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