Ministry Update: Sovereign Grace Bible Church (Olievenhoutbosch, South Africa) (October 2022)

by | 5 Oct 2022 | Churches, Newsletters, Sovereign Grace Bible Church

Grace and peace to you in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We pray that this letter finds you well. We are grateful that the Lord continues to give us grace to serve him and the people of Olievenhoutbosch with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bembe Family

We paise the Lord for health and good progress on my wife. A few weeks ago, she was feeling weak and sick, and we find out that it was her blood pressure which was low at the time. By God’s grace all is back in order as far as her health is concern. I was also out and down from flue related issues, but all is behind now. And we praise the Lord for his grace and mercy in our lives.

Rasephei Family

The family has been good. We recently took a family vacation. Our oldest son is completing his high school this year, so he has a lot of pressure with preparing for final exams. He is also not sure what career he wants to pursue in university so there is a bit of anxiety there for him. Our other three sons are doing well at school. Pearl has recently started her real estate company and it is going a bit slower than expected. We need prayers for the success of the business. I have been a bit busier at work than usual. Other than that things are going well.

Masubelele Family

A few weeks ago, brother Shimi’s wife was hospitalised for severe abdominal pains. We all joined in prayer for her, and she has since recovered and she is due to undergo an operation on 4 October to deal with the cause of the problem. Please pray with us for her operation to go well. We give thanks to the Lord for overall good health among most of our members.

Church Family

The past few months have been both joyful and at times challenging for us. We are delighted however, that there is much progress, at the same time remembering that there is also still much to be done, especially the work that the Lord has called us to.

It’s exciting to see some improvements and commitment from some of our young ones. Our young girl at church have started an initiative of practicing songs and sing at church every Lord’s Day. We are happy to see such effort and we thank the Lord for the effort. We continue to pray that the church may grow in numbers and that we have more youth joining the church and be willing to be part of the growing process at SGBC.

The construction work began well as we previously reported to you and was progressing extremely well. By mid-July, the structure had been erected along with the toilets and the small structure for the security guard.
However, the gentleman in charge of the construction work fell ill and the work came to a halt. We prayed for his recovery and waited for weeks wondering when he would recover and be fit to work. The incomplete structure put us at odds with the community because it posed a danger of someone being raped or for illegal activity to be conducted at the site. It was a difficult situation, but we explained to the community leaders why the work had stopped and assured them we would do our utmost to ensure its completion, by God’s grace they understood our predicament and things calmed down.
After some time, the gentleman was finally discharged from hospital but he had not yet fully recovered and so we prayerfully waited until he was well enough to continue the work. We were delighted when the work resumed in August and was quickly progressing and has been going very well since. The construction is nearly complete.
I am pleased to report that we have also started with the fence around the church for better security. We are expecting this work to finish in a month’s time then the whole project will be a hundred percent done.

The church continues to gather inside the building and it’s going well as we can worship under better conditions, and we are able to invite people to church now. We are so excited that also the work of evangelism will begin soon as the structure is now 95 percent complete. Now we are just doing touch ups on the inside and we are getting ready to celebrate the completion of the structure in a few weeks. This coming weekend we are doing complete cleaning on the yard and removing all unnecessary things and cleaning the structure on the inside.

Brethren, all this is a result of your prayers, generosity, and love. May the Lord continue to add blessing upon blessing to your account for your service to him.

Please join us in praying for the remainder of the construction work to go well and for the Lord to draw people to the church as we engage them with the gospel.

Please send greeting to the saints on our behalf with love.

Yours in Christ,

Bheki Bembe, Pastor