Church this Sunday (27 Feb) will be at the venue of the retreat.

See you there.

Pierre

Date: 8,9,10 June (Tues, Wed, Thurs).
Time: 7pm – 8:30pm.
Venue: Holy Trinity. 8 Cross Road, Pelham, Pietermaritzburg.
Cost is free, but registration is essential. You can register through Pierre or Donné.
Child care will be provided, but please let Pierre or Donné know beforehand of any children you would like to bring.

WBS started three years ago with the aim of equipping ordinary Christians to read, understand and apply God’s word in their daily lives. Fifty people attended in the first year, followed by 100 last year.

This year, we have three options to choose from:
– Level 1: Unwrapping Titus. Leader: Ant Carr – strongly recommended for first-timers.
– Level 2: Making sense of Psalms. Leader: Michael Schafer.
– Level 3: The wonder of wisdom. Leader: Craig Bartholomew.

About the Leaders:

Anthony Carr is the Young Adults pastor at Holy Trinity. He graduated from Bible College three years ago with an honours degree in Theology. He loves riding his mountain bike off-road and surfing. He is married to Kim.

Michael Schafer is the full time director and trainer at Entrust, which aims to equip a new generation of gospel workers in KZN and beyond. Previously he served as the senior pastor of Christ Church Hillcrest. He is married to Judith and they have four children.

Craig Bartholomew is Professor of Philosophy at Redeemer University in Canada. He has authored several books on the Bible, Christian worldview and Christian philosophy. He was an Oxford Blue tennis player in his heyday. He is a bachelor.

All three of these men are gifted Bible teachers with a deep desire to help other Christians to live for God.

Level 1 – Unwrapping Titus
This is an introductory course, and provides an essential foundation for the more advanced levels. It is designed to help you to read and understand a whole book of the Bible. The book of Titus is a good place to start, as it is a short New Testament letter, three chapters long. You will learn how the message the author wrote to his readers is to be applied to ordinary life, both then and now.

Level 2 – Making Sense of Psalms
This deals with a familiar, but not well understood part of the Old Testament. You will make some exciting discoveries along the way and in the process you will be better equipped to read the Old Testament.

Level 3 – The Wonder of Wisdom
This advanced course will teach you how better to read the Bible’s wisdom literature (e.g. Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes).

Peters, who has been performing as a jazz pianist since the early 80’s, has shared the stage with many of South Africa’s jazz legends. He also helped Abdullah Ibrahim to form the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra and then became its musical director. Mari has featured as a vocalist on a number of albums, including George Mari’s, My Mecca and Darius Brubeck’s, Before It’s Too Late. She performs regularly as a vocalist and pianist in Durban. Byrne has free-lanced as a double-bass player for a number of musical groups, including the Durban City Orchestra. He is currently a member of the jazz group Beatroute. Baker, who grew up in Pietermaritzburg, free-lances as a jazz drummer in Durban, whilst lecturing at UKZN School of Jazz. He has performed alongside jazz stars Feya Faku, Winston Makuku, Darius Brubeck and many others.

But if none of this impresses you, then be impressed by the ticket price: R40. Where else can you listen to top-class jazz, for the price of a movie ticket?

Date: 4th April

Time: 7pm

Venue: Room A1 on the campus of UKZN, Pietermaritzburg. Park in the
Hex parking and follow the signs.

To Book: Phone Sam on 0832579059 or 033-3868009

Presented by: Abound – a non-profit organization that aims to promote beauty, through the medium of the arts.

I sometimes hear people say “Why adopt when you can have children of your own?” One of these days I will respond by saying “Why go through morning sickness and child birth when there are other ways to get children of your own?”.

Over the last few years, God has given Donné and me a burning desire to adopt needy children. A number of you have been involved in the decision-making process. Most people we’ve spoken to have been very positive about our plans to adopt. Others have raised concerns, usually out of love for us.

Let me tackle one major misconception about adoption. It is common to make the distinction between adopting and having children ‘of your own’ but I think that the sooner we do away with this false distinction, the better. For one thing, when we talk like this, we alienate children who’ve been adopted.
What we’re saying is that children we adopt are not really ours after all. Sadly, much of society thinks this way.

So, I’m told that amongst African cultures it is commonly believed that the ancestors don’t recognise adopted children as legitimate. Often, these children are not treated as true members of the family. Also, amongst westerners, there is this assumption that adoption should be a last resort if you cannot have children by natural means. Now please do not misunderstand me; having children by birth is a wonderful thing, and of course there is nothing wrong with wanting this. But listen to what someone once told us: “I could never love something, that’s not my own”. She clearly thinks that her own genes are basically different from other people’s genes. She believes that her genes are more valuable than others. That view is not compatible with Christianity. It is Darwinism at its worst.

Let me say that when we adopt a child, he or she will become our real child, just as Bethany is. We will be the real parents. A child that we adopt will be equally loved and he or she will be entitled to an equal inheritance. Our own legal system goes along with this. We will be getting a piece of paper from Pretoria saying that this child we have adopted can now be regarded as our “birth child”. In the eyes of the law, then, adoption overrides biology.

The Bible takes the same view of adoption. Did you know that Jesus was adopted? His father, Joseph, was not a blood relative. Remember that Jesus was born of a virgin. Matthew, in ch1 of his gospel, makes the crucial point that Jesus is a descendant of David. But the way he does this is surprising. He does this by showing that Joseph is descended from David, thereby including Jesus in David’s family tree. Matthew did not think it necessary to point out that Mary too was descended from David. In the eyes of the Bible, adoption overrides biology.

This should come as a great relief to children adopted into a Christian home. It should also come as a great relief to all Christians, since we have been adopted by God. When God adopts us, we do not become his “adopted” children, we become his real children. We are not second class citizens in God’s family. On the contrary, God loves us just as he loves Jesus. What’s more, adoption is not God’s plan B. Ephesians chapter 1 says that God planned to adopt a people before the creation of the world. Adoption is at the heart of what God is doing in the world.

It may be that you are not a Christian. You have not been adopted by God. Why remain outside his family? Speak to someone here who is already part of God’s family, and I am sure they will point you in the right direction.

If you are already adopted by God. May I encourage you to consider showing that same love to one of the million or so orphans in this country. Adopting children is not the best option for everyone – and there are other ways of loving orphans – but may I encourage you to at least consider adoption as one of those options.

Donné and I have set up a website linking to resources that have helped us to think about adoption from a Christian perspective.

Info form is here: http://tinyurl.com/cor2010info
Registration form is here: http://tinyurl.com/cor2010reg

Registration deadline: Sunday 21 Feb. Payment deadline: 28 February. Policy: Pay what you can, when you can, but let us know by Sunday 21 how much and when that will be.

If you aren’t local, or can’t make it, please pray for us. Otherwise, see you there!

Pierre

If you are planning to spend money on Christmas presents this year, buying Christian books is one way of making an eternal investment. Sam, Deane and I thought we’d take the opportunity to suggest considering one or more of these books.

By the way, if a loved one gives you a book called “You Can Change”, please don’t be offended.

Pierre

Pierre