A New Lightstand shines

A new ecclesia has been born. Mariannhill ecclesia started last week with our first breaking of bread service. We had our 7 members there and 14 visitors. Not a bad ratio for a first Sunday. We met in the home of Bro Phinda and Sister Sylvester. We sang Zulu and English songs together and broke bread together.

We have decided that once a month we will, God willing, join Westville ecclesia to allow for continued fellowship among all the members.

The Sunday School is being led by Sylvester and the teachers are Precious, Kheta and Dumisani. Ilse will do teacher training at our home with Sylvester during the week.

On Wednesday evening we have baptism classes at which eight people attend plus the five members of the ecclesia. We had our first one during the week under candle light thanks to Eskom (power utility company). It all felt very apostolic! During the class someone interrupted and said that ‘they wanted to be baptised too’. I’ve never had that before!

There is so much exciting work to be done. We are developing a Zulu statement of faith. We are also collecting a set of Zulu and English songs that we can sing. We will be sharing this with the newly formed Lamontville ecclesia so that we create a Zulu song book.

As Ilse and I engage on this journey it is so clear to us that a great foundation has been laid before us. The work Mitch and Miriam Hardy did at Mariannhill when they were here was immense. A big ‘thank you’ again to Mitch and Miri for all their labours here. I hope we can effectively water the seed that they have sown.

Tim & Ilse Genders

Body odor, cults and testimony of faith - All in an "uneventful" week at Durban BEC

Below is Sister Doreen Greene's report on what she calls an "uneventful two weeks" at the Durban BEC for the first two weeks of April. Wow, if this is uneventful just think what an eventful week is like.....

The past two weeks were uneventful. During this period there were 31 registrations on the 22 lesson course and 298 people visited the shop. A visit was made by Mary and I to Bro. Clement who has a stall in the flea market that is within walking distance from the BEC. We were concerned because he has not been attending the Meeting since his baptism at the Easter Fraternal Gathering.

Every effort will be made to contact those brothers and sisters who are products of the BEC, to come together at a time convenient to all for a weekly or monthly Breaking of Bread at the BEC In doing so it might meet the needs of those who may find it difficult to travel long distances on Sunday when transportation is more difficult.

We were forced to have our resident beggar removed from camping at our door, since the strong smell of body odor and smoke was upsetting to all.

One woman walked in, picked up our corespondence course and said “you see, that name Christadelphian, they are a cult.” I spent some time talking with her about us. She was adamant, stating that someone at the top was getting rich off of us. Fortunately for me she didn’t know that the nice looking lady who was speaking to her also chases drunks and maybe accusers with a cricket bat.

Later on in the day we again visited Bro. Clement at his stall. We engaged in conversation with him and his brother. During that period he gave a wonderful testimony of his faith and told of the many, many churches he has gone to, but none were able to back up what they were saying thought for thought, with the Word of God, as the brotherhood has.

Mature American takes on hundreds of students, thieves and drunks

The past 5 weeks have seen Sis. Doreen Greene at the helm of the Durban BEC. Doreen (who's age we will not publish as she's much older than she looks) shows that there is no-one who cannot come and help out with preaching. If you're below 100 and can walk (sort of) and talk...there are many willing ears as you'll see from her story below.

Doreen has been running the BEC in the heart of Durban and handling everything from drunk beggars to thieves to thousands of interested students. Below is her report for the month of March.....



It was a busy month with 582 people walking into the shop and 43 people being registered on the 22 Lesson course.


There were two unpleasant experiences. On one occassion two books were stolen from our stock by a customer. This was observed and reported by a store keeper across the street. There is need for emphasis that two volunteers be present as much as can be made possible. On another occassion a drunk person walked in and seated himself. He was followed by a youth who was jeering him. The drunk responded by running after the youth with a cricket bat which he grabbed from a neighboring store. The opportunity was used to close the BEC doors until the danger had passed.

Returning students have shown much interest in discussing errors made in their work book. Classes on “Learning to read the English” have been off to a slow start. New tactics are now being employed in the form of asking any who enter as to whether they know of anyone who may benefit from such a class.

We decided to offer the Free bible correspondence course to everyone who walked into the shop. This produced such a flood of responses, that the weeks following doing this, Mary and I were hard pressed to mark the many returning lessons. In doing so many opportunities to offer more people courses fell through the cracks. (This is Doreen's way of saying we need more "laborers" the harvest is plentiful).

As a result of God's wonderous blessings, there have been 3 baptisms, from students of the BEC, over the past month. May God continue to bring many more to His wonderous family.

KMPBEC business

Crazy busy time here in KMP the last two weeks. Since Dan and Leah arrived we’ve more than doubled up in activities at the BEC and at the Ubuhle Bezwe orphanage.

 

Renovations at the orphanage was resumed and a security gate installed, the roof of the boys room lifted for more space and for the rain water to run off the roof away from the house. Some computer classes were also given to 10 of the children. On Saturday night 12 April we visited the orphanage at night and took them all a meal, gave them a lot of stationary we bought them and showed them a DVD under the roof area. We all thoroughly enjoyed the night together with all the children.

 

All is ready and on standby to get the building of the foster village going as soon as we get the lease agreement finalised with the council. For know we wait patiently and pray that God will make things happen in his time.

 

The KMPEC has also had a face lift. The signage outside (for the Bible course) as well as inside to indicate where people should register has been improved and looks great. More shelves went into the kitchen and the bulk copier is getting its own smaller specialised table – all to create the most space possible in the small area available to us. Dan also added more light to the shop. Lunch time Bible Classes picked up again and we had an average of 5 interested friends for the last five days. Some of them expressed an interest to visit our ecclesia.

 

Our Saturday morning special activity class for the young ones saw 10 children turn up – much to the delight of Leah and Leona who had them all make a lovely toy puppet. Two of these children will now be joining our Sunday School next week – growth continues J !

 

This week, God willing, we will continue our renovation work at Ubuhle Bezwe, finalise the course on Crèche management that we want to present the week after, finish the last touch ups at the BEC, continue with the Bible classes, give further life skill courses at Ubuhle Bezwe (English , Maths and Bible Classes) and advertise the KMPBEC as much as we can.

 

We continue to thank God everyday for the wonderful opportunities he gives us as well as the health, energy and strength to work for him in this way.

 

The KMPBEC team