Passage to Purpose

The evening went off with a bang. The launch of the new course was a raging success. Timing-wise all worked out fine, and it was fun to have a group of such enthusiastic guinea pigs! Thanks to all who attended and participated. It was good to get your feedback. The team is hard at work cleaning up the materials and spelling mistakes, colour blindness issues etc. Other mildly confusing statements are being clarified and.... last but not least, The admin surrounding the Starting Point is now underway.

Languages and the Tower of Babel

The evening started out with everyone saying what they are greatful for. Andries Louw and his lovely family visited us and he gave us a preview of different language learning techniques. Andries will be teaching language acquisition to us (see the box on the right). To keep on doing the same thing and expect different results is insane. The building blocks of language acquisition:

• Get what you need.
• Learn what you've got.
• Use what you've learnt.
• Evaluate what you've used.
• Decide what you need next.

And most important: Learn a little. Use it a lot. Open your ears to listen and your mouth to talk. Open your eyes to see what people are doing. Open your mind to learn a new way of learning and thinking. And open your heart to be able to do all of this.

Staying with the topic of languages we moved on to the 'Tower of Babel'. Was there only one language before the Tower of Babel? Was teh Tower of Babel the start of languages? What was man's sin against God? Was everyone on earth part of the event of the Tower of Babel? Was the Tower of Babel the start of missions? What was God's purpose with the Tower of Babel? What does culture have to do with missions? If you want the answers, well, you'll just have to come to fellowship :-)

And as the evening closed the question was asked: If everyone here didn't follow everything that was said, is that ok? Yes it is!

Sat 11 July - What is the centrality of God's will?

The group started by discussing the responsibility of looking after the earth and creation. Is nature/animals important to God and what will be redeemed back to God from creation?

Matthew 7:21
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, BUT ONLY THOSE who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven

Matthew 24:14
And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

How do we get to do what God wants to see done?
Start with the irreducible minimum (if this is done, then what follows), which is to love your neighbor – to love the Lord your God, is the greatest commandment. Love is a means to something else but what?

The will of God for us:
1. Present your body as a living sacrifice (1 Corin 3:16-17, 6:20; Rom 12:1-2)
2. Make your body holy (set apart) (2 Corin 7:1)
3. Make yourself acceptable to God (Rom 12:1)
4. Do not conform to the world (Rom 12:1)
5. Be transformed from the world (Rom 12:2)
6. Render your reasonable service (Rom 12:1)
7. For all to come to the knowledge of truth (Hebr 4:12, 2 Tim 3:16)
8. All men to be saved (John 3:16, Mark 16:15, 2 Pet 3:9)

Within these points there is a cycle (opposed to a start and finish) and we can most probably order it more or less as 7,2,6,1,4,5,3,8. In view of Romans 1 –11, chapter 12 follows. Get on the journey/process where the irreducible minimum is laying down your life. If you’r not in the journey the chances are you not in God’s will. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Can you do all things through Christ?

Are we all called? Are we not all seed of Abraham? Jesus said as I have been sent, so I send you. Pick up your cross. When you do something, make service the centrality of your action.

First Birthday! 4 July 2009 - Philip from Thailand

Before the Fellowship meeting there was a get together of the people interested in being part of Philip van Wyk's sending cell, they are all keen to be involved in what God is doing in Thailand through Philip.

It was wonderful seeing Philip again! He joined us all for a short while and shared a little of his experiences in Thailand. He has been away for 18months and it is the hand of God is so obvious in him.
There was a question and answer time with Philip which turned out to be an eye-opening experience.
The fellowship prayed for Phillip and we thanked God for him!
As per usual, sticking to suggested topics was a little tricky... what with different people and questions coming up in discussion, which were all relevant - of course. One that came up was rather a challenge... again and it was decided that we should go and research/ask God , whatever it takes, 'What is the centrality of His will??'

Unfortunately Philip is here in South Africa for such a short time,
he is almost on his way out again....

Oh yes... and before we left to go our separate ways, we ate cake... all kinds of cake as we celebrated a full year of meetings.
There was even some bubbly juice at the end as well.... thank you so much to all who added to the festivities in this way.