Christmas Wreath

In the four Sundays leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Day, we light candles to remind us of the advent of Jesus Christ. Members of the congregation take part each Sunday.
The large centre candle is lit on Christmas day and we are reminded that Jesus is the centre of our celebrations.

Christmas Day Dec 2007

We will be holding a Christmas Day service at our Harties Church in Schoemansville at 8 am - cnr Marais and Kyper St at the Diens Sentrum Hartbeeshof,

and at 9.30 am at our Brits Church.

All are welcome. Rev Jannie Hofmeyr will be leading both services and there will be some old and new carols to sing. We have been lighting an advent candle each Sunday leading up to Christmas. On Christmas Day, the centre candle is lit and this reminds us all to keep Christ at the centre.

Carols by Candlelight

Wed 12th December 2007.

A perfect evening during a stormy month, a beautiful sunset on the lawn at the waterside of Hartbeespoortdam, Caribbean Beach Club was the setting for our picnic and carol service. The violins and guitars accompanied our carol singing and in between songs various people read the story of Jesus' birth to us.

To get us thinking Rev Jannie asked us where would we address a letter to Jesus?..Bethlehem.......Jerusalem.....? How about our own address? We sing "O now carry me to Bethlehem, to see the Lord appear to men..", but the true meaning of Christmas is that the Lord is born in our hearts and lives at our address, and does not remain the baby in a manger in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.

May we all experience His closeness every day - may every day be Christmas and may we all savour the "moments" with loved ones and friends and also think of those who suffer and grieve more intensely at this time.

Carols at Sonop

Joy to the World - well, to Sonop Old Age Home for a start. On Sat 1st Dec a group from Brits and Harties Methodist played and sang their lungs out bringing the message of Christmas to the old folk at Sonop.

They were treated to a gift each made by the Henna Ladies - a hand painted draw string bag with soap, lotion etc inside. A kind donation paid for a scrumptious lunch too for them. As usual, we were probably even more blessed than they were!

Henna Ladies Group

Hen Party or swans?

Our ladies group - named after a beautiful flower in the Bible met at "Jeannelies" for morning tea for our end of year celebration. We shared about our families and Christmas plans while swans floated nearby on the water. We finalised the details for the visit to the Sonop Old Age Home on the 1st December, where we will be singing carols and serving lunch with help from volunteers from the rest of both congregations.

Youth

Youth Bible Study and Fun
On Friday evenings the Youth from Harties and Brits churches have been meeting together for Bible Study, followed by nice food prepared by the moms and then a fun game. Jan and Angela have been helping us and lately we have been studying the book of Titus and have enjoyed grappling together verse by verse with what God is calling us to do and how to live.










Beetle Drive we discovered is not where we got to drive a Volksie, aah gee, but had to draw beetles with the correct number of legs, eyes and antennae! It was the boys team who seemed to win time and time again. But when it came to a winking game and "killing" our fellow youth, the girls were good!

Leaving the nest

We pray for both churches in this new season of growth and adventure. We are still all ONE in Christ our Saviour and will have lots of fellowship together. It is not good-bye, but God bless.

More pics and article on the harties blog site - http://hartiesmethodist.blogspot.com

Blessed to be a blessing

Our church is fulfilling a big dream - to start another congregation at the Hartbeespoortdam.On Sunday the 28th October, we celebrated our last combined service at Brits - exciting, scary, tearful, momentous, challenging......you can imagine the host of emotions.
The Lord has blessed us at Brits to the extent that we feel the time is right to take this leap of faith.
The Hoffies wrote a new little verse to the song "I'm blessed and I know that I am-
I’m blessed to be a blessing every moment of the day
I’m blessed to be a blessing in All I do and all I say
I’m blessed to be a blessing when I work and when I pray
I’m blessed to be a blessing
I`M BLESSED!
I`M BLESSED!
I`M BLESSED!
At the end of the service we formed 2 circles - the Brits congregation enfolding the ones who were setting out and prayers were offered. The fledgling church is ready to fly.

New members for Brits Methodist

After an enjoyable dinner at the church on 18 September, Jannie officially welcomed our newest members to the congregation during the Sunday service on 23 September.

As followers of Christ we are called to serve and we encourage all members - old and new - to use their gifts and talents in service to God.

We are blessed to have you and hope that you will enjoy being part of this very special family.

Lay Witness Banner team

In order to advertise the Lay Witness GIFT weekend, some very creative congregation members used their talents to design and make the banner, currently on the fence in front of the church.

The banner was designed by Julie Hammond, and our artists - Wilna and Charlene Otto & Amy Ashby - reproduced the design on calico and painted it.

Pic courtesy Charmaine Ashby.

Sunday School

Our young congregation members show their enthusiasm for Sunday School by attending during school holidays as well as term time.
These pics were taken during the July school holidays

Pics courtesy Charmaine Ashby

Growing In Faith Together - 5 - 7 october 2007

We are looking forward to the Faith and Fellowship weekend with great enthusiasm and have finalised the programme for the weekend. For your easy reference, please find the details below.

All members of the congregation, your friends and family are welcome to join in any or all of the events (in fact the more you can participate, the better!!). While RSVP's do assist with catering, replies are not essential and you aer welcome to attend whether you have indicated your intentions or not.

FRIDAY 5 OCTOBER
6.30 pm congregational supper and fellowship at the Church
7.30 pm Worship, team introductions and testimonies followed by tea/coffee


SATURDAY 6 OCTOBER
10.00 am Coffee, tea and coke groups in homes
3.00 pm Coffee, tea and coke groups in homes
6.30 pm Congregational supper at the Church

SUNDAY 7 OCTOBER
9.00 am Worship service at the church followed by fellowship over tea
6-7 pm Celebration and evaluation service at the church

For more information, please contact Rev Jannie Hofmeyr on 012 244 3217 or Priscilla Oosthuizen on 012 252 0493

We hope to see you there!!!

Lay Witness weekend - Faith and Fellowship

We, at Brits Methodist Church, are blessed to be hosting a lay witness weekend on 5, 6 and 7 October.

Although the church hosted a Lay Witness Mission a few years ago, there are many members who were not here at that time and who have not experienced such a weekend before. To tell us more about how the weekend works and how each member of the Church can get involved, a coordinator from Lay Witness will be speaking at the service on Sunday 19 August.

From our church, Priscilla Oosthuizen is handling the coordination - a mighty task - and she would appreciate any help from members of our church. Particular areas of need include people for the prayer group, publicity, accommodation, catering, transport, tea and coffee groups, youth, music and flowers. Please contact her on 072 779 9744 if you are able to help in any way.

Fellowship groups our way...

The new Wednesday night bible study / fellowship group has recently completed Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life. The group really enjoyed the video course and are all raring to go and ready to do GREAT things for God.

To celebrate the end of the current course, the group enjoyed a braai this Sunday and we were blessed with magnificent weather and fantastic company. Unfortunately Julie and the Konopi family were ill and could not make it, & Dave was overseas on a business trip. We did, however, enjoy the company of the teenagers of both the Ashby and Otto families.

Beginning this Wednesday, we are starting the Prayer of Jabez - a 4 week video course by Bruce Wilkinson which we are all looking forward to. Frieda has also motivated us to start a bit of a sing-a-long to get the evening going so we are really excited about that.

If anyone would like to join, we really would love to have you with us. Simply talk to the Kerrs, Ashbys, Ottos, Konopis or Hammonds for more info.

We really do have a great time!

Helping Hands - our HIV / AIDS programme

The “Helping Hands” programme, aimed at HIV/AIDS patients at the Brits hospital, remains our primary outreach program. The number of patients supported with refreshments, Spiritual counseling, prayers and Bible continues to grow and now averages at around 65 to 70 patients per day (of which 10 are children below the age of 6 years).

In the first six months of this year, more than 300 Bibles have been distributed to patients.

As the program has matured, we have gained the confidence of the hospital care workers, many of whom are HIV patients themselves. We are now receiving requests for spiritual support for all areas of the hospital staff, not just the AIDS area. Each morning we commence with a hymn, a Bible reading, a short devotional talk and close with a prayer.

In conjunction with the Brits branch of the Rotary Club of SA, the hospital was presented with 3 new wheelchairs. Additionally, items such as chairs and benches have also been donated to the hospital for the patients use.

Toys and playground equipment for the children have are being donated on an ongoing basis. This is a huge treat for the children who spend hours at the hospital and your donations are greatly appreciated.

In conjunction with the Brits branch of Hospice, we will start distributing food parcels to AIDS affected families from September 1, 2007. Anyone able to donate food and/or assist in any way should contact Selwyn or Wanita

Pics and article courtesy Selwyn Kerr

Congratulations Jason!!!

Not only did Jason du Plessis win 5 medals for his Irish dancing during the recent school holidays, this talented young man has also been invited to Washington DC to participate in the World Leadership Forum in 2008.

The World Leadership Forum is arranged by People to People International founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 with the premise that peace can be achieved through understanding. Jason was nominated by his school as an outstanding student with high academic standing and promising leadership potential.

We are so proud to have this very talented young man in our congregation.

Pic courtesy Charmaine Ashby.

Bibles for All

Toward the end of last year, we started selling Bibles at slightly cheaper rates than available at most book stores. The small profits made on these sales go toward the purchase of Bibles for people who have no other access to the Word

Bibles are sold after Communion services (ie every third Sunday) but are available from Wanita after any service.

More information on the Bible Society is available from their web page (see link on the right hand side of your screen) or from Wanita.

Brits Emmaus Reunion Group

Our monthly reunion meeting for July is being postponed (new date to be advised) as it coincides with the boys Chyrsalis flight and that fact that there are a couple of people away that weekend. We will notify all reunion group members when we have a new date.

Pics of the reunion group's last meeting show that a great time is had by all!!

Pics courtesy Charmaine Ashby.

Chrysalis girls flight - June / July 2007

The Brits Emmaus Reunion group is thrilled to welcome Amy Ashby and Elbé du Preez who recently completed their Chrysalis flight.

The boys, John Ashby and Timothy Coutlakis, are doing their flight on the weekend of 13 July.

Post and pic courtesy Charmaine Ashby

Worship Group

Every Thursday evening the worship group has their practice session. We are so blessed
with the many talents in the group. We boast with the Coutlakis family - Jandy (not present) Timothy, Michael and Amy on violins. The du Preez family - Louize on drums, Moira vocal & Elbe’. The Ashby family - John electric guitar, Amy classic or organ & Charmaine vocal, then Frieda with her angelic voice, Elizabeth tenor & Kelvin. Taking the lead is Rev. Jannie Hofmeyr.

Post and pic courtesy Charmaine Ashby

FIRST ATTEMPT

Well, here is our new blog site. I am still learning how all this works, but please let me know what you think.

If you have any PICTURES, news, stories etc. for our blog please email them to me so that I can add them.

You may like to have a look at the Hilton Methodist blog site (www.hiltonmethodist.blogspot.com) which I think is superb. The pictures make it!!

We can post all our events (before and after) so please let me have as much info as you can.

Blessings,
Wanita