Forever young

Even if you are not turning 50 this month (like someone I know very well :-)), this (quote below) should be a keeper - We should really never get old spiritually - The ideals God sets for us WILL, in the end, keep us forever young!

"Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals."

- Samuel Ullman

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Which reminds me of something 2010 has highlighted for me these last two years ........

"Don't expect your ecclesia to grow old with you - MUCH rather stay young with your ecclesia"

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God is SO great - "Job 33:23 "If there is for him an angel, a mediator, one among a thousand, who can vouch for the man's uprightness;

Job 33:24 then [God] is gracious to him and says, 'Redeem him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.'

Job 33:25 His flesh becomes fresher than that of a child, he returns to the days of his youth.

Job 33:26 He prays to God and is accepted by him, so that he sees [God's] face with joy, and [God] repays the man for his righteousness.

YbiC'ss

Lucas

 

No work for God and Jesus is EVER in vain

The momentum of our Bible classes at the BEC from August has carried well into September. About 8 students attend every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, 4 of them being real regulars now and asking really good and pertinent questions. Questions discussed and scripturally investigated the past two weeks ranged from "where and what is hell"; "what does the Bible teach about praying in tongues" ; does God still speak to us in visions and dreams" ; "The Holy Spirit"; "What happened to Enoch, Elijah and Moses regarding dying and being buried"

 Our work for God's is never in vain. About 5 years ago a lady I knew from our local gym asked me to come and have some Bible study with her and her son who was then in his last year of school. He was worried about what would happen to him when he died and he was not satisfied with the answers he was getting from friends and churches that he was going to. We had Bible studies together for about 6 months and covered a lot of the crucial teachings. After leaving school he lost interest though and I stopped seeing him. Last week he decided to "get back to God" and start going to church regularly. He wanted to contact me but did not have my number – prompting him to go to the gym to find my details there – guess who was about the first person he walks into once there? …… yeah – me. So, he and his girlfriend came to our meeting yesterday and they are keen to live a godly life and get back to some Bible study. We will see where this all leads to but it just reminded me again that the building work we do for God and Jesus is a work of patience and we should not be discouraged if progress might seem to be slow by our standards. It often takes people some time to realize the vanity of life without God and how much better a life it is with God and the sure hope of the resurrection to come.

Our new Congolese brothers and sister in Pretoria continue to meet faithfully every Sunday. Yesterday sister Kiza brought her older sister and a friend to the meeting. Together with bro. Alain's wife and Juma that made the student total 4 and the total number of people at the meeting was eleven. They remain focused and also very series about developing into a more official ecclesia that will meet in a central venue. We continue to pray that God will help us in finding a suitable venue for them.

The fifteen ladies attending the crèche course in Tembisa Township have all been back for week 2 and week 3. Sister Trudy Clark has now joined Leona in presenting some of the sessions and between the two of them they are providing the ladies with quality teaching and a lot of super practical tips and ideas they can use to keep children constructively busy. It is wonderful to be involved in this way where we can make a small difference in helping the community to improve the lives of their children.

Loving greetings from the 2010 team here in Kempton Park

YbiC'ss (Your brother in Christ's service)

Lucas

 

 

 

 

 

New horizons opening and old friends returning

Another great week of preaching and community outreach work here in Kempton Park.

 

The lunch time Bible Classes continued to pick up momentum from last week. Tuesday 7 students turned up and on Thursday 14 students came for Bible class. Questions on life after death, hell, baptism and faith were covered. On both day the classes went on for over 2 hours. It was very rewarding to welcome back three of the students who were "regulars" a year ago, then moved away for various reasons but now are coming to the classes again. 

 

Leona started the first of what is to become a long series of the 7 week crèche courses. The Tembisa town council has been quite keen for her to give these classes to about 354 ladies to get the standard of crèche care raised in Tembisa where there are a lot of informal crèche's that are in reality only baby sitting facilities where the children get little if any pre-school education or proper nutrition. Considering that these ladies will be caring for 20 and more children each the impact of the crèche course can be huge. The council is also considering to make the course the standard for all crèche training in the future. They are particularly happy that we are the only people they could find thus far that is willing to take the course into Tembisa, to the people, at a low cost and as such enabling a large number of crèche "teachers" to attend the course. Seeing the difference proper training makes for the children (as at the Modimo Oteng Crèche) makes us very exited about this opportunity that has been opened up to us. We look forward to also show them the love of Jesus through our interaction with them.

 

Sunday we were delighted to see 19 children and the Tembisa Sunday School again after the somewhat extended holiday break. The senior class was very rewarding when we discussed "praying in tongues" as a subject with 4 of the senior children. It has been a problem for some of them and they were delighted to explore the Bible and get answers from the Scriptures.

 

With love from the 2010 team here in Kempton Park.

 

   

Thanking God for a fruitful week

We have been blessed with another productive preaching week. Bro. Richard Alyene from the UK and his cousin Susie spent last week with us. Bro. Richard led the Lunch Time bible Classes on Tuesday and Thursday which were attended by 11 and 7 students respectively. On Saturday morning he led a marathon Bible Study day which lasted 5 hours with a 30 minute break half way through. The 7 students that attended had a variety of questions answered and subjects covered.

 

We also managed to visit the Modimo Oteng Crèche on Tuesday and Thursday mornings during which sister Leona and Susie helped with giving a one hour lesson to the little ones on transport. It was lots of fun to observe the children's perceptions of trains, cars , busses etc and they were most intrigued with the cars they each had to make out of egg holders and other card board. On Wednesday bro. Grant and Jonathan from Australia joined us again for more maintenance work at Modimo Oteng. Mpule's (the crèche's headmaster) room was painted and we removed a lot of rubble that was "created" when we set up the playground and jungle gym previously.

 

On Sunday afternoon we had a meeting in Pretoria Central with our newly baptized Congolese brethren and sister. Bro. Andrew Walker from the UK gave the exhortation and 3 other brethren from the Kempton Park ecclesia also attended. Most rewarding was the fact that Bro. Alain's (one of the newly baptized brethren) wife also attended the meeting with their three children. It was the first time in the 6 months that we have been preaching to them that she has attended anything. All in all we were 16 people at the meeting. One could sense that there is now a real sense of belonging and commitment with our new brothers and sister.

 

We are exited about the future of this new mini ecclesia.

 

With love in Jesus

 

The 2010 team here in Kempton Park

Baptisms of Pretoria Central students

Sunday 2 August was a wonderful day for us all in the Kempton Park ecclesia. Four of the 8 students in Pretoria Central were baptized after they all gave good confessions of their faith on the previous Friday night. Sister Kiza and brethren Allain, Paul and Padere have all been studying the Bible and attending Bible classes since December 2008 and it was a privilege to be part of their spiritual growth and to witness how God's word convinced them to put off the old man and begin a new life in Jesus Christ.

 

Saturday was rainy and very cold but Sunday morning everything cleared up and even the temperatures were up a few degrees! Our four new family members are from the Congo and speak French Swahili and English. It was a lovely day to witness their baptisms and then to give them the right hand of fellowship at the Kempton Park ecclesia. They will now form the nucleus of a satellite ecclesia in Pretoria Central whilst the Kempton Park ecclesia will continue to support them with regards to Bible classes and Sunday meetings. 

 

A HUGE thank you to all the 2010 / P2P volunteers who have visited them in Pretoria over the last two months. It enhanced their Bible studies and gave them a good insight to the wonderful family bonds that we have world wide. It is also great to know that we can continue this kind of support and encouragement in the future when other volunteers will be visiting us. 

 

Some of us planted the seed(s) in Pretoria Central, others were privileged to water with the follow up work, and there was good ground! - thus, as natures teaches - when these four things (ALL from God and belonging to him - the laborers,seed,water, good ground) come together - growth is guaranteed - all to the glory of our Heavenly Father and Jesus our Savior.

 

With love and joy from the Kempton Park ecclesia

 

"Mini" P2P - July 09 - Kempton Park

Brethren Grant Chapman and Jonathan Deering has joined us for a three day mini P2P program. they spent Monday doing BEC and 2010 related work. Tuesday was "hard labor" day as we completed phase two of the playground "installation" at the Modimo Oteng crèche. There was still a fair bit of overgrown ground to clear. The dust was something else but it was well worth the work. Just as rewarding, however, was the fact that two ladies who live next door to the crèche came and offered their help. They wanted to also be involved because they have been noticing the people that have been working there over the past two weeks. So from a 4 man team we grew to a 6 member team with Queen and Pumsile just as eager as the men were to get on with the work. It was a reminder to us that if we continue to show Jesus' love in our actions it will rub off on others. We invited them to our Sunday morning Bible classes held at the crèche and they indicated that they will come and join us.

 

It was amazing, after an hour, how much better the play area looked. Once the tyres were put into place to make a nice "race track" the playground really looked neat and inviting. We thought we would call the track a "Grant" Prix track where the kids could have "En-deering" races instead of enduring races :- )

 

After a good 4 hour slog our objective was reached - a large play area for the kids where they can enjoy a variety of activities on various equipment. The team effort reminded us of how wonderful it is going to be when Jesus returns and cleans up the world once and for all together with the saints.

 

Adieu

The P2P team - Kempton Park  

Preaching ........... using words

The July 09 Kempton Park P2P group ( also knows as the gorgeous girls :-) )  supported our preaching effort in Pretoria Central that has been going on for the past four months now. It is great to have the help of brothers and sisters at these classes where we have 8 interested Congolese students. These students have immigrated to South Africa but some find it hard to find permanent employment. They are, however, very keen to learn about the Gospel message and are no longer going to their previous churches as they are becoming more and more convinced about the truth and the need to be baptized and form an ecclesia in Pretoria itself.

 

The group formed after Allan starting talking to Brother Damas who also lives in Pretoria. Allan then wanted to know more and brother Bill Jardine who visits Pretoria occasionally and has been doing a lot of preaching work (leaflet drops etc) there also got involved. Bro. Damas also spoke to a lovely young lady (Kiza) and she is one of the most committed students who comes to all the classes. With both brother Bill and myself (Lucas) involved the class no consisting of 8 students have been able to receive a lot of Bible studies. 

 

It has been particularly helpful for them to have attended the satellite meeting in Pretoria held at bro. Mickey Scheeper's house on the last Sunday of each month. God works in wondrous ways - especially in the way the volunteers who visit always play a part in enhancing the preaching. Bro. Bill and I stressed to the students that we are part of a world wide family. They fully appreciated this when on the Sunday at Pretoria sister Sarah Jones from the UK joined us. She grew up in France however and can speak French - she connected with the Congolese students very well as she could speak to them in their own language. the students have also been impressed by the willingness of quite a few volunteers that were more than willing to visit them and share studies with them. Kiza in particular has also been inspired by meeting sisters who have a faith based on a sound knowledge of and conviction in the Scriptures.

 

We remain thankful to all of you who continue to pray for us regading the work going on here in Gauteng and for the various other ways you have supported us. God is our eternal Fahter and it is wonderful to know that we can praise him eternally for the great works he has done and still will do, shluld we remain faithful, steadfast and abounding in the work of the Lord.

 

Loads of Jesus' love from the P2P team