April 2009 - Thankfulness

Last month we hosted a gathering of the churches of St John's Parish at The Warehouse. As I looked around at the people worshipping I was once again struck by the richness of our broader community. We celebrated a time of thanksgiving together and people from The Warehouse and the churches we serve shared stories of God's provision. We have much to be thankful for and are regularly surprised by God's grace.

We have seen God provide for our work in a variety of fun ways - from two small boys in the UK selling chicken eggs and sending us the proceeds, to a business prayer group who combined to purchase a delivery vehicle for us. God is a faithful provider and always comes through, but more than that He loves it when we build community and relationship in the process of provision. I am so grateful to our friends, community and even strangers who are partnering with us as we see God use us in our vision to serve the church.

In writing these updates I hold a tension between Matthew 5:16 which encourages us to let our light shine before people so that they may see our good deeds and praise our father in heaven, and Matthew 6:1 that tells us to be careful not to do our 'acts of righteousness' before people, to be seen by them. Primarily we want to tell you the stories of churches involved in restoring their communities. Of house churches, families, pastors and individuals choosing to be hope and light in the places they live - choosing to be light in the darkness.

I continue to marvel at what God does through the church and love seeing believers rise up to fulfil the mandate of Christ to proclaim good news to the poor. Just recently from within the church in Cape Town:

Five new churches approached us to start Care for Kids and train up their Orphan Action Teams. This will bring the number of children being cared for by churches in the Care for Kids network to over 1000 in the next few months.
Churches in Manenberg have formed Fusion Action Teams (FACT) aimed at reaching high-risk youth. The FACT team represent a variety of churches. They pray and walk in the community together as a way of connecting with high-risk youth. They are also passionate about mobilising their churches to reach these young people who the church has often given up on.
Parish Aids Task Teams packed food parcels for orphaned children and HIV postive people. Over 1000 packs are delivered to families each month.

These are just a few examples of the work we are seeing unfold. It's inspiring! With this in mind, I would love to let you know about a week of prayer, intercession, refreshing, input, quiet time and teaching that we are hosting between 15th and 21st April here at The Warehouse. Our prayer for this time is "Father, break our hearts with the things that break yours once again. Gather us to be restored, compelled, healed and motivated to be part of the change our country needs." We will be calling on God together to break through into our hearts and communities in a new way and to mobilise the church to join Him in what He is doing. If you are in Cape Town, join us for as much or little as you are able during this week, especially on Tuesday evening 21st as we pray for our country before we vote the next day.

For more information on Breakthru visit www.warehouse.org.za

Other than the upcoming Breakthru prayer week some of the other ways we can connect:

    * Visit our website - www.warehouse.org.za
    * Join our Facebook group
    * Follow us on Twitter (warehousecptwn)
    * Download our Annual Report-http://www.warehouse.org.za/files/images/Warehouse2008AR.pdf
    * Check out our latest video on Facebook

Or you could do something old fashioned like drop in for a cup of coffee.
Grace and peace,
Craig

"A church full of life and love, working for the good of the community in which God has placed it, is the proper end of mission. Transformational development that does not work towards such a church is neither sustainable nor Christian ... It is impossible to imagine a transforming community without a transforming church in its midst." Bryant Myers

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April 2009 - Thankfulness

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