Dear brothers and sisters,
It gives me great joy to briefly tell you about what the Lord is doing at Hope Bible Church. You are part of this Lord’s work, so we would like to thank you for your continued support, especially support in prayer.
The Kukunis
By God’s grace we are doing well as a family. The past three months were particularly challenging for Keitu because of pastoral challenges I was facing in the church. She was a great support to me even though she needed more support than I did. We thank the Lord that we were able to spend a lot of time together to think biblically about this matter. We also thank God for brothers and sisters who came alongside us. I drew closer to God during this time. 1 Corinthians, 1 John, 1 Timothy, and the Psalms encouraged me a lot.
For my personal growth, I have been spending a lot of time on reading on how to structure my sermons better. This started with my supervisor and I working on structuring my dissertation better. Please pray that the Lord would help me to communicate the gospel truths of his word more clearly and helpfully.
This time of the year is a busy time for us. Keitu and I are preparing to write our exams. Please pray for us. We praise God for the good health that we enjoy. We also thank him for his provision in all things we need. Our children are doing well. After we resumed in-person worship services, we have been taking them with us to church, which is a joy to us.
Spiritual Life and Vitality of the Church
We praise the Lord that we were able to reopen the church on 13 September. There are people in the church who put in a lot of work into ensuring our services run smoothly. They put in a lot of work weekly to ensure that we serve one another well with our differences and to comply with the government’s regulations, and for that I am grateful. It was good to see faces gathered in church again. I was very delighted I even preached my longest sermon ever (1:02:45). It has been going relatively well.
Previously I said that once the lockdown restrictions are relaxed, only then will we be able to assess the spiritual health of the church. We must thank the Lord that despite the challenges we faced, the church is healthy. While we were saddened by people who left the church, the Lord gave us joy by adding Brother Clive to the church. When Clive came to the church a few years ago he was a professing believer. The Lord was gracious to him by not letting him rest in that false assurance. He recently placed his trust in Jesus as his only hope in life and death.
We have been receiving visitors regularly. According to the health guidelines, our church hall can only sit about 25 people. This past Sunday (18 October) we were full to capacity. Present was a family that visits us quite regularly, and the visitors who have been coming the past few weeks brought other visitors with. All else is healthy in the church. Praise the Lord!
Prayer Requests
- Thank the Lord for the men and women who are helpful at church.
- Pray that God would keep and sustain us.
- Pray that God would add new members to the church.
- Pray for ongoing wisdom in dealing with difficult pastoral matters.
Grace and peace to you,
Tsholo