Springs Baptist Church

Helen Holdt (our Pastor's wife) looks back over 2010

This year was a challenging year with a toddler at home, but the Lord was gracious as ever to me. Despite my own shortcomings, He was pleased to bless the ministry.

Our Thursday morning Conversation Group decided to take on the making of baby blankets for the Hope Crisis Pregnancy Centre as our project for the year. We are thankful for the large donations of wool that came in. As a result of this generosity we were able to make 2 deliveries of blankets.

We also enjoyed great fellowship and most importantly did a good deal of Bible Study. We began with a study in the Letter of James, which was of course a very practical study. We then did a six-week study of The Psalms of Ascent (Psalm 120-134) presented on DVD by Beth Moore. One of the topics requested by the ladies was "Angels". I have discovered that there is not much literature about Angels, but we did have a most interesting and informative Bible Study over three weeks on this topic. Our last topic for the year was that of the Sovereignty of God. We investigated this subject a few years ago in a study on The Attributes of God, but this time we looked at this attribute alone and in much more depth.

The second annual Kitchen Tea was held in January and was a great success, as we managed to stock the Church cupboards with consumables for the year. The book that was reviewed at the tea was called "Choosing Forgiveness" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. My hope is that the Ladies at our Church will grow to love reading books such as this one which are helpful for personal growth.

"How Can I Be A Woman of Balance?" was the topic for our August Ladies Fellowship. The turnout for the afternoon was somewhat disappointing but we still experienced God's blessing on our small gathering.

I look forward to another year of serving the Ladies of Springs Baptist Church, and growing together with you all.

Much Love in Christ

Helen

The Selcourt Conversation Group is hosted and led by our pastor David Holdt. Looking back over 2010, here is his reflection:

It's been a wonderful year of fellowship and learning together in 2010. A fairly diverse group of individuals has delighted itself in meeting together, sharing together, worshiping together and weeping together as we have gathered every Tuesday evening in prayer and Bible Study. We greatly benefited from a study on prayer, and parts of a study on reaching out. In addition to these two studies, a five week video series on prayer by by Mark Driscoll proved to be a great encouragement.

We've had the blessing of seeing many an answer to prayer, which has always been spiritually invigorating. Healing of sickness, employment, relationship issues, and more, have so often been the end result of our praying. But then there have been times when God's answers to our prayers were not as we had prayed. Our brother Wally went home to glory, contrary to continued prayer for his healing; and our brother Andre remains unwell, despite constant prayers for his health. None the less, we have learnt enough to know that our God is always wise, always loving and always sovereign. We praise him for that!

All in all, the fellowship has been a gift from God, for which we give thanks, and continue to trust Him for.

Dave

Our Conversation Group is hosted by Dirk and Madeleine van Zyl continues to be based on the 4W format:

• Welcome – This is a generally a brief chat over a meal followed by tea / coffee / juice to find out how everyone is currently doing.
• Worship – At times we sing together, or listen to a CD/DVD or someone leads a brief devotion to direct our attention in worship of the LORD Jesus.
• Word– The study material we have covered during 2010:
  • The book of Daniel – Kingdom of Dreams. The predominant theme we have learnt is that of God's sovereignty in every aspect of our lives and the confidence this gives us in living for His glory.
  • Prayer: The Ultimate Lifestyle. Prayer is the engine of the church of which without prayer, our personal lives and the life of the church is dry. Prayer as the lifeblood gets us to abide in the Saviour as we reflect on our dependence upon Him and acknowledge with much gratitude His amazing and continuous work in and through our lives.
• Works
  • Minister to one another – we continue to identify practical opportunities to serve
    • One another - widows & orphans – here we continue with the "Mr Fixit" ministry to widows and single women in the church who require minor repairs & maintenance to their homes. We have had numerous opportunities to serve in this area and it has already been a delight.
    • Our church
    • Our community
    • Our missionaries – adopt-a-missionary - Jenni Meyer – prayer support & KGM website development (www.kgm.org.za)
  • Personal needs – needs within the church are identified and assisted where possible.
  • Prayer for the church – time is set aside each and every meeting in prayer for those in our church family – leadership, members, and various ministries.
  • Prayer for missionaries – not only prayer for those associated with our church family, but also those living in persecuted counties listed on the VOM prayer diary.

We continue to average about 12 members who have regularly been attending the Conversation Group – growing in the grace and the knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ as He has revealed Himself in His Word. We miss Sandy White who has gone to be with the LORD and Greg Botes who has moved back to Jeffrey's Bay.

In His Love,

Shane & Linda

In 2010 our group consisted of six consistent members, with three occasional attendees. We have found it a year of difficulties and great blessings with both death and the joy of a wedding touching our group!

You are welcome

We would love for our group to grow, so if you live in the Dersley / Dal Fouche / Brakpan & Presidents Dam area please don’t hesitate to join us on a Wednesday evening from 19:30 – 21:00.

In committing to a conversation group it’s wholesome to review the following four commitments:

How to be a blessing to your cell group…

What makes cell groups a blessing to others and a vital part of the church family?  You!

You are an indispensable and vital part of this cell, by making and keeping the following 4 commitments:

• I will make attendance a priority. I will ensure that, as far as humanly possible, I will not miss a cell group meeting. (Heb 10:25)
• I will make prayer a priority. I will encourage and pray regularly for my cell leader, and for my fellow cell members. (Col. 4:2; 1:9; 1 Thess 5:11)
• I will make being part of the team a priority. I will find my place of ministry in my group. (1 Cor 12: 12-27)
• I will make my relationship with Christ a priority. I will walk each day in submission to Christ, allowing Him to daily mould and control my life by His Spirit. (Deut 6:5)

The Four W’s – how it practically works

Our conversation group commences with a welcome where we discuss the weeks high’s and low’s (we need some additional or fresh ideas here – if you have any suggestions please pass them on to Alan or Amanda ).  We then Pray (Worship) for the needs raised during the Welcome and occasionally share a worship item. The Word takes the major focus within our group. The 3 studies we have worked through during the year were a study on the Book of Daniel, a study on Prayer, and lastly, Teachings from one of the most effective Bible teachers of the last 50 years, John Stott.  Many reflections have come of the studies.

The final W, Works are summarised here below:

We are so blessed to have completed three of our four planned works commitments. And were even more blessed by the other conversation groups’ uptake on our Cake Sale Challenge where we collectively raised over R 1400.  Unfortunately our quarter 3 initiative did not realise, and were really hoping (DV) to achieve it this year.

May the Lord continue to bless our conversation group as we seek to learn more about Him, and His desire for our lives.

The Presidents Dam Conversation Group,

Alan Finnegan

Reporting back on 2010

Once again the young adult groups met every Tuesday. Enjoying each other’s company over a meal has become a great blessing as we make it night where we are fed physically as well as spiritually.  We went through various Bible studies including Titus and Ruth and various DVD studies. We have had some discouraging times this year but great times of rejoicing as well.

A great encouragement in 2010 was the Rez Connect evenings we had at Northgate Cappuccino’s. Many young adults from other churches got together to encourage one another around worship in song as well as the preaching of God's Word and of course good pizza and pasta. This was all done in anticipation of the Rezolution conference with John Piper and Conrad Mbewe.

Rezolution was a tremendous blessing and we pray that this event will grow and that many young adults will come to rejoice in Jesus as a result of this event.