Dear friends,
It is always a great joy and encouragement to partner with you for the advancement of the gospel. We always thank God in our prayers when we think about your commitment in advancing the gospel. This work cannot be done by one man; it needs a team effort. We thank God for your constant prayers and your support. It is my prayer that God may always provide for your needs.
Personal and Family
Jesus’ story of a planter describes the work of church planting well. As you cast the seed, you don’t know whether it will grow. You sometimes look back but don’t see any promise that the seed will grow. Sometimes you get discouraged. But we keep going because we know that the growth of the seed is not dependent on us but on God. Paul’s words to Timothy are a constant reminder to me that I need to guard my life and my doctrine. As I always preach to others, I also need others to preach to me. The very same gospel that grows the church is the same gospel that grows the planter. I have therefore taken some time to attend conferences (some close and some far) just to feed my soul with the gospel of Christ.
Health wise, we’ve been facing few challenges as a family but, through it all, we’ve seen the grace of God carrying us through. First, it was my wife who needed to be admitted for a surgery to help with severe back pains and headaches. We praise God that her surgery was a success and she had a speedy recovery. So far, she’s been backache and headache free. As a family we praise God daily for this answered prayer.
Then we recently noticed our son scratching his eyes a lot, but didn’t think much of it. We just thought it was an allergy and him being a child. We then got him an eye ointment, which we thought would help. We thank God for his teacher who alerted us that he is struggling when reading and needs to get his eyes checked out as soon as possible. When we took him to the optometrist, who discovered a severe astigmatism on his eyes and referred us to an eye specialist. We were quite anxious and worried about our son’s eye sight. But we are grateful that we could see the doctors on time and we pray that the treatment he was prescribed may help improve his vision. The words of apostle Paul to the Corinthians have been keeping us going strong. We can also say when we are weak, we are strong.
Building Project
Four years ago, the Lord was gracious in blessing us with a plot of land that would allow us to construct a church building where we could meet. It has, however, proved to be a lengthy and challenging task getting all our paperwork approved by the relevant government agencies before we can commence with the building project. It has been three years since the initial submission of our building plans. Last year December, the Lord was gracious in allowing the finalisation of all the necessary approvals that has now allowed us to commence with the building project.
Where Do We Find Ourselves?
Grace Baptist Church was planted by Grace Fellowship Pretoria. Since its inception, the church met in a local school until a time that the pastor left and the church started dwindling. This has been a story of many township churches who don’t have a property of their own. Townships are very dense in population and it is difficult for them to build churches that will stay longer and plant other churches. By God’s grace, he has given us young professionals with a desire to see townships having solid churches. We are currently meeting in a property that is unofficially ours. Since the initial submission of the plan, our church has grown and our needs have continued to change. We are excited to plan a way forward with regards to building.
The church currently owns the plot of land on which the approved plans are based. The church currently has R500,000 allocated for the building project ($28,624.41) ($1 = R17.47). With all approvals from the government in place, the only challenge for us is getting all the required funds that would enable us to commence and complete the building project. Our recent quantity survey shows that the total cost for the entire project is R1.7 million ($97,322.99). We have decided as the leaders to commence with Phase One. After seeking advice, we were told that we may need to have at least R1.3 million ($74,423.46) in order to commence. With the R500,000 we currently have, we need a further R800,000 ($45,799.05) to commence the building project.
Please prayerfully consider how you and your church may partner with us financially and prayerfully in undertaking this project.
We are planning to do this project in two phases. The first phase will cover 80% structure. The following table is a breakdown of the R837,000 that we need to commence with Phase One.
Phase One Costing
- Bulk material
- Roof
- Structure and fittings
- Labour
- R200,000
- R165,000
- R260,000
- R275,000
- $11,300
- $9,300
- $14,700
- $15,600
Phase Two Costing
- Estimated total cost
- R390,000
- $22,100
Pray With Us
- Pray that the Lord will provide for us so that we can be able to take care of our son during this challenging time.
- Pray that the three people who were baptised will grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Pray that God will give our leaders wisdom as we shepherd his church.
- Pray and consider how you can partner with us in our building project.
