Cornerstone News

CONNECTING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

April has certainly been a rocky month for South Africa and most people are worried about where our country is going both politically and economically. The time is now for the Church to rise up and shine a light unto our beautiful country. We can only do this with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit was involved in the very act of creation of the world and the birth of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not an anonymous force but a distinct person in the Trinity, which is why we are able to have a relationship with Him.

Why do we need the Holy Spirit?

He recreates our nature to reflect the character of Christ (John 3:3). He convicts us of our wrongdoing and strengthens us to obey the will of God. Moreover, He gives us supernatural gifts that strengthen and edify our faith, including, tongues, prophecy, discernment, healing etc. (Acts 1:8).

How can we get empowered by Him?

The Holy Spirit will only dwell in you if you ask Him to. If you desire to have a relationship with Him you just need to ask Him.

During this challenging time we ask to especially pray for unity in SA and wisdom for its leaders. If you would like to learn more about the Holy Spirit, come visit a Life Group. 

Nelspruit Trip – A Report-Back from Hennie Keyter

Last week, Hennie and Rita Keyter and Andrew and Jill Mildenhall spent time with the leaders in Nelspruit that partner with NCMI. Here is a report-back from Hennie on how things went:

There was a Lowveld Connect on the Friday evening. We’ve been going to Nelspruit fairly often and it’s exciting to see how the Connect times there have more than doubled. On Saturday night there was a men’s evening and more than 150 men arrived. It was great to see the men coming through.

Nelspruit is very exciting. The church there (Church Unlimited) has moved to two morning services and an evening service. It’s great to see the young people coming through in the evening and we had a great time with them all.

Continue to pray for Nelspruit!

Ukwakha Isizwe December Newsletter

Key Women for 2013

Key Women is moving to a new time slot – 8:30am on the first Tuesday of every month at Bedfordview. It will now only take place in the morning (no more afternoon slot) to create more space for the ladies to get to know each other.

Key Women is also launching at South Side. It will be taking place on the first Saturday of every second month in a home in the afternoon (3pm). There is also an additional theme of “chocolate” which sounds tempting!

The theme for Key Women 2013 is Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit: Living Beyond Yourself. As Col Meeske explains, the theme is about developing a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit and then living out his character in our every day lives, impacting the world beyond ourselves.

“Women need to see just how key they are in God’s mission to the world. Every woman has a part to play and has a purpose for their lives. We are key in unlocking the presence of Jesus into the environments we find ourselves in – no matter where we are,” she says.

The Bedfordview meetings will now take place at the Fresh Ground coffee shop.

“All are welcome – regardless of age or culture. As per Titus 2, older women can teach the younger women how to love their husbands and their families, while the younger women can teach the older women how to be less conservative and to risk a bit more,” Col says.

Mums & Munchkins will also be joining Key Women on the first Tuesday for every month, to facilitate the ladies all getting to know each other better.

The last year has seen some great fruit at Key Women and 2013 promises to be even better.

Key Women
When: First Tuesday of each month or first Saturday of every second month
Where: Cornerstone Church Bedfordview (Tuesdays) or Cornerstone Church South Side (Saturdays)
Time: 8:30am at Bedfordview; 3pm at South Side

Ukwakha Isizwe Newsletter May 2012

[scribd id=94538824 key=key-q1nma647u0qcdgjk57l mode=list]

The Wards: Hello from Durbs!

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

Life Team 2012

Life Team is for young adults, between the age of 18 and 25, who have a call of God upon their lives and would benefit from a year serving in a church. Applicants currently need to be in a local church and their application needs to be approved by their eldership/pastoral teams. When the year is done, each person will return to the local churches from which they were sent.

Please note that Life Team is not a rehabilitation program.

What you can expect

  • Practical serving at Cornerstone Church
  • Training and equipping in various aspects of ministry e.g. Worship, Music and Arts, Children’s Ministry, Preaching, Teaching etc.
  • One-on-one mentoring with the Pastors and church leaders
  • Local ministry trips within South Africa, with a possibility of an international trip
  • Connecting with and serving in other local churches in South Africa

When

  • Mid-January to early December 2012.
  • Most Monday’s will be a day of rest and there will be a mid-year break of 2 weeks.

Cost

The cost for 2011 was R1400 per month

  • Approved applicants will be hosted by Cornerstone families for the year.
  • Overseas applicants will need to cover travel costs to and from South Africa.
  • Life Team participants work and serve on a full time basis which does not allow for any part time work in addition to Life Team commitments.

We do not want the cost be an exclusion factor and are open for discussion on this.

For more information email: craig@www.cornerstonechurch.co.za or phone: +27 11 616 4073

 

Details

16 January – 25 December
Ages between 18 – 25 [With a bit of flexibility]
Get hold of Craig for more info
Tel: 011 616 4073
Email: craig@www.cornerstonechurch.co.za

Kaleidoscope 2011 Report Back

written by Tanya de Ruig

Kalos (the root word of kaleidoscope) in Greek means beautiful; that was the theme of this year’s Kaleidoscope Women’s Conference: She’s beautiful. The women looked beautiful, the hall looked beautiful, but what God did at the conference was beautiful. Women were set free from rejection, jealousy, fear, hopelessness and their value was restored as Jesus revealed himself to all the women. He showed them how beautiful they are inside and out in His eyes. This freedom lead to unabandoned worship and a new revelation that a woman’s call and purpose is to advance God’s kingdom.

Download the recordings of the messages here.

 

[field name=face]

Uptown Karaoke Photos

Written by Ryan Strydom

[field name=”clear”]
A few weeks ago it was Karaoke time at Uptown on Friday night and it was a ton of fun. The girls were really showing up the guys in the singing department. Some of the songs sound great when you’re singing them on your own but put yourself behind a microphone and add the pressure of some competition and things change!It was a fantastic and super fun way to spend a Friday evening. Due to popular demand there will be another Karaoke time soon, but in the meantime here are some of the photos that were taken.

Uptown Sundays Going Well

Written by Wendy Herbert

Just over a year after Uptown started in the heart of the Joburg CBD a second meeting time was started. The decision to include a Sunday morning meeting was made in order to accommodate those that are unable to get to the usual Thursday night slot.

Different meeting times allow for more people to be part of our community and continues to establish us in the heart of Braamfontein. Our Thursday night meetings remain a highlight in the life of Uptown and we’re always surprised at how lively and colourful the people are that God has brought in.

Sunday mornings have been going for a month and although they are not as full as our other meetings they have been a wonderful success. We have been grateful for the help Central has provided in getting us kitted out and training us in sound and worship.

Please keep us in your hearts as we live our dreams in the city!

Some photos and a small write-up of Uptown’s Karaoke evening this last Friday will be posted tomorrow.