Pastoral Letter - 10 June 2021

Greetings friends of Fish Hoek Methodist.

I was leading a service in Peers Village this week and one of the hymns we sang reminded me of God’s faithfulness and has helped me through the last few days. The words are as follows:

“Tis Jesus, the first and the last,

Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;

We’ll praise him for all that is past,

And trust him for all that’s to come.” (Joseph Hart)

In these uncertain times Hart’s words encourage me to rest my faith in this simple truth: ‘being thankful for all that has past and simply trusting God for what is to come!’ This is all I feel I can manage at the moment – Thanks and Trust!

And then I think about the blessing of witnessing our Centenary this year and wondering how our forefathers and mothers were feeling in 1921? They had just emerged from the global impact of the First World War, the Spanish Flu and political turmoil in our nation. Could they have been singing the same song? Were they able to be thankful and simply trust God for what was to come? In my heart I sense that this is what got them through the tough times and we are now the fortunate beneficiaries of their legacy and resilience.

I encourage us, as a Church community, to remain resilient and vigilant as we enter the Third Wave of the COVID pandemic. We are thankfully still able to meet for worship and in small groups, but we must do all we can to keep ourselves safe and to also protect our neighbours. We remain a community who seeks to LOVE God and to LOVE our neighbours as we love ourselves.

In order for us as a Church to celebrate our Centenary, we have planned a few projects and events for later this year. Here is a list of a few of these:

  • DAY OF PRAYER & FASTING – on the 17th June we are calling our Church community to set time aside for prayer and fasting. We have 30 minute slots throughout the day, from 9am to 9pm. You can either pray at the church or at home, but please commit to being part of this important day. Contact the office to book a time slot please.

 

  • CENTS FOR CENTENARY – We would like to plan for a special Centenary Thanksgiving in October and one of the ways we can do this is to start putting some money aside each month. We are hoping that the money raised through this venture will help us create a legacy for the future of our Church. Envelopes are available at the Church or you can do an EFT with ‘Cents for Centenary’ as the reference.

 

  • CENTENARY CHALLENGE – We are putting together an exciting Challenge for October that is going to motivate us to exercise as well as do something together as a community. The idea is that we try to reach the goal of 100km in the month of October, either by walking, running, hiking, cycling or swimming. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this alone – we are encouraging you to join together with friends, bible studies, families or class-mates in order to creatively reach this goal. There may even be some brave people will go beyond the 100km mark J More information will follow shortly, but please start dusting off your takkies and hiking boots.

 

  • WORSHIP CELEBRATION – 24th October 2021. We will be having an outdoor worship service, followed by a picnic at Bay Primary school at 9am.

 

  • CENTENARY BROCHURE – our team is busy preparing a lovely ‘keep-sake’ brochure that will celebrate the past 100 years of our Church. This will be released later in the year.

Current Finances – thank you again for your faithful giving over the last 5 months. Although we are R2800 in deficit (year to date) this is still manageable considering the circumstances we are all facing. Thankfully we are still able to assist the other churches in the Circuit with substantial financial help and this is helping ministry to continue in the Southern Peninsula.  

Lastly, please can we ask for you to keep our family in your prayers? Joshua and Nathan are in the middle of writing tests and exams – this adds a certain degree of angst to the Linscott household and we would ask for your prayers for strength and patience. Thank you.

God bless you. Please stay safe and remember to focus on these two words – Thanks and Trust.

Living in grace

Delme, Kim and family

10 June 2021