Weekly Prayer Letter

God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. - John 3:17 

Today we are all saddened by the passing of Nelson Mandela. We are grateful for his leadership and the spirit of justice, reconciliation and forgiveness that he brought to us and on which he built our new democracy. While we thank God for him and what he was able to do, we need to remember the sadness that his loved ones feel and pray for them. Do pray also that his passing will cause us as a nation to renew our commitment to the values he embodied. It is also significant that he passed away at a time when we remember the coming into the world of Jesus who is the only Saviour of the world. Let’s pray that the people of our country will turn to him who never dies, who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, from whose love we can never be separated, and be saved.

Missions and Evangelism

Outreach

• The Thank offering fund going towards helping Rev Ben Smith get to the Richtersveld towns to plant churches now stands at over R13 600!
• It was very special to be able to hand over the bible to Bruce Erikson to help with his mission work in the townships and to Ruth Palmer who represented the children’s ward at Groote Schuur hospital.
• Please pray for our Christmas service which is always a great opportunity to preach the gospel and invite people to church.
• Peter Landry, Mike Fourie, Corina Spinazzola, Sheraya Erikson and Robert
  Cloete will be helping at a Western Cape Summer camp this weekend.

Missionaries

• In their latest newsletter Brian and Lorraine Milner share their reflections of this year – their sadness at the passing of Charmaine (their daughter) as well as the progress of their ministry. The write: “We praise the Lord for enabling us to continue making DVDs for outreach to young children, using puppets, to teach the Bible lessons and the Good News of the Gospel. Quite a lot of people have been ordering the DVDs, some have been sent to different parts of South Africa, while others have gone overseas. Pray that each DVD will help children to come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour, while they are still young. We have some exciting concepts for our DVDs for next year. We would like to produce ones with which the children can interact themselves. We look forward to seeing how God leads us."
  
• Murray and Candace write about their struggle as they live apart while waiting for Murray’s spousal visa from the US government. Do pray for them. They are grateful that Candace has started a job and Murray is praying that he will be able to do something “significant” during his last few months in SA.
  

Church People and Ministries

People

• Faith and John Leslie move to Sherwood place tomorrow.
• Pray for those who are on oversees visits - Maudie Nel (USA), Loretta Daniels (India), Joubert family (UK), and Rachael Beukes (New Zealand).
• Pray for all who travel over the holiday season for safety and a happy holiday.
• Pray for Didier Kasongo who is starting his doctoral studies at the University of Stellenbosch. Didier has begun to repairing and covering the pew bibles which are beginning to look rather well used! Thank you Didier.

Ministry      

• All weekly meetings are now closed until school reopens in January.
• The Sunday evening meeting has a special Christmas theme this Sunday (8th). This will be another opportunity for us to invite family and friends. This will be the last evening service until January 19th.

Denominational

• Pray for all the churches in their preparation for the Christmas season.

Our Societal Needs

Pray for the government as they plan the funeral and times of mourning for Nelson Mandela. This is obviously a world event and will need careful planning and security measures.

Sunday Service - 8 December

Join us for both services and share in the fellowship and coffee and tea.

9.30am “Why was Jesus sent into the world?”  Peter Smallbones will be the preacher from John 3:16,17.
6.00pm A special Christmas service. Carols and readings that focus on the birth of Christ. Peter Smallbones will be the speaker. This will be the last evening service until January 19th.