ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
STILBAAI UNITED CHURCH
MAY 2022/2023

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

The Lord has been good and faithful to us once again this past year. We stand in awe of all that God has done in and through our church. Therefore, with the hymn writer we can say “When we consider all the works of Thy hands then sings my soul how great Thou art.”

Just when we feel we have seen it all, God opens us to experience more and more of Him in our lives, personally and also as a congregation. As we reflect back over the past year we see what a privilege it is that God has brought us safely through the Covid period and that we could get to doing things again. When I look at our services, what a joy it was to have numbers increase again at our weekly services and the chairs could be moved closer to each other and we could see each other’s faces again. We could have tea and coffee after the services too. Also how good it was to have a full house at our Christmas Day service and to see families worshipping together. We had the privilege to have done the Ortberg course “Who is this man Jesus” and “Anxiety ” by John Piper on Sunday evenings. Our Holy Week and Easter services were well attended. We also have continued with our U-Tube services. It is a real blessing for those who cannot come to church due to health reasons and even touched people who have never come to church. Here we need to thank Benjy and Hannatjie Kuun once again for their time and effort.

We had wonderful outreach opportunities. We helped Badisa (School fees), Ouma Lena Huis, school needs financially, stationery for Melkhoutfontein and Bertie Barnard Schools. We also helped people from the emergency fund. Our Women’s Group did a wonderful outreach in knitting knee blankets for the needy and elderly and filling maternity bags with special items for new born babies whose parents cannot afford to care for their new born babies. We are also involved with Badisa’s “Sakkie vir ‘n Pakkie ” donating dry food for the needy in Stilbaai and Melkhoutfontein.

We also again did the Sandcastle competition for the holiday makers on the beach in December and here we need to thank Zelda and her team. We did the Surfers’ burgers again at the surfing competition in September and here Bill and his team did great work. We also donated money to the Gideons for Bible distribution.

With regards to our church building, we fitted an inverter to help us with the data projector, lights and microphones with the power outages. Then I would like to thank Johan and Gavin and the team of men who organized and did the recoating of our church chairs. What an awesome task but now our chairs are in a good condition. Our garden team has done a good job with maintaining our garden.

Fundraising: We want to thank the Whitecrosss family for donating us a meat hamper that raised R6411 and the Surfers’ braai that raised R3885,00. Our Women’s Group organized a car boot sale that also raised R5388,05.

It also has been a wonderful year as we have received a number of new members. We would like to welcome all new members and we are glad to have you as part of our church family. Our deep felt sympathies to those families who lost loved ones during the year.

Then the highlight of our year ending in May 2023 was Trevor Hudson’s weekend mission, 5-7 May 2023. What an inspirational weekend and so many people of the other churches in Stilbaai joined us and we had outstanding attendances and so blessed by his messages.

I would also like to thank all the people who so freely gave of themselves in serving God in our church – the Data Projector operators, Riaan for the music each Sunday, the Door Stewards welcoming the people on Sundays, the ladies who help with serving tea and coffee on Sundays and also all those who bring refreshments each fourth Sunday and also Melinda for organizing the Communion Table on Communion Sundays.

Our Bible Studies continue to meet faithful and care for each other.

Lastly, I would say what a joy and privilege it is to serve God amongst you. May God continue to bless us and use us to serve Him.

Yours in Christ
Ronnie Cawood