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The Wards: Hello from Durbs!

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Written by Charlene Ward

Hello Cornerstone,

Hello to you all from a (very grateful) windy Durban North. I love it when the wind blows now as then we can cope with the heat. Well, here we are living in Durban and loving it!

We drove down on the 29th of January with Storm our cat travelling with Tarryn and I. She coped very well with the trip and went straight into a beautiful brand new cattery that I found on the Internet – God literally guided me to that website. We stayed in a friend’s flat for three nights (a huge blessing) until we could move into our new rental house on the 1st of February.

The removal van arrived just after 8am and after just over two hours they were unpacked. We had organised a storage facility and had planned to move all the extra furniture that afternoon. However when the team leader/driver of the truck heard about us moving it all ourselves, he offered to put all the extra furniture back into the truck, drive it to the storage facility and then they helped Barry off load it into the garage that we had rented. What a huge blessing as it took them half an hour to do it whereas it would have taken Barry a good few hours to do!! God was so good and took care of the details for us!!

We have spent the past two weeks cleaning, unpacking and getting ourselves set up in our new home. We are very happy here, and our cat has settled in well too. There is a lovely park area nearby which the girls ride their bikes to and play cricket with some of the other teenagers in the afternoons. They are very settled here and enjoying living in Durban North. We have met all our neighbours in our little crescent and they are all so friendly. Sometimes we stand in the road chatting for half an hour or more.

Robyn has settled in well at her school, Virginia Preparatory, and has made some friends. After her first week at school she was given an award for “outstanding effort” as her teacher could see that she was trying hard to catch up her work. You get to wear the badge for a week and then it is someone else’s turn. She is dancing at school as an extra mural and is enjoying it. She wants to go on a Kids camp next weekend that COGS is hosting, and went to their God Chasers equivalent on Friday afternoon for the first time. They call it KICK – it stands for “Kids In Christ’s Kingdom”.

Tarryn has also settled in well at her school, Danville Girls High, and went on her first school tour last week for three days. They went up to Seula which is near Tugela River mouth. She had a great time and got to make more friends. Next Saturday morning their school hosts a “Dad’s and Daughter’s breakfast” which she has bought tickets for. Tarryn is doing Art as an extra mural and may try Choir next term. The girls haven’t started with dancing yet as we are still finding our feet here.

The Wards in Durban North

I have been very busy setting up home, and now am doing my own housekeeping as our place isn’t too big. I have met some moms from Tarryn’s school and on Thursday morning I’m going to join their prayer meeting. They have a “Moms who care” group who meet at Danville every Thursday morning to pray. I have also put my name down to help at Robyn’s school. Every Wednesday morning the staff have a meeting and so they need moms to help out and monitor the corridors, so I have offered to help out and will be a “Corridor Monitor”. Still waiting to hear when my turn is. Never too old to be a “Monitor” – ha ha.

Barry is settling well into his new job at Softworx. Initially he was a bit frustrated as they seemed a bit disorganised and didn’t have things ready for him, but now things are up and running and he has met the clients. He has had to get back into Baan (software system) and remember it all, but it’s coming back to him. He has also been very busy here and working hard on our rental place. Quite a bit of household maintenance needed to be done like fixing the lights as lots of them didn’t work, getting the pool pump working properly etc. But it is all fixed now and we are doing well in our new place. We are so incredibly grateful that it has a little pool as we have been swimming almost every day. In fact Robyn’s blonde streaks in her hair are now green from all the swimming.

More exciting news is that we have a buyer for our house in Edenglen – took the estate agent 20 days to sell our place!!! God is so good and faithful!!! We are waiting to hear if their bond has been granted and then it will be all systems go.

We serve an awesome, amazing God and we are so appreciative of how our Lord has taken care of all the details – both big and small! We are going to visit various churches in the area and see how the Holy Spirit leads us and where He wants us to go.

We all send lots of love to everyone, and thank you for your prayers. God has heard and answered them!

Lots of love,

Barry, Charlene, Tarryn and Robyn

A Remarkable Story of Healing

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This testimony of healing – a letter the elders received – was shared at prayer meeting last week. It’s a remarkable story of God’s incredible healing of Hannelie, who was diagnosed with cancer. Her and her family are friends with Marcus and Adele and others in Cornerstone. Let it be an encouragement that Jesus still heals today as he healed in the Scriptures.

Now that Han is at home I thought it helpful to summarise what happened over the last three weeks.

“At the beginning of this month Hannelie was hospitalised with a urinary tract infection. The oncologist saw that her haemoglobin levels were about half the minimum level, and based on his experience he gave her two weeks to a month to live.

We were shattered by this news and I took a month off to be with her all the time. Over the next two weeks her condition gradually worsened. She became so weak that she could no longer walk and was delirious 90% of the time.

It was apparent that the phases of death were running their course. Her one kidney started to fail as her urine had a very dark colour. The doctor explained that the brain was not getting sufficient oxygen, hence the delirium, and that this was common in dying.

Friday before last I rushed her to the hospital with another blockage of the intestine. When this happens the body ejects its waste via the only opening possible – upwards – if the normal downwards route is blocked. The same thing happened last year when the tumour grew so large that it obstructed the intestine.

Her oncologist examined her and said that the end was imminent. His assistant confirmed that she would go the same or the following day. He also indicated that Hannelie’s very strong muscle twitches pointed towards her brain busy dying.

That evening she reached a state where she was white as a sheet, ice cold and hardly breathing. I rushed the children to her bedside to see their mother maybe for the last time. Afterwards myself, Nito and Lili prayed earnestly for and over her and we trusted God to save her.

More than two years ago when Hannelie first became diagnosed with cancer God said that he would do a miracle before the nations that would be for His glory. We pleaded with Him to uphold his word. The next morning Hannelie was awake and amazingly she had a clear mind, for the first time in two weeks. She could not stop smiling and told us of the experiences she had with God. She also did not have any more muscle twitches.

The doctor on duty was astonished and at least recognised that they could not explain what happened. Since then Hannelie’s morphine dosage has dropped from 1260mg per day to 480mg with no recurrence of the constant hip pain that she lived with for one year. She also used to take up to six fast acting morphine rescues per day, which she does not even need anymore.

We are continuing to reduce her morphine intake daily to avoid strong withdrawal symptoms. She is still very thin with weak muscles, so still a long road to full recovery.

Oh, I almost forgot, the blocked intestine got sorted out by itself, without any surgery or any other treatment. She is also free from the chronic diarrhea that made her life a living hell for one year (this is due to the radiation therapy).

We are very happy to testify to this miracle which shows that God still heals today, and that even cancer, the dreaded disease of our time, is under His authority. May his name be glorified in the nations because of this. Thank you Lord that you uphold your word.

Meet the Lifeteam 2012

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With a new year comes a new lifeteam. These dynamic youngsters come from all over the world to serve God and His people. We would like you to get to know them so here are a few ice-breakers. Reading about them is good but don’t be a stranger, make an effort to meet them face to face. They’re part of the family now.

 

Name: Mpho Ntuli – Lifeteam Leader
Age: 20
Hometown: Johannesburg – South Africa

What did you do last year?
Teaching

What do you plan to do next year?
I plan to walk wholly into what God has for me! 🙂

What are your expectations for this year?
One of my biggest prayers for this year’s team is that God would minister to us through His Holy Spirit like none of us have experienced before. Also that this would be a year of raising leaders.

You’re going to a deserted island and can take three things. A book, a person and some form of entertainment. What would you choose?
The Racist Guide to South Africa
My best friend Claudio
Definitely my guitar!

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Name: Shaheedah Aufe
Age: 19
Hometown: Gweru – Zimbabwe

What did you do last year?
Matric

What do you plan to do next year?
Go to Medical School

What are your expectations for this year?
Draw closer to God. Be a very social person and make new friends. Serve God and other people. Have fun, learning and doing new things. And finally be a part of the Cornerstone family.

You’re going to a deserted island and can take three things. A book, a person and some form of entertainment. What would you choose?
A Karen Kingsbury novel
My mother
A TV!

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Name: Jabulile Antoinette Dlamini
Age: 19
Hometown: Jeppestown, Johannesburg – South Africa

What did you do last year?
I completed my Matric

What do you plan to do next year?
I would like to study to become a social worker

What are your expectations for this year?
I would like to learn more about the Gospel. To have more confidence when sharing His Word. I want to serve Him and preach His Word to those who don’t know Him.

You’re going to a deserted island and can take three things. A book, a person and some form of entertainment. What would you choose?
Joy for the Journey
Anika Kruger
My phone, a skipping rope or a ball

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Name: David Edward Wahba
Age: 21
Hometown: Cairo – Egypt

What did you do last year?
I studied a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance

What do you plan to do next year?
I still don’t know but will definitely serve God in whatever way I can.

What are your expectations for this year?
I expect to know God more and what my next step should be. I hope to have a better understanding of God’s call on my life and I look forward to interacting with different cultures and communities.

You’re going to a deserted island and can take three things. A book (other than the bible), a person and some form of entertainment. What would you choose?
Either Secret Believers or The Shack
Akram – my best friend
My Wii or X-Box

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Name: Mattanja Bakker
Age: 19
Hometown: Noordhorn – Germany

What did you do last year?
Finished school and worked at McDonalds

What do you plan to do next year?
I would like to study History and English.

What are your expectations for this year?
Change. Greater intimacy with God. Improve my English.

You’re going to a deserted island and can take three things. A book, a person and some form of entertainment. What would you choose?
Il Milione
Marco Polo – yes, the famous explorer
Surfboard

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Name: Tshepo Mashiane
Age: 20
Hometown: Springs Kwa Thema – South Africa

What did you do last year?
I was at school in grade 11. I also spent a lot of time doing art.

What do you plan to do next year?
I’m planning on going back to college to finish my studies. I’d like to do a course in Boiler-making

What are your expectations for this year?
My expectation is to know how to share the Gospel. I want to take this year seriously and make the most of it.

You’re going to a deserted island and can take three things. A book, a person and some form of entertainment. What would you choose?
The Bible
Nick Wienand
Soccer ball

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Name: Tshepo “Fish” Sisoko
Age: 20
Hometown: Malvern East, Johannesburg – South Africa

What did you do last year?
Art and swimming.

What do you plan to do next year?
Work and do a swimming instructor’s course

What are your expectations for this year?
To know more about the Gospel and getting to know Jesus more.

You’re going to a deserted island and can take three things. A book, a person and some form of entertainment. What would you choose?
Make God First
Kyle McClean or Kyle Bosman
My swimming gear

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An Update from Marcus and Adele

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Marcus and Adele are currently in the U.S. with Tyrone Daniel and many others on the NCMI team. They’ve sent us a little update on how things are going there, so here it is:

From Denver
13 February 2012

We’re starting our team meetings Tuesday through to Thursday this week. Please pray for us. God’s will and directing are of paramount importance.

We then go on to spend the weekend and a few days with Kirk and Jan Slow in Ottawa, Canada. We’re looking forward to our ministry time and connecting time there. They do feel like they are on the frontiers of our vision and need all the support and friendship they can get.

We believe God has led them there to plant a base church and already the signs of that are evident.  They are moving into a new venue and are trusting God for greater breakthrough with young people. Nathaniel, their son, is being used by God in this regard!

I’ve heard great reports from home and hear that part two on the Holy Spirit has been well received. This is our season and this is the challenge of the day: how is your relationship with the Holy Spirit? He has taken hold of us and is doing things in us so that He can move through us in a mighty way.

I want to urge us to stay the course. The enemy will try to steal the baby! But we overcome through the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony and not loving our lives unto death (Revelation 12:11).

We love you guys and are enjoying the privilege of sailing again! See you soon!

Marcus & Adele

Key Women in February

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Written by Justine Engelbrecht

The First Key Women Meeting for 2012 was held on Thursday 2nd February and after worship, an introduction and sad farewell to Bernie Weeden, Collette Meeske discussed the plan for the year ahead.

Exciting dates to diarise are:

9th March –                    Discussion by leading gynecologist on Women’s Health,

17 – 20th May-              Kaleidoscope 2012

28th July –                      A talk by a local Image Consultant.

1st Sep –                        Annual Spring Walk

These are all perfect opportunities for women to fellowship together and invite other women from the community to join.

The Theme for 2012 – ‘Lessons Learnt from the Remarkable Women of the Bible’

Theme Scripture – 1 Corinthian 10 – 11 and Proverbs 3.

We can learn and follow the examples from the leading women in the bible and I encourage all women to take 2 hours a month and come to the Key Women meeting.

Some verses offering encouragement and inspiration are Ephesians 2 vs. 10 – ‘For we are God’s Workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’

Read 2 Timothy 3 vs. 6-7.

Remember in Christ we are all equal 2 Corinthians 3 vs. 4 – 5

Women have a role to play –

In Christ we are competent,

In Christ we are adequate

and in Christ we are sufficient.

You do have a role to Play.  Join Collette on the 8th March to learn more about the remarkable women of the Bible and how God uses ordinary women to achieve remarkable things.

Making the Most of Life: Come Sailing

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written by Nick Wienand

The Christian life is one full of adventure when we allow God to use us. That was the message Gregg MacAlpine shared with us on Friday morning. The predominant themes coming out of our time of Prayer & Fasting the week before, were “We’re Going Sailing Again”  and “Roaring Forties, Doldrums and Traded Winds” and Gregg made this applicable to those in the marketplace. As he illustrated, we’re looking to move from “here to there” and not get caught in a life of simply maintaining the status-quo.

This was the first Exchange meeting of 2012 and the turnout was brilliant. It is so great to see so many men and women who want God to use them in their workplaces. As we met before the meeting and connected over a cappuccino , there was an air of excitement and anticipation. There were a number of first-time visitors who were treated to copy of Chippy Brand’s “Branded by Grace.” As Gregg shared the sense of challenge was strong and I believe many were changed as the Holy Spirit ministered. We ended the morning with a delicious breakfast, served by Linda and her team. Thanks to all who were involved.

Gregg concluded with this challenge; “To “Go Sailing” and make the most of this life that God calls you to, to live well, and to live to the full, you require a ticket! A two coupon ticket of FAITH and WORKS. The coupon of works is not good for passage, and the coupon of FAITH is not valid if detached from WORKS!”

We look forward to seeing you at the next Exchange.

P.S. You can download the recording and Gregg’s notes here.

 

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Why Lead Worship? – Part 2 – Looking at David

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Written by Jonno Warmington

It’s nearly seven months later and here finally is the long overdue second part of my “Why Lead Worship?” series of posts (read part one here).

As a brief aside, my previous post was followed by some good discussion around the use of the phrase “leading worship”. I’ll continue to use the phrase for now but with this caveat: For various reasons, it’s actually not my favourite common use phrase for what musicians do while serving the church in the area of the musical expression of worship. I would actually like to cover this point properly at some point – but that will be in a different post.

Getting back on-topic, I think it’s fairly obvious that I was referring to David at the end of my previous post. David is a good character to look at with this topic for a couple of reasons, one of which is simply because there’s just so much to see in scripture about this guy. We can learn a lot about and from him in 1 and 2 Samuel, Chronicles and in other parts of the Bible.

Not only can we see his heart as displayed through the story of his life, we can also see it in great detail in the things that he wrote. The Psalms are a big collection of songs and poems that essentially made up Israel’s “worship song file” and David wrote many of them.

What’s also interesting is how scripture doesn’t rose-tint the story of David’s life and yet speaks very highly of him. The Biblical narrative shows a man who was a polygamist, adulterer and ultimately a scheming murderer who ruled over a nation and yet left his own family in a complete mess. Yet despite all this, David is used by the Apostles and New Testament writers Peter, in Acts 2, and Paul, in Acts 13, as a prophetic picture or type of Jesus Christ Himself. The Messiah is often referred to in the Old Testament prophetic books and in the gospels as “the Son of David”.

And then there’s this big one, especially within the scope of this series of posts: In his Acts 13 sermon, Paul talks about David as a person whom God calls “a man after my heart” (v22).

Until fairly recently I had always interpreted this phrase to mean a person who is in pursuit of God’s heart – a worshiper. While this kind of statement may be true of David, it isn’t what this text is actually saying. The word translated “after” is the Greek word kata which means “according to” and not “in pursuit of”. So, it uses “after” as in, “a son takes after his father” and not, “grown men chasing after a ball.” I had always understood the phrase incorrectly as “David… a man who pursues God’s heart” whereas the correct understanding would actually be, “David… a man who has the same characteristics or qualities as God’s heart.”

Coming to understand this, I have to say that this must be one of scripture’s highest commendations of any man – God saying that this man, David, had some of the same characteristics as Himself. As far as I know, David is the only person in the Bible that God directly describes this way. Surely this is something we would love be true about us and so it is this statement that we must investigate further.

Why does scripture make such high commendations of a person who’s life story would make a serious R-rated movie? You could argue that there must be better characters in the Bible to choose for this honour.

This contrast beautifully illustrates the triumph of God’s grace over sinful human messiness in the achievement of His sovereign will. But even with this in mind, we still have to ask what it was that David had or did that caused God to call him a man after His heart in both the Old (through Samuel in 1 Sam 13:14) and New Testaments (through Paul in Acts 13)?

To answer this we have to examine what it was about David that was after or “according to” God’s heart. More on that in part 3 which hopefully won’t take another seven months to post.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts? What kind of similarities between David and the heart of God can you see?

Click here for part 3 of this article.

Water Baptism: Why?

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Water Baptism

What is water baptism? Why do we do it? Is it some weird, religious ceremony that bears no meaning? What exactly is it about?

Here’s a brief little outline.

The first thing to remember is that water baptism is a very simple matter – you don’t need to go through some hectic course before you can do it; you don’t need to learn Latin so you can chant some strange spiritual phrase; and, if you get baptised, you don’t have to wonder for the rest of your life what exactly it all meant.

If you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, given Jesus your life, believed that He is the Son of God, put your faith in Jesus (these are just different phrases for the same thing, the act of believing in Jesus) then you can be baptised. And you should. Here’s why.

1) Water Baptism is a symbol, and an important one

Scripture says that when we begin to trust (have faith) in Jesus something real, but miraculous, happens to us. We are ‘born again’, ‘given life’ and ‘regenerated’. Romans 6: 1-14 specifically talks about being ‘dead to sin’ and ‘made alive to Christ’. Essentially, everything about our old way of life and our old desires are changed, made ‘dead’. Perhaps, before, you used to partake in some activity that you knew was wrong but you didn’t care. Now you find you care – and you care very much indeed. Maybe you used to do one or two shady deals at the office, now you find you just can’t do that anymore. Something inside you has changed.

This change has been done by God Himself, through the Holy Spirit. If that sounds spooky to you it’s not. But we can’t go into too much detail on that here as we’re talking about water baptism. The short of it is that God now fellowships and abides with you. He is nudging you in a life of true happiness and joy – a life of less and less sin.You have died to your old way of life – sin – and you are now alive to your new way of life – Jesus. It’s not just your acts that change but also your very nature.

And there’s no limit to what God does in terms of change. You could have been involved in some of the ugliest sinful stuff out there, but God still forgives and He both has and will deliver you from your sin. That’s the end of it.

Going under the water symbolises the reality of this event – you ‘die’ when you go under, you are ‘alive’ when you come back up. Metaphorically, of course. It’s done publicly so that everyone can see your personal commitment to living in Jesus Christ.

It’s also true that the act not only symbolises a past event (when you accepted Jesus) but also a future one – when you will physically die and be raised up to live forever, now with a glorified and sinless body. Just like Jesus who rose up on the third day. Except now God would have made a new heavens and earth (Rev 21:1) where we will live forever in His joyful presence. As can be seen, even all of creation – heaven and earth – will undergo a kind of death and resurrection. What baptism represents goes incredibly deep when you study it.

2) Jesus got baptised, so should we

As we follow Christ we do what Jesus did and even He got baptised. Read Matthew 3: 13 – 17. Jesus also commanded that as we make disciples of all men, bringing them to Him, we also baptise them. Read Matt 28:19-20 for more on that.

In obedience to God’s command it’s good that we get baptised as quickly as possible after we make a commitment to Jesus. This is to help encourage us to go all the way, as it were, with our new commitment.

Baptism, as a physical act, also helps us to deal with doubt in the future. This is because it was an actual event, something that others saw as well, not an abstract or emotional choice that we might question later in life – wondering to ourselves if we really made a commitment to Jesus or not. (Unfortunately, a lot of teaching out there can put these sorts of doubts into our heads.) Now we can look back at a physical, not abstract, event and be sure of the reality of our commitment in our own minds.

In the Old Testament we see God regularly command the Israelites to remember certain days with festivals or altars and that sort of thing. He instructs them to do this so that they won’t forget what He did for them. Baptism is a moment in our lives we can always look back on when the going gets tough to remind us of what Jesus did – he made us dead to sin and alive to Christ. So we can live it!

3) The early church did it, so we do too

There are a number of places in Scripture where it shows the early church baptised. See Acts 2:37 – 41; Acts 8: 12 – 13; Acts 8: 36 – 38; Acts 9: 17; Acts 22: 16; Acts 10: 33 – 48; Acts 16: 13 – 15; Acts 16: 31 – 34. This isn’t holding to a tradition, this is holding to Scripture which commands we be baptised.

4) What about infant baptism; christening; sprinkling etc.

If you were christened; sprinkled; baptised as an infant you still need to get baptised as an adult (or, rather, at an appropriate age of understanding). This is because, as a baby, you can’t make a commitment to Jesus. You don’t even know you have hands and feet yet! Never mind deciding to turn away from your sins and making a commitment to Jesus. This is also why (amongst other reasons) at Cornerstone we don’t do infant baptisms.

5) Still not sure about this? No problem 🙂

You can chat to any of the elders, your Life Group leader, or download our Christ-Centred Life booklet for more. This booklet takes you through the foundations of the Christian faith.

6) Want to get baptised? Awesome 🙂

Chat to any of the elders or your Life Group leader. If you’re not that integrated yet into Cornerstone, give any of the elders a call at 011-616-4073.

Courageous – Film Screening

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Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, they are confident and focused, standing up to the worst the streets have to offer. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood. When tragedy strikes home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Can a newfound urgency help these dads draw closer to God … and to their children? Protecting the streets is second nature. Raising their children in a God-honouring way? That’s courageous.

Join us at Central, bring friends and some food for a screening of this film from the makers of Fireproof.

Film screening at Central Café
Central Cornerstone Church
Sunday, 3 June
6:00pm
No Charge