Newsletter January 2019

Dear Ones,  

We are happy to announce that the Lord is busy raising up leaders from our midst. From the end of December till the middle of January, we had a couple of Sunday church meetings at Emily’s Play School in Sir Lowry’s Pass. It was lots of fun and a good time was had by all. One of our upcoming leaders, Emily, is seen here making announcements and sharing some Word with the congregation. After that Philip taught on the subject of Prayer, using a video from Charis Bible College. This was in follow up of a video The “War Room” (which we recommend you see if you haven’t already). We had two Friday evening movie showings during the holidays, the other one being the ‘King’s Castle” about how a young man’s faith leads him out of crime into a better life. On the last picture, which was the second Sunday, I, Rita, taught about how our consciousness was awakened and at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Based on the ‘Who Told You that You Were Naked” book by Andrew Wommack). Which produced our sin-consciousness and how we now can be free from the subsequent condemnation through Christ and knowing Him and all that He has delivered us from.

TEACHING AND PREACHING:



Sunday Church Services in Sir Lowry's Pass:





Bible Study Group Restarted:

Bible School:


Towards the middle of the month we started up the Bible School and our various study groups again. Here is Philip teaching the Bible School students. At the same time I Rita am using one of the classrooms to bring a group Zimbabweans (4) through the Rooted course, laying a good strong general foundation!


Study Group at Emily's:



Emily as the main teacher, and I, teaching (above and below) Rooted to this relatively new group. Some of the youngsters joined late and Emily now has separate classes with them to help them catch up.





Study Group at Hetta's:


This group (above and below) is being taught by Philip each Wednesday, while I, Rita, am teaching another group at Mila's (sorry, but no pictures of them this month) that is also going thought Rooted. The group Philip is teaching is more advanced and have lately been concentrating on healing and building their faith for that.





Study Group at Jessica's:


This group (above and below) has gone through several subjects such as their Identity in Christ, Effortless change, the Believer’s Authority, etc. and are presently studying on “How to Become a Water Walker”, - stepping out by faith trusting and believing God. Courses by Andrew Wommack And Shayne Holesgrove.




SUPPLIES:


We are very thankful to our friends and Gracelife family who donated many useful items, as well as clothing to be distributed to the village. We are also thankful for our volunteers In Sir Lowry’s Pass that help divide, pass out, and keep track of whose turn it is to be preferred next when supplies come in.




We also thank Dis-Chem which has assisted us in reaching out to the needy for many years. THANK YOU!





Volunteers:

 Top and bottom: Some of our precious volunteers busy at work sorting, dividing and rightly distributing!





Some of our happy student receiving bags of blessings. Thank you so much to everyone that helped!





We thank Ter, from Trumpet Tree, for the supplies that were a big boost for everyone to receive in January which tends to be a challenging month, and to our dear friends Collin and Jenifer who donated the meat.



 Milk Distribution:

The company that has been assisting us with milk for years changed hands. This resulted in us not receiving any milk for several weeks, while we reapplied and prayed for everything to get worked out. We are happy to say that to everyone’s relief we were approved again and are aging able to assist especially the daycare centers with milk on a regular basis.

Emily's Play School, Sir Lowry's Pass:




Emily’s Play School happy to receive millie meal, sugar, cooking oil, meat and milk.




 Bright Stars, Nomzamo:


Bright Stars in Nomzamo receiving rice, oats, cooking oil, meat and milk!

Mila's Angels, Sir Lowry's Pass:





Mila’s Angels receiving samp, oats, cooking oil, meat and milk.

Sunshine Kids, Sir Lowry's Pass:




Sunshine Kids receiving meat. milk, cooking oil and rice!

Woolworth:





We thank Woolies for their faithful support of the main kitchen in Sir Lowry’s Pass. They have assisted for years for which we are very grateful. The waste varies and is sometimes more, sometimes less!


Gracelife:




In recent times we have had two busloads of people from Sir Lowry’s Pass coming to Gracelife church  on a Sunday as seen here, (the white bus in the background and the blue in the front). Emily (seen in the center top) has been on the hospitality team for while now and helps greet people at the door as they arrive.

We also want to give an update on how it is going with our goal towards getting a van. We believe we are about halfway there towards it (with what we have been able to raise and what reserves we had set aside}. Please pray with us that the Lord will lead and guide us to a good vehicle, not just any old vehicle, but one that we’ll be strong and able to do the job as well as look presentable, We are not set on a certain brand name, but trust that the Lord will make it clear to us when the right one becomes available—preferably no with too many kms on it. We appreciate your contributions and prayers towards this great need and look forward to it soon being met.

In closing we send much love and appreciation to each and everyone of you,

Philip and Rita









HIGHLIGHTS from 2018 from Force4Good!

HIGHLIGHTS 2018!

JANUARY 2018:


In January of 2018 one of our biggest highlights was being able to enter the new year together with our two precious daughters, our three granddaughters and our son-in-law who live in Texas!



FEBRUARY 2018:


One of the biggest victories in February was starting up the online CBC (Charis Bible College) course for our students in Sir Lowry’s Pass that have gone through the basis courses with us.

MARCH 2018:




Besides enabling us to have and distribute many various supplies such as milk, food, personal hygiene products, empowering a family to start cultivating they small plot of land, etc. the Lord also enabled us to vastly improve our hospitality by providing new coffee mugs and thermos flasks!

APRIL 2018:


In April a new study group consisting of all new students was started up — and this group is still with us. Besides that 240 ducks (aprox. 300 kg of meat) was distributed, as well as aprox. 170 double sized Weet-Bix cereal packages, etc. along with more food hampers, clothing, and an empowerment project to get someone started running their own hair dressing salon in the village.


 MAY 2018:


Besides keeping up the Bible school on Monday nights, the leadership training on Tuesday nights, Wednesday nights teaching, as well as Thursday night’s teaching and making provision for everyone to be able to attend church on Sundays we again received a bakkie load of ducks that were distributed in the Sir Lowry’s Pass village and Nomzamo, as well as 100 liters of milk, more food hampers, lots of clothing, more Dis–Chem supplies, etc.

JUNE 2018:


Besides keeping up the Bible school on Monday nights, the leadership training on Tuesday nights, Wednesday nights teaching, as well as Thursday night’s teaching and making provision for everyone to be able to attend church on Sundays we again received a bakkie load of ducks that were distributed in the Sir Lowry’s Pass village and Nomzamo, as well as 100 liters of milk, more food hampers, lots of clothing, more Dis–Chem supplies, etc.

JULY 2018:



Reaching out to the unreached! We had a bog meeting at Emily’s Play School for people that are not part of our student groups. Approximately 70 were expected and  nearly 120 showed up. We
ministered to them about the Lord’s love and plan of salvation and demonstrated spirit-soul and body through a fun skit. Afterwards a delicious warm meal, tea, coffee and cakes were distributed!
Meanwhile 100 liters of milk, 14 large boxes (not packages) of Weet-Bix, many Dis-Chem supplies, clothing, etc was distributed and a family whose house had been flooded was assisted with sand and cement (to help raise the floor) as well as a “new” carpet.


AUGUST 2018:



We invited all our Bible students for a nice social gathering where we prepared a nice meals and arranged for everyone to be comfortably seated at a table, The aim was for everyone to get together to get to know each other better as a couple of new groups had been started up.



A lot of us also attended a Ladies Camp hosted by Gracelife! Besides that more milk, ducks, food, clothing, and Dis-Chem supplies were distributed, Praise the Lord for His amazing goodness!


SEPTEMBER 2018:



Along with others Philip and I were honored to be appointed among the elders in Gracelife church. We are happy to be working closely with Grqacelife as we have learned and grown a lot.
Meanwhile all our study groups continued to progress, and milk, Weet-Bix, food hampers, lots and lots of duck liver, 25 liters cooking oil , toilet paper, etc, was distributed and we were assisted one of our students who is running a soup kitchen in her area for the neighborhood children. And we enjoyed inspiring teachers from abroad Ashley and Carlie Terradez who visited Graqcelife.

OCTOBER 2018:


We had a three day outreach event in Sir Lowry’s Pass led by Gracelife. The aim was to not only reach out to more of the community, but to also help stir up and inspire our students there to do so through a fist hand sample. We had three very eventful days with people being healed, coming to Christ and learning and experiencing many new things. One of the evening we also handed out over 100 ready-made (by people from the village) meals.

NOVEMBER 2018:


We had a three day outreach event in Sir Lowry’s Pass led by Gracelife. The aim was to not only reach out to more of the community, but to also help stir up and inspire our students there to do so through a fist hand sample. We had three very eventful days with people being healed, coming to Christ and learning and experiencing many new things. One of the evening we also handed out over 100 ready-made (by people from the village) meals.

DECEMBER 2018:


During December we had a nice Christmas braai for approx. 80 people. 20 Food Hampers and 20 food vouchers (of R 300 each) were distributed. We also made 150 party packs for the children for their year-end celebrations. Besides that we were able to empower someone by replacing all their lost tools that were stolen, distribute other food and clothing, and Philip and I were blessed to attend a Christmas lunch in Cape Town where we met one of the Charis Bible College instructors , Wendell Parr who was visiting here.













Newsletter December 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019!

Dear Ones,
           We wish you all a very Happy New Year 2019! We trust that you have all enjoyed the holidays and are gearing up and ready for what the new year may bring. Your well-being, prosperity and fruitfulness in the coming year is in our prayers! Always remember that you are deeply loved and highly favored by the Lord Himself!
           Some, if not most of you, already received our update on the Christmas events, etc. on our end (repeated in the last part of this newsletter). We have filled in a bit more info here and separately from this we are writing up a brief summary of the year that went. We look back in awe at all that the Lord has done and the way the ministry has grown, and we look forward to what is in store for the year ahead. We have found that the key to our fruitfulness, happiness, etc. is maintaining a close relationship with the Lord. It is from Him that all good things flow. And His love is without partiality. He wants to bless, help and, strengthen everyone. We just need to come to Him!


Between Christmas and New Years (while classes were suspended) we showed the movie the War Room which contains some very good lessons on how to fight our battles the right way! In prayer!




Our movie night snack was some delicious ice cream cones, served here be Emily and Rita,




Our Gracelife church closed for a couple of weeks, so we held a local church meeting in Sir Lowry’s Pass. Emily made the needed announcements, we then showed a teaching by Barry Bennett on the Ministry of Jesus, specifically addressing prayer and the importance and need for prayer in our lives—which was an excellent follow-up on the movie the War Room. At the end we had an altar call as new people attended!




Besides getting food hampers and/or vouchers everyone received some nice rabbit meat for themselves and their families. We again thank Leon for his generosity and thoughtfulness! Thank you!




Thank you to everyone who blessed us with clothing among other things, to pass on. Always appreciated!




We also thank you, our partners for your support as it enabled us to replace W’s tools that were stolen!



OUR CHRISTMAS MEAL IN SIR LOWRY'S PASS:


Our students/disciples, and families (approximately 80 people) joined us for a festive celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior. We had reserved the night for an evening of fellowship and relaxation, so just shared a short Christmas story about the spirit of Christmas being the spirit of giving. We also expressed our love and appreciation of each one and the progress they have made through their study of the Word.



We have an amazing team that helped cook, serve and clean. We would never make it without them!



We had a nice braai and everyone mixed and mingled some sitting inside while others choose outdoors.

PARTY PACKS:


A BIG THANK YOU to SFA Sweetlands for their contribution towards Party Packs for the children as well as some of our precious friends from Sir Lowry’s Pass who readily volunteered their services in helping us put together approximately 150 Party Packs in time for Christmas for many of the children in Sir Lowry’s Pass.






Seen here is an example of one of the Party Packs.



Seen here are some of the children that attended the Christmas meal with their parents in Sir Lowry’s Pass!



A new ECD Center in Sir Lowry’s Pass whom we were referred to as they did not anything to give the children for Christmas, as they are new and just getting started.



Mila’s Angels—Sir Lowry’s Pass. — This is just a little glimpse as we are not able to show everything here.

FOOD HAMPERS AND VOUCHERS:


We distributed 20 food hampers and 20 vouchers. The food hampers were to ensure that our gift went for food and not otherwise. Below is a photo of what each hamper contained! 






Here is a picture of the kitchen staff (although not all were present) whom we felt led to bless with a double portion as they work sacrificially and  tirelessly all year long for little or no pay.


Seen here are some of the happy recipients, space fails us in showing all but here’s a little glimpse!




CHRISTMAS LUNCH:


We were also blessed to be invited for a Christmas lunch in Cape Town, where we met one of the instructors from the Charis Bible College in Colorado, Wendell Parr, along with some friends old and new. Below: Philip, Wendell Parr and me, Rita