Dear Churches, Friends, and Family,

 This year is off to a galloping start and it will be March very soon.  Thank you for helping us to pray for our grandson, Joseph.  The surgery on his hands went well and he is healing nicely.  Presently he is wearing a special glove to keep the fingers from drawing up; he has one more surgery scheduled for March 16 and hopefully that will be the final one.  Also next month Jonathan and Jennifer will be presenting us with our seventh grandchild. Olivia Rei is expected around the 23rd; pray for them in these final days of waiting and for a safe delivery.  On March 26 Theresa and I will be celebrating our 36th anniversary.

 Regina Chawane, one of our young ladies in the church who was saved about four months ago, has just been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  It is not malignant but surgery may be required.  Her brother is Abdul who had a very serious case of spinal meningitis that we asked you to pray for (he has 95% recovered); they both live with their older brother, Samuel Chawane.  Before their decease their father was involved in witchcraft and the mother was a Christian; the large family was divided between Christianity on one hand and witchcraft on the other.  Bro Sam believes that his other family members are afflicting Abdul and Regina through witchcraft.  We really believe this to be a spiritual conflict and ask you to pray for Regina as this condition has left her devastated; after special prayer in church on last evening her spirits have been lifted somewhat.

 Last Saturday Bro. Sam and I were at the mall handing out tracts.  When we got back to the car the passenger window was broken out and the car radio stolen. Out of all the years that we have been in South Africa we have never had a car radio stolen and the only regret is temporarily we cannot listen to preaching tapes and news as before.  The Lord has been very good to us over the years because the crime rate has not lessened here but only grows worse.  PRAISE THE LORD - the car was not stolen nor were we hijacked - certainly the Lord is good to us.

 I have had two encounters with the police in the past two weeks.  I was in downtown Johannesburg heading toward the city center,  for an open air meeting, when a police woman stopped me and said I was in a bus lane (OOPS)!  Praise the Lord He sent her along as she was kindness itself to an 'old, gray-haired' gentleman.  She looked at my driver's license and gave me directions to where I was going.  Just a few days later in the town where I live, the police approached me and asked me 'not to preach so loud' on the street but to KEEP ON preaching anyway as the people need to hear the gospel (he had been instructed to keep the noise levels down near the government offices). 

 Some years ago I wrote a tract on 'Strong Drink' and have just recently revised and re-printed it; there has been no visible response with its distribution.  The general consensus among Christians is 'strong drink is OK in moderation'; this attitude is seen in many national Pastors. Pray for these tracts as they are handed out that the Word of God will reach the hearts of people and bring them to Christ.  The burden of my heart is to see people saved, not just from the penalty of sin but from the power of sin in their lives. 

 Joel and Theresa

Joel and Theresa Bain
P.O. Box 3110
2125 Randburg
Johannesburg
South Africa
tel/fax (use all numbers when calling from USA)
011 27 11 462 5272
cell: 011 27 72 450 0535
Baptist International Missions, Inc.
Chattanooga, Tennessee