Who can say enough of a Mother’s love? Let us celebrate the Mothers and Motherly figures today who have cared for us so diligently and lovingly, and fondly remember those who may have passed on and have meant so much to us.

A Mother’s Love
A Mother’s love is something
that no one can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking . . .
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems . . .
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation . . .
A many splendored miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God’s tender guiding hand.

Helen Steiner Rice

A blessed Mothers Day to all who care so lovingly for those in their family!

Blessings,

Taiki

Greetings, in the name of our risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

It is with deep sadness and shock that I share with you the news that Ross Olivier, President of our Seth  Mokitimi Methodist Seminary in Pietermaritzburg, a previous General Secretary of our Church, and recently minister here at Brooklyn (in 2008), passed away on Wednesday morning of this past week.  At the time of writing this page, we only know that Ross had been ill for a while, the details we don’t know.  I am sure that you will join with me in holding his wife, Shayne, and their three sons in your prayers.

Notwithstanding our shock and loss, we need also at this time to turn to our faith and believe that Ross himself has gone to his Lord, and received his crown of life, and has been welcomed by his Lord – “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Gail took a bad turn on Monday of this week and instead of flying out to our son and family in London, was admitted to Little Company of Mary.  She was eventually diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia.  She should be back home at the time of your reading this.

I, and probably Gail, leave for London this week on a sponsored attendance at a Leadership Conference and two weeks leave with the family.  I return on about the 29^th May.

Stay close to God.

With love, Gary.

As we read the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, we are faced with the story of two brothers who strangely enough have much in common.  They are in fact both rather wasteful with the inheritance their Father has given them.  The younger son squandered his inheritance and deeply grieved his father by leaving.  The older son was wasting his “inheritance” as well.  How many of us can identify with the older son?  For many of us, we may have been members of the Church for a while, and perhaps this has led to us taking our responsibility and our honoured place as Children of God for granted.

We are responsible to ensure that our lives proclaim the goodness and saving will of God our Father. 

For most of us we might find ourselves in a place where the Christian life we’ve tailored for ourselves is incredibly comfortable and requires very little of us.  The problem with this is that the life Christ calls us to is not a comfortable one.  It is one in which we are called to “come and die” to self.  Die to our selfish desires, our materialism, our fear of what others will think of us.  But what we get in return is so much greater than anything we give up.  People should see something different in us and about us and if they don’t perhaps we need to start asking whether we’re living what we claim to believe. 

Let us not make the mistake of becoming so comfortable in our faith that we believe that it centres around us.  It is in Him and for Him “that we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28 

May we all be richly blessed as we come to grips with what it means to live radical and obedient lives in God.

Blessings, Taiki

Are you searching for a Ministry to join?  We have need of volunteers in the following areas:

Creative Arts Ministry: This Ministry focuses on the creative aspects of our services, from banners to clips, to decoration and more.  If you are creative and are looking for an outlet in which you can serve God, phone Taiki and consider coming to our next meeting:

Tuesday, 24^th of April 2012 at 11:15 in The House

_________________________________________________

Worship Ministry (09:30 and 18:30 Service): We are looking for anyone that has musical ability, ranging from vocals, to guitar, bass and drums etc.  If you are looking for an opportunity to use your gifts, please contact Taiki for more information.  Training in your instrument can be arranged.

_________________________________________________

Sound Ministry & Projection Ministry (09:30 and 18:30 Service) NB!! NB!!: We are desperately looking for volunteers that are tech savvy and are willing to be trained in the area of Sound and Projection.  This is a great Ministry for young couples, but anyone is welcome to apply.  Training is provided!  _________________________________________________

A professional Sound Training course is being arranged for the weekend of the 4^th and 5^th of May.  Cost is R250 if you want to be trained in order to help with our Sound Ministry or R500 if you would like to attend the course for your own purposes.  Manuals and Food will be provided.  If you are interested, please contact Taiki as soon as possible.
_________________________________________________

Pray about and consider joining one of our worthwhile ministries!

Blessings,

Taiki

What a wonderful Easter experience we were all able to share these past few weeks.  In the evening service on Sunday I mentioned the fact that while Easter is the highlight of our Christian calendar, we need to become Christ followers who celebrate and embrace the resurrection in our lives daily.  Each day we are alive we are given the opportunity to recognise the areas of our lives that need to die in Christ, but also the revelation that Christ’s resurrection gives us each the opportunity for new life in those areas.

It is in His rising from the dead that Christ has given us the opportunity to also rise from our “slumber” as we shake off the sinful “habits” of this world and take on “new clothes” – a new way of being.  Let us never make the mistake of thinking that it is only in the Easter season that we have this opportunity for refreshing or repentance, we have that opportunity every day of our lives.

As Maya and I have been journeying the past few months we have discovered that no matter how long we might have been in the Church, or how much we might have learnt, God’s mysteries are innumerable and His mercies are new every morning.  Our prayer is that as a Church who we believe loves Jesus, we might all embrace the opportunities given to us, not only to grow closer to Christ as individuals, but as a family of God.  Let us embrace His love, and recognise that for all of us, there is still much to learn.

Blessings,

Taiki

What a wonderful Easter experience we were all able to share these past few weeks.  In the evening service on Sunday I mentioned the fact that while Easter is the highlight of our Christian calendar, we need to become Christ followers who celebrate and embrace the resurrection in our lives daily.  Each day we are alive we are given the opportunity to recognise the areas of our lives that need to die in Christ, but also the revelation that Christ’s resurrection gives us each the opportunity for new life in those areas.

It is in His rising from the dead that Christ has given us the opportunity to also rise from our “slumber” as we shake off the sinful “habits” of this world and take on “new clothes” – a new way of being.  Let us never make the mistake of thinking that it is only in the Easter season that we have this opportunity for refreshing or repentance, we have that opportunity every day of our lives.

As Maya and I have been journeying the past few months we have discovered that no matter how long we might have been in the Church, or how much we might have learnt, God’s mysteries are innumerable and His mercies are new every morning.  Our prayer is that as a Church who we believe loves Jesus, we might all embrace the opportunities given to us, not only to grow closer to Christ as individuals, but as a family of God.  Let us embrace His love, and recognise that for all of us, there is still much to learn.

Blessings,

Taiki

HE IS RISEN.  HE IS RISEN INDEED!!

It is with a sense of anticipatory celebration that I write the pastoral page this week, thinking forward to Easter Sunday and the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus the Christ!  Yes, HE IS RISEN.  HE IS RISEN INDEED!

This weekend – from our Tenebrae service on Thursday evening through to our resurrection celebrations today – is (and hopefully has been) the pinnacle of our Christian year, the climax of our annual Easter pilgrimage, begun what seems way-back now at Ash Wednesday.  This is what our faith is about!  This is who we are!  This is the heart and soul of Christianity!  All praise and thanks to Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Saviour, glorious Lord!  HE IS RISEN.  HE IS RISEN INDEED!

I’d like to express thanks to every single one involved in planning, putting together, preparing the sanctuary for, participating in, etc, our holy week, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday services.  Thank you for providing our people seasonal opportunities for connecting with our God and Saviour.

As we often ecstatically sing at our evening service, “There is no God like our God”!

HE IS RISEN.  HE IS RISEN INDEED!

We wish you and yours a blessed Easter.

With much love, Gary and Gail

I greet you from the midst of the waving palm branches of PALM SUNDAY, as time carries us onward towards our primary Christian festival of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord  & Saviour, as held over Easter weekend.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of what is often referred to as HOLY WEEK, the week leading up to Easter, in which the Church has often met more regularly so as to engage many facets of the last week in the life of Jesus – why don’t you also make something more of this week this year and join in as many of the services as possible, as each builds on the other in following the footsteps of Christ (see detail inside)?

With regard to this same subject, those who were able to share in an incredible PASSOVER SUPPER on Wednesday evening in the Dunstan Hall, not only enjoyed a delicious meal, but also  were blessed by Rev Lihai Bercovich, as a Messianic Jew, sharing on Passover, and being reminded by God that we too have been passed over.  Praise God!  Thank you to Antoinette Forrester (and her helpers) for arranging such a successful event.

It is with sadness that we note that last Sunday was, as the end of the term, our JAKOLIEN SCHOTTLER’S final Sunday in our SUNDAY SCHOOL as SUPERINTENDENT.  Jakolien has served our children, our church, and our Lord, so faithfully and generously for the last five years, and before that (before having her’s and Michael’s children) for many years.  Thank you, Jakolien.  May God bless you as you take a well-deserved rest!

I look forward to meeting you on the way in the holy journey this week.

With much love, Gary

(Romans 12:2)

Dear Friends,

It’s funny how many times when we’re pouring through the scriptures we might know a verse so well and have read it many many times, but I sometimes wonder if we really understand what these familiar scriptures mean? 

Jesus came to show us what it would look like to live according to a different world, and with a different way of thinking, and through simple obedient acts every day we find ourselves slowly shifting in our thinking from what the world would expect from us to something entirely different. 

Ultimately we are shifting our citizenship slowly but surely.  We already are citizens of Heaven, but now our minds must follow, and as they do, our thinking is transformed.

Each and every time we feel God moving us towards obedience and a different way of being or doing and reject this Heavenly ‘nudge’, we give up an opportunity for real change, an opportunity to be transformed into the likeness of our Father. 

Let us all commit to hearing and doing ‘til we find ourselves embracing our true heritage as sons and daughters of the living God!

Bless you all,

Taiki

Greetings in Jesus wonderful name.

Thank you to those who were able to submit feedback last Sunday on the blue (4S) slips.  We have detailed the main points in the body of today’s bulletin, under NUTS & BOLTS.

I’d like to make comment on a few of these points in order to communicate our leadership’s take on them, and also action to be taken.

• a few people have responded negatively to the children’s (perhaps family) component we introduced to the 09:30 service.  We do need to manage this part of our service carefully and tidy it up a bit.  However, this component, unanimously affirmed at our AGM last year, is all expression of Brooklyn’s strategy of attracting and being a ‘young family friendly’ church, as well as addressing, from a very young age, the gulf that tends to develop between young adults and the church.
• the request for more hymns and less choruses/worship songs was also addressed at our AGM, where the vast majority agreed to a mixed complement, to include on average 2 hymns per service.  We do have an entire service (08:00) dedicated to hymns only.
• we do cater for quiet before the service at 08:00, but unfortunately with the need for instruments, singers, etc. to be tuned in, this isn’t possible at 09:30.  We may need to find that quiet place elsewhere on our campus – e.g. garden of remembrance, Pastoral Centre Chapel.
• please be patient re the parking congestion – we are working on it.  Announcements to be made soon.

PLEASE keep the blue slips flowing.

Have a blessed week.

Yours in Christ, Gary.