Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
Our previous troubles have produced in us character and have taught us to depend solely upon the Lord for our deliverance from the schemes of the evil one. In the month of May, we consecrated a week of fasting and prayer for the whole church to pray for, among other things:
- God to help us to be a praying church;
- God to help us to holy in our daily living;
- God to help us to be faithful in tithes and offerings;
- the preaching to have power so people could be saved;
- God to restore those who used to fellowship with us but have since disappeared; and
- God to help us to be a church that evangelises.
As elders, we were greatly surprised by the good response from the church, as if they were asking us why we have taken so long to do this. The past troubles have in a sense awakened in them a desire to depend fully upon the Lord, and as elders we were humbled to see this spiritual maturity. Given this great response, we have committed to have such a week of fasting and prayer every two to three months.
One of the effects of the fast was the faithful evangelism we have seen since. Every Saturday we have engaged in open air preaching and tract distribution at a nearby shopping centre. The attendance from the church has been good, especially as many of our church members go to work on Saturdays. We continue to trust God for the fruit of this ministry as the gospel has been preached in power and with clarity. Continue to pray with us, especially that we may greatly improve in prayer and evangelism which seem to be the Cinderellas of most churches.
We are also grateful to God for the young preacher, Zakhele Mkhwanazi, who just joined us from Grace Baptist Church where he just completed a pastoral internship. His presence in our midst has had a great effect on many of our church programs. He has such a blessing to us, and we are grateful for the provision that he has been to us.
Yours in Christ,
Bheki Bembe
Elder