{"id":848,"date":"2021-03-12T11:23:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T09:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=848"},"modified":"2021-03-12T11:23:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T09:23:34","slug":"communion-sunday-28-february-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=848","title":{"rendered":"Communion: Sunday 28 February 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rev Hendrik Du Plessis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the restrictions and regulations of Botswana, all liquor\nsales were still forbidden, but fortunately we still had a bottle of Old Brown\nCherry from the previous communion. Throughout the week, all the elders were\nable to report on the members in their wards. It was a busy week with three\nfunerals and an elders meeting that we had to fit in somewhere. One of the\ndeceased was a member of our church here, a woman, who suddenly developed flu\nsymptoms and died a few days later. Her husband, who survived a stroke a few\nyears ago and is still partially paralyzed, also had the same flu symptoms but\nsurvived. She tested negative for Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gantsi district has long been spared from the COVID-19 pandemic, but\nrecently numbers have increased drastically. On March 2, 2021, there were a\ntotal of 821 cases of which 144 are active with 9 deaths. The health services\nare under tremendous pressure. By 5 March 2021, there were 30,537 cases\nreported in Botswana with 413 deaths and 1,166 daily cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Lord’s Supper service, the Scripture reading focused on the\nPharisee and the tax collector and the attitude of a Christian to return home\njustified. In a simple way, I presented to them the two people, who the\nPharisees were and the tax collectors at that time, and how your sense of\ncredit or dignity could lead you to one great self-deception and the deep\nhumility of someone who realizes how great his sin and misery are. A single sentence was enough to put him in\nhonor before God: “God be merciful to me a sinner”, in contrast with\nthe complacency of the Pharisee.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before serving the Lord’s Supper, we have once again made it clear that\nanyone who still wears strings from faith healers or sangomas or any other\ntapestry of any bishop, apostle or church leader will eat and drink \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \njudgment on himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At communion, the Reformed form is presented to the congregation in two\nlanguages, Naro and Tswana. Here and there the form is explained in more detail\nfor clarity. Thereafter, the congregation was invited to join in the communion\nservice. The congregation then stands in front of the table and the church\ncouncil behind the table. Standing, they are then administered the sacraments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conclude, we are now approaching the Easter season which extends over\nthe weekend of the 2 – 4 April. Hopefully the restrictive regulations will be\nadjusted by that time. Our sincere prayer is that the Lord will bless us at\nthis time that our attention will not be distracted, but will be absolutely\nfocused on the merits of the atonement and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus\nChrist. With that, we also ask for your intercession for and in this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your brother in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrik du Plessis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rev Hendrik Du Plessis According to the restrictions and regulations of Botswana, all liquor sales were still forbidden, but fortunately we still had a bottle of Old Brown Cherry from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}