After Peter and John came to confirm that what Mary told them was indeed true—the tomb was empty. They left, but Mary remained at the tomb. She lingered a little.

Sometimes you need to linger a little before you just move on. Amen.

I am one of those people who don’t like to linger. I don’t like to dwell on things. I want to move past things. I want to move forward. And I’m not saying that there’s something wrong with that, but there are times when you just need to linger for a moment.

Many times, it is in those lingering moments, while you are meditating and thinking through the pain you’re in, trying to make sense of the realities you find yourself in, when you least expect it, that the familiar voice of the Good Shepherd calls your name, “Mary!”

Our Lord Jesus has a way of breaking into your secret worries, doubts and fears to let you know that he is right there with you!

He breaks through the noise, through the pain, through the guilt, through the worry, through your brokenness, through the confusion, and with all the shouts and screams that calls for your attention, he comes close enough and whispers your name: “Mary.”

Beloved, he never abandons his own! He will never abandon you!

After comforting Mary, Jesus tells her to give the good news of his resurrection to his disciples, but Luke tells us that the disciples did not believe them (Luke 24:11). But even for these doubting disciples, Jesus came. While they were behind locked doors, in fear of the Jews, “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19).

He enters their fears and doubts, and brings them the kind of comfort, safety and security that no locked doors, nor anything that this world has to offer can provide. “Peace be with you.”

He gives them his peace. Not the false temporal peace of the world, but his peace. Peace that lasts forever! Meaningful peace. Peace that surpasses understanding.

Isaiah tells us that he shall be called: Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! Hallelujah!

But not only is he the Prince of Peace who pronounces peace over you. Not only is he the one who brings peace. Not only is he the Peacemaker.  Ephesians 2:14 says that “he himself is our peace.” He is the peace of God that transcends our understanding (Philippians 4:7).

It is Jesus, the risen Lord, who invades our private spaces and ignores the “no-entry” sign, and refuses to be stopped by the doors that locks us in. He stands in the midst of it all and declares his presence with us, “Peace be with you! I am with you! I am your peace!”

The risen Christ, our sovereign King, has defeated the devil, conquered the grave and removed the sting of death. He has finished the work of redemption for “whosoever” would believe, and he is now standing in the midst of his disciples bringing the peace that he has bought for them with his own precious blood.

He is declaring that peace over them as a covenantal promise to them. That peace is his gift to every believer, regardless of your context or circumstances. May his grace and peace be multiplied to you.

This month, I celebrated with my family fifty years of God’s grace in my life. God has been so gracious, so overwhelmingly good, to me! Oh, the stories I could tell about his great salvation and the many times I should not have made it. Oh, praise God for his goodness and kindness toward me.

My childhood is wrought with so much tragedy, and it would all be without any meaning if it had not been for the cross. Oh the beauty and glory of Jesus! He makes all things new. He makes all things beautiful in its time. He takes the greatest tragedies of your life and shines his glory on it and brings life out of that which was meant to kill you. Oh that I would see more and more of him!

What a joy it was to have most of our church, family, and close friends in the gospel to share this special celebration with me. To God be the glory great things he has done!

I had the sad opportunity of burying two of my aunts, two months after each other. What makes it sad is that both of them had no Christian witness. What grieves me the most is that with one of them I had several opportunities to share the gospel with, but she would every time tell me that she knows, but she’s not ready. She died in front of my eyes, while struggling to get her out the door to take her to hospital. Oh, I pray that I am wrong about both of them. That they got an opportunity to cry out in that midnight hour for the Lord to save them.

I am glad for the privilege to preach the gospel to family and friends who attended the funeral. I praise God for allowing such gospel preaching opportunities.

Please pray for both my aunties’ kids who do not know the Lord, and for those who heard the gospel preached at the funeral.

Our gospel ministry is to dealers and addicts, criminals and victims. Throughout the years, the Lord has saved both and added both to our church. The testimonies of our members falls within those categories. Praise God, our Saviour is not a respecter of persons, and he is able to save to the uttermost all who draw near to God through him (Hebrews 7:25).

I’ve had the opportunity to share the gospel with a young man who lost his leg due to cancer. His addiction made his condition worse. My earliest interaction with this young man was when he was about ten years old and getting into fights at school. At that time, we were already engaging his mother and uncle with the gospel. Both were using substances at that time. Now, twelve years later, his uncle died because of drugs and his mother’s mind has been mentally impacted by her addiction.

Over the years we have stayed in contact with this family. About a month ago, we got the news that this young man (22 years old) was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and was sent home to die. Theo and I had planned to go see him that Monday, but it got so busy we did not get the opportunity to go. That Monday he died. Our hearts were broken, because we wanted to once again plead with him to cry out to the Lord.

The next day my wife got a very encouraging report from his grandmother. His grandma, who is a devoted believer, told us that, on the day he died, he told her and his mom that they should not worry about him, because he made right with God and was ready to die. He also told his mom that she must stop with the drugs and ask Jesus to save her too. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus!

Please pray for his mom and his friends who are all addicts.

Theo has been ministering to a drug dealer whom he supported back in the day. This guy has been dealing drugs for more than thirty years now. He was also recently diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and has been in and out of hospital. The doctors have also sent him home, because there is nothing they can do for him anymore. For the past months, Theo has been going to his house every day to read the Scriptures to him and to pray for him. Theo has been sharing the gospel with him and made a commitment to him that he will do so until the Lord saves him or until he dies. Oh the grace that God bestows on the vilest of sinners. Please continue to pray for him that the Lord might grant him repentance.

Please continue to beseech the Lord to intervene. Senseless killings and drug related deaths are on the increase in our community. Here’s a bird’s eye view: According to national police data, more than 26,000 people were murdered in South Africa last year. Almost 3,500 of those were in Cape Town.

We have approximately 40,000 people living in Bellville South with at least 3–6 people dying from gang violence or drug abuse every month. In the last two months we buried three people who died due to drug abuse. Last week, we buried a drug addict who did not even have one flower at the grave site, while we have drug dealers driving around in our poor community with Lamborghini and Bentleys. Please pray for our community.

On 31 August 2025, I finished preaching through the Gospel of John—110 sermons in total. I preached the first sermon (John 1:1) on 3 July 2018. That’s seven years in the same book. Of course, I’ve taken some breaks and preached through some topical sermons and other Old Testament books, such as Ruth, the Psalms and of the Minor Prophets. John was definitely my favourite.

This is not me boasting. This is me acknowledging the grace of God that allowed me to do it. I want to give praise to the Lord on whom I have relied upon for every sermon preached. I want to give him the praise that he is worthy of! I want to praise him for answering my prayers and allowing me to preach through one of my favourite books in the Bible, and for crushing my heart through it and deepening my devotion to Christ. May he do the same for you as you study his word.

My desire for preaching through this book, verse by verse, was for us to see Jesus! I want us to behold him! To look upon the beauty of his grace and marvel at his splendour. To see him high and lifted up, full of glory—and yet, touching the heart of the weakest saint and the vilest sinner.

I wanted us to see him as the risen, reigning King, and to be brought low in wilful surrender at his awesome majesty.

I praise God for raising up more godly men who can preach the word! I am grateful for men such as brother Theo and brother Ravern, who are growing in their gift of teaching and expository preaching. Please pray for these men that they would continue to watch their lives and their teaching, and walk in holiness before God and his church. Praise God for the ministry of Word Partners, which is a huge blessing in assisting local churches by training men how to rightly divide the word of God.

We praise God for the opportunity to receive and distribute about eight hundred Home Reformation books to pastors and Christian families. Home Reformation is a book authored by Adam Burrell and endorsed by Paul Washer as “the most holistic and practical guide to reforming marriage and family.”

We were also privileged to put a copy of Home Reformation in the hands of twenty pastors who attended the Word Partners workshop in Cape Town.

In a culture where everything musical is being corrupted, and even the songs that are sung in churches are filled with worldly sentiment, focused on self, and robbing God from his majesty, we have decided to conduct an annual hymn singing evening for our local church. This is not a concert or a spectator event. It is an evening of corporate worship where the members of Reformed Community Church with their families and the ministries they are serving in, come together to express worship to God through the singing of hymns and reading through the Psalms.

This is only the third time we’ve done this, and it always proves to be such a tremendous blessing to our church. We pray that our kids will grow up to treasure these hymns and the rich theology they teach.

This is definitely one of the highlights of the year for me. It is a great time of learning and fellowship and prayer with pastors who share a high view of the local church. These are elder qualified men who are in the trenches day and night, to see Christ formed in the flock of whom the Holy Spirit made them overseers.

As always, we have to limit the amount of registrations so that we can have meaningful interactions and greater potential to build lasting friendships and gospel partnerships.

We covered topics on church leadership, membership and baptism, discipline and the Lord’s Supper, corporate worship, etc. All attendees were able to sit in on an actual elders’ meeting, which set the tone for the entire Weekender. The case studies were very relevant and the presentation made by attendees were insightful. The pastors really benefitted from the panel discussions as they had the opportunity to ask questions and get inputs from experienced pastors on the panel and from amongst them.

Please continue to pray for this annual conference and for wisdom and guidance for the Imprint team and the elders of Brackenhurst Baptist Church as they lead this needed conference.

This year marked the twentieth year of the Sola 5 Association of God-centred Evangelical Churches in Southern Africa. This must have been the biggest Sola 5 Conference to date. Attendance ran over 500 in the evenings, while the sessions throughout the day were packed.

We attended our first Sola 5 conference in 2012 and joined in 2013. It has only been a blessing to our church and to me ever since. I’ve built deep, lasting friendships and gained valuable gospel partners who are still partnering with us today.

Praise God for Sola 5 and the God-given vision of our founders. I love the way our newly elected leadership has captured this vision: “Sola 5 exists to strengthen God-centred churches, foster biblical fellowship, and advance Christ’s kingdom through gospel witness and church-planting partnerships across Africa.”

We’ve been hosting our Mission Tea for the past twelve years. The aim is to make churches aware of the global need of the gospel, and to unite different likeminded congregations together in prayer for missionaries and church planters all over the world, while raising funds through ticket sales for a specified missionary.

We usually start the event on a light note with an icebreaker aimed at getting people to move around and getting to know each other. This year we had 120 people in attendance who all paid R100 per ticket. We were able to raise R12,000 plus the donation of R1,000 that one of the attendees made. The funds will all go to a missionary in Kenya who works amongst the Somali people. He and a few of his colleagues were brutally attacked and hospitalised just a few weeks before our Mission Tea event. Please keep him and his family in your prayer.

We are grateful that our little church can be involved in global missions in this small way.

This year was the first year where my son and daughter attended the Mission Tea as believers. It was such a joy to sit at the table with my son and hear him pray for persecuted Christians in Djibouti. While he was praying, I was thinking, could the Lord be calling my son to the mission field of some foreign country?

C. T. Studd said it best: “Only one life, it will soon past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” This statement has been my reality on so many levels. The urgency for the gospel becomes clearer each day, more so now as I hit that fifty-year mark.

The Lord has kept me faithful in gospel ministry since 2002, and I rejoice in his sustaining grace for the plus ten years he has given me to serve our local church and the community of Bellville South. All glory be to God!

There are no great men of God. Only weak, pitiful men in the hand of a great God!