Where The Love Lasts Forever

Precious Saints!!!!!

I’m gonna make an attempt at trying to convey to you some of what took place this past Alpha weekend.

Yes it was another Alpha Holy Spirit weekend away. Now you might quickly say, “Oh well that’s just another Alpha weekend, you know we have so many of them these days, just boring humdrum kinda stuff, yeah I suppose you’all (say that with a real Texan drawl) will have a mighty fine time with God.” Thank GOoDness God’s ways and thoughts are so way above ours and that He is new every morning.

So first up was the training for the team and the pilgrims in the week leading up to the weekend, training overseen by God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirt. So God allowed a car engine to catch on fire, arguments with crabby neighbours, family tensions, some of the team members were all over the place putting their foots in their mouths and oh yes how about a good dose of physical ailments that suddenly cropped up, tummy bugs and mysterious pains that doctors could not identify and I’m sure there were others that I have not heard of yet.

Of course this is to get us all to the point were we will stop trying to do things in our own strength and start leaning on our Almighty God’s limitless strength. So that we would cry out to Him in prayer and say “Please, please……Jesus…..we don’t have the answer.” You’d think some of us would have gotten the point by now but hey we’re sheep, we are oftentimes just so stoooopid.

Eventually we all ended up at Manyano Centre, Paarl to spend time with God to seek His face and to try our best to be in the centre of His will. When I got to Manyano I could almost tangibly feel the prayers of the Saints. Those there at the centre and those praying at home for us it was kinda like walking into a cloud of God’s love, you could at first kinda feel it but not see it. However if you started to look with your heart you would see it in the acts and ways of the people there.

For me personally I was totally blown away and humbled at how God used me, to encourage, teach, facilitate and to shine His light of love. During the Holy Spirit ministry session on Saturday afternoon, His Holy Spirit just let me know and feel the hurts of those I prayed for. It was surreal, it was almost as if I wasn’t really there but at the same time I was so focused. Actually it’s impossible to explain. I still tried to manipulate who to pray for as the people stood awaiting their turn. I of course wanted to pray for the people in my group, people that I’d gotten to know and felt responsible for but God kept on giving me all these other people. I could almost imagine Him stroking me on my head and saying, “There there my little lamb, no this is the one to whom I want to extend my invitation of grace, mercy and unfailing love through you.”

After this intense period of prayer and ministry I was totally drained, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I was literally prayed out. I gave everything that I had. This was not that I was doing it in my own strength but ‘cause I was just so trying my best to open my heart to Him and do things His way and not my own way. This can sometimes be a huge battle . After supper I just went for a walk to be on my own and to speak to Allie on my cell. After that I had a fifteen minute power nap and was revitalised enough to go to the one hour praise and worship session which continued my revitalisation. It is such a blessing to worship God in song, even with my broken and mostly out of tune voice. After that I was involved in some prayer but I realised then that I was still ‘prayed out’. So I asked for and received some wonderful prayer then I knew it was time to take a shower and get to bed. After the shower I just sat and chatted to a good friend of mine, we don’t get too many opportunities to speak to each other so we made the most of it. Then off to bed at about 12.30am. Much earlier then my previous bedtime of 4.30am.
Of course the weekend had to come to an end. And we all went home on Sunday afternoon. Most of us just wanted it to last forever. This special time of God’s love. One of our team members said that God bows heaven down to us when we pray; it really felt like that this weekend. However Jesus is coming again and then the love will last forever for all His children just like the song below.

Sooooo much else happened it is really quite easy to write a book about it, yep just another weekend of God changing lives for all eternity.





Your mercy found me,
Upon the broken road,
And lifted me beyond my failing,
Into Your glory,
My sin and shame dissolved,
And now forever Yours I'll stand

(Pre-Chorus)
In love never to end,
To call You more than Lord,
Glorious friend.

(Chorus)
So I throw my life upon all that You are,
'Cause I know you gave it all for me.
And when all else fades,
My soul will dance with You,
Where the love lasts forever.

Your mercy found me,
Upon the broken road,
And lifted me beyond my failing,
Into Your glory,
My sin and shame dissolved,
And now forever Yours I'll stand

(Chorus)

(Bridge)
And forever I will sing,
Lord forever I will sing,
Of how You gave Your life away,
Just to save me,
Lord You saved me.

(Chorus)

Lord, where the love lasts forever.
I will be with You,where the love lasts forever.
I will sing to you, where the love lasts forever.
I will dance with you, where the love lasts forever.

LoCTY!!!!!!

All For You!

Precious Saints!!!!

This past weekend saw me being part of a team of sinners saved by grace helping, leading and teaching others about God's grace. Yes it was another Alpha Holy Spirit weekend. What a joy to serve our Lord Jesus Christ the absolutely and completely greatest blessing in the universe.

But first let me back track a bit and I'll try to be as honest as I can with you. You see it was not in MY plan to serve on the Alpha team this year. I had planned to take a years mathematical (yeah George @Vodocom) from Alpha. But then I was invited ever so lovingly and graciously to serve by someone who I respect and love very much. I discussed it with Allie and we agreed that it would be okay. So off I went and was selected as a small group leader for the duration of the ten week course. Then of course some things went wrong. Allie fell very ill while I was on the Alpha and eventually resigned from her job. I felt a tremendous pull and often a bit guilty going off on Wednesday nights when I knew Allie was not too well. But I constantly prayed for strength and healing for both of us and the guys on team as well as my buddies were also praying for us. So I just kept at it. Before we knew it the weekend away was upon us. Now I had been struggling with a cold/flu and running a temperature off and on for about three weeks but because of all round pressure(specially at work) I just kept pushing on. That is until my body started screaming at my head and asking, "Hey is there a brain up there somewhere?" So eventually I surrendered and went to the doc who diagnosed me as having a triple whammy, flu, sinisitus and bronchitus. He then promptly booked me off for three days and gave me a prescription of anti-biotics, pain killers and cough mixture. Then I really thought I was ill. Well this happened in the week leading up to the Alpha weekend. I wondered if I was gonna make it to the weekend. Anyways I rested as much as I could and tried my best not to worry as to what was happening at work.

Friday came and I got out of bed at about 11am and slowly got ready for the weekend. Dressed and packed, my lift came around about 3.30pm and we were off. Needless to say I really wasn't that rearing to go and I didn't really feel like I was in top form. But you you know God is awesome. You just have to make the effort to pitch up, trust Him, be obedient, be faithful and you will be abosutely amazed at the way He uses ordinary people (like you and me) in an extraordinary way.

The weekend was an absolute blast of a blessing from God. I ended up also being the 'projector pixie', working the overhead transparencies for the words to the praise and worship songs. Not that the selfish( me selfish, no waze Jose!) part of me initially wanted to do it but....you know His Holy Spirit really knows wots good for you. Oh yeah and I made a fair amount of mistakes. The way God used people on this weekend and just the way that He was constantly at work was absolutely mind blowing. You just can't take it all in and for weeks afterwards you just think about things that happened and God just reveals things to you.

God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Helper God's Holy Spirit just constantly washed us with their Love and healed broken and hurting people. You know the best view in the world is to see God working in a person nothing compares to it, when God works in and through you to minister His grace mercy and love to others. Everything was just so purposeful, even the small things. The fellowship was blessed. We had four churches at the weekend, the Goodwood, Milnerton and Malmsbury Methodist churches and the Goodwood Roman Catholic Church. What a tremendous unity His Holy Spirit wove into us as we all worshiped God as one.

Well we all had to leave on Sunday and I was missing my family tremendously as well.Then that night we had a tremendous Celebration service at Goodwood Meth and then God used me again (no not my plan to be used or my idea) to minister His love after the service.

So wotz God calling you to do. Simple really. He's saying here receive my free gifts of grace, mercy and love. Soak them up in your soul and then go and pass them on to the rest of the world, do this where ever you find yourself and as often as you possibly can, don't worry if no one is around to see your good deeds 'cause God will see them. Don't worry about being in the so called 'right' place like a church just do it.




You surround me with singing
You restore me in Your grace again
I'm alive in You
You are faithful, Saviour
You are holy
And my trust is in the power of Your name
You remember mercy
You are near me
I have life again
Now I belong to You
I will lift my hands
I will lift my voice
All for You
It's all for You
Take up my cross
I surrender
All for You
It's all for You
Your Kingdom, Is rising
Use me I pray
Your Kingdom, Is rising
Use me I pray

LoCTY!!!

Healing Rain

Precious Saints !!!!!!

This weekend past the Goodwood Roman Catholics, Goodwood Methodists and Ravensmead Methodists shared an Alpha weekend together at the Manyano Centre in Paarl. That's the bare factual bones of the matter. What really happened on this weekend I don't think I'll ever really be able to convey fully with words but I'll give it my best shot in order to share with you and give God all the glory.

In preparation for the weekend, we prayed, we fasted, we sacrificed of ourselves, we wept for the broken hearted and we asked God by the power of His Holy Spirit to come and save, heal, restore and make His people whole. And we serve such a faithful and true God that He came and did just that which we asked of Him. Not because we deserved any of it, not because of who we are but because He loves us and has faith in us and that He works in us and through us despite who we are and what we do. The more I experience the grace of God the more I'm just totally blown away by who He is and how He works and His deep love and generosity.

There may have been two 'different' denominations on the weekend but His Holy Spirit united us as one. This weekend God told us through His Spirit that we are His adopted sons and daughters heirs to the throne of the king because we come to Him in the name of His one and only son Jesus Christ and that His one and only son bought each of us with His very own blood. We are Princes and Princesses and not even death can take that away. So we saw the truth, power and beauty of the Gospel of Salvation unfold before our very eyes this weekend and it was breathe taking.

You know when you pray and minister to someone by the power of His Holy Spirit, it is such an intimate moment, you almost feel like you are intruding and should not be there. But God wants you there and sometimes the person you are ministering to is so broken, crying, sobbing, nose running and by fleshly/human standards looks quite a mess (snot en trane) but for me I've never ever witnessed anything so beautiful as when God starts healing a person from the inside out. It's just so WOW (Walking on Water, time)

For me personally I was just feeling that God was not really gonna make much use of me this weekend. You know that kinda feeling,"Oh yeah, been there done that, seen it all before," but you see God never quite works that way, He is an eternal God who, if you make yourself available and try your best to be obedient, will use you far beyond what you can imagine or dream of. So this weekend for me was full of the presence of Him in my life, in the big things and the small things.

I'll share with you just a coupla memories from the weekend.

I almost forgot to take a mug/cup with so just before I left on Friday I quickly grabbed Matthews "Incredibles" mug. My leg was lovingly pulled the whole weekend about my "incredible" mug, however there were very few people who actually brought their own mugs so super hero mug was used quite often. Phew was it hot in Paarl, a blistering 37 degrees on Saturday, we swam in the pool and then had cold showers afterwards to cool off from swimming. We had our fair share of echo and respond snorers that really rattled the floorboards. Of course some people just never slept, like motor mouth Peter K who talked up a storm from Friday night to Saturday morning. Alistair F coming down the passage absolutely drenched in sweat after he had just played his heart out for us for a solid hour, on the drums, the worship team always bless us soooo much. Showering by candle light due to the power failures, hey watch out for the falling wax, oh ja and the Florence Nightingales who walked up and down the passages. Ernest's jokes about the Cathys. The Saturday evening Holy Spirit ministry, jokes fun and laughter on Sunday morning. Sharing on Sunday morning what God actually did for His beloved people. And of course the tears and brokenness healed by the power of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Fred W's mind blowing vision of seeing four angels protecting Manyano Centre and Jesus coming through the wall, while we worshipped, opening His arms and saying, "I am pleased."So much more, I'm sure everyone there could write a book about their experiences. On the way home, the four of us in the car just praying for each other and our spouses and children and thanking and praising God for His love grace and mercy. The celebration service at Goodwood Meth in the evening.

While we where having tea/coffee on Sunday morning before breakfast, the rain suddenly came down and it reminded me of Michael W Smiths video for his song Healing Rain, where the healing power of God's Spirit is depicted like this special kind of rain and what you had to kinda do was step out in faith and get wet and then you would feel the healing power of God's love. We saw that healing rain first hand this past weekend.


When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.The scroll containing the messages of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him, and he unrolled the scroll to the place where it says:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,that the blind will see,that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors,and that the time of the Lord's favour has come."
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue stared at him intently.Then he said, "This Scripture has come true today before your very eyes!" (Luke 4:16-21, Jesus reading from Isaiah 61:1 & 2, words written approx 700+ years before his birth on earth. )

Here is one of the songs we did on the weekend



You know that I love you
You know that I want to
Know you so much more
More than I have before
These words are from my heart
These words are not made up
I will live for you
I am devoted to you
King of Majesty, I have one desire
Just to be with you my lord
Just to be with you my lord
Jesus you are the saviour of my soul
And forever and ever I'll give my praises to you

LoCTY !!!!

PS The Apps music duo please pass on to the rest of the Alpha worship team.

At The Foot of the Cross

Precious Saints!!!!!!

I have no idea how to describe in writing the events and occurrences of this past Adult Alpha weekend. I will try to convey something of what it was like. To those of you who were there (in whateva capacity) I humbly apologise in advance my lack of being able to convey the way that God manifested His presence, through His Holy Spirit at the Manyano Centre in Paarl this past weekend.

It was really mind blowing, gut wrenching, teeth rattling, tender loving, heart breaking, belly aching (from laughter), tension filled, exhausting, restoring, breaking down, building up, tear stained.... I could go on and on.... But it is really something to experience when God's grace meets evil and sin head on. No words will ever be enough.

We spent a weekend in the awesome shadow of the cross. The shadow that it cast over us was that of God's grace, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, faith, hope and love as we stood the whole weekend at the foot of the cross and gave over our baggage and helped others to give over theirs, and then left it there at the foot of the cross, for Jesus Christ our saviour to deal with. I just want you to know that there is no way that I can fully convey to you out there as to what an awesome God we serve.

God the Father (yeah our Daddy God) ministered to, and equipped us to minister, through His Son Jesus Christ our saviour and indwelt us with His Holy Spirit. We experienced the triune God first hand and lemme tell you from a former major 'head' person there is absolutely no ways you can wrap your mind around that one. You just trust and obey, do it and experience it.

Flashes of 'stuff' come across my mind. People being hurt by other people’s sin and their own. Murder, suicide, abuse, loss, unforgiveness and on and on a real pot pourri of sin. The young woman whose father had been murdered 'bout 10 years ago, the man whose brother had committed suicide and the last time he saw his brother alive he told him to 'buzz off', just to give some examples. People hanging on to their fears, guilt and unforgiveness, for 10,15, 25 years and then God comes to set them free. The humility, servant heart and love of those on the team. Madeline, the co leader of the prayer team falling down the stairs, being taken to hospital by ambulance for x-rays and then coming back with a neck brace and continuing the spiritual battle. Seeing God fill some of the men on the prayer team with the spirit of joy, to see grown men rolling around on the floor laughing like two year olds, stamping their feet and streaming tears of laughter, this causing everyone else to fall about laughing as well. Talk about a spiritual high. God just kinda 'popping' info into my head as I'm ministering and praying for people. God in the smallest of details just everywhere. Amazing conversations and fellowship. The feeling of absolute bone crunching tiredness after coming home and having given everything that you had for His Kingdom. Having such a feeling of love and gratitude to our Daddy God for the family He has given me.

Then the celebration service at Goodwood Meth on Sunday evening. The youngsters also had their Youth Alpha weekend and their band did a great rendition of Tell The World (it pumped!!! we jumped). Great message on salvation by Mike (just hit the sweet spot), testimonies from the youngsters and adults 'bout wot God did for them this weekend and more great praise and worship from the Adult Alpha band, the church was rocking with the Rock of our salvation Jesus Christ. As I was walking out to go home I was blessed to see the amazingly touching site of the youth ministering to each other. Like a real WOW (Walking on Water) moment.

So if I try and record everything that God did this weekend I think I would easily be able to write a book of substantial thickness maybe even a 'coupla volumes. But this is wot I've managed. For some of you this is already too much of an opus maximus (you know like one of the Roman emperors) and you will have to read it in serial (rice crispies, cornflakes, fruit loops et al) format.

Ain't it awesome to know we serve a living God? I just have to say that the greatest privilege, blessing and honour in the universe is to serve Him, nothing else compares. If you are just sitting on the light of the world which you have, just take a step of faith and do something for Him. If you wanna mock, jeer, not believe, be skeptical, God actually tells you, you can test everything that He says and does. For two thousand years now the Gospel of Jesus Christ has stood as the truth despite every effort to discredit it and break it down, there are thousands of men and women who, over this period, have tried to break down the Gospel and the majority of them who honestly examined the facts became Christians themselves. So while God's grace is still being extended to you, use your God given free will and examine the facts with an open mind (yes an open and free mind) and see what you come up with. Go on make the effort, it will be the best thing that you have ever done in your life.

At the foot of the cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me Your love
Through the judgment You received
And You've won my heart
Yes You've won my heart
Now I can
Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross
At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death You bore for me
I'm laying every burden down
I'm laying every burden down

Music and lyrics by Kathryn Scott
© 2003 Vertical Worship Songs

LoCTY !!!!!

PS Please pass on to anyone you want
PSS Thank you for your prayers
PSP Peter B please pass on to your mailing list

No Greater Love.....

To The Precious Saints !!!!

Today I sit here totally overwhelmed by the majesty of God's love. I'm just kinda sitting here at work plonking away mechanically at my keyboard but my soul, spirit, mind and body my whole inner and outer being is totally consumed by God's love. I'm crying in gratitude for the work He has done this past Alpha weekend, I'm crying in gratitude for the way He works through ordinary everyday people (yea jars of clay) and transcends us into such magnificent instruments of love and healing. Do I understand it. No not really but I feel it somewhere deep down inside. When I woke up this morning I went to prepare Matthews cereal and I wept (kinda like that old Neil Diamond song, crying in your pretzels) I went to shave, as I looked in the mirror I wept (okay I know some of you are thinking if they looked in the mirror and saw my face they'd also weep!).
Did we see mountains move? Did we see limbs grow back or any such physical miracles? No not really. But what we did see is all types of brokenness being healed. Spiritual eyes being opened as the truth was revealed by His Spirit to His children. We saw God saving lives for eternity.
Some snapshots. Mike's(our minister) friend giving His life to Christ and being filled with His Holy Spirit. Mike has been praying for him for 33 years. A women giving her testimony about falling so far from God, she used to be a lay preacher in Namibia, saying basically that God's love never fails. She was invited to Alpha by the guys doing Street Evangelism last year in November. You know just one of those chance meetings(yea right!)
We shared the weekend with the Roman Catholic Church (St Josephs) of Goodwood and they too were just blown away by the experience. They had just never experienced anything like this before. The raw (but gentle) power of God's love. When the Holy Spirit ministry was in progress many of them just stayed watching, after they had been prayed for, and just could not get enough.
Then on to an extended period of praise and worship and it was so great to see everyone worshiping the one true God in spirit and truth. Yes His Holy Spirit brings unity in Christ!
So many things to write about the weekend I cannot possibly put them all down here.
On to Sunday evening. And we have a celebration service, the church is packed and man do I get goosebumps when 400 or so people worship God with all they've got. God's grace and mercy just continued to flow as after the service so many people came up for ministry. This morning Allie received an SMS thanking us for prayer given last night. I have received phone calls about last nights service this morning at work, thanks for prayers and just how awesome it was.

Thank you all for your prayers for the weekend.

Over the mountains and the sea
Your river runs with love for me
And I will open up my heart
And let the Healer set me free

I'm happy to be in the truth
And I will daily lift my hands
For I will always sing
Of when Your love came down

I could sing of Your love forever
I could sing of Your love forever

Oh, I feel like dancing
It's foolishness, I know
But when the world has seen the Light
They will dance with joy
Like we're dancing now

I could sing of Your love forever
I could sing of Your love forever
I could sing of Your love forever
I could sing of Your love forever
(I Could Sing of Your Love Forever by Delirious)

LoCTY !!!!

PS Peter B I'm only sending this to you internally so it makes it easier for you to pass it on to your group.

A Reminder From Stanley

To The Saints !!!!!

Last night saw the start of Alpha. It is always with mixed feelings/emotions that one approaches serving on team for the start of the first Alpha course for the year. There is excitement, passion, apprehension, fear, doubt and often (but not always) there is something that happens in your life in the week leading up to Alpha that brings out and highlights our weak and sinful nature. During this week we have have been subjected again to family tension and Allie has borne the brunt of this from her son Adam.
So on to the first night and Allie initially did not much feel like going but eventually she decided to go with me. Things went okay and we were enjoying the evening. While sitting in the small group Kevin came walking up to me and said he had a message from Mandy(who was looking after Matthew) that our car had been stolen and was in Delft and that we should phone her to get the number for the police there.
Of course I would like to tell you that I stayed calm and made all the right Christian responses and called an immediate prayer meeting or whateva but I flipped, I panicked, my heart came up in my throat, then sank down to my shoes (and then continued with this yo yo motion). Allie and myself hurried to the office, on the way there I looked out to where our car was parked (what was I looking for? It wasn't there!) and I said to Allie that its gone! By this time I was doing the good husband thing and trying to blame Allie "you see I told you to put a gear lock on the car, or get an immobiliser fitted but you wouldn't listen" (haaa, can you see Christ in me). Allie phoned Mandy and got the number of the police in Delft, Mandy also told Allie that the car was damaged. Allie was so upset at this time and she was crying she said "I told you I should not have come tonight....." I phoned the cops. While I was dialling their number I suddenly felt a calmness come over me and in my heart I said Lord whateva, I'll still love you and serve you. It was a strange feeling because I wanted to panic, I was enjoying it, I wanted to vent my frustration at the world, tell everyone who cared to listen how unfair life is(so wots new).
Eventually the cops answered the phone and the sergeant who I had to speak to took forever to come to the phone. When he eventually got there he asked if I was Mrs D White (ke ching! the penny dropped) it was Stanley (our old Mazda) who had been stolen. We had sold the car through a dealer friend when we bought our new car and the new owner had not yet registered it in his name. What a relief.
But then where is our car? I went to have another look (carefully this time) I was so blinded by my panic that I did not even see that our car was exactly in the same spot where Allie had parked it. Nope it had not moved at all. Of course I now had to put up with some good natured comments from the rest of the team about my eyesight, about immediate answered pray from the prayer team but it was all done in love.
Its just a reminder to us all as to how grateful we must be for every blessing and how grateful we must be that we have the truth and that we serve a God that loves us so much that He came down and died for us, so that we could be with Him forever. Sounds contrite, too good to be true, well my friends it is the TRUTH and you have it, it has been revealed to you. As Josh McDowell said the plain things are the main things and the main things are the plain things.

Mystery of mysteries
That you could love someone like me
In your hands eternity
And yet you have the time for me
A love so undeserved
You held nothing in reserve
Heaven played its symphony
I took your hand and you rescued me
Grace like a river
Is flowing down, is flowing down
It's flowing down to me
Staring at my history
Was all alone but never free
The sands of time have let me see
Your faithful shadow next to me
A love so unreserved
I did nothing to deserve
Love so free but what's the cost
To carry this old rugged cross
I love you, I thank you
I'm nothing without your Grace like a river
(Grace Like A River by Delirious?)

This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (1 John 4:10)

LoCTY !!!!

PS Thanks Michelle you really handled the group fantastically well last night despite the distraction.