Some of the week that was

This has been a week filled with ministry events as I have witnessed and helped people with the spiritual dimension of journey of life. Last Sunday’s sermon which I titled “The Storm of Faith” (see http://upperumgeni.wordpress.com/category/sermons-rev-david-de-kock/) was the start of it all. I had a number of people who needed to talk about the “storm” which was going on in their lives. For some it was indeed a storm of faith, for others it was a storm of sin (which was not what I had spoken about). For the latter it was important to understand their need for repentance.

On Monday I was praying with a young man – Innocent Mabaso, who is working through a call into the ministry. He was travelling up to Johannesburg for a series of interviews with the Ministry Selection Committee of our denomination. He has been before – he was not accepted last year because it was felt that he did not have the capability to “run a church” and that he was better suited as an evangelist. We don’t have a specific ministry of Evangelist in our denomination  so he was really left high and dry. We have taken him under our wing in our congregation for the last year and taught him how to “run a congregation” and more importantly, how to minister to God’s people. He has been an avid learner and I continue to pray for him. Haven’t had news yet – the interviews take a couple of days and he will only be finished today.

I forgot an appointment on Tuesday. I don’t know why – I never do that! I’ve been meeting with this couple for several weeks at the same time on the same day each week and for some reason it wasn’t in my diary for last week. I conducted their wedding last year and they have been having difficulties in their marriage. They are not church goers and they kept cancelling our pre-marital interviews. When they came to see me, I decided to start at the beginning of the pre-marital course which I have developed. I deal with the Biblical Principles of Marriage as a Covenant, with Expectations, Faith, Money Matters, Family and their Sexual Relationship. In the previous session we had been dealing with the matter of Faith and our need for grace (from God, and each other). In my error – I was at home preparing for a Leadership Group meeting that evening and had no transport because Margie had taken the car – they showed much grace towards me. And I was grateful that they had benefitted from our last session together.

Wednesday is my favourite day at church. We start with Holy Communion and go on to Bible Study. I started teaching from Genesis 14 years ago and we are now in Romans. Over the years the group has grown from 8 people to as many as 50 on some days. We lost some of the intimacy as the group expanded but the ethos of being able to stop and ask questions and make comments has kept on. This week we were in Romans 2 – God’s Righteous Judgment and how His criteria for judgement is based on Truth, Deeds and Light. We spent a lot of time dealing with God’s kindness, tolerance and patience towards us.