Pastoral Letter - 26 February 2015

Hi Table View Methodist Family,

I'm writing from home today, working on my sermon while my daughter Emily recovers from a fever she had yesterday.  Isn't it amazing how quickly some children get sick - and then all better again in a few hours :)  I'm sure she send you all her love.

Society Stewards

Thank you for participating in the nomination and election of our society stewards last week.  We will induct our stewards this coming Sunday at their respective services:

8am

Joe Taljaard

Rodney Rhoda

Vivienne Cameron

930am

Charmaine DuToit

Karin Franklin

Jacques Kellerman

11am

Busisiwe Ziqgola

Basisipho May-Seane

Philasande Macwili

Thank you also to those who were nominated, but not elected - I am grateful for your willingness to serve the congregation - the voting was very close and so we trust that God has helped us to discern the way forward for our congregation.

Most important - it is not the job of the stewards to do everything at church while the rest of us sit back and watch from the sidelines.  I see it as their job to help each and every member of the congregation to find their place in serving the congregation.  Remember how Paul describes the body of Christ (The Church) in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4.  Also consider Galatians 5:13, Paul calls us to serve one another.

Is there some small / big way in which you can serve?  Help out with counting after the service, do some handy work for the church, help to cater for special events?  Read the scriptures?  Lead our intercessory prayers?  Consider these opportunities to help us.

Worship This Sunday

This Sunday we will pray with our new society stewards as they take up their new duties.  We will also share communion.  The scriptures for this coming Sunday are Genesis 17:1-16, Psalm 22:23-31, Romans 4:13-25 and Mark 8:31-38.  I spoke a little bit about Abraham last week, this week Genesis tells us about Abraham's faith (at 99 years old) that God would give him a child.  Romans reminds us of the importance of 'trusting in God' for our salvation.  Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him.

Finances

Our auditor, Wayne Van Schoor is busy auditing our Income / Ependiture statements for 2014.  As I look at our income and expenditure for 2015 I note that we are falling behind a bit; our deficit at this point is about R26,000 over the first two months.

Please consider how you can support our church financially.  We need about R100,000 per month to get by (more would be better as it always is). 


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Baptism Certificates

We have a number of uncollected baptism certificates in the church office.  Di will place them in the church foyer this Sunday:  Maya Chinasamy, Riley Coleman, Daniel Ross Pape, Taylor, Cooper and Maiya Zeiler.

God bless,

I look forward to worshiping and sharing communion with you on Sunday at 8, 930 and 11am.

Gus

PS - If you want to update your details (name spelt incorrectly, email, phone number, address etc.)  Please fill in this form:
http://goo.gl/forms/cqGHaKhh6c

Pastoral Letter 19 Feb 2015

Hi Table View Methodist Family,

This Sunday marks the first Sunday in Lent.  Lent is a time of preparation for Good Friday and Easter - often people choose to fast in some way or another - or they choose to take up something new.  If you haven't already done it, why not sign up to receive Read Think Pray every weekday morning at 6am (click here) or 5am (click here).  That way you can start your day by reading one of the scriptures that inspired our worship on the previous Sunday.

Our scriptures for this coming Sunday are Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22 and Mark 1:9-15.  The Genesis scripture reminds us of God's covenant with Noah; the rainbow is a reminder of God's commitment to never again send a flood to destroy the earth (Gen 9:11).  The story of Noah is a story of hope - although the world was full of evil and God regretted what he had created (Chapter 6:7); but Noah walked with God - and God remembered Noah and saved humanity; giving Noah and his family a fresh start.  And God promised (with the rainbow) never again to give up on humanity.

Lent is a time of hopeful repentance - repentance is not about beating yourself up.  It is about turning away from the negative of evil and brokenness - and towards the positive - of the coming of God's Kingdom.  I pray that this lent time would be a time of positive repentance as we turn again to Jesus and pray that his Kingdom would come in our hearts - and in our land.

Some sad news is that one of our members, Lee Eades passed away on Monday afternoon.  She had a severe stroke on Saturday.  Lee is survived by her children Cami and Sascha (both were confirmed here at Table View Methodist during Vic Smith's time); Lee was only 59 so her passing is a shock to her family.  Please keep them all in your prayers; the funeral will take place at Table View Methodist Church today (19 Feb) at 3pm.  Lee was an estate agent at Leapfrog Table View.

ELECTION OF SOCIETY STEWARDS

 

Thank you for nominating stewards to lead our congregation.  Here are the nominations (some have withdrawn):

8am - Rodney Rhoda, Andrea Byleveld and Vivian Cameron (Two needed)

930am - Karin Franklin, Jacques Kellerman and Tamra Diedericks (Two needed)

11am - Philasande Macwili, Busisiwe Zigqola, Mbulelo Bikwani, Nonthuthuzelo Thomas (Three needed)

Stewards that continue to serve are:

Joe Taljaard (8am), Charmaine DuToit (930am), and Peter Soule (6pm / Youth).

This would bring our total count up to ten which is the maximum amount of Stewards that our Book of Order allows.  Robert Herbst is travelling in Europe this year and so we'll give him a sabbatical.

Please pray for these people as we help them to discern God's call on their lives to help lead his church.

GNATTERING KNITTERS

Every Friday morning a group of ladies get together from about 10-12pm to Knit and Chat.  Above is a picture of them visiting the Tygerberg Hospital children's ward on Christmas day to give children knitted toys.  At the moment they are making up gift packs for residents of Huis Zonnekus and they are looking for: Soap, Toothpaste, Washcloths, and Body Cream.  Their target date is Mother's Day, if you can't knit I'm sure they'll still enjoy your company.

BARTER TEA:

One of our members, Kristel Havenga is passionate about helping animals and she is organizing a 'barter tea' on 21 March from 11am till 1pm.  As far as I understand, you bring something to help an animal (food, collars, leashes, muzzles etc.)  And in exchange you might get some tea and cake.

God bless,

See you on Sunday at 8, 930 or 11am.

Gus