Rev Hendrik Du Plessis
The past weekend was once again a great highlight for us as a congregation. The singing was fantastic. The African has the gift of singing beautifully. Beforehand, each elder went to visit his members personally with a view to communion on Sunday. We planned to celebrate the holy communion together on Easter Sunday. Each elder then has his attendance register with him. Every Sunday its members are marked as absent or present and the members can be addressed accordingly during the visits. This is a practical arrangement that we have and it helps us determine how our members come to church. It also helps the elder to determine whether some of his sheep might be sick because he is the shepherd. It can also be gross negligence that the member must be admonished. During our pre-dinner elders meeting, the members in each ward are discussed. Should we find that someone is negligent in his church attendance, he is admonished not to come to the communion table, because you cannot need the communion and not the Word of the Lord on Sundays.
On Friday evening we had a worship service during which we emphasized the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. On Saturday morning we arranged for a Bible study which was well attended. In the evening we showed a film.
On Sunday morning our church was packed with people. In advance, the church council investigated ten of our confessional catechists with the open confession. One of them is a murderer who served his sentence for years in prison. Afterward, we allowed two women to confess their faith anew. Both were formerly members of our church.
Faithfully, they started attending our services again until they expressed the need to become part of our congregation again. The congregation was very glad to be able to welcome them back again. Spontaneously, the congregation came forward and embraced them. Not only them but also those who have confessed their faith. After that, the form of the holy communion was presented to the congregation, after which we took communion together. The congregation and the church council then stand together around the table during the service.
To conclude, it was a very joyful weekend for us. By the Lord’s grace, we not only celebrated communion but also gained members.
Our next outreach we plan again to Bere, Motopi, and Mababe. Our prayer is that the Lord will bless us with the outreach. Last time we couldn’t visit Mababe because it rained so much and the road was impassable. Hopefully, the road is now passable. They still had a lot of rain until recently. If it’s just mud, a 4 X 4 can make it, but if your bonnet becomes submerged, you’d better not risk it. We ask for your intercession for our next outreach. Your brother in Christ, Hendrik du Plessis.