Things as They Are

From Seth & Amy Meyers serving in South Africa

Note from the Director: We often prefer missionary prayer letters to be positive and encouraging in which we can "rejoice with those who rejoice." There is also a time and place for missionaries to share their burdens and the reality of the difficulties, affliction, and spiritual warfare that they face daily. This enables us to weep and pray with them for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in the midst of the darkness to produce fruit for God's glory. Below is a recent prayer letter from the Meyers that does exactly that. I trust it stirs our hearts to pray more fervently for missionaries.

A Serious Matter

On Sunday, before preaching, I announced to the members of the 3-year-old churchplant in Makhasa that a woman baptized in 2023 was being removed from membership. Though she began in 2022, testified publicly in 2023, and attended consistently through 2024, she lost all interest for months in 2025. Several of the 12 members spoke with her, but she kept saying, “I will come this Sunday.” Sadly, her husband and children’s attendance dribbled out at the same time regardless of our pleading and warning for their souls. 

More Time Still Needed

In the same churchplant, two men have been coming since 2022, one in his 40’s and another passed 70. I saw them both this week—friendly, affable, and attending on Sundays but not yet “ready” to commit to the Lord Jesus. One had owned a money-making bar in Johannesburg decades ago, and he had brought the first car to Makhasa. The other has finished reading the New Testament, but alcohol, like the woman of Ecclesiastes, has ensnared, netted, and bound him. When will all things become new to these men? Time is running out. The night is spent, the day is at hand, and yet we cannot make them see this. 

Simple, Sloth, and Presumption

Four young ladies had been walking for months to the Friday and Sunday services. Yet at the end of August, they missed a service, and then another. Now only one still comes, Xivono. She has received a Bible, but when we ask questions, she cannot answer. And yet last Friday, she asked us to pray for her that she would be a serious Christian. Shall it be 1 of 4? Or shall we lose even this one? 

Disobedient Husbands

The first Lord’s Day in September, the husband of one of the church members in Makhasa arrived at church. Hoping he had smelled the savor of life from his wife’s new faith, we were cheered by his presence as we prepared for worship. But then he revealed his deep frustration with the church for not obtaining his permission before baptizing his 60-year-old wife. Though several men met with him, and though he seemed to soften, she has been absent. Yesterday she came to the prayer meeting, and said she would worship with us on Sunday. This woman had just been baptized in July after nearly 3 years of attendance. 

Two months earlier, a woman baptized in 2024 from Bungeni was told, “U nga ha ngheni kerekeni!” (You not anymore go to church!) When we visited, she told us, “Oh, he will calm down, and I will come back. My faith is still strong.” We have not yet seen her with the believers. Has the Gospel been a sword dividing husband and wife? Or has she fallen away, and her husband is a convenient excuse? 

Dead Ends

This year I have preached in 16 different villages on the roads, or at little shops and given out 52 Bibles. Kayivela, a 50-year-old man, came to church after listening for months, but he stopped because giving up alcohol was too difficult. In Caledon, Mhani Golele, a 50 year old woman, told the group of about 15 adults, “We have never heard this teaching of Christ Alone and Faith Alone before. And I am becoming a believer in it. I will follow this teaching so that I can be a true sheep.” Several added similar words in subsequent weeks. None came to church. 

All our efforts at outreach have been fruitless this year save for 1 of the 16 spots. And that one looked like it had the least potential. From that house, 4 women began worshipping on Sunday in June. But these are merely a few leaves in the forest. 

An Ecumenical Fundamentalist

I met a pastor here in Louis Trichardt where my family lives. He is pastoring in Bungeni where we have been plowing, planting, and watering. When he invited me to speak to his people on a Wednesday night in June, I agreed and preached the gospel to about 20 or so people. He was apparently pleased with my sermon enough to give another invitation. After a second sermon, an invitation for Sunday was offered, so I shared with him my views on the new birth and false Christianity. When I asked him if he and I could perhaps pray together the next week, our meeting ended with a vague, “Sure, sure.” 

The next week, I texted him asking if we could meet for prayer. His response: “We shall make proper arrangements in future because the program does not allow me today.” I doubt I will hear from him again unless to reject yet another offer for prayer together. I could expand this story at length, and duplicate it with different names. 

Yesterday after a prayer meeting, I gave my phone to Jomo Kubayi (56), the first member at the Makhasa churchplant. After reading my messages with this pastor, he laughed and said I would never hear from him again. He told me again what he and others have said before. Men like this do not teach the Bible, do not know conversion, and only want to be near me in hopes of what they can get. 

Things as They Are

Amy Carmichael is a hero. After 10 years of evangelizing in India, she wrote a book about some of her evangelistic experiences, Things as They Are. The book is like—but better than—this letter: A minor key cantata of apathetic people, missionary failures, and apparently pointless efforts told with musical prose and punctuated with so many verses you would think she was a Puritan. 

As I look back over my prayer letters, most of the records are positive, yet that is not the whole story. In fact, the majority of the story, things as they are, is tiring even to exhaustion were we not strengthened by the Spirit, and tempting even to bitterness were Christ not grounding us in love. 

There is grace! Just last Sunday, our dear friend, Johana Simango saw us passing Sunday evening as we returned through her village and flagged down our vehicle. “If you had not come, where would we be?” she asked. Converted in 2015, she has kept going and seen her two sons saved at Elim Baptist Church under Alpheus and Shoni Nyalungu. But the whole story is both sides, and the negative side is more common. 

Then why write such a letter? The subject line could be “Failures.” How will you feel compassion like our Lord if you do not see the crowds like He did? From this prayer letter, please ask God to give you tears, compassion, a soft heart. Please pray that God would send other laborers. The ground is too hard for our picks, and the thorns are too numerous for our hope. Pray for us. 

Faint yet pursuing, 

Seth and Amy 

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