I'm Engaged!!!

For those who have maybe not heard the great news yet,

I am officially engaged! And not just to anyone, but to the most amazing woman I could have ever asked for, Maryke Taljaard (soon to be Maryke Pretorius, whoohoo!)

We, together with some awesome friends, went on a road trip through South Africa recently, during which I popped the question "will you marry me?" and she said "Yes!!"

From Pretoria to Hogsback, from Hogsback to Coffee Bay, from Coffee Bay to Hole In The Wall, from Hole In The Wall to Durban and finally from Durban back to Pretoria, this was truly one journey I will probably never forget!

The reason I am sharing this with YOU is because it has obviously got some important implications on my life. No longer is this unexpected adventure of mine, mine alone, but rather an adventure embarked on by a COUPLE who is excited to follow Jesus where ever He takes us, no matter what the cost. So I want you to know that your prayers, finances and support is no longer just for ME, but for US! And because of that I want to give you a DOUBLE thank you for being a part and investing into OUR lives!

Thank you... Thank you!

Here are a few photos taken on our journey:

Good Company

Titanic?

The Big Moment!! 22 September 2013

Beautiful Coast

Hole In The Wall

Blessings,

Philip

Connecting with the Broken

A lot has taken place since the last time I have typed a new blog post. The unexpected adventure of Philip Pretorius has still been exactly that, an adventure!

I don’t want to make you read TOO much that you fall asleep half way, so what I am going to do is split the highlights I want to share into two separate blog posts. 

In this post I am going to share some random info on what I’ve been up to and then share a testimony of how I had an opportunity to connect with a broken person and how it has touched my heart.

In the second post… umm wait, I think I will keep that a surprise. Let’s just say, this adventure of mine isn’t just mine anymore, but more on that a bit later.

Here goes…

• I have been one of the group facilitators at our massive Kranskop youth camp

• Elevation (Every Nation Youth) has still been going strong with teaching, praying, worshipping, fellowshipping, raising leaders, making disciples  etc. (just got the great idea to take photo’s with all my Connect Groups and Leadership Groups and post them in one of my next blog posts, ‘watch this space’)

• We also had an Elevation outreach where we took our youth to do ‘The God Test’ with people at The Grove mall! Was amazing to see young people standing up as evangelists.

•  I have taught at our church’s Victory Training

• I have had the opportunity to serve at our evening services by preaching, raising new leaders to do announcements, being the spiritual oversight and helping the power team

• And finally, I have still been enjoying my studies at South African Theological Seminary. I have been busy with the subjects, Christian Counselling and Apologetics, and I have really been enjoying both!

In a nutshell, those are some of the main highlights that has taken place lately in my life specifically ministry wise, but like I said earlier, I want to share a specific testimony of how I have had the opportunity to connect with a person in desperate need of love and support.
 

Connecting with the broken

During the Kranskop Youth Camp I was one of the group facilitators of a group of boys. I ended up facilitating a group of boys from a school in Johannesburg. This school is one of those schools that you would definitely not see as famous, but rather notorious. To give you an idea, many kids use drugs, there is graffiti in the bathrooms, there is no sport at the school due to a lack of interest from the teachers and the hand-full of kids who want to follow Jesus and rise up out of their circumstances are often cursed and even spat on by other kids who is not shy to admit they worship Satan. By the grace of God one of our churches other youth leaders, Eugene, got open doors to minister in that school weekly and help the hand-full of passionate Christian kids start to be the light in that school. Two of these ended up in my group during the Kranskop camp.

One of those boys name is Marcellus. Throughout the camp I could build relationship with him and get various opportunities to show love towards him and speak truth into his life. A friendship was built. He shared with me that his brother was in hospital because he was stabbed in the neck with a knife while protecting his mother... from his father... who is now in jail! On the final evening of the camp we had praise and worship and Marcellus suddenly came running to me with tears in his eyes. His mother phoned to inform him that his brother has passed away. I had the opportunity to minister and counsel him, but mainly just to be there for him… As you could imagine, his heart was broken in tatters.

Amazingly enough the next day he was sharing with me who his friends are that he is going to speak with back at home, on how much God loves us.

But I can’t help but ask myself, what if he weren’t on that camp? Who or where would he have run to for help then? Jesus had a heart for the lost, the weary and the broken. All of us are probably somehow and somewhere exposed to people who are going through a tough time. Maybe you are even going through a tough time? I ask myself, am I loving and interested enough in my ‘neighbour’ to know that he/she are going through a tough time?

After the camp I went with Eugene to Marcellus’ school to follow up on him and Eugene is now continuing to reach out to him. It takes sacrifice to be a helping hand and a loving heart to others, but man oh man it is sooo worth it!

My next post, which will be on a ‘lighter’ note, will be coming soon!

Time to Man-Up!

Dear Friends, Partners, Family and Colleagues...

The month of August is already drawing near to its end. So far this has been a truly blessed month.
I am still living in a commune with 7 other guys (with one being my good friend Bernard Hollander, who seems to find it entertaining to wake me up as early as he possibly can). I am still happily in love with my wonderful girlfriend (as seen in an earlier blog). I am still following Jesus joyfully, which inevitably leads to fishing for men (Mark 1:17). I am still preaching every now and then at our Lynnwood congregation evening service. I am still leading our Youth Ministry and enjoy investing into the lives of our youth. I am still blessed with amazing friends and family like you who  pray for me and support me. I am still the guy with the dry sense of humor. I am still a Chelsea football supporter.

But most importantly...

I am still...

I am still... Quiet... Regularly before God... Stepping out of the regular routine life... The super-productive lifestyle encouraged by society all around us... A lifestyle which is great, until you get so sucked into it that you never make time to be still and come to a place of deep intimacy with God and allow Him to refresh you...

I want to encourage all of us, to discipline ourselves to make sure we have at least half an hour a day of quiet time, where we just soak ourselves in prayer and the Word of God.

Finally, I want to share that we (Every Nation Lynnwood) had our Man-Up Men Camp during this month and we really experienced amazing breakthrough in young and old men alike.

We were about 85 men on the camp. We enjoyed amazing Praise and Worship time, as well as exciting fellowship and also amazing teaching on what it means to live as a man who follows Jesus.

Here are some of the photo's taken on the camp:

Amen!

For those who really really enjoy reading:

Here is a letter I wrote which was sent out to our whole Church Congregation where I speak a bit on different family roles:

Is it time to Man-Up?

Dear Leaders,

First and foremost, please note that this message is not only for men although the “Man-Up” title might seem to suggest so.

With the Man-Up Men camp coming ever closer, I thought it well to share some vital principles to everyone with regards to family. 

Whether you are young or whether you are old, whether married or single, whether man or woman, this will be of great value for you. Since if we start to be the change in a world where families are often extremely hurt and broken, we will see God’s Kingdom come on earth in our families, as it is in heaven!

The Apostle Paul seemed to have this habit of often starting his letters with a short introduction, then a deep theological teaching, followed by some practical exhortations and then concludes with a final greeting. This was also more or less the pattern he followed with his letter to the Ephesians.

Now I am going to share to you the practical exhortations Paul gives in the letter to the Ephesians regarding Wives and Husbands and Children and Parents, but I want to encourage you to go read the letter as a whole so that you fully understand the context in which Paul shares these principles.

Family Principles:

1. Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord (Eph. 5:22).

2. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Eph. 5:25).

3. Husbands, love your wives as you love yourself and wives respect your husbands (Eph. 5:33).

4. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right (Eph. 6:1).

5. Children, honour your father and your mother (Eph. 6:2).

6. Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

Now you might be thinking to yourself that seeing the above mentioned principles taking place is an impossible task. Or perhaps as a child of parents, you might be thinking, “I can’t honour my parents, because they don’t even teach me the things of the Lord.” Or maybe you are thinking, “I cannot love my wife, because she does not want to submit to me.”

The problem with that type of attitude is, we are just adding to the evil cycle of broken families. If we as believers aren’t going to step up to be the change in broken families, then who are?

If a husband start loving and sacrificing for his wife, as Jesus loves and sacrifices for the church, don’t you think it will make it easier for the wife to start to submit to her husband? Absolutely! Which I believe will inevitably make it easier for children to honour these parents!

Can you see how just one person in a family with a changed attitude can cause restoration for the whole family? Even if you are just a child, God can use you to do this!

Someone needs to step up and be the change! Be poor in spirit enough to say that even when it hurts, Jesus I humbly submit to your purposes and are hungry to be the incarnation of Christ within my family.

The enemy is actively trying to destroy our families. There is absolutely NO reason why we need to allow this! Let’s trust to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And I believe it starts within our families.

I am looking forward to see all the men at the Man-Up Men camp.

Blessings,

Philip Pretorius Jnr.

 

The Blind can See!

10 Day Elevation (Every Nation Youth) Mission to Botswana 2013!

During the June/July school Holiday I took a team of 19 youth on a Mission to Botswana, serving with Word to Africa (who is in partnership with Every Nation) at Lobatse and Moralane. Due to cultural differences we were restricted in taking photos of people within the village. But fortunately some pictures could be taken to give a good idea of the environment. From removing a steel structure, to digging, to fencing, there were a lot of work to be done in Moralane. And on a spiritual level, we had people coming to salvation, being discipled, being baptised in the Holy Spirit, being baptised in water and even had the blessing of seeing the blind receiving sight by the power of Jesus Christ! All glory and honour to Jesus!

I want to specifically share some more detail on the blind woman receiving sight and then I will share some photo’s to do the rest of the talking!

The first day that I took the whole team into the village to go and pray for people or share the gospel to those willing to listen, we arrived at the water point, where the main tap was that the whole village gets their water from. 

As we got there, chaos broke out. Some men started to scream at each other, and soon fists were flying around! I just made sure my team was at a safe distance, while some of our bigger guys on the team went out to try and go make peace. While those guys were breaking up the fight (which took place because someone jumped the line for water), a group of young people brought a blind woman to me and the rest of our team. She heard we were missionaries and she heard of Jesus once when she was younger and knew that Jesus was known for doing miraculous healing. And then our translator told us that she wanted us to pray for the healing of her sight. And as it goes everyone looked at me…

I truly believe that at that moment I was blessed with the supernatural gift of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:9). The Holy Spirit also reminded me, that by his power we can do even greater things than Jesus (John 14:12). The Holy Spirit also reminded me that we are called to go and make disciples and that all authority in heaven and on earth is with Jesus (Matt. 28:18-19). The Holy Spirit also reminded me of the Scriptures sharing how Jesus did not pray lengthy prayers asking the Father for healing, but rather asked if the person had faith in God as healer and He then sometimes commanded the person to stand up/see/hear etc. (Matt. 9:6, 29) (He healed many other ways, these are just to name a few).

So I simply asked the woman if she believes that Jesus can heal her. Her answer was ‘yes’. For some reason, I then decided to put my fingers on her eyes, and then said, ‘Open your eyes and see’. As I removed my fingers, she opened her eyes and by the grace of God she could see! 

She started going crazy of excitement and started describing everything she could see and even grabbed my hands and started to kiss it. I quickly stopped her and clearly explained to her that it is not by my power she was healed, but by the power of Jesus. 

After this many others came to get prayed for and many wanted to hear who this Jesus is.  People got saved and the most wonderful thing of all is the fact that we could connect them with people who will be staying there on a longer term that can walk with them in a discipleship relationship!

Maybe this testimony might be a little bit frightening to you? You might be asking, ‘Philip, what is this power you are speaking about’? 

I recently watched the new Superman movie, Man of Steel. In it, Superman’s father tells him, ‘People are afraid of what they don’t understand’.

I can agree with this. Naturally if we don’t understand something, we start to fear it. If this testimony frightens you a bit, I want to encourage you to read one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and see how Jesus did supernatural miracles. And then go and read the book of Acts (Handelinge in Afrikaans), and also see how normal people did miracles by the power of God all for the glory of God.

Finally, here are some of the photos that we could take on our Mission:

Here is Martin (13), one of our Centurion Elevationers building relationship with local children.

Local Children.

Myself with Michael, a local who Sibu discipled and got saved! He then went and preached to his family.

Local woman.

Myself, Martin, Sibu, Kagiso and Freddy joining the local soccer team in a match!

Our Team!

Working.

Planning the removal of a steel structure.

Myself removing the roof of the steel structure.

Our Dining Room.

Thank you for all your prayers, love and support,

Philip Pretorius

Elevating higher and wider!

A snowball...

Something I have had the privilege to hold in my hands and throw at people, but that is not what I want to speak about today.

As I am typing this, I feel a little bit like a snowball. A snowball that started at the top of a big snowy mountain and is gradually rolling down picking up more snow and more speed as it goes. The momentum just keeps on coming. More speed, more snow.

Don't worry, I won't leave you hanging on this analogy. Here it is: More momentum in life is created by accomplishing regular successes in life, which follows frequently one after the other. Now I am the snowball. The snow being picked up while rolling down the mountain are various successes being achieved and the size of them seem to grow. And as the size of the successes grow, the frequency of them taking place grow as well. What is a success? Most of us will have a different answer to that question. I simply like to say that to make a success of life is walking in the will of God (what exactly I mean by walking in the will of God can probably become a long discussion, but feel free to phone me at any time and I will gladly make an appointment to discuss it).

So now to bring you up to date with some of the successes I have had the privilege to be a part of that took place during April and May of 2013 (Mostly photo's, because apparently a picture speaks a thousand words):

We officially launched our Elevation (Every Nation Pretoria Youth) Thursday gatherings:

Playing some pool

Playing some indoor soccer

Utilizing multimedia to teach lessons

Our connect groups.Where discipleship and prayer takes place

We also had our first Elevation services of the year where we launched Elevation and the youth preached, did announcements, lead pre-service prayer and played in the band at both the morning and evening service of the Lynnwood congregation:

Our official Elevation branding at the Lynnwood congregation

Myself introducing our two young preachers at the evening service

As Elevation we also joined the bigger congregation on an outreach to our newly planted Every Nation Congregation at Mamelodi:

The Elevation team on outreach at Mamelodi

Our City Wide Every Nation church also had our Missions Week which ended up as a great success:

Our Elevation team at our Missions Week

Our pre-service prayer group at Missions Week

Another evening at Missions Week

As Elevation we also hosted a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) missions team from Australia. They served in various ways. Teaching, evagelising, praying, having fellowship etc...

Myself introducing the YWAM team to the church

Myself and the YWAM team

I want to thank everyone reading this blog for all the prayers and support.

It is truly appreciated.

I will be leading a missions team to Botswana from the 22nd of June to the 1st of July which I have great expectations for. Please pray and trust with us that God will work in power in and through is.

Blessings,

Phil