Dear saints, sanctified in Christ Jesus, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Greetings!

Introduction and Spiritual Life and Vitality of the Church

For the Communion service that we had on 6 August, the Lord impressed it on my heart to remind us from 1 Samuel 12:19–25 that we are to be reminded all the time that we serve him for his great name’s sake. It is not the washing of our sins or any work that he looks for to invite us to partake of the Lord’s Supper and to have fellowship with him. It is because it pleased him to make us a people for himself and he will not forsake us. This is love indeed, that he will not sweep us away though we sin against him countless times. All he requires of us is to repent, agree with him that we sin against him, and he will restore to us the joy of our salvation.

One of the ways we sin against God is by ceasing to pray. From this text I was convicted by v. 23 because for a while now our church has struggled to have faithfully attended prayer meetings. If we do not pray, relying on the Lord, then we will do things by our might to our own peril. It is futile to serve the Lord without being devoted to prayer. Please pray that there may be a rekindled zeal to pray because this is a matter of urgency for our church.

Despite us sinning against God by ceasing to pray, he has shown us that he is a covenant keeping God. We struggle with finances, therefore we are unsure how long the Lord will keep us here; yet from month to month he has kept us here and has blessed me with no anxiety at all because this is his church and he will take care of her. Additionally, we have people who often have to leave the city and the church for work opportunities in bigger cities. This is always a bittersweet experience with each member who leaves, but we thank the Lord for the word planted in them to enable us to confidently commend them to new churches where they end up.

Yet there is life in the church because the Lord has brought up men who have been serving faithfully in the church. Two of them have recently done Scripture Reading in the church for the first time. In addition, there are new women in the church who the Lord has used to ignite in them the desire to fellowship as women regularly. Keitu reports that so far the meetings have been a blessing, and the study of the gospel of Mark with Michael Kruger is making the gospel come alive for them, and most informatively, they are learning to read the gospel intertextually as the redemptive story of Christ spans the entire Bible.

Pray for the new, young women in the faith to continue to grow through this fellowship and worship of Christ. Please pray for the older women to be stirred by the Spirit to join them so that they may fulfil the Titus 2:4 mandate and to also grow in their walk with Christ. We also pray that from this group of young women we will see some become members and disciple those who will come after them or leave FSBC as healthy Christian to join healthy churches.

Their coming together is an answer to prayer for me, because since we started studying through 1 Corinthians I have felt that the book has been doing some spiritual heart surgery because the problem of worldliness, of Corinth in the church, is a problem we are experiencing. The Lord is busy cleansing and disciplining us. 1 Corinthians 1:10 is also coming alive because people want to unite more and be of the same mind in the things of the Lord.

Towards the end of this month we are going to observe two baptisms. Please pray that all will go well and that we will rejoice by seeing Christians display publicly what has happened to them spiritually. At the same time we have five people who are going through the membership discipleship course. Please pray that they will officially become members of the FSBC.

The Kukunis

Life in our home, in God’s house that he has given to us to call home, is flourishing by his grace. We learn daily, the crucial godly patterns for conduct in a healthy home so that we may understand how to live for the Lord in our home, how to love him in our home, and how our children should see his goodness towards us.

At the beginning of Term 3, Keitu returned to work outside the home on a part time basis to help fill the gap that was left by the teachers who resigned at the end of Term 2. It has not been difficult to adjust because her work schedule works for us and does not clash with our kids’ home schooling and church activities. Pray for the shepherding of our children’s hearts and for Keitu to be a gospel influence to the kids that she teaches.

Prayers of Thanks

  • Thank God that some members and adherents are striving to apply the teachings of 1 Corinthians, especially 1 Corinthians 1:10.
  • Thank God for the new people who are displaying signs of commitment to the Lord and his church.
  • Thank God for our home and our spiritual health.
  • Thank the Lord that despite the economic turmoil in our country, and our church experiencing its impact, the Lord has kept us existing and serving him faithfully.
  • Thank the Lord for the upcoming baptisms and new members’ intake.

Prayers of Needs

  • Please pray that we will have a second full time elder in the church. We may be small, but we are desperately in need of a fulltime elder so that I don’t reach burnout. This needs money only the Lord can provide.
  • Please pray for zeal for the Lord to be renewed in the hearts of those who have lost the first love for Jesus.
  • Pray for awakening and realisation that we desperately need to be a praying church because we can take everything to the Lord in prayer and he will not be overwhelmed and burdened.
  • Pray for me, and Tebogo, to have the wisdom and courage to shepherd the church through minor things that are frustrating the work of the Lord in the church. These come and go in every church but they weigh heavy on the pastors (Hebrews 13:17).
  • Pray for us to get our sound equipment that was stolen back from the police. They still have not released it back to us but they keep promising to do so almost weekly.
Grace and peace to you,

Tsholo Kukuni
Pastor-teacher