Cato-Ridge
The Alpha Group went away for their Holy Spirit weekend and about 30 people attended. From what I’m told they had a great time around the fire on Friday night. On Saturday quite a few received their first infilling of the Holy Spirit and others were re-filled, 4 people responded to the call for salvation (all 4 were men). There was a real sense of God changing hearts.
There was an excitement at Cato Ridge on Sunday morning that has been missing for a while. One of the new converts arrived bright and early with the guys on kitchen duty and was helping with tables and putting cups out etc. Gavin continued with the series on prayer. Gary de Klerk visited and will be sharing his testimony on how God miraculously healed him at the Men of Valour meeting on Saturday morning.
City Centre
Lunda preached in Zulu at Umbilo from the ‘Beatitudes’ Mt 5.4 about mourning. Then Fanie le Roux from City Hill Pinetown preached at City Centre from 2 Chr 20:14-22.
Thereafter we all enjoyed a fellowship meal together.
Downtown
Max has re-done his coffee shop- it’s looking awesome and the space is utilised well! If you have time, go grab a cup of coffee to appreciate the space. We have had a few community groups started by downtown members themselves such as #DowntownSurf, #DowntownTrail (Trail running), and #DowntownGirls (Girls’ group).
It is so encouraging for us to see community happen organically and people doing life together outside of a Sunday meeting.
This week, we shared on Ephesians 1 and unpacked this chapter together. We covered what spiritual blessings Paul mentions in this book, and how we can access them. We also discussed how the cross of Christ has given us access to heaven’s blessings and what it means to be adopted as a son/daughter in the Kingdom.
It was a great time of discussion around the scripture.
Embo
Third Sunday on our Ephesians series at Embo. Chim preached on Walking worthy of our calling. Three people responded to the salvation call. Everyone is gearing up for our anniversary celebrations in 2 weeks time.
…but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12 NIV)
Frontier church
Sunday was a wonderful time of basking in the aftermath of the launch. We heard so many testimonies of how Jesus is changing lives in such tangible ways.
Mikes message was from Philemon… “Onesimus, Rising above your situation.”
We have also been singing the old hymns and telling the stories of why they were written, there is still such an anointing on the words. In ending our meeting we told the story of Horatio Spafford and sang “it is well with my soul.”
An old Karaoke crooner was so moved he picked up Paula’s guitar and started singing old hymns cowboy style weeping as he played, he hasn’t played in years.
As ‘word seed’ is sown and watered we are seeing new life blossom.
Mayville
Mayville went well. Eddie Xulu PREACHED about the Blood as we have started a series on the blood of Jesus. A New young man committed his life to Jesus.
Pinetown
A time of celebration was had by all with cake and coffee as we prayed over Jurgen, Charlotte and the family. They have committed themselves to serve in the Eston Church for a season. Douglas lead worship and Ross preached on the “Power of God” and His faithfulness to us.
Umkomaas
We had a great service. Dean Govender preached on outreach. Very powerful message.
We had a few new people come through, which was very encouraging. God is truly doing a new thing in our congregation and we are so excited about the season we are currently in.
Waterfall
We had a good day on Sunday. It was great to have James and Paula back with us after their time away last week. Brent and the team led us in an awesome time of worship, and Gerard preached the final message in our series on Joseph, entitled “The power of reconciliation”. A fitting end to what has been an amazing series for us, one where we have really seen God moving in powerful ways to bring healing and restoration to the lives of many.