Dear Pastor and Friend,

Merry Christmas! We are about to celebrate our 4th Christmas here in South Africa. After all these years, in Peru and now here, you would think we would be used to Christmas in summertime. Chimneys, hot chocolate and bundling up to go visit family during the holidays are things we associate with Christmas. Here, the people have summer holiday and the beach on their mind when they think of Christmas.

Many churches here close their doors in December and do not open again until the end of January. As you can imagine, this ideology is something we are not comfortable with at all. We actually have several different outreach events planned to counter the decline in attendance that normally happens in summer. One in particular, which you can continue to pray with us about, is “Project 7.” We are encouraging our people to take 7 gospel tracts for the week and give out one per day. They are to pray over it and the person who will receive it.

Last week we had our 2nd annual youth camp. We had 93 campers and 20 workers. The campers came from several churches around town. Each camper heard a total of 23 Bible based messages throughout the week. God worked and 4 young people trusted in Christ for salvation. Many other decisions were also made. 

Also last month, we had the opportunity to have one of our supporting pastors, Tony Howeth, come for a visit. Pastor Tony was my youth pastor growing up. He preached our first Missions Conference at Soweto Baptist Church. He also preached our 1 year anniversary service on December 4th. The conference was well attended and our people were blessed.

Other Prayer Requests:

• Our nephews,Tyler and Chase, left for America today. They will be missed greatly. Tyler will be going to the OG Training Center and begin his formal training to serve as a foreign missionary. Chase will be joining his family on furlough.
• Pray for the spiritual growth of our leaders at Soweto; Matthew, Mxolisi, Aphiwe, Aphelele, Athule, Thamsanqa and Luxolo
• Upcoming trip to Johannesburg. Several of the guys from Soweto will be accompanying me as we go to Joburg and try to be a blessing to another church. Hopefully will be able to put a new roof on their church building. We will also take advantage of this long trip to plan out our yearly calendar.

As always, we thank you so much for your faithfulness to pray and to give to our ministry. We pray God blesses you richly for all that you do!

Sincerely,

Jeremy and Rebekah Hall