A Call to Prayer

Dear Team,

An American friend asked us once, “Don’t you ever have any problems? Your letters are always so positive and upbeat we wonder if you’re for real.” Truth is, we prefer to accentuate the positive. (You get enough negative news in the established media.) But now we have a serious problem and we need some earnest prayer support.

We began our work in restricted access countries in the early 1960s by taking Bibles, medical supplies and other aid to Christians in the communist East Bloc nations of Europe during the Cold War. Along the way we preached the Gospel and won a lot of people to Christ. For 28 years now we’ve been working in Africa, preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ and challenging communist expansion on the Dark Continent.

While working in Eastern Europe during the communist era we learned that persistent prayer and publicity provide protection for the persecuted. That’s why we wanted to put American Christians ‘in touch’ with Christians behind the Iron Curtain (and incidentally how our Mission got its name). Now, with the rise of Islamofascism and its blood-drenched terrorist pandemic, we are confronted with an even more deadly foe. These people love death and they are cold-blooded killers…shooting from the shadows. We urgently need a mighty prayer wall of protection.

There are some practical things you can do too as outlined opposite on page two (click here). We really need you to send letters, faxes and e-mails. It will be a real encouragement to the police authorities that are defending Peter and a demonstration to the Muslims that Christians care about their own.

Last month I preached an evangelistic series at the Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison in Tokai, on the Cape peninsula. We literally had a captive audience. There are some 5,500 inmates there, most of whom do not have a Bible. We’ve made a modest effort to meet that need. I spoke at the Reformation Conference in Cape Town last week.

This month marks the 30th Anniversary of the “Liberation of Angola” but as one dear Brother told us, “We’re still not really free!” It is also the 40th Anniversary of Rhodesia’s Declaration of Independence (UDI) and the beginning of the 15-year bush war, which ended with the country being betrayed to the communists and renamed Zimbabwe. Please pray for the Zimbabwe Rally in the Town Hall on November 11.

We rejoice that Lenora’s health has much improved, but she still has a long way to go.

Thanks a million for all that you mean to us. You are beloved in the Lord.

Yours in His grip,





Bill Bathman

P.S. On the 10th of October my computer crashed. It was out of commission for five days. I surveyed the damage when it was finally restored. All of my e-mail messages, both ‘received’ and ‘sent’ are gone and I’ve lost my entire “address book.” Other data was lost too, but mercifully all my writings and my new book (due out next year) was still intact. If you have sent me an e-mail since the latter part of September that requires an answer, please re-send it.