salvation through Jesus. Our hearts were filled with joy to see them boldly witness before so many strangers in a strange land. It was just an awesome time with all of them. After dropping them off at the airport we headed out the next morning to another special event in Polokoane. Polokoane is about four hours above Johannesburg. It was there in Polokoane at Christ Seminary that we watch Sefiri receive his Bachelors’ of Theology.
After four long years, he has graduated and is a for real “Moruti” (minister). His desire is to teach and share his knowledge of the Bible and train others to be spiritual leaders and pastors. Sefiri is the first national missionary to the mountain Basotho. We are very proud of him because just for him to travel each month to school meant 18 hours in taxis. Many of you assisted with his education and for this we are eternally grateful. I can tell you that Sefiri lives out his faith. Many of you know him personally and you have seen how he loves his people and longs to see them come to Christ. Please continue to pray for Sefiri as he ministers to the Basotho of the mountains. Pray for work that will allow him to be bi-vocational. Pray for a loving Christian wife with a like vision for the lost. We will be receiving a team from the First Baptist Church of Perryton, Texas in February. Please be in prayer for this team. They worked with us about 6 months ago and are returning. They will be doing children’s ministries and evangelism. Pray that God will anoint this team to do His work and give safety as they travel and work out each detail as they make arrangements to come. Last but not least we want to remind you to get Beth Moore’s newest “Voices of the Faithful II.” It is a compilation of devotions written by your missionaries on the field. Check it out. Also, the Basotho are featured with us in an article in the Baptist Press. It was a surprise to us but we are very honored to have been a part and we believe this article will inspire many prayer warriors to be involved in praying for the Basotho. It is a good article and tells of the HIV/AIDS problem in Lesotho. Read the article at http://bpnews.org/BPnews.asp?ID=31785. We want to extend a special thanks to all our faithful prayer partners and to those that so unselfishly have given to the Corporative Program and especially to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering so we could (and thousands of others) could stay on the field. As you may know, this last year has been a time of change for the IMB and for us in the field, due to a shortage of funding and to the world economic crisis. Millions of folks are suffering and still they sacrifice for the cause of missions. Thank you for your passion, your heart for the lost and for your understanding of the word “GO”…we couldn’t be here without you. God bless. Thank you for praying for our families back home. Our families have dealt with cancer, vehicle accidents and some other health issues. It has been difficult not being there to help but we thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We have felt their strength. Thank you for loving us and for allowing us to love you. In His Name, Alan, Babs, Daniel and Mohau The Dials of the Maluti Mountains and the Western Free State of the Republic of South Africa
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