2014 Wrap Up, Testimonies and a BIG Thank You! (Video)

Dear friends and family,

So 2014 has nearly drawn to an end...

It has been an amazing privilege to share yet another blessed year with you!

Please watch and enjoy this video, which gives a summary of the ministry moments I could help become a reality in 2014, as well as testimonies of some of the students we as a ministry have impacted this year. And at the end, a BIG thank you, from Me to YOU!

 

Just click on the Video to Play:

A quick message from the heart!

I find it almost scary and exciting at the same time, that my planning for the Youth Ministry for next year is already done...

Scary, since 2014 really flew by in a flash... Exciting, since 2015 hold more opportunity to make disciples, raise leaders and plant churches!

But yesterday God spoke to me and told me not to miss what He still wants to do in THIS year. There are 2 more months ahead of us, which we can either experience the presence of God in abundance, or completely miss what He still wants to do.

So I felt challenged to write down new Faith Goals for the rest of this year. We often write down faith goals in January, only to never review them or jot down a few new ones as the year continues.

God is faithful and good. God will never disappoint us (sometimes we feel like He has let us down, but that's only because of our lack of perspective).

So I want to challenge you with the challenge I gave myself:  
1. Write down 3-5 new faith goals for the rest of 2014 and put your trust in God that they will become a reality. 
2. Furthermore, evaluate all the different areas God has been faithful in throughout the months that has already passed and turn those thoughts into prayers of thanks and praise.

This will take about 30 minutes, but it will be worth it. I believe by the end of December, we will have many more new testimonies to celebrate!
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                                                            ~ Update ~

Here are just two areas in my life I can celebrate that I would like to share with you:

Open doors to minister in Menlopark High School - We as Every Nation is taking hands with various other churches in our community to ensure that the teenagers in Melopark High School have an opportunity to hear the Gospel. We also had a moment of serving and celebrating the teachers of the school, by blessing them with some food and prayer. Here are a few photos:

Outreach Mission to Vastfontein - My wife and I took our Step Up kids (Grade 6-8) on a outreach mission this past Friday (17 October) to Vastfontein. They had a great time with the orphans staying there, playing games with them, having fellowship together and doing a re-enactment of Luke 8:22-25.
Here are some photos:

Once again, thank you to everyone of you for your support and prayers which enables me to make all this become a reality!

Is God Dead?

GOD'S NOT DEAD
We live in a day and age where many people, especially young people from the so called "Western" society asks the question, 'Is God Dead?'

My answer is off course an emphatic NO. And there are many reasons why I have no doubt at all that the God of the Bible is alive and is seeking to have a loving relationship with all of us.

The reason why I am sharing this, is because our church is currently busy with the Sermon Series called "God's not Dead", where we are tackling some tough topics such as "Real Faith isn't Blind", "Good and Evil are no Illusions", "There was a Beginning", "Life is no Accident" and "Jesus and the Resurrection".

I am preaching this coming Sunday (17th of August) on "There was a Beginning" and I want to ask you to please pray for me, trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide me in both the preparation and the execution of the Sermon.

Here is a sneak peak of the type of arguments I will be using in the Sermon which proves that a creator had to bring life and the universe into existence:

The Cosmological Argument

BOYS HIGH
Furthermore, I am very excited to share that our ministry to the 300+ boys in the Boys High residences is going extremely well! We kicked off the God's Not Dead Sermon series there as well and on the first night (3 August) 33 of the boys committed their lives to Jesus Christ! Furthermore, myself and four other leaders from our church are already starting Connect Groups with most of them, to ensure that they can grow in their relationship with Christ. Here are some images:

Myself Getting the Details of the Boys who Responded to the Gospel

One of the Connect Groups I Started #Selfie

Another one of the  Connect Groups I Started #Selfie

KRANSKOP 2014
I went to serve at the annual Gateway Kranskop Youth Camp from the 1st to the 3rd of August. On the Saturday evening 30 teenagers responded to the Gospel and I had the privilege of helping to share the salvation message with them and to help ensure they understand what it means to be saved and to follow Jesus.

Small Group Discipleship and Worship on top of Kranskop

Myself with 2 Powerful Leaders (Morne & Bertus) who Helped Minister to the Teenagers

CAMPUS LEADERS
In Every Nation, when we speak of Campus, we refer to both Schools and Universities. In July, we had a strategic campus leadership meeting, where we shared vision and goals for the rest of 2014 to more than 30 Campus (i.e. Schools and Universities) ministry leaders! It is very exciting to see so many leaders stepping up to advance God's Kingdom by reaching the next generation!

Myself Transferring Vision at our Campus Leadership Meeting

Eugene Transferring Goals at our Campus Leadership Meeting

FINAL THOUGHTS

With this in mind, I want to leave you with this final thought: If Christians keep on making disciples, and raising leaders, we will plant more churches and ultimately, advance God's Kingdom!

I want to thank you on behalf of both my wife and I, for your love, prayer and support! It is because of your partnership in this ministry, that this could all be possible!

Can Teenagers Preach?

This past weekend we had our Elevation Services. In other words, the teenagers in our church preached, did announcements, lead pre-service prayer, did a dance, basically took the lead and organized both our morning and evening services!

It was amazing!

Can teenagers preach? Absolutely...!

For too long have the church said that they value children and believe God can use them, but almost never give them the opportunity to actually minister! This needs to change... and we believe slowly but surely as Every Nation we are moving in a direction where our words and deeds show that we value children and teenagers.

We need to empower teenagers to minister the Word of God. We need to give them platforms to excel in what God calls them to do. Allowing our teenagers to "take over" our services is just one way we are doing this.

Imagine someone believed in you enough when you were thirteen, to give you the opportunity to preach to hundreds? You would probably be extremely inspired and you would start to believe that when people say God can and want to use you, He really means it!

1 Timothy 4:12-13 - Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and teaching.

May you be encouraged to see that there are young people stepping up, to make disciples and advance God's kingdom!

Here are a few photo's taken during the services:

Myself introducing Rosinah (13) to do announcements

Stedman (17) sharing a testimony of how God is using him to impact his friends

Martin, one of our new leaders, sharing how God is opening doors for us to minister at Boys High

Trisha (15) preaching a message about the life of Peter

Here is a short video of the whole church, even the older generation, supporting the teenagers by joining with the "Monkey Dance". Creating an environment where every generation feels welcome.

 Thank you for everyone's support and prayer!

Blessings,

Phil

#imagine

Imagine more than 7000 teenagers coming together on one weekend in two different locations to worship God and become equipped for ministry...

That is exactly what happened on the 21st to the 23rd of March 2014 at Cape Town and Pretoria when the first, of hopefully many more, #imagine camps were launched!

Teenagers from different schools and churches came from across the nation to join the #imagine experience. Elevation, our Pretoria Every Nation Youth Ministry, also joined the Pretoria #imagine camp and had an extremely blessed time!

It is amazing to see so many teenagers, with heaps of joy and passion, as an united body of Christ, coming together with one main goal, to honor and praise Jesus Christ! What is also very exciting to see, is that many of these teenagers have an eagerness to not just experience the Gospel over a weekend, but go back to their schools, families and communities and practically live out the Gospel with the help of their local churches.

I am personally being blessed so much by other Youth Pastors and 'Dominees' ministering in Pretoria working at different churches and denominations, who wants to take hands in making disciples amongst the teenagers of our City!

Please pray and trust with me, that the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom on how to work together as different local churches and align our vision for our City, with the main aim of honoring God and advancing His kingdom!

Once again, thank you soooo much to everyone who is blessing and supporting me through finances and prayer and enabling me to minister to the teenagers of our country!

Here are some photos from the #imagine experience, enjoy!

Impacting Schools

We are very excited about the open doors God has given us to minister to teenagers within various High Schools of Pretoria and I would love to share some testimonies with you. Two weeks ago we got an open door to minister to all the boys that stays in the hostels of Pretoria Boys High School, every Sunday evening. There are +-300 boys in their hostels. We are very excited about this opportunity and I want to ask you to trust and pray with us that many of them will have an encounter with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are also trusting that God will guide us to the right boys to start Connect Groups with, whom we will disciple and raise up as leaders, who can then disciple their friends around them.

Soutie preaching to the young men at PBHS!

At Waterkloof High School, we are also very excited about the fact that some of the students are starting a Waterkloof Praise and Worship Band. At the moment we need some adults to help guide them, but we are trusting that the band will come to a point where it is run completely by students in the school!

The Band!

Students passionately worshiping God

Once again, thanks for all your love, prayer, support and input! Don't take for granted the part you play! You helped making all of this possible!

I'm Married!! And more...

Friends, Family, Colleagues,

It has been a while since I have updated this blog, and I sincerely apologize for that.

But it is my pleasure to announce to you that as I am typing this today, I am typing this as a MARRIED man!

During the month of December I had a few days of leave from work which was mainly spent on catching up with my studies for my BTh degree, since I can only study part time through the rest of the year. But fortunately I also had some time for quality time with family and friends. And off course, Maryke and I had a marriage that needed to be arranged!

The month of January feels a bit like a blur...  Work kicked off at quite a rapid pace. Mainly because of extreme preparation and planning for our Youth Ministry in 2014. One of the weekends in January I took my whole Leadership Team away for the weekend for vision casting, strategic planning etc. (I will share more on this at the end of this post). Also in the mix was my bachelors which included a whole day of intense cricket (and some eggs being thrown at me...thanks guys...)!

And then came the big day! 1 February 2014. The day I got married to my lovely, beautiful... wife! Yes I said it, my WIFE! Maryke Pretorius.

After the wedding we went to Zanzibar for a week for our honeymoon. What a blessing it was!

To end off, I will post a photo of  Maryke and I at our wedding, then a photo of us at Zanzibar and a photo of my Youth Ministry Leadership Team 2014 and finally I will end off by posting a small chunk of what we as the Youth Ministry Leadership Team are trusting for, for this year.

 

 The final image is my Youth Ministry Leadership Team on our Strategic Planning Break-Away Weekend.
The plan is simple... Myself and Marielle (the lady on the far left) will be discipling the team and raising them as leaders, who in turn will disciple and raise up the youth (teenagers) as strong leaders who will then do the same with their friends in their schools...

We will be making disciples, raising leaders, and ultimately planting churches!

WE see a transformed city filled with God-honoring disciples, impacting nations!