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   

 

     

P2P - Kempton Park - July 09 Day 5,6 - Youth Bible Study weekend!

Our holiday club ended on Friday afternoon at 13:00. We then headed of to a camp site near Benoni with 25 of the Sunday School children for a Bible Study weekend. Friday afternoon the children enjoyed a variety of games. After supper there was a Bible Class for the juniors and the seniors. Before bed time we were all treated to marshmallows "BQ'ed" over a huge bon fire. there was lots of singing as well. Saturday morning the children again had Bible classes after breakfast. The theme was on the parables of Jesus and the P2P group did great work in their preparation and making the lessons very interesting and interactive. At 3pm the camp broke up and we took 25 very enthusiastic kids back to their homes in Tembisa township. It was a great week with the P2P group and VERY rewarding to be able to make the week so different for a lot of people and to get to know each other so well.

 

We thank our Heavenly Father for enriching our lives SO much through these opportunities to serve those in need.

 

The P2P team in Kempton Park 

P2P - Kempton Park - July 09 Day 3,4 and 5 - HOLIDAY CLUB!

Wednesday to Friday was great fun ..... for the P2P team but more so for 36 kids who had a great time. The format for the holiday club works very well. The morning session is opened with songs, prayer and an object lesson from the Bible. Next follows a craft session. Children participate in a different activity every day and by Friday they had learnt how to bake, to make a doll (girls obviously! :-) ) , make wood models (boys) and fabric painting (each kid went home with their own custom made T-Shirt). After a scrumptious lunch it was time for games, more singing and a closing thought and prayer.

 

The joy and spontaneity of the children is wonderful and it is a privilege to provide them with a three day fun-but-educational program. We feel very blessed to have these opportunities to instill good Christian values in the children and provide them with something special during their holidays which usually goes by very uneventful in the townships.

 

Lots of joy and love from the P2P team here in KMP