AVC SA website updates

For those of you who like to stay in touch with what is happening in the broader Vineyard movement, the South African Vineyard website has been updated.

One of the best parts of the update is Costa's pastoral reflections and projections. The pastoral projection contains an interesting article on the prophetic.

Photos of the conference have also been added. This years conference was an African Community of Nations conference and one of the highlights of the conference was the celebrate Africa session, where we experienced worship from all over Africa. For me a highlight was seeing a Masai warrior, from Kenya, in full (tartan!) regalia on stage! Also in the photos section is a photo of Nelson Mandela visiting Sparrow Schools.

Posted by Ryan @ 10:20 am
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Tangible presence of God

Sunday night's worship was just awesome! There was a very real presence of God with us during worship. I saw what I can only describe as a smoky haze. Although no-one else I have spoken to, saw what I saw, most people really connected with God. Someone else did not notice a really fresh aroma.

It is awesome when God turns up in such a tangible way, but we need to continue to worship passionately no matter what our experience is.

Posted by Ryan @ 10:12 am
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Come now is the time...

As we were singing "Come now is the time" [written by Brian Doerksen] during worship Sunday night, I had very strong impression that God was calling us to sing this song in a prophetic sense as a call to the lost. I realise that the song was originally written as a call to worship, but the way most people perceive it , is as a call to one another - fellow Christians. It must also rate as one of the most popular worship songs of all time, and because of its popularity we take its message for granted.

I believe that God is telling us as a church to call in the lost. That now is the time.

Posted by Ryan @ 2:28 pm
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Under the boardwalk

On Saturday a couple of us had a great time at Gonubie beach. We managed to get a prime spot in the shade under the boardwalk. We shared some lunch, threw frisbee and swam in the rather cold waves. It was great to just hangout together and relax. We haven't been doing enough of that lately.

It was also interesting to see that some connections were forming with others around us on the beach. I will put some photos in the gallery section as soon as we get them developed.

Posted by Ryan @ 2:15 pm
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The Spiritual heritage and destiny of of our country

In our continuing teaching series on the book of Acts, on Sunday night I shared on Acts 6v1-7. What happened was that a ethnic tension threatened to derail the expansion of the early church. Once the problem was dealt with vs 7 says "God's message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too."

I believe the problem of racism has prevented the church from fulfilling its destiny in South Africa, but as we deal with it, we will be able to move forward in God's authority and blessing. One of the points I mentioned was that our country has a rich spiritual heritage, particularly from the Hugenots who were spiritual refugees. Here is some more information on the Hugenots which I found on Joel News:

The Lord is currently leading intercessors from different countries to pray for the restoration of the Hugenot inheritance in France. In the 17th and 18th century, under Louis XIV, the Hugenot protestants in France experienced a strong revival, but faced severe persecution from the Catholic church. Many of them fled to neighbouring countries like Holland and Germany. Many were killed and the French soil was stained with innocent blood. Some say this caused a spiritual bondage in France that paved the way for the French Revolution, freemasonry, existentialism, humanism, rationalism and other anti-Christian movements. It is a fact that since the persecution of the Hugenots French protestant churches have been struggling. Only 1 percent of the French population is Christian. France has never seen a major move of God since the Hugenot revival. It is interesting to observe that God is leading intercessors back to the roots: the roots of sin in France, but also Gods original purpose with the nation. Intercessor Henning Schikora wrote a booklet on the Hugenots called 'The anointing of the Holy Spirit on France. Reflections on the prophetic movement in the Cevennes in the 17th and 18th centuries.' This revival in the South of France became known because the Lord anointed young children to prophesy over the cities and villages of France.

Posted by Ryan @ 10:23 am
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