Monday, April 29, 2013
Repairing Walls
One of the members of this Church (see yesterday's post) said to me: "The Church asked me to serve with two other women on a new Catering Team. The Church was a calamity at the time. For the first three weeks, only I turned up. That was hard. I wrestled with the temptation to go to another Church, to help them build its walls. Then the Lord showed me that the walls of this Church were flat. Today, we have a faithful team of eight or ten."
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Gospel Message Church
This morning I worshiped with the Gospel Message Church in Borchards township, some 450 km / 280 mi east of Cape Town. I took this photo from the platform, where I was seated with the pastors and elders. Children (pictured), teens, and adults all played a significant part in the three-hour service. I was told that the Church was Pentecostal -- but no, it was Evangelical African plus amp. Seats are at the back, with an open space at the front, mainly for dancing. The sermon (1 Cor 1-4) focused on God's riches in hardship, and the need for spiritual warfare. OBSERVATION: I slipped out of the Church to take a call on my cellphone. They sent after me to fetch me back -- in Borchards, they said, it was not safe to walk outside. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
90th Anniversay Bash
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NOTE: The Bible Institute adopted this photo on its Bible Institute Facebook page.
Bible Institute Address
E. and I attended a Celebration Breakfast of the Bible Institute
of South Africa today -- its 90th Anniversary. The keynote address was delivered by Rev. Dr. Clive Tyler
(pictured). He quoted a local minister: "Put your Bible under your coat!
It is a problem. It divides people." Rev. Tyler said however: "The whole point
is to separate! But it must be done in an irenic spirit. We have to be patient. Let God do His own work." He
said: "Peace and affluence are the two most awful gods." OBSERVATION: Rev. Tyler was one of my regular lecturers more than thirty years ago.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Mighty Kids Arise
This afternoon E. and I
attended a Mighty Kids Arise event – a combination of child evangelism and ministry by children – and an aspect of the global focus on
the 4/14 Window – that is, children between the ages of 4 and 14.
E. is pursuing a call to ministry to children. That's the senior
pastor of Logos Christen Gemeente on the left, Pastor Gerhard Barnard (with his iPad).
Friday, April 12, 2013
Wind-Up Torch
Thursday, April 11, 2013
The Same Blood
South Africa is teeming with evangelists, and I am privileged to know a few. Some are very well trained (see Beckoning and Calling), some are completely untrained. This morning I heard an evangelist preaching in a street café. His small audience was enormously enjoying his preaching -- or cajoling. He preached: "We have received the blood of Jesus! Now we all have the same blood running through our veins!" OBSERVATION: (Metaphorically, yes -- but this is the first time I have heard such a doctrine).
Monday, April 8, 2013
The Turning-Point
Over breakfast, a minister told me of the turning-point in his crisis-hit congregation, which at one point dwindled to less than 20 people, but was now booming as before. He spoke of premises and policy and so on. I said: "No, what was the real turning-point?" He said: "I travelled all the way to the Eastern Cape to conduct the funeral of a member. It changed the way that people looked at me." (And it was all expenses paid).
Monday, April 1, 2013
Ministry Through A Dometic's Eyes
I was talking to a domestic worker about a new minister in her Church. I took the doctrinal view -- the call, and so on. She said simply: "It's like a new domestic worker in a home. Everything remains the same, yet everything changes!" OBSERVATION: It hadn't changed for the better for domestic workers -- but she didn't mind. That's not what a Church was about for her.
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