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GEORGE, SOUTH AFRICA

The Laughrens,
Pete, Fran & Denzil Winter 2009 -Vol.19, No. 3

Annual Preachina and Teachina Conference

One of the activities that we are always a part of is the annual preaching and teaching conference, which is held in a different area every year. When
we arrived in South Africa, Al Zimmerman, told us that

for the local African members, it is a highlight of the year for most of them. Many people save all year for the travel fees and cost of the food and it is always a good time of fellowship. This year it was held in Port Elizabeth, about 4 hours from George. For many years we were in charge of the annual preaching and teaching conference, but now it is in the hands of the local people. When we first arrived there were two sets of classes each day, one for men and one for women. Over the years we have expanded it to include two types of Sunday schools, three ages of youth, young adults, elders, deacons and we even had separate worship sen/ices for the youth. We found out that many of the youth felt left out when they came to conference and many times idle times led to many troubles. We therefore planned

accordingly so that all age groups were ministered to when they came to conference. One of the really tough things that one has to do in cross cultural work is to let go and let the local people take over. You always hope that they carry on with the work in a productive way, but sometimes what you think is most productive does not always translate into the local hands. They do different things and while a lot of things are different, not all things are wrong. Anyway, we had hoped that they would continue on with the classes for all ages to cater for the different groups, but this has not happened. They are back to the men's and ladies' classes, a class for youth and a class for Sunday School. But conference is still the main gathering time for the Christians that we work with and this year's meeting went very well. We had close to 300 people in attendance. Fran taught a class to the women and I taught a class to the men and preached in one of the main sessions. It is always good to see the people from all over South Africa and

This is tile men's class that I taught at the annual con

ference.

Fran with some of the youth girls between classes.

m.

The hardest job at conference is always the cooking. But the ladies take care of it with joy in their hearts.

to see how the churches are going and in that we were encouraged. People came as far as Upington, Cape Town and Klmberiey to be in attendance. Plans are being made for the next gathering to be in Upington, in the far northern Cape and we are hoping that attendance will be good there as it is so far away. Thanks for your prayers for this gathering.

/ thought this was a nice picture of the scenery with the reflection of the sky. It will probably not look as nice in black and white as it did in color... but it was very
pretty.

Mikr-

71
Etc.
We have done several trips since our last news letter, we have gone to Graaff-Reinet, Knysna and Barkly-West in the Northern Cape for times of teaching. On the trip to Barkiy-West we took part in the Northern cape gathering of Deo Gloria where there were several baptisms.

'

-?''

Fran with Roland Joseph in Barkly West.

We had several baptisms at Deo Gloria for which we praise the Lord.

This is the youth group that we taught at Deo Gloria in the Northern Cape.

This is the completed roof on the members' house that many of you helped with. Thanks again.

Amy Hagedom teaching at the Vacation Bible School

while she was here for three weeks.

* Vacation Bible Schools have been opening up new areas in and around George. We have done two shorter ones in recent months for half-way houses for kids and we have been asked to do more during the upcoming school holidays. * Many of you have helped with an appeal that we made for help on a roof on some members' house here in George. Three young people who have lost both parents in recent years only had half of a roof on their house. With your help they now have
a complete roof over their house and the rain does not come in any more. We thank one and all for your help. Please see pictures at right.
* Andrew Calvert, the minister that we work with,

Patrick Somandi and his brother, Maxi, and his sis

fn

ter, Zipho, and sisters say thanks for the roof on their
house.

turned 60 this year and we had a surprise birthday party here at our house for him. 65 people came from as far as Graaff-Reinet and Cape Town. He and I went to Knsyna for a Sunday morning of services and when we arrived back at 3 p.m., all 65 people were inside our yard behind the gate to greet him. He was very surprised and it went well. See picture at right.

* Denzil is still being home schooled and making straight A's. He is now taller than Fran and growing
into a fine young man. * If you access "Facebook" add either Fran or I as we have lots of pictures to view there and we can keep in touch better. Andrew Calvert ivas surprised at the 65 people that greeted him at his surprise 60th birthday party re cently.

Prayers
Please be in prayer for my mother, Flo Blackmarr who is having medical problems. She is presently under the care of my sister and husband, Lisa and Mark Andrews in Grass Valley, California. They, with the doctors help, are getting her medicine straightened out and getting to the bottom of her disorientations and memory loss. Please pray for the proper courses of action. Pray for her husband Collins back in Georgia.
Please pray for us as we have interns coming again in June and July. We are doing Vacation Bible Schools in new place this year and we look to continue doing them in Graaff-Reinet and George. Pray for Stacy Garner as he leads this group once again from St. Louis. Pray for South Africa as we head into new general elections in the next couple of months. Pray that
the Lord's hand will be in it all.

Praises
Amy Hagedorn, an intern from Occidental, California made a safe trip to here and back for
three weeks in December.

Visitors from Johannesburg for Christmas, Paul and Karen Reyman, added to our Christmas time. We were real glad for their visit and company.

Thanks to one and all who helped me celebrate my mother's 80th birthday in December.
Thanks so much to Jeff Jones and the Berea

Christian church adult Sunday School class for your Christmas box. It was wonderful! Thanks must also go to an anonymous donor at Christmas for a personal gift. You know who you are and thanks so much for thinking of us!

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I^JGEORGE, SOUTH AFRICi

The Laughrens, Pete, Fran & Denzii

Spring, Summer 2009 - Vol. 19, No. 4 & Vol. 20 No. 1

You Can Chanae the Laws, But It Takes a Little Lonaer to Chanae Hearts . . .
Greetings from South Africa once again. When is a good thing called a bad thing when it is really a good thing? The answer is when it is viewed with a predetermined amount of prejudice or orientation. Up until 1994, "apartheid" was the law of the land here in South Africa. That meant that certain races of people had to stay in certain areas and there were all sorts of petty laws relating to where people could or could not go. While the laws have been repealed, hearts are much harder to change. In February you might remember that we had a surprise 60th birthday party for Andrew Calvert here at our house. Many people came from as far as Cape Town and Graaff-Reinet to help us celebrate and for two hours that afternoon we had 65 people in an about our house.
Several weeks later we had a visit from an official of the

official letter from the municipality informing us that we must immediately stop all worship services here as the locality was not zoned for a church. Andrew Calvert accompanied me as I took the letter to the municipality for a further explanation. The gentleman that we talked to would not comment on what specific activity was in question or who made the complaint. I mentioned to him that if the complaint was concerning Bible studies and if he wanted to stop these taking place in homes, then he needed to write every church in town, not just us. He did mention that during the election times, candidates were canvassing the suburbs to see what kind of complaints they could
encounter and work on to make the areas better to live in
for their constituents. I mentioned to him that I was sure

municipality wondering if we were running a boarding house and wanted to see our papers for such. Of course we were not running a boarding house and therefore did not have papers for such a thing. We explained that we have Bible studies and youth groups meeting here and
he seem satisfied. Three weeks later we received an

the complaint was not the disturbance as such but that it was because of the color of the people gathering at our
house. He then said that if we were to write a letter in

reply "Please do not mention that fact when you write!!" To make a long story short, after much discussion, I brought up the fact of the birthday party to which he replied, "So that was not a regular church service, but a one time happening?? Don't worry; I will explain that then to my superiors." Old feelings die hard and it is evident that that is what happened here. We stopped the classes here for a few weeks to let the election get over with. We have heard nothing else and we hope that that is the end of it all. I did talk to the newspaper editor of the local George newspaper who was licking his chops for a chance to
write about it and I also talked to some friends who

were lawyers who had some choice words as to how to respond. But nothing else has come of it and we are hopeful that nothing else will happen. Since that time we have been able to carry as normal and there have
This is the group that gathered for the birthday party of
Andrew Calvert. . . and the reason for the visit of the

municipality.

been no problems. What a strange experience itwas to go through, but it once again proves that while laws can change easily, hearts take a little longer.

On June 25. Stacy I

Garner of Gateway International
Educational Services arrived with 6 interns from various

parts so the U.S. to work for 5

weeks. Conning with hinn were Melanie Stewart of Hampton

Ga., Courtney List of Davenport Our good friend, Sta-

lowa, Vicky Moore ofSpringfield III., Shelby Cox of Lawton Ok.,

Garner, who led internship.

Caleb Hoke of St. Louis Mo., and Hannah Friskney of Cincinnati Ohio. They were here until July 28. Just after they arrived we went to Graaff-Reinet on
the 27th for the annual Vacation Bible School there and

the church there did a magnificent job of doing most of the organization. They are the only church so far that has organized and really taken a hold of the preparations. They can do it by themselves now and we just go to help where we can. We averaged around 600 kids with the largest attendance being over 800 during one day of the week. The church also had the interns doing Bible studies and youth groups during the week. Stacy preached for the Sunday service. On the 6th of July we all headed an hour north of George to take part in the annual youth camp that took place just outside of Oudtshoorn. Stacy, Fran and I
taught classes and the interns did devotions and helped with team building. We had over 80 kids in attendance from places such as Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, George, and Graaff-Reinet. That part of the country can get extremely cold and we were lucky that it was not too

Stacy Garner with the interns: (Back) Caleb, Melanie and Stacy; (Front) Hannah, Melanie, Vicky and Courtney

Fran came up with craft ideas and it all came together

very well. Since the theme and lessons were different than what we did in Graaff-Reinet, all of the left over crafts from George went to Graaff-Reinet for them to use next year or whenever they want to use it. Leading up that week we had been informed that
the a.m. Vacation Bible School would be around 300

kids and the afternoon would be about 1,000. We had

bad. Considering that we have the camp in the middle of winter, we were lucky with the temperatures. From the 13th to the 17th of July we did 2 Vacation Bible Schools per day here in George in the township of Thembalethu. Courtney List from St. Louis Christian College needed to have this trip count for college credit, so she came up with the theme and lessons. Each intern had a chance to do one lesson. Together, Courtney and

to prepare crafts accordingly. This took a lot of work on the part of the interns and they did crafts very well. The numbers never materialized as we thought, as the morning Vacation Bible School averaged around 70 and the afternoon about 300. Only on the first day did the afternoon school go around 1,000. When we hold the Vacation Bible Schools in Thembalethu, we usually use the church building, but this year the police wanted to be involved with the program. On the first morning, they drove around the area broadcasting about the Vacation Bible School over a loudspeaker. They organized a school auditorium for us to use. They advertised on the radio, made rounds around the township, and attended every day to help with crowd control. We felt this was an excellent opportunity to have the children see how we must have respect for the law and the officers, and abide

el
Different interns having good times in various places.

Mf
The Mascot outfits from

Englewood
put to use.

Christian

Church in Jacksonville,

Pete Koeberg, of GraaffReinet, working with deco

rations for the hall of the Vacation Bible School.

Florida, are still being

While here the interns met with the youth groups.

by the law of the land. This is a great need today where

there is so much crime.

Getting back to the afternoon of the first day, when we arrived in the afternoon of the first day, we were overwhelmed with the number being over 1,000. It was mayhem! We have found in the past that, when we are dealing with a large crowd of kids, it is better to have them line up outside and we have help from the adults/ youth in leading them in the hall and seating them in an orderly fashion. The police thought they were doing us a favor by letting the kids just go in as they came. Every day the kids were at least an hour early and Monday was no exception. The hall was full and we never did gain control of the crowd of 1,000 kids or so. We were not able to give out all the crafts and we were unable to

The police were out in force helping with the Vacation Bible School in Thembalethu in George.

give out treats at the door due to a stampede. It was frightening and frustrating for all of us. We got together with the police and discussed how we would like to line the children up and have them wait until we are ready for them to file into the hall in an orderly way. From Tues.
on we had order and it went well. The attendance went

way down on Tues. (244) but we feel it was due to the

chaos on Mon. However, the attendance grew every day: Wed. we had 383, Thurs. 457 and by Fri. we had
602. It was hard work to have two VBS' every day, but the team pulled through and the VBS' were a success
because the children learned about Jesus.

Great times at Youth Camp. him be gone for so long. We also thank the interns for their hard work. Thanks also goes to all of the churches and individuals who helped them come and who made it possible for us to have craft supplies. Most of all, we thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve here through VBS programs.
On the weekends in between the schools and

As you can imagine, we were worn out after 2 Vacation Bible Schools a day, but it went well. The local church here in George did not help much, and they do not seem very interested in taking hold of the work themselves, so this is the last year that the Vacation Bible School will take place here in George. The last week that Stacy and his group were here,
we did a smaller Vacation Bible School in another area of

George called Borgas. We held this in the afternoons and

averaged about 80 children. As with the other Vacation

Bible Schools in George, each intern took their turn in presenting the lesson for the day. AH were involved in helping with crafts before the school and helping the children do the final assemblies during the schools. They were well received in all places and saw what it was like to work in a different setting outside of the U.S. Thanks goes to Stacy Garner for all his organization of the trip and for all of his help. We must thank his wife Angle and the church at Ferguson, Missouri, for letting

camp, the interns took part in the services wherever we were, whether it was in Graaff-Reinet or George. One other Sunday we went to visit the church in Knysna and they also led the services there. In George and GraaffReinet they led the youth and young adult classes and fellowshipped with the churches. Also in between times we did sight seeing in George, Knysna, Oudtshoorn and Graaff-Reinet. South Africa is a beautiful country with lots to see and itwas good to expose
them to as much of the local flavor as we could.

Stacy, after much prayer and thought has told us that this was his last trip to South Africa with interns. We were sad to hear that but we understand the many circumstances that led he and his family to that decision.

Outreach International
Addresses:

Mission Services 2004 E. Magnolia Ave.

Knoxville, TN 37917

Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid

Knoxville, TN
Permit #374

Return Service Requested

Bete &.Fran Laughren

P.O. Box 10421

George, 6530
South Africa Phone: 011-27-44-873-0448 Fax: 011-27-44-873-0548

e-mail: laughrn@mweb.co.za

Forwarding Agents:
Mark & Annette Tuttle P. O. Box 22

Granville, Ohio 43023 (740) 321-3377

We are thankful for all of the work that Stacy has done to expose students to cross cultural work and we are thankful for his witness. Thank-you Stacy from the bottom
of our hearts.

Please pray for the leaders of the church in GraaffReinet. One of the leaders, Max Cudjoe, is from Ghana and the Dept. of Home Affairs is giving he and his family difficult times. Please be in prayer for us as we consider alternatives for furlough as we need to plan on Denzil's schooling
needs.

Stacy left here with the interns on the 28th of July and flying via Johannesburg and Atlanta they arrived
home on the 29th.

Etc.
Denzil has started grade 9 after making straight A's again for the last year. He is home schooled so it must
be his teacher....

Praises
We are very thankful for Stacy Garner and the work he did in planning the internships. We could never have done it for so many years without him.
We are thankful for the continued health of our parents,

Inthe past 4 months we have been in Graaff-Reinet for classes 3 times, have traveled to Cape Town a couple of times and held services monthly In Knysna.

in Texas and Georgia.

I am very thankful for the home schooling prep that Fran does

^
1

We hosted the yearly planning committee for the yearly youth camp at our house. It went well as evidenced by the success of the camp. We were glad to meet the Jim Conley family on a recent
Ginger used
to be missionaries

and the teaching she does for

Denzil. Itried home schooling

^ Fran now that he is

and after three days I had taught him everything that I

Denzil is is taller taller than than knew, so I am glad that she Denzil

took over... .

15, and in the 9th

West

Thank-you for your continued grade. We are real support. proud of him!

Jim & Ginger Conley with their daughter and son

daughter and son-in-law, Charlie in law, Charlie and and April Kilinski. April Kilinksi.

Please be In prayer for the churches who are going to conference this year, it is being held in a remote part of South Africa and many people will not be able to afford to go.

Pete with Roland Joseph in Kimberley.

We had some recent baptisms here In George.

OlapE imes
4
GEORGE, SOUTH AFRICA
The Laughrens,
Pete, Fran & Denzil
Fall 2009 - Vol. 20 No. 2

rtsimas
First of all, Fran, Denzil and I would like to wish all

of our readers a wonderful Merry Christmas for 20091 We livein the southern hemisphere and as you know we have summer time during Christmas. We still cannot get used to having warm weather over the Christmas season, but we see the snow on the news from your part of the world and it brings back memories. We wish you a great holiday season and never forget that Jesus is the reason
for the season!

Right: Pete, Fran, and Denzil at the Augrabie Fails in Northern South Africa during Conference.

During the last day of September and the first 4 days of October we had our annual preaching and teaching conference. This year it was held in the remote town of Upington, 650 miles north of George. We had no idea what to expect at this year's conference for several reasons. One reason was that the publicity for the gathering was very weak and communication was bad. A lot of people did not know the details and, therefore, did not make plans to go. We, therefore, thought that the attendance would be very low. Another reason was the remoteness of the location as it is a long drive from anywhere to go to this town. (I tell people to get there
you must go to the middle of nowhere and turn left, it is

divided for Elders and Deacons. That has all fallen away, they have gone back to just having single age classes for men, women and youth and adding to that this year, there were not even afternoon classes for anyone. It was disheartening to see so many classes fall by the wayside and the teaching not done anymore, but that is how they planned it and we have to "go with the flow" so to speak. When they had the semi annual committee elections this year the local brother that was the chairman was voted out and the congregations voted in another
younger brother. We will see how the conference goes from this point on. We are hoping for there to be more teaching and preaching times as that is what we feel is the purpose of the annual gathering. We do need the times of fellowship, but people plan all year to go to the conference, and for some of them it Is the only strong teaching time of the year. While there, Fran and I both taught a men's and ladies class and I preached at one of the main sessions. It was great to see so many people that we had not seen since the last gathering in 2008 in Port Elizabeth. Many faithful Christians traveled a long way to be there and the gathering as a whole was a success. Thanks for your prayers in that regard.
see pictures of the conference on page 2

just down the road ) When we arrived we were very pleased as the attendance was more than we expected with about 200 people in attendance. The local church led by a 94 year old brother did the local preparations very well and they had the hall, classrooms and the sleeping
arrangements all sorted out.

Iused to be the chairman of the planning committee for the conference program but we have long since turned
it over to the local brothers. That is the way that it should be. When we used to plan the program, we would have classes for all ages of youth from Sunday School to Young Adults, separate youth services and even classes

k
David and Audrey Jantjies of Cape Town

Eric Ncingyathi, the new Cliairman of tfie Planning

Committee for the An nual Conference.

Fran taught the ladies

Pete with Brother John Ja

Pete with James Booi

Pete with the group of men at the Men's class

of Cape Town

cobs, the leader in Upington who is 94 years old.

Drouaht here in Georqe

In the recorded history of our town of George, we are told that the current drought is the worst in the last 132 years. We are also told that there are now fines for using too much water in our households and ifanyone is

caught, there are penalties. The local dam is now down to 22% of capacity. This area has a lot of summer visitors
and the town and the area swells to over double its size

for the months of December and January. With these visitors here, if there is no rain, it is said that the dam will be dry by February. Please pray for this community as it
comes to terms with what to do in this crisis. There have

been many prayer meetings held throughout George and at the dam for the purpose of asking our Father for help. Please join us as we do the same.

Misi
In September Itaught for two weeks at South African Bible Institute located in Kimberley in the northern Cape. I had six students and we dealt with the subject

As you can see from these two pictures of the local dam here in George, it is down close to 20% capacity. Please pray for rain.

Students at South African Bible Institute

that Pete taught in September.

of Youth Ministry. I gave the students until the end of October to complete the assignments of which only 2 completed the course work. I was told by others in charge that that was a characteristic of the students this year, but I had hoped for better. It was not to be. Please pray for the students there to be more productive. I did enjoy my time of teaching.
The wife of one of the faithfui elders in Kimberley passed away in August and I made the trip there to
do the funeral on short notice. She had been sick for

willcontinue to pray foryou andyour family, and for the work of the churches. This change in support is based on our M/ss/ons Strategy and what we believe to be God's direction for critically needed missions funds." This, combined with losing additional individual supporters this year, will limit what can be done here in the work. Please pray for the work in South Africa and the people affected by these decisions. We are very thankful for God's faithfulness over the years.

We have continued to make |

monthly trips to Graaff-Reinet for weeks of teaching. These have gone well and we are very thankful
forthe students faithfulness there.

a long time but still her death came as a shock to the

family She was young and her family is missing her dearly as you can imagine. Since the last report we have made several trip to visit the church in Knysna and they are continuing to grow in number and spirit.
Please pray for the work here as we have been notified by our largest supporting church that they will cease support of the work in South Africa in June of 2010. They have said 'We want to be sure that you know this change is not, in any way, an indicator of any loss of confidence in your Christian character orintegrity. We

They are a hard working church F

and they help in many social areas. They are an example to their community. Denzil is doing well in School and is still making straight A's. We

'

are very proud of him as you can

imagine.

Graaff

Table Mountain in Cape Town taken from a Delta Airplane

The Augrabie Falls in Northern South Africa

Food is still carried in the traditional way.

Birds nests on a pole along the highway

These three pictures show that all parts of the sheep are sold for consumption.

Outreach Internotionol
Addresses:

Mission Services 2004 E. Magnolia Ave.

Knoxville, TN 37917

Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid

Knoxville, TN
Permit #374

Return Service Requested

Pete & Fran Laughren

P.O. Box 10421

George, 6530
South Africa Phone: 011-27-44-873-0448 Fax: 011-27-44-873-0548

e-mail: laughrn@mweb.co.za

Forwarding Agents:
Mark & Annette Tuttle P. O. Box 22

Granville, Ohio 43023

(740) 321-3377

Prayers
Please be in prayer for rain in our area.

Please pray for decisions to be made this year for our furlough
that will start in December 2010.

c9-Cave a Qreat

Please be inprayerforour parents as bothsets are contemplating

moves to new states.

Please continue to pray for Denzil as he does his home

schooling. Please pray for two members of the Graaff-Reinet church, Stan

Christmas
and a

George and Arrie Koeberg, who are battling health problems.

Praises
We praise our Father for another productive year in South
Africa.

We are thankful for the young adult class that is going well here in George and filling a gap in our teaching. Thank-you for prayer for Max Cudjoe in Graaff-Reinet and his problem with Home Affairs. All is settled and they have their
Permanent Residence status.

c9-Cappp
^ cfHem ^ear

We are thankful for the great amount of Christmas treats that

we purchased at greatly reduced prices in 2008 at Wal-Mart

and Family Dollar in the US as it has helped us to provide Christmas to a lot of kids in the townships that would normally get nothing. We are using the last of it up this year and we are thankful for the after Christmas sales that I stumbled upon in January of 2008 right before our return here.
We are so very thankful for Mark and Annette Tuttle our

fonwarding agents and the wonderful job that they do for us and the work here in South Africa. You guys are the best!! Thanks for all of your work. We are thankful for good health. Fran turned 50 back in October and we are thankful for the many wishes that she received.