Our brothers and sisters, those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Since the last update, not much has developed in the life of our church. However, we are starting to take deliberate stock of life in our church to see what the Lord might be teaching us. We trust and hope that this update will help you to pray for us.
Kukuni Family
The Lord has been good to us as a family. We are most encouraged by the progress and development of our youngest child, Tikvah. He is four years old but struggles with his speech. We have attended a couple of speech therapy sessions and it is paying dividends. Notwithstanding this, his intellect is incredible. It always amazes us how his mind grasps and processes things. We thank the Lord for this.
It is the beginning of school holidays here, so our kids are also going to take a break. We are all growing in Christlikeness and our devotions are going well. Overall, life in our home is joyous.
A New Name—FSBC
We had a very successful AGM on 23 February. Although there is one outstanding matter we have to attend to, we thank the Lord that the meeting was peaceful and orderly. God is a God of peace and order and we strive to conduct our church meetings accordingly (1 Corinthians 14:40).
At this AGM, the new name of our church was unveiled. Hope Bible Church is now called Free State Bible Church. We are excited about this new name and for the other changes that we have made in the church recently. We can sense the Lord pruning, sanctifying, and causing us to wholly trust him. We have challenges, but this is a place we must be so that we can turn to God in earnest prayer.
FSBC—Many Visitors
As we mentioned last time, we still see a number of students visit the church every Sunday. Some of them are interested in taking membership, but their commitment in attending to the means of grace is still waning. However, last week and two weeks before, we saw a large number of students come through the doors of our church. About fifteen new students visited last week and, for the first time in a long time, our church was almost full to capacity.
Among the people who have been visiting, there are two who are showing interest in the church. One is a theology student at the University of the Free State, and another works at Mimosa Mall, just opposite our church. Please pray for us as we plan to meet these men personally and disciple them for the Lord.
Challenges—Lessons to Learn
Being a small church means having certain benefits that big churches don’t have. One of those is the ability to pay pastoral visitations to every member. We have started doing so, with the hope of shepherding Christ’s sheep through the struggles we are going through as a church, and take them alongside us as we seek to apply lessons we have learned.
I am thankful for the brothers who have encouraged me, and I am incredibly indebted to you for your prayers.
Grace and peace to you,
Tsholo
Tsholo Kukuni
Free State Bible Church
Tsholo Kukuni serves as pastor-teacher of Hope Bible Church in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Tsholo is a graduate of Christ Seminary in Polokwane. He has a strong desire to see Hope Bible Church involved in planting biblical churches in the nearby townships where he grew up. He is a native South African Tswana and is a competent speaker of Setswana, Sesotho, and English.
He and his wife Keitumetse have two children.