Happy New Year!

Ebyown

Please pray for Paulinas operation. The surgeon has been booked, costs drawn up and the money raised by generous Moriel supporters. The hiccup lies with the child welfare department who seem to run on Africa time. It is almost 5 month since the request for permission for the operation to take place was submitted and yet even though we have constantly asked they have not sent the letter despite promises to do so. So please pray for a speedy outcome to this situation.

Devon also needs prayer, his food intake is getting worse and he is looking thin. We want to keep off having to feed him by tube as long as possible so please pray for an increase in his appetite.

All the other boys are doing very well, they are turning into good young men, as for the girls, Prudence seems to grow each day as does N'tombi although she needs prayer for a chest infection.

Luke and Baden both enjoyed Uncle Jacobs visit this Christmas. Jacob spoilt them wrotten filling them with Ice Cream on Marshmellows;

Recently coming on board our team is Zack and his 7 year old son Voos. Zack will bne known to visitors as the guy who on occations interpreted for speakers into Zulu. Well Zack has had a calling to ministry for a long time so it was decided that he come on board to train alongside ‚   Sal and myself. Voos will also live and be educated on site at our home school. We want to wish Zack and Voos every blessing in Jesus as they serve him at Ebyown and Kwazinzele.

Ebyown has had an answer to prayer by taking possession of a new Ford Fiesta. Those who have visited will testify to the unreliability of the Mazda and the way it gulped down petrol. This little car is economical and yet we can haul most of the monthly cash and carry shop in the hatch. We would not have been able to afford this lovely vehicle if it was not for the generosity of supporters and the kindness of Ford who let us have the vehicle at cost.

Two more purchases for the new year have taken place. First of all we were desperate for storage space and the Stables we were using are in a terrible condition and Rat infested. So we decided to purchase a 40 foot container and extend the habitat fence around it for easy access.

We have also put in a design and order for a new disabilities unit. The unit will have ramps and easy access. We have been asked to take on some children who have special needs like Deven and our hope is that the unit will be finished for April/May, the frame will be erected from the 11th to the 13th of March. We want to thank business men in the Netherlands and here in Springs who came to us almost a year ago with the idea of supporting this project.

The new unit and the growing number of children with disabilities means that we require a class room assistant/Nanny and a house mum. One house mum has been found already in Victoria who will move to this new position but we need another working a 7 day on, 7 day off shift system. Anyone interested should send CV to us.

Further afield

As you would have seen on the news Kenya is in turmoil due to objections to the general elections. This has turned to tribal fighting and as I write there are over 600 dead with over 250,000 displaced and many more experiencing the possibility of starvation.

With Ps Moses we have a good man at grass roots level. And we have already started getting together aid to be distributed were it is needed through him. We have had many generous offers to help without even asking so if this is a burden to you and you want to help please contact us.

I am hoping to meet up with Moses in February when I visit Ps Norbert in Tanzania. Please pray for Norbert and our trip. We will be visiting government officials in Arusha and also Tabora. Norbert has managed to procure 20 acres for orphan and widow projects. While there I will also be visiting representatives from Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda who have expressed interest in working along side us.

http://morielmissionscollege.googlepages.com/ebyown

Moriel Missions Italy

I will be going to Italy alongside Anthony in the Autumn, meanwhile Anthony has put together the following.

Dear Friends

The difference between planning for the Easter outreach and the postponed November outreach to Rome has been amazing. The exact week we were planning to go in November our son Levi came down with Brocholitas and was in hospital overnight. We also didn't have the finances for accommodation or the resources of accommodation in November. We also were lacking in volunteers for the November mission, however, God is providing amazingly for our Easter mission.

We have now booked our accommodation, which can accommodate Levi too. We also have Jason Catizone, who was recently a missionary in Russia and previously Israel joining us. Jason and I met in Pittsburgh in 2004 through David Lister. I am looking forward to meeting up with him again and gaining from his input and advice to both short and long term mission. Also joining us is Hamish Rae who is a retired Professor of Mathematics at Kings College London. He speaks some Italian and has a heart for preaching the gospel in Italy.

We have also confirmed a short conference on Hermeneutics and exegesis at the Evangelical church in Frascati. The dates have yet to be confirmed but we have 3 sessions over 3 days. I will be doing the teachings this time round. Next year I hope to do a conference on Israel and hope Jason can come back with us a speak about his experiences out there. It is good to edify and equip the body in Italy and because of what they may have been previously taught by the Roman Catholic Church prior to their conversion we need to go back to some basics and teach people to read the Bible for themselves and show the importance of Israel and show the church has not replaced Israel.

We also have our outreach at the Vatican from Good Friday to Easter Monday. St Peters Square is going to be packed and we hope to reign on the parade. We pray for a mass Exodus from the Catholic church to come to a true faith in Jesus Christ. It's good that the gospel is going to be preached in Babylon.

Tuesday 25th March is Liz and my second wedding anniversary so we plan to take a day off and relax and hopefully reflect on what will be a positive trip.

I hope to visit later on in the year for a few days to Moriel Missions our proposals of what I believe God wants us to do in Rome. After the Easter trip I plan on starting organising the next missions trip but I'm not sure when that will be. This year is getting very busy and packed full of events.

Liz, Levi and myself are visiting South Africa in April to visit my family and for Levi to meet his Aunties and Uncle's... that's right, the kids at Ebyown are fully fledged aunties and uncles lol I will also be speaking at Aletheia over the two Sundays I am there. It will be amazing to see the differences from the last time I visited in 2005.

Please continue to pray for us and our upcoming missions trip and for the Lord's guidance in our lives. We appreciate your support whether financial or through prayer.

Shalom

Anthony, Liz and Levi Royle

http://morielmissionscollege.googlepages.com/morielitaly

Jacobs tour 2008

We will be bringing in Jacob in 2008 hopefully from May 30th for three weekends. I will be planning way ahead so those wanting to help with air travel and internal travel please contact us asap. I am planning to have in speak in the Gauteng area the first weekend, then Kwazulu Natal and finally the Cape area. One of the mid week venues will be a visit to our missions in Tanzania and Kenya. More details will follow.

http://morielmissionscollege.googlepages.com/jacobstours

UK Itinerary March/April 2008

I will be in the UK speaking from the 19th March and leaving the 9th April. Have a look at the free dates and if your group wants me just give us a call.

March

Saturday 22nd 7.30pm

Church of the Redeemer,
Llangyfealach Road, Swansea
CONTACT Pastor J Reese 01792 774945

Sunday 23rd 10.30am
Merthyr Tydfil and Cynon Valley
Berean Christian Fellowship
Cwmaman Institute, Cwmaman.
Cynon Valley
CONTACT Derek Ferrel 01685 723117

Sunday 23rd 6.00pm
Church of the Redeemer, Llangyfealach Road
Swansea
CONTACT Pastor J Reese 01792 774945

Tuesday 25th 7.30pm
Woodhill Baptist Church, Woodhill Road
Clywyn Bay. Wales
CONTACT Pastor Leonard James 01492 534343

Thursday 27th 7.45pm
Pendlebury Evangelical
431 Bolton Road, ‚   Pendlebury, ‚  M27 8TD
CONTACT Peter Wilson This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sunday 30th 10.30am
St. Matthews (C of E.) Church,
St Matthews St. Cambridge
CONTACT Darren Thomas-Carr 01223 820585

April

Saturday 5th 7.00pm
Mens Meeting
Light & Life Mission, Hills Rise,
Lanes End, Darent, nr Dartford
CONTACT Bob Friends 07970320417

Sunday 6th 10.30am & 6.30pm
Tongham and Normandy Freechurch, Poyle Rd.
Tongham Guildford, Surrey
CONTACT John or Tricia Baker 01483 831007
http://morielmissionscollege.googlepages.com/daveroyletours

Teaching

Below is part three of my study on 1Thessalonians which will eventually form a new book I am putting together. The book is to be ‚   called "a life poured out"

Part Three - God's Fruit

1 Thessalonians ch 1 v 6-10; And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit; 7 so that ye became an

ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God-ward is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned unto God

from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come.

I was walking near Llandudno in North Wales on holiday this one time, taking in the sunshine; when all of the sudden I heard a noise from the sky almost a distant scream of alloyed metal, contacted air at around 600 mph. Then it was upon me, a jet zoomed overhead, so low and so fast and the power was indescribable, it was awesome. I responded by jumping and tried to follow it with my eyes but it was too fast and too powerful an incredible experience.

When we come into contact with the awesome and with the powerful we have to respond in the same way, even if its just looking up or even away. We can usually tell the power of an object by the interaction of other things or surrounding objects. Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion still states; "that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". We see the wake of a ship, the devastation an explosive devise leaves, the impact crater of a meteor on the moon, all evidence that something with mass and ‚   power has left its signature behind it.

In these verses of chapter one of 1 Thessalonians, what we see in the lives of the believers at Thessalonica is the signature left behind by the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we've observed the gospel came in power, it was the 'dunamis' power of God and it left upon the lives He encountered, God's signature. They were a people transformed in a spectacular way. Once they were cold and hostile to Paul's message and spiritually dead, the next thing, we hear so many marvelous things about them.

In verse 9 we read "How you turned to God from Idols to serve a living and true God". In verse 8 we read how " In every place your faith towards God has gone forth".

Here we see not just a simple conversion experience and that's it. We see here a complete transformation, a metamorphosis has taken place within the hearts and minds of the believers. They had completely changed from one creature to being a new creation.

Romans 12v2 says this "And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind".

The word paul uses for transformed is Metamorphoo, Strong puts it this way:

metamorfo>w, " ” met-am-or-fo'-o; from (3326) (meta>) and (3445) (morfo>w); to transform (literal or figurative "metamorphose"): " ” change, transfigure, transform.

The life of the believer is all about how God desires to help you and I transform from sin to holiness from death to life by the transforming power of the gospel of salvation.

I'm going to look at this passage in two parts to aid our understanding and to help us apply it in our daily lives as disciples of Christ.

First of all, we know that the gospel is power but what I want to ask is what vehicle did God use to powerfully transform the lives of the Thessalonians?

Secondly, if the gospel is real power, then there has to be a reaction, either positively or negatively in the lives that it touches. So what was the resulting fruit of their encounter with the power of salvation?

Firstly, I believe God used two vehicles, which spoke into the lives of the Thessalonians. The first we see in v6 "you also became imitations of us and the Lord". The word Paul uses here for imitators is an interesting word, "mimetes' in the Greek, it's where we get the English word 'mime' from. It is also a word that in Greek grammar has a continuous sense. Not only did they imitate Paul and the Lord, they still imitated them, miming their example, watching what they did, following their example and displaying what they observed in their own lives.

So the vehicle God used to transform the lives of the Thessalonians was the life of His son Jesus and the life examples of Paul, Timothy and Silas as they poured out their lives for the believers.

Being a living example of Christ's transforming power is a wonderfully powerful thing. The very subject itself plays a huge part in Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus. 1 Timothy especially contains instructions to elders, deacon's, husbands, wives, young, old, single, married, slave and free. All are encouraged to be sober, be loving, keep order, live Holy lives. His instructions to Timothy were very specific.

1 Timothy 4 v12; Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an ensample to them that believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Till I come, give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. 15 Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest unto all. 16 Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching. Continue in these things; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.

I wrote in the last chapter that the gospel preached was not all talk, it was demonstrated in the Holy living of those who brought the message. What an example for us here. Our own lives, if we have met with an awesome, Holy, powerful God, must show signs of that contact.

If you would have met with a 100lb bomb, the sign would be obvious, you would be blown away. If I said to you, I had contacted a car travelling 30 mph I would show you the evidence of broken bones. If I said I had met Jesus, Lord of Lord's, King of King's, Holy of Holies, creator of the universe would I or others be able to point to the transforming power of God?

But this also raises one other relevant question "If the Thessalonians followed and imitated the apostles and Jesus, who is it you and I imitate?" Have you and I anyone who we regard as a mentor or a Holy brother or sister, someone who is speaking into our lives? I believe it's important that we do. It's all a part of discipleship. As I disciple others, it would be arrogant to think that I was King of the castle and did not have others pouring their lives into me.

And if today you do not have that kind of person, loving you, feeding you, dicipling you, encouraging and rebuking you, then you need to find them quickly because this is very much a vehicle that God uses to transform His people.

Secondly, God's other vehicle for transformation is found in v6 "Having received the word in much tribulation". Tribulation is another interesting word, 'Thlipsis', in the Greek. It means a pressing or pressure. And so the text means that the gospel which they received came with great opposition and all kinds of pressure.

So why or how did God use tribulation as a vehicle of His transforming power?

Romans 5v3 says the following; And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness; 4 and stedfastness, approvedness; and approvedness, hope: 5 and hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us.

I once heard a story of an underground church overseas, a place where Moslems kill Christians. While they were worshipping the secret police burst in and pointed guns at the believers. The officer in charge screamed at them "all who want to deny this Jesus can go now" and half fled the church meeting. He fired his gun in the air three times "a final warning" he said, "if you stay you will be dealt with". Half left again, leaving a faithful few, willing to die, rather than deny Jesus. When the others had gone one guard bolted the door and all the secret police put down their weapons. The officer said "Please can we worship with you. We're sorry we had to do that but our situation demands we only meet with a certain kind of Christian".

Tribulation has the power to transform comfortable Christians into soldiers of Christ who will persevere to the end, faithful people of extreme circumstances. We see this kind of growth pattern time and time again within the body of Christ and yet we in the west are often ignorant of the lives poured out under tribulation in the third world. Let us face it, thlipsis or persecution has always been a part of Christian life throughout history. Yet in our western comfort zones with our prosperity messages we have the arrogance to believe that as 'Kings Kids' we are entitled to prosperity, health and wealth while the other 90% of the body of Christ suffers all types of tribulations. My friends it is the persecuted church that is growing. While the communist Chinese persecuted the few believers they grew exponentially. While Pakistani leaders and Saudi Christians are burnt or beheaded, the seed of the gospel bears fruit. And while Sudanese brethren are crucified we in the west believe the demonic spirits of Toronto, Pensecola and Alpha are signs of revival. It reminds me of the words of Jesus to the church of Laodicea in Revelation Chapter 3:14-17

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked:

Affliction, a tool of Gods Holy Spirit is called demonic or a lie of Satan. Could it be laid at the prosperity gospels feet that these arrogant accusations are tantamount to the unforgivable sin of Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

Now we've seen the vehicle of God's power let's look at the fruit it produced in the lives of the believers. First of all verse 6 says "Having received the word in much tribulation " “ with the joy of the spirit".

The Greek here for Joy is 'chara'. Strong says:

cara>, " ” khar-ah'; from (5463) cheerfulness, i.e. calm delight: " ” gladness, x greatly, (x be exceeding) joy (-ful, -fully, -fulness, -ous).

To rejoice, but here it is linked to the person of the Holy Spirit because the joy comes with tribulation and in human terms this is no joy at all. If someone was beating me or persecuting me or my family, humanly speaking, I wouldn't find much to be joyful about. But this joy is the joy of the spirit. It is the joy of an eternal perspective. It's a supernatural joy, which says "I know it seems tough now but in the reality of eternity, within the kingdom of God, which I am now a participator, Christ has conquered all and has so much more in store for me in the future."

When the world is persecuted and suffers it can sulk, it can lose hope and be entitled to be completely miserable. But if you are in Christ today, your hope and confidence in what Christ has done and will do, turns our desperate circumstances into real joy.

Secondly, remembering that the vehicle of God's transforming power is sometimes the examples of others and of Christ. We see that the fruit of all this was that the believers themselves became examples. ‚   They were examples to their fellow citizens in Thessalonians and then in verses 7-8 "You became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place, your faith toward God has gone forth".

Like begets like. My apple tree grows apples. My raspberry canes produce raspberries, my frogs have tadpoles who turn into frogs. Holy Christians beget Holy Christians, unholy believers beget unholy believers.

We must understand though that at this moment in time you are who you are and I am who I am in our walk with God. Maybe God has changed your life and you can testify to it right now. Or maybe in all honesty in regards to personal holiness, you've not wanted to change; you've not witnessed a desire to please God. But whether you're in one or the other it doesn't matter. Romans says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." What does matter is our heart and attitude. Do we desire to bear fruit?

Prayer Items

• We thank the Lord for the recovery of Possum Aunty Marg who had a terrible car accident breaking her neck in several places. We thank God for His mercy.

• We thank the Lord for the new car
• We pray for our health situations that the Lord will undertake.
• Lord we thank you for our daily bread
• For Zack and Voos as they settle in at Ebyown
• For Di and Sal as they work on Kwazinzele and for their trip to New Zealand
• For my itinerary in Tanzania and the UK

How can you help?

Prayer is important, but also the helping hands and the finances that enable us to do what we do. So please consider the following.

Receive a regular News update either by email or hard copy. Just send your address to us and we will pop one in the post for you or email it to you. (although email to save mail size will be without pictures)

Secondly you can apply to be a missionary. ‚   If the Lord burdens you and you want to investigate more please contact us.

Finally you can give a one off gift or a regular monthly amount to cover the costs of mission. This is simple to do. Just contact the following people or you can contact any Moriel office and they will assist you.

Contacts UK

Mr & Mrs B Royle
2 Cressington Close
Off Cedric Street
Salford M55JS
Tel: 0161 737 2996
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Moriel SA

PO Box 10807
Strubenvale
1570
Emails
Dave Royle This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Chris Royle This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Lyn and Ebyown This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web Site: www.moriel.org & www.ebyown.org.za
Fax 086 640 2879
Cell: 082 3739297

Psalm 68:5-6