Our new location!

We have moved church venues!

This past Sunday we had our first service in our new church venue. The Lord has really shown us His providential love for us by moving us out of the old place with 1 months notice just to give us something so much better, both ascetically and functionally.

OUR NEW ADDRESS IS: 227 De Straat building

Main Rd. Paarl

(next door to BMW dealership)

The venue belongs to a wonderful Christian couple and functions as a Pilates studio during the week, however, on Sundays...it's a church! Our children's ministry room belongs to another church who uses it for their church offices during the week. So each week we have to transform this place from a Pilates studio into a church venue and then back again, it takes a lot of work but it's worth it when we see how God uses it each week.

Thank you for your faithful prayers, the Lord has surely answered them in a way that exceeded our expectations. We pray that this new spot will be an effective tool in the hands of God to spread the glorious message of Christ crucified and risen, to see the name of Jesus exalted in this valley.

Our vision for Calvary Paarl is to see the name of Jesus made more famous in this community, to see many lost people come to saving faith in Him through the proclamation of the gospel and the witness of His followers living life on mission and in genuine community.

This task is not an easy one, and we realize that we are absolutely dependent on the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit to accomplish it.

Prayer points:

-Please pray that we do not grow weary in doing good, while being an example to the flock.

-That we will not get discouraged in, or despise these days of small things.

-That men in our body will rise up and lead, both in their families, and in the church, through involvement and service.

-Gods provision (we need to pay for stuff).

-For the leaders to be finding their joy and significance in what Christ has done for them, not in results.

-That we will be a blessing to our new landlord, and to her business.

Thanks so much for taking the time to check in with us, and we hope to see you at church!

In His strong love,

Pastor Mike

Ministry Update

Dear Friends, Family, and faithful supporters,

I wanted to give you an update on what we've been up to ministry wise so far this year. This year has been very busy at the church, and also as a family. It feels like forever since we were in the States. For those of you who are interested in knowing what's going on with our family on a more personal level; I have been thinking lately that the best way to do that is by getting a Facebook account and "friending" Misty and I. But here is a summery of our ministry happenings....

Life Groups (our small groups)

In March, we launched our small group ministry. We've called them "Life Groups", we meet every week on Tuesday evenings at 6:30pm. We meet in homes, have dinner, pray, and the leader of the group goes over the sermon from the previous week. These groups have been such a blessing as we seek to be in community with one another in real life, not only on Sunday mornings. We currently have two groups; one in English, and another in Afrikaans.

Leadership

We recently raised up Dave Emmerson as an Elder here at CCPV. His role is to lead the church with me as a fellow Elder, and as an assistant Pastor. Day to day he does a little bit of everything, which is pretty typical for a smallish church. He and his family will be heading back to the UK for 7 weeks in August. This is their first furlough since arriving in Paarl 2 years ago. Please pray for their trip, flights, etc. Also, please pray that people in the church will step up to carry the load while he's away.

Prison Ministry

Our weekly bible study in the Allendale Correctional Facility is continuing to produce real fruit. We see a faithful group of guys each week sometimes up to 20 or so. We're currently going through the book of Philippians with them, verse by verse. Also, we recently began a correspondence Discipleship course for the inmates. Upon completion of each course, we then send them another module to complete on their own time, once finished they will receive a certificate of completion. Please keep these men in prayer, the temptations to run with gangs, and do drugs on the inside is a reality facing them everyday.

Bergendahl School Outreach

Pastor Dave goes to the school weekly to make himself available to the youth after school. He shares the gospel, and then just hangs out with the kids. The Lord has lead us as a church to adopt the school, so to speak, which means being available to help the administration with whatever they need to be done at the school ie. painting, teaching, food serving, etc. We have spoken to the leadership of the school about this and now we're just sorta figuring out how this is going to be fleshed out in a way that bring glory to Jesus and blesses the community.

Rahab Ministry (Fighting Human Trafficking in Paarl)

God has answered a prayer of mine to be able to reach out to and help women (and men) in Paarl who are involved in prostitution. I prayed and literally within a week or so I received an email from a woman here in Paarl who has just begun a ministry to prostitutes called "Rahab". We are informing the body at CCPV of the many needs, and opportunities to be on mission w/ Jesus in our city. Our first outreach will be this Thursday evening, a team of 4 of us will be going out to preach Jesus and love on some prostitutes. Women will be w/ women and the men will be there for support, and prayer. Please pray that the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ will set some women free!

Calvary Paarl

As a church, things are going well. Our Sunday gathering is growing and people are getting plugged in to a Life Group. We are humbled and very thankful that God has used us at all, we don't deserve it. We hope to see more people coming to the church, and more disciples being made in our valley. Your prayers for those two things will be much appreciated, we know thats what God wants too, so we're confident that we're asking according to His will.

We love you all very much, and ask that you continue to pray for our family's health, finances, and that our joy would be full in Jesus, regardless of circumstances. Please pray for the Emmerson clan as well if you think about it, they are a great blessing to us here.

Until next time.

In His steadfast love,

Mike, Misty, Michael, and Asher

Church, Baptism and Braai

More Photo's....

Thankful to Jesus for a blessed day with His people!