Best Times

Variant

Doing some research, I discovered all viruses mutate and this includes Covid-19. Viruses replicate themselves to spread and thrive in its human host’s environment. Sometimes during the process, small genetic changes occur creating a more infectious and harmful variant virus to humans. In recent weeks, South African and United Kingdom (UK) variants have received more attention in the news. I have listened to medical research doctors from South Africa and UK share about these mutated Covid-19 viruses and its ability to spread around the globe. The South African variant is in the UK and the UK variant is in the US.

The virus of mankind is sin. A lie was conveyed to humanity (Gen. 3:5-6). Whether the appeal was to be like God, obtain a desirous object to the eye, or ability to gain wisdom this lie caused man to sin. As a missionary I see many variants of the lie that spread. Some are far more contagious than others and caused more damage. I can relate to Covid-19 researchers who are discovering new variants; however, I know the cure for sin.

“Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near,” (Matt. 4:17) Jesus’ first preached message. The gospel of repentance brings joy, because of his love he pardons our sins, and we received forgiveness through him. Please pray for my Zoom sessions, phone calls and meetings with disciples to go well in 2021.

When teaching I have noticed there are two ways people react when confronted with a lie they have believed. They either repent and humble themselves causing a change of mind and actions moving them closer to God. Or a hardening of the heart, holding tighter to the lie and hoping they can be saved by their own self-righteousness. Continue to ask the Lord to give me wisdom. Unfortunately, I have seen some US variants in South Africa, but praise God I know the cure.

Sincerely,

Leon Best

Mentoring

On March 17, Cru Youth ministered at Kuyasa Library in Khayelitsha. This would be the last time our volunteers would share God’s Word, worship together in song and have fun competitions with the children at Kuyasa. The pandemic’s repercussions slowed the economy making it difficult for some volunteers to make ends meet. Our family provided financial support to sustain some during these difficult times. Cru Youth volunteers have also received God’s blessing during this time. One received a new home for his family that was gifted to him by a friend! Another blessing received by the volunteers was from my friend Eugene.

Founder of a small consulting agency, Eugene mentored others to achieve their life goals and desired to provide his services for free to Cru Youth volunteers. Casta, Sonwabile, Akhona, Kelli, Phumlani and Zuks all enjoyed the coaching sessions. The men shared some of their dreams. One desires to become a soccer coach in a professional league. Another to establish an electrical engineering firm in his Eastern Cape homelands. Eugene provided them with online tools and challenged them to come up with business plans to move them closer to their goals. Eugene will complete his final session this Friday, please pray this training will be a blessing in their lives and ministries.

Continue to pray for Melanie and me as we host our campus ministry’s national meetings next month (Nov 9 -12) in Cape Town. New Covid-19 safety protocols will have to be put in place. Pray for us, as this will be our first face-to-face meeting since last year.

Sincerely,

Leon Best

Earthquake

Low rolling thunder on a Saturday evening? My wife rushes to the bedroom window and asks, “What was that?” My daughter and I were on the bed online viewing. I heard the sound, but assumed it was rare thunder from the Cape Town sky. Two hours later cellphone notifications revealed an earthquake. The next morning as we prepared to attend our first church service since March, another sound of rolling thunder. It was confirmed these were two small tremors measuring 2.5 and 2.3 in magnitude over the weekend. Their epicenters were about 70 km north of my city. No damage was reported, but anxiety was sending more shockwaves through distressed individuals.

For most people 2020 can’t end soon enough, with discussions I have had with disciples, ministry colleagues and friends about unemployment, murder of women in South Africa (SA), divorce rates, Covid-19, United States (US) fires, US hurricanes, US elections, death of Blacks at the hands of police officers, SA corruption, churches closed, end times and now earthquakes in Cape Town can be a lot. However, God is still at work. Melanie has discipled a young woman through the ups and downs of relationships. Now this young woman is about to be married. I have discipled a Christian worker of another organization and taught him to trust God to raise his financial support. God moved on his supporter’s heart and they bought my friend a home in Cape Town! God is at work and I am excited to share with my wife our best years of ministry are ahead of us.

As our ministry year in Cape Town comes to a close, I am preparing for end of the year meetings and explaining to teammates how we will navigate ministry in this current reality. We had another successful online outreach we called Activate. Please view our Heritage Day Activate special. We will continue to provide Christian content online and on the mission field. Pray the Lord gives me wisdom. God is doing great things amid this pandemic and we cannot be indifferent to these divine opportunities.

Sincerely,

Leon Best

Wakanda Forever

LOS ANGELES – MAR 3: Chadwick Boseman at the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards at the Beach on March 3, 2018 in Santa Monica, CA

My wife’s purposeful steps aroused my slumber, dimmed light from a cloudy sky brightened our bedroom, my thoughts turned to a small warm 4-year-old body lying next to me, “When did she climb into my bed?” I opened my eyes and saw my beautiful wife. Dressed for her Saturday morning women’s Bible study, I sat up to enjoy her presence and then she asked me to brace myself for difficult news.

“Chadwick Boseman was dead! He died of colon cancer. He was your age.” Each of these statements moved me uncomfortably. Boseman was Black Panther, the Black superhero! I viewed the film with my wife and teenagers. We were that family that posted a photo online with our African print clothing before entering the cinema. Mack, my son, loves superheroes, but this fictional character was extraordinary for him. A Black man, representing the African continent, was a superhero he could identify with. The live action star, Boseman, kept his four-year-old diagnosis hidden from the media and succumbed to colon cancer.

I still remember those words from my doctor over 20 years ago. “You will develop colon cancer in 10 years,” can you imagine a 20-year-old Rice University student receiving those words. After hospital visits and experimental drugs failed to give me relief from the pain, I made a vow. I recall pleading to the Lord saying, “If you want me to enter the mission field you must heal me from this affliction.” Because of his mercy 20 years ago, he gave me this testimony. I am ministering in South Africa today, healed with no symptoms. Boseman was 43, my age.

My wife hurried off to her morning women’s Bible study and left breakfast for me and the kids. I walked in the family room and revealed to Mack, Black Panther died of colon cancer. Dejected, he sat on the couch in solemn reflection. My two teenage daughters were also shocked to discover Chadwick Boseman’s passing but knowing my testimony they asked if I would get a colonoscopy. I hesitated to answer, but my 17-year-old son nodded in agreement with his sisters. He stared at me and shared, “I don’t want to lose another superhero.”

February 18, 2018 - Nala, Mack and Noel excited to watch "The Black Panther" — February 18, 2018 – Nala, Mack and Noel excited to watch “The Black Panther”

Activate

22 July highlighted my ministry calendar after our team meeting in February. Activate was an ambitious plan to have our entire provincial team to minister on the campus of the University of the Western Cape (UWC). We hoped to expose students and lecturers to all our ministry strategies by reaching rising athletes, influencing idealistic educators, engaging enterprising entrepreneurs, and sharing to studious undergraduates. Covid-19 occurred, and a hard-countrywide lockdown ensued, but my team did not allow this pandemic to cancel our ministry event.

Activate was reimagined into an online event. The online outreach transformed to help train our online audience to reach others with the gospel by highlighting our creative mobile applications. The one-hour Facebook Live event spotlighted Soularium, Jesus Film and Thrive mobile apps. We were encouraged by the hundreds of views to our event, but what encouraged me the most was an email message I received after the outreach from a former disciple. Grayson, a former UWC student, was one of the first men I had the pleasure to disciple.

When I reconnected with him, Grayson shared he was married with kids. He desired helped with a mobile app. Grayson is leading a small online men’s group from his church. I connected him to the Thrive mobile app, and even sent him articles from the app. He appreciated the help and was excited about Thrive. I am glad to see the immediate effects from our Activate outreach. Continue to pray for my team to thrive during this pandemic. We are committed to win people to Christ, build them in their faith and send them out to do the same even during this pandemic.

Sincerely,

Leon Best

Views

Leon reading along as our final reader, Bianca Groats, reads Revelation 22.

Leon and I were chatting on the patio. He shared an idea with me, and I encouraged him to move this idea forward. What started as an idea became a reality in the New Testament Relay. In the New Testament, Paul shares with Timothy to give time and effort to the public reading of Scripture. In 2020, what would this action look like during a nationwide lockdown? How about reading the entire New Testament over a social media platform LIVE! We mobilized over 60 different readers from South Africa, Kenya, and USA. Even our teenagers, Mack, Noel, Nala and my mother had the privilege of reading. Over five consecutive days, we read through the New Testament from noon until evening. We were trusting, “…my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

It was an amazing experience; 8000 views and 500 phone calls later! One of the young ladies I am discipling also read a section of the New Testament. She shared a special message to our ministry sharing what God had done in her life after the reading.

The third-year medical student wrote:

“Thank you for the [New Testament] Relay week. It was a challenge especially considering that I was writing my block tests online on 3 of the 5 days of this relay, but I was able to get bits and pieces of the live readings. I am a full-time medical student; therefore, since everything is online, there are bitter and sweet moments like these where you want to partake of something you know will benefit you spiritually but have academics hanging over your head however the Lord was very gracious to me and allowed me those moments.

I have really been blessed by this relay such that it spilled over to my conversations with my friends who also joined in watching the live readings. We have now started to prayerfully plan our own relay as practical as we can make it. If it weren’t for your idea, we would not even have thought of it and it would have even seemed impractical but now we see it is very achievable.”

Please pray for this group of women and all who heard God’s Word to use the public reading of His Word to continue impacting lives.

Sincerely, Melanie Best

Our teenagers passionately reading God’s Word.

Tested

#coronacraft Noel made lovely knitted caps for family members above.

Today was beautiful and sunny with a slight breeze on Day 27 of the South African (SA) Lockdown.

Recently, SA president Cyril Ramaphosa made his second national address about the Covid-19 pandemic. He extended the national lockdown until the end of April. First, he expressed most of the existing lockdown measures will remain in force. I realized after talking with US family & friends there is a vast difference between South Africa’s Lockdown and their US States’ “Stay-at-Home” orders. In our area restaurants are closed, Melanie’s heart sunk on the eve of the SA Lockdown. The 24-hour McDonalds she hoped to buy dinner from was shut down. Our guest bathroom’s toilet seat broke a week ago, this will not be fixed because all hardware stores are closed. Most of my American friends are shocked when they hear the sale and transport of alcohol & cigarettes in the country is prohibited during the lockdown. Additionally, the SA president shared he will roll out community screening and testing throughout the nation. Healthcare workers have screened over 900,000 individuals and if symptoms are presented a decision is made on the spot for the person to be tested. Over 100,000 have been tested, 3465 are positive with 58 deaths. Have you been tested?

Economic troubles caused by the pandemic has allowed my team to share financial gifts or groceries to friends in need. A ministry colleague died during this time, because of the many restrictions we viewed his service and burial online. It was good to see his wife, children and grandchildren celebrate his life. God’s Word, prayer and the Holy Spirit has helped me lead my team and give ministry insight during this time.

During our lockdown couple reflection times, my wife has shared ministry disappointments and life fears. As she wrestled, her countenance changed when she realized we have three teenagers and adulthood is around the corner. This uninterrupted, lockdown family time we are cherishing as parents. We agreed that in times of testing James said it best, “Consider it pure joy…” (James 1:2-4).

Sincerely,

Leon Best

Distance

Last night our South African (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa declared COVID-19 a national disaster. This preventative action alerted residents to implement social distancing mandates. 61 SA citizens are currently diagnosed with the corona virus. One mandate stated our children’s’ schools would close on Wednesday (18 Mar). Our children celebrated the extended holiday, but soon realized the real cost of the virus.

Leon and Nala at Western Province Athletics Championship 2020

Nala received two bronze medals at her athletics competition on Saturday which qualified her to go to SA Nationals in two weeks. Nationals was cancelled. Mack played well in his 1^st U19 rugby game and his team was victorious 28 -17; this possibly will be his final game because the schoolboy rugby season has been suspended. These protocols are like what is happening in the United States.

Our parents in the US (Texas & Arkansas), have been keeping us abreast of their situation. My retired mother has been shocked by the shortages in her local grocery store and shared her church service was online. She is concerned about the value of her nest egg with the stock market plunging. Many people are now worried about their jobs in this volatile economy.

My South African ministry will shut its offices on Wednesday (18 Mar) and my teammates will work virtually with digital tools. I will have two more ministry outreaches this week on Tuesday (17 Mar) in Khayelitsha and Wednesday at University of the Western Cape. Pray for me, my wife remembers me having H1N1 virus (swine flu) in that 2010 pandemic, because I was doing ministry in a high-risk area of the Western Cape. Thank you for being our ministry partners. Please send us your prayer requests during this time of trusting God.

Sincerely,

Leon Best