Pastoral Letter – October 2023

Fish Hoek Methodist Church

Greetings to you all and we pray for God’s strength as we head into the final stretch of the year. Thank you for taking the time to read through our latest pastoral letter. There is a lot happening in the life of the church, so please take note of this information and pass it on:

Update on Ministerial changes for 2024

As you are aware by now, I have been asked to be the Superintendent minister from December this year. Although it is an honour to serve in this role, it does come with a huge increase in workload and challenges. I am thankful that I will have my colleagues to lean upon, as well as the support of all the society stewards and church leadership.

Tracy Lawrence, who is currently the Circuit Secretary and based out of Tokai Methodist, will continue to serve in the administration office of the Circuit. I am grateful for her experience and help in this regard.

Tokai Methodist are without a Minister next year, so I will also be overseeing their community for 2024. This will be very similar to my role in helping out at Simon’s Town in 2022. I will be based in Tokai one day a week and will preach there during the quarter. They will be appointing a lay person to help meet their daily pastoral needs, and their society stewards will help facilitate the leading of the church.

As far as our community in Fish Hoek goes, we are putting an effective plan in place, which we believe will help us navigate through the unforeseen changes that have come our way. At the moment this is rough outline of these plans:

Thomas and Joyce will continue their respective roles in the Church Office. Justine Tinker (who is one of Society Stewards), will serve as a liaison between the Church leaders and the Admin office, as well as continue in her role as overseer of the Youth ministries in our broader church. 

On the Pastoral Care front, Louise Elliott (who currently heads up our care team), will be offering 10 hours a week to the functioning and facilitation of this ministry. Louise will help me in arranging care and visitation to all those who are in need, so please contact her should you have any special requests.

The gaps on the preaching and teaching side will be covered by our excellent lay preachers and Supernumerary ministers. They will also assist in taking some funerals if the load gets too great for me to manage.

Our society stewards and the leaders of our respective ministries will continue to offer their tireless support in the weekly management of the Fish Hoek society. Needless to say, I am deeply indebted to everyone who is willingly to serve the Lord in our community. I do believe that God will guide us through these challenges and that we will not only survive, but that we will grow in our relationship with the Lord.

Thanksgiving

Please receive our grateful thanks for your generosity to God’s work in our Church. There are so many of you who faithfully give to the ministry in Fish Hoek, and this allows us to fulfil our mandate to GO, GATHER, GROW, in Jesus’ name. Thank you to all who give of your time, talents and treasures. Many of you are anonymous (financial givers) and servants who work in the background, but we acknowledge you and say THANK YOU.

Church Improvements

Our solid financial situation has allowed us to do some maintenance and painting on the church buildings – both on the inside and outside – and the church is looking great at the moment.

We have also needed to update our electrical compliance, and although this has been a major job, we are nearly at the end of this project. Thank you for patience and understanding as we have tackled this necessary task.

We are also grateful to the teams who have undertaken all these tasks – they have spent hours on site, making sure that things operate smoothly.

Advent and Christmas

We will begin our Advent Preaching series, and our preparations for Christmas, in the first week of December. We will send out further details concerning the special services and events that are taking place. Remember that our Christmas CRAFT MARKET takes place on Saturday the 4th of November.

Collective Prayers

We remember that many in our church and broader community are heading into the stress of exams soon. This includes, students, parents, grandparents, and all teachers. Let us be mindful of this extra burden that hangs over our hearts and minds. Please pray for all those concerned.

Finally, I urge us all to continue to pray for Peace in the Middle East, as well as in Ukraine and Russia. We also uphold the brokenness and strife in our own country. Let us hold onto the words of Jesus: God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

I feel honoured to be your shepherd and to work alongside you. May God grant us all the love, wisdom and strength we need to walk in the ways of Jesus.

Living in Grace,

Delme, Kim, Declan, Nathan and Joshua