Uitenhage Baptist Church is a church with whom we have a partnership. They are situated in the Eastern Cape near Port Elizabeth (see map below).
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We have assisted them with the running of their annua Holiday Club since 2008 and this year they ran with our material on their own
Attendance:
To our knowledge we registered 150 children who attended the Holiday Club. This is incredible for us as we see God’s hand in it all. We did our first holiday club in 2006 with 50 children and we see how God is working in our community of Uitenhage. The English community is relatively small so we were really blessed this week seeing so many children attending!
Reaching kids for His Kingdom:
To our knowledge between 20-30 kids were “saved” during the course of the week. Many of our Grade 8 leaders led children to Christ for the first time which was really exciting!
Leaders:
This year we had a team of 20, including myself and the sound guy. So basically 18 leaders/directors for the club. I was relatively happy with the amount as once again we look back and see God’s provision. However, we wouldn’t have been stretched so much if there were more leaders! Although it is always good to be challenged. We had quite a few “new” leaders i.e. Grade 8’s who, were leading for the first time. This is really encouraging for next year as, we can build on it.
Music:
The music was really well received, the kids responded well to the music. By Friday they knew all the actions and the words to the songs! Once again it was wonderful to reinforce the bible stories by the music that we were singing.
Parents Evening:
This was really, really, well attended. As you are aware, Bruce, the mindset in Uitenhage is drop off the kids and fetch them in an hour! We have worked really hard with the help of Eastside to get away from this mindset, and once more we saw God’s hand in this. Most of the parents that attended do not worship at our church, so once more was a wonderful testimony to God’s goodness. Jacques led us just before the message in the song “God of the City” we lit candles the idea being that of evangelizing and holding a light to God’s word as well as spreading God’s word. It was incredible, as one felt the Holy Spirit moving amongst us.
Overall:
For myself, I feel really grateful to have been able to be involved with Eastside’s vision and to be able to bring the vision across to our own church. My prayer being that the WHOLE CHURCH would be able to catch the vision. Once more God answered this prayer and I really don’t think there was anybody in the church that wasn’t involved, from the décor, to the food, to the crafts, to the marketing, to the prayer to EVERYTHING! This to me was the biggest blessing! The church feel for 2011 we should once again have the Holiday Club in June/July Holidays! We would like to continue to partner up with Eastside, and it would be wonderful if your program is made available once more to us in March 2011! Not sure if you guys have thought that far yet!!
Jacques was a wonderful blessing to us and I am missing him so much! He paid for his flight and took unpaid leave and I trust that God will bless him abundantly! I will be sending a parcel up later this week to him and will include a DVD of photo’s should you need it.
We wish you and Eastside go with God’s grace for the rest of the holidays and that you will see great things happening for His Kingdom in the seeds that you have sown.
All the glory to God in the Highest,
Yours in Christ,
Tracey McEwan
Youth Ministries Director
Uitenhage Baptist Church
