Ministry Update: Heritage Baptist Church Potchefstroom
“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Cor 4:2)
“Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Prov 20:6).
Personal Update
Above all, this is what I desire for the ministry here in Potch. Not fame. Not to be better than another church. Not to become a big church. But only this, “that I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). To be faithful is what is required.
How simple and yet how difficult that standard is!
It is simple, because I do not need to be concerned over a thousand things, but only one. It is difficult, because to be faithful means being a good steward of the church that God has entrusted to me (Acts 20:28; Heb 13:17). It means always thinking how I can improve, how I can be more useful, and how to love God’s people and the lost better. It is to always question if I am doing all for Christ or whether or not I have become comfortable with my current state of sanctification. These are the kind of thoughts I have been thinking about amidst a brand new addition to our family.
It felt like everything was at a standstill with our new baby. Zian is about a month old, so sleep is scarce and precious. To find our “new normal” with the new rhythms of life is hard. But slowly but surely, we are getting back to a healthy routine.
To be able to work as I am supposed to, I had to cut out a few things out of my life that have been weighing me down. It is sad how easily a hobby can drain my energy and creativity to lead my family and the church well. One of the means God used to wake me up was a study on work and the sluggard in Proverbs. For that I am so thankful to Him and His patience towards me!
Church Update
Lord willing, we will be installing our first deacons on the 22nd of September. We are planning a special prayer meeting for the deacons but also for us as a church about our various needs.
On average, there are about 50-80 coming to church every Sunday. We are going through the book of Proverbs and the book feels well suited for the many babies coming this year as well as the students.
After the deacons are installed, I want to plan how to be more active in evangelism and leading the church forward. This is also why we want to pray to ask God to lead us in what He wants us to do here in Potch, even as a small church.
Prayer Points
- To adapt well with our third child
- To be faithful and to work diligently as a pastor
- For other faithful elders to lead with me
- For the Lord’s guidance about how to be more active in evangelism and labors of love here in the community.
Yours in Christ
Riaan
Spreading Gospel Hope: Stories of Evangelism and Community Outreach
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Romans 10:14-15
But Jesus said, “[a]Leave the children alone, and do not [b]forbid them to come to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”Matt 19:14. What an encouragement it is to get reports of all these evangelistic efforts for reaching the next generation of Christ worshippers.
Moletsane Baptist Church, Soweto
Evangelism through Holiday Bible Club: Seeking the Saviour
This was an intentional evangelistic opportunity. The biblical content put together under the theme of Seeking the Saviour laid the foundational truths that helped kids to understand who Jesus is and why they need a personal Savior. The children enjoyed an exciting morning of teaching, games, small groups (where the teaching was further explained), fun crafts, and lots of singing. The day would close out with a meal and even more fun playing soccer. We were encouraged to have roughly 75 children from the community over the course of the Bible club. We pray that the relationships developed with kids and their families can provide more opportunities to share the truth of the gospel. Watch the video!
Amazing Grace Baptist Church at Xigalo in Malamulele, Limpopo
Evangelism Through Food Parcels
Our church exists to glorify God by striving to exalt His name in all things, to equip believers for the works of service as well as to evangelize the lost. From time to time, especially during school holidays, we do house-to-house visitations with the members of our church. We have been doing this over the years since our church started. That’s the way our local church was planted. And it is also the way our church plant in Nyavani village in Malamulele was also planted just last year. We are one of the churches that has been granted an opportunity to run a Child Hunger Fund’s ministry. We are regularly supplied with food packs by CHF and we identify families that are struggling and we build relationships with them through providing them with the food packs. In that way, we show them the love of Christ and pave the way to sharing the gospel with them.
The Church in Mamelodi, Mamelodi Pretoria
Evangelism Through Educational Camps and Tutoring
Our tutoring program that runs on Saturdays allows us to help Grade 12 learners with their studies, while preaching the good news of Christ and teaching scripture memory. We recently enjoyed a camp weekend of fun, games, singing, and the word being taught to these students.
Evangelism Through Tutoring: Brother Muzi Dlamini, KZN
I am also reaching out to grade 12 learners who are struggling in mathematics. I start with preaching an evangelistic sermon and teach them maths during camps where different schools meet for maths intervention. I also helped my local secondary school with teaching math as a substitute teacher for grades 9-12. This was voluntary on my part to share the love of Christ and further creates a unique opportunity to foster relationships with the schools. for the sake of the gospel.
This is also a great opportunity for wider reach as it is a mix of students from various and neighbouring schools.
I have am evangelizing in my village where I go to the heads of households and explain the GOSPEL until it clearly understood then I give them time to make an informed decision and also explain how to become a Christian. Praying that these efforts would bear much fruit and the Lord would save some as they turn from their sins to the living God.
Rustenburg Baptist Church, North West
Evangelism Through Open Mic Preaching:
We started with street evangelism in the inner city, it is an area that is frequent by people and presents a great opportunity to reach many with the gospel. This has also presented an opportunity for one on one with those who stop to hear the word being preached. Our desire is that God will bring fruit from this by drawing his own people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be praying for us and where the gospel seed is planted that it would bear much fruit, for it is God who causes it to grow, for neither the one who plants or waters knows, but God.
What better response is there than to echo the words of Paul in 1 Tim 2:1 when he exhorts therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men…
Ministry Update: Heritage Baptist Church Potchefstroom
Greetings in the Lord
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Rev 2:4-5).
Personal UpdateThe Lord used this verse above to call me back to Himself. It is so easy as a pastor to fall into a professional routine to prepare sermons and do admin while missing the Lord Himself. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, one’s heart can grow cold due to a deprivation of prayer and slow Bible reading and meditation. When you see your brothers and sisters grow in the faith, you feel like a stranger. The Bible was not driving me to the pulpit, but the pulpit was driving me to the Bible. This is a scary place to be indeed!
Through my study of Proverbs (the current book we are working through as a church) and the Revelation text, my Gracious Shepherd called me back to Himself. What was clear through this text was that repentance meant to do the works I did at first: Like waking up to read my Bible, memorize Scripture, pray for the saints, and to faithfully shepherd my family through family worship. It is practical. It means leaving old, sinful habits and replacing them with good, godly ones. It means to plead with God to incline my heart again to His Word and not to selfish gain. It means to obey while trusting God to give His Holy Spirit for true joy in Him.
It feels odd, but in this season of spiritual coldness, I was asking myself, “Is it allowed for pastors not to be ok spiritually?” When a member or another believer struggles spiritually, they can go to their pastor for counsel, prayer, and help. But to whom does the pastor turn to? Every pastor needs a pastor; every pastor is first a member and a Christian before he is a shepherd. And in that, I too need to walk in the light with the brothers and be mentored by another pastor further down the road.
The Lord has granted me brothers here in Potch and the other elders of Heritage JHB to whom I can speak. The key for me was to be honest and not try to protect my reputation by saying all is well. This all highlights again the urgent need for us to have a plurality of elders with whom I can do the work of the ministry together.
I’m thankful for the grace of God which He lavished upon me in all wisdom and insight. Though our sins are many, His mercies are more.
Family Update
In a few weeks (9 July), we will be expecting our third son, Zian. We are looking forward to a bit of a break from pastoral duties. My wife Deborah is really uncomfortable, and I have had to carry some extra burdens around the house in this time. It was a test of my own heart and self-pity was always crouching at the door, seeking to master me. But thanking God was a discipline that helped to fight the despondency of self-pity.
Church Update
We are in the final stages of installing deacons. We are also receiving 4 new members on the 7th of July. Slowly, but surely, the church is growing, and I give all the honour to the Lord of the Church.
With our church being small, it has been a challenge to disciple the new members adequately. Currently, I am discipling them while updating our Discipleship book at the same time. I know the work is a lot now, but it will be worth it when some of the newer members can also disciple others.
With all the irons in the fire, we have not been going out to do evangelism. My prayer is that the Lord will give us someone with the gift of evangelism to equip the saints in this area.
Prayer Requests:
- For biblical elders and my personal relationship with the Lord
- For our family in receiving our third son (for a speedy recovery for my wife)
- For the Lord to grant us the right members to be rich in good works, especially in evangelism.
Your servant in Christ
Riaan
Unity Bible Church: Malawi, Zomba
“After 15 months since we started the work of church planting, it has pleased the Lord that we would finally welcome the first group of people as members of UBC. My heart is filled with a lot of emotions looking at what God has been doing in His church here at UBC. It is not too long ago when if three people won’t show up for church, I would be preaching to my family only. Fast forward to this month, we have welcomed 10 people as members of UBC.”
Maya Kuthyola update-compressedMoletsane Baptist Church: Soweto
Reflecting on the past decade of our ministry here, we are filled with gratitude for the Lord’s faithfulness. Through seasons of both joy and challenge, His grace has guided us, renewing our hope, keeping our focus on the kingdom, transforming lives, strengthening marriages, and propelling us in advancing God’s good news. We rejoice also in the growth in new believers added to our flock, regular visitors and the overall growth in numbers.
With growth comes exciting opportunities, but also challenges that we humbly ask for your support in addressing. Our current space limitations restrict our ability to run multiple ministries simultaneously. While we enjoy utilizing our outdoor space during the summer months, the colder and wetter weather makes gathering outdoors impractical. The solution identified is for mobile container classrooms, it aligns perfectly with our current church property, providing a swift and efficient setup without the delays associated with traditional building projects.
These classrooms will serve a variety of purposes, including Vacation Bible School in partnership with Grace Community Church – California, during the winter school break. Sunday school classes, as well as a prayer meeting and counselling rooms.
Our typical winter Sunday means we can’t use the hall as the band practices for the service and makes it hard to hear one another. The church hall is also used for fellowship after to keep from the elements, but this is when the teens have their meeting, so we try corner in different parts and whisper -which is very hard for our joyful body.
As we continue our community outreach efforts, we give thanks to our faithful Father who continually provides for the needs of His church, to the praise of His glorious grace.
This is the container structure that will be placed on the left side of the church house and will be divided into two classrooms with separate entrances. The floor space will comfortably accommodate chairs and even small Sunday School tables.Upon sourcing quotations from various suppliers, we think the overall cost would be 10 000USD. This will also cover the preparation of the land for where the structure will be placed, as well electrical fittings in the classroom. Please prayerful consider in helping and praying for the Lord to provide.
Thanks to a generous donation of books from our sister church, Antioch and Chapel Library, we have launched a book ministry that offers books, gospel tracts and other resources for the spiritual enrichment of the body. Our vision is to expand into a bookstore that also carries out translation work to reach the entire Soweto community with true and sound resources of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Please join us in prayer as we plan prepare and trust in the Lord.
Our church’s discipleship program has begun, and it is precisely what is needed during this season of growth for us. Members have been paired up to study through fundamental theology, to help encourage maturity in faith and rootedness in sound doctrine. Please pray for abundant growth as we focus on making disciples.
We are so delighted to have Nicholas, our new intern here with us from Kenya. He is enrolled at Christ Seminary and hungry to grow in knowledge to be a faithful teacher of God’s word. Please pray for him as he settles and studies.
Amazing Grace Baptist Church: Xigalo-Limpopo
Family Life
We thank God for His amazing grace upon our family. We thank God for sustaining us in various areas of our lives. The Lord is continuing to work in our lives to change us to be more like His Son Jesus Christ. Through His Word, Holy Spirit and circumstances the Lord is humbling us and causes us to behold His Son Jesus Christ. We thank God for the times we are able to have devotions in our family. Through them we strive to mortify the deeds of the flesh and strive to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. In our devotion we read the Scriptures and pray together. It’s not always easy but by God’s grace we are striving to maintain family devotions.Our girls have done so well in their first term school results, and we thank God for His grace upon them, who gives them understanding and wisdom to comprehend what they are learning at school. We thank God that they also still attend children’s ministry consistently and willingly.
Local Church Ministry
The Lord according his grace continues to build and keep his church. He began the work and he is sustaining the work and he will bring it to completion and fulfil all his purposes. We thank God I witness growth in some members of our church. Our midweek services are well attended and we notice a consistency with the Sunday service attendees also.
Through His word God is exposing and changing our hearts and humbles us by showering us with his undeserved blessings. Our church is a village church and disadvantaged area but the Lord is changing the lives of people both spiritually and socially. Amongst the members few young people are employed as educators by the government and it is a milestone for our
church which has a humble beginning and which is still not developed. We just pray that these young people may have hearts that love Jesus that they will be able to be a blessing to the church.
In some of our African churches we face difficulties when it comes to people who are blessed to support God’s work. I’m not really sure where we get this wrong. Some of our African Christians both the poor and well to do are not givers. They tend to be self-centered and it is the battle that we still face even with members of our church. Generosity is a huge struggle to some who are blessed by God. But we thank God for the few that are faithfully worship God with their finances. I just trust that we need to hold on there and persevere to teach the word and let God do only what He can; soften peoples hearts and teach them to be generous.
It was an exciting April as a sister Dzuniso Chauke and brother Oupa Mabaso (one of our first members of our church) were united in holy matrimony married. Having grown up in our church it was a time of great rejoicing for all and wonderful encouragement especially for the youth to follow in her footsteps. The bridegroom is from our mother church, Muchipisi where Pastor Kenneth is shepherds. We thank God for His grace. And this will edify the church and witness for our Saviour who is the author of marriage.
Our church ministries are going well, especially the youth ministry and for that we thank God. We have a number of young people who attend the youth services on Fridays consistently. I’m currently shepherding and assisting in youth ministry. My fellow elder Pastor Stanford Chauke was responsible for youth ministry but since he is now pastoring our church plant in his village I have taken over the youth ministry. Our arrangement is that some days the two groups will be combined for fellowship and co-labouring. Our prayer is that God may raise other young men to take over this ministry, until such a time, I will be ministering and shepherding the youth of our church.
Church Plant
Our new church plant is coming along very well. Pastor Stanford and his wife are doing a good job there to shepherd this new church. The ministries are going well and the number of the people and the commitment is so impressive. The Lord is building this church in such a wonderful way. It’s a new church but their zeal and commitment is amazing. Please keep this young church in your prayers and that the body would grow into a mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Aaron’s personal study and devotion
In my personal study I have been blessed to read the book by Erwin W. Lutzer called “One minute after you die”. It is such a wonderful book that warmed my heart and gave me a very clear picture about what the Bible teaches about afterlife. I think it’s also a great resource to help us teach others about what the Bible teaches on life after death.
I have also been blessed reading an anthology from the Reformed Pastor by Stuart Baxter called “Pastoral Ministry”. One of the things that really convicted me it’s when he was talking about a pastor as an example and he said, “One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon.” I learned that how I live has much impact on my preaching and teaching. I may strive to preach well but I may shut people’s hearing by my ungodly living.
I’m currently reading a book by Joseph Allein called a “Sure Guide To Heaven.” Yoo-hoo it’s such a great book as well. When talking about the mistakes about conversion he says, conversion is not taking upon us the profession of Christianity. Conversion is not putting on the badge of Christ in baptism. Conversion does not lie in moral righteousness. Conversion does not consist in an external conformity to the rules of piety. Conversion is not the mere chaining up of corruption by education, human laws or the force of affliction. And Conversion does not consist in illumination or conviction or in a superficial change or partial change or partial reformation. On this point he says, “So a man may pass through various transmutations, from ignorance to knowledge, from profanity to civility, then to a form of religion, and all this time he is still carnal and unregenerate, his nature remains unchanged.” He continues: “O repent and be converted, break off your sins by righteousness. Away to Christ for pardoning and renewing grace. Give up yourselves to Him, to walk with Him in holiness, or you shall never see God.” These books have challenged me to be faithfully devoted to His work and to be certain about my preparedness to meet my maker.
From the Scriptures I have reading the book of 1 John and I was very much humbled and built up to examine myself if I love my brother and if I don’t continue to live in sin and if I do not love the world and if I keep God’s commandments. It challenged me to examine myself to see if I am in the faith. I thank God for His sweet word and the writings of other men that are so
enlightening about the truth of God’s word. They both sharpen me spiritually and encourage me to be more equipped for ministry. This plus the time I spend tutoring Mukhanyo classestruly sharpen me to keep focused and challenged and growing. Recently at Mukhanyo I have been teaching African church history and I’m learning about African and South African Church History. I’m so grateful to God for these opportunities, I am so thankful to God for the privilege of attending an Apologetics conference in Harare, Zimbabwe in January. My colleague from Mukhanyo extended the invitation and also helped cover a large part of my travel cost. We had a fruitful time to learn about defending our faith, learning from the suited men and interacting with the fellow attendees was so enriching. Currently we are enrolled into the certificate program which will end in July. It is an excellent online study attended on Saturdays, with affordable fees, and thank God for my colleague who also covered my fees for this course. This certificate course is ran by Apologeticts on Mission based in USA.
Dumela Mission Trip
Praise God I was able to join the Amazing Grace Baptist Church Mission trip to Mozambique in February. We were in the village called Dumela along the Limpopo corridor in the Pafuri area. There we shared the gospel with the locals and had services in the local church. The church was also facing some challenges and we were able to try and help the church to commit to God’s work and to be of the same mind. We had a wonderful time there in many ways. We thank God for AGBC Mission which is a ministry of a joint effort of our Amazing Grace Baptist Churches in Malamulele. We are coming alongside churches in Mozambique to encourage them and to help them reach out their communities. The Lord is building His church in Mozambique and we are privileged to be part of the wonderful work He is doing in Mozambique.
African Pastors Conference
I thank God for the African Pastors Conference I attended with my fellow pastors in February in Mogalakwena, Mokopane. It was a two days conference was very refreshing and convicting as we surveyed the gospel according to the book of Romans. The sub-themes were: The gospel: The power of God for salvation. The failure of human righteousness. God’s provision for salvation justification. Deliverance: Freedom from sin and wrath. The Spirit of life in Christ. God’s Sovereignty in
salvation. The gospel must be proclaimed to every nation. Holiness in the church and Holiness
in all of life.
Praise Items
– Praise God with us for the work that He is doing in the lives of the members of the church to
transform them to grow in their faith and to be committed to God’s work.
– Praise God for the people who are consistent in coming to church to hear His word and worship
Him.
Prayer Items
– Please pray for our church to continue growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ so as to live lives worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
– Pray for the members of the church to be faithful and generous givers.
– Pray for our church to strive to seek the glory of God in all that we do.
– Pray for God to provide for all our needs.
May the grace and peace from God be with you all.
Yours in Christ’s Harvest,
Aaron Ndove,
Amazing Grace Baptist Church Xigalo,
Limpopo Malamulele