God still initiates

God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa 55).  God is moving in exciting ways throughout the world to accomplish His purposes.  He is always initiating things, projects and activities, connecting people or creating new opportunities to minister.  He is not just interested in giving us new ministry opportunities but rather inviting us to join Him in something that He had initiated already.  I have become aware once again over the last few weeks that the Lord uses ordinary people to whom He gives assignments, which are in fact divine assignments, to accomplish His eternal purpose.

Couples Retreat

I was once preaching a series of meetings in a local church in the Johannesburg area and met a businessman who attended the meetings.  He invited my family and I to his Game Lodge for a weekend.  We talked and prayed together and decided that we would advertise a five star couples retreat and see if there would be any interest and how things would develop.  We just finished our fifth couples retreat and our seventh visit to the Witwater Safari Lodge and Spa (www.witwater.com). When I saw the people’s response to the messages (some testimonies in latest Heart Cry News) and how they met with the Lord, I realized that these encounters were because God had them on His heart and because of that He initiated these Couples Retreats. These encounters with God were initiated several years ago.

 

Namibia

I have been ministering in the church of a friend of mine in Napier, Western Cape before he was called by God to become a missionary pastor in Kaokoland, Namibia.  We met again briefly at the Heart Cry Conference that was held in Pretoria.  Just a few weeks later I received a call from another pastor inviting me to preach in his church at Windhoek, Namibia.  I was not committed to minister on that Sunday and I flew to Windhoek on Friday through Monday to meet with them.  I met with several businessmen, pastors and spoke twice over the weekend.

On introducing me, the pastor shared about my previous ministry in Napier, and that it is through my friend’s testimony of what these meetings meant to him, that I was invited to preach in Windhoek. I realised that this church had sent out my friend to work amongst the tribes about 500km away from Windhoek as a missionary pastor.  On Sunday I made the altar call and asked everybody who had heard the voice of the Lord speaking to them, to respond.  I was watching more than 100 people respond and realised that this moment was on the heart of our Father several years ago, even before I was preaching in Napier.  At the time when I preached in Napier I did not realise that I would end up ministering in Namibia, in fact I did not dream of travelling across borders to minister.  God knew that all along and was just waiting for the right moment to connect the dots, so that we could accomplish what He had initiated.  The church is planning several local revival services and even a Heart Cry Namibia in the next few years.

 

New office

For the past few years our office was situated in a house in Garsfontein where we rented a few rooms that served as the Head office of Heart Cry.  The rest of the house was rented out to CTI students.  The high request for accommodation for the CTI students as well as the growing need of Heart Cry compelled us to start thinking and praying for some other office space.

One morning while I was still waiting on the Lord, I received a call from Mrs Hester Pentz, assistant manager of the SATU Building at 278 Serene Street, Garsfontein.  They had a few offices available and wanted to know whether or not we would be interested in renting there again.  During my time at Revival SA ministry, we had an office there before we had to move due to a shortage of space.  We immediately knew that this is the place where the Lord wants us for the next phase of our ministry. Needless to say, we immediately booked the space.  We are very excited because we will now be able to hold all our meetings, present functions and even our schools of prayer at the same facility.

Our new Head office will therefore be situated in the SATU Building at 278 Serene Street, Garsfontein as from 1 October 2010.  We will be moving during the last week of September. We would still have the same email and telephone numbers. Our new Head office will consist of the following:

• Reception area and lounge surrounded by plants
• Store room for all our books, and
• Four offices,
• As well as:

1. Free parking in the security area with guards
2. Alarm, water and electricity
3. Fully equipped multi-media Board room (10-50 seats)
4. Fully equipped multi-media Auditorium (125 seats)
5. Committee room for 10 persons
6. Kitchen and reception area for functions.

Costs

The rent for our new offices is just a little more than what we pay currently but we then have so many more facilities which will enable us to function more effectively and professionally while we focus on the ministry.

We would also require some finances to move our furniture, telephone lines, computers, Telsys-switchboard system, photocopy machines and the acquisition of office furniture which is peculiar to the building.

We would like for you to pray with us for the following:

1. To praise the Lord with us for His goodness and wonderful provision.
2. To trust the Lord with us for the provision of the once-off costs as well as for the monthly rent which we need thereby becoming part of our prayer team.
3. To prayerfully consider becoming part of the support team that will, as a partner, carry the vision for revival by assisting with the expenses of Heart Cry projects and the Heart Cry office.

God might be initiating some new things to you at this moment as He reveals Himself to you so that you can adjust your lives to His.  We cannot choose our assignments and places of ministry, He does.  Although we thank the Lord for His wonderful provisioning of new office buildings, we are at the same time waiting to see the connection to His goal and His purpose in and through this new venture.  Our goal should be to become aware of Him and to realise that every aspect of our lives is part of what He has initiated already.