Time to give thanks

Even though Thanksgiving is an American holiday, we here in South Africa are full of thanksgiving to God for all He has done this past year and all we're seeing Him do presently. As 2009 comes winding down Misty and I are thinking back through the past year and we are so thankful to Jesus for His sacrifice, His providence, His faithfulness, and His pastoral care and provision over us personally and over His church. Much has happened since our last post (which is the reason we're doing it bi-monthly now) that has been an encouragement to us. Let me go back to Early October, we had another amazing conference in Simon's town this year. It's so encouraging to get together with so many of God's servants from different parts of Africa and also from the U.S. just sharing with one another in the battles of gospel ministry. I've posted a couple pic's ...

Michael and Golden Preciado did a great job leading worship.

Our speakers this year were great....(left to right) Rich Chaffin (CC Laguna Creek), Bill Stonebraker (CC Honolulu), Jim Gallagher (CC Vero Beach).

October 31st was a special day for a young couple in our fellowship. Willem and Tanya got married. Also it was my first wedding so I got a double blessing for sure. Please keep them in prayer as they get adjusted to married life. They are very special friends to us.

Willem and Tanya Buys

Another thing that has developed this year is that a young artist from CC Capetown asked me if he could (draw/write) a graphic novel of my testimony. His name is Carel (Carl) and he has done an amazing job. We are currently looking and praying for someone to invest in this project so we can get it published and mass produced. Our hope is that it can be used as an evangelistic tool and passed out at churches, schools and in prisons. Please pray with us as to what direction God would have us go with it next. Here's a sample of the cover and a page from the novel.

(Cover)

Us sitting under Pastor Barry's teaching @ CCT in 2005

(Imagine grey chairs instead of pews)

Dave and Vicky Emmerson have taken over the farm outreaches each week.

They are doing a great job with the kids. Misty watches their 5 month old son

Elijah while they are there.

Dave wrapping up after church on Sunday.

The Lord wonderfully answered our prayers for a sound system of our own.

Thank you Jesus!

Andries Van Niekerk is doing our book keeping at the church.

He and his family are a great blessing at CCPV. John Roberts (T-shirt) and his wife Trish have recently started attending CCPV...We love them too!

Adele Van Niekerk is Andries' wife. She takes time with the Afrikaans speaking youth after church explaining to them the main points from the sermon.

Dave and George just chillin at a braai in Kommetjie. George is the young man who drives in from Capetown (45min) every Sunday morning to lead worship for us.

He's a huge blessing to all of us.

Misty and Vicky

The Love of my life

Please keep in prayer the team from CCT who is coming in January to help us with VBS for the farm kids. Also Julie Maxham is coming for the whole month of January. We're really excited to have her here. We are praying about doing some different outreaches while the team is here here and also organizing a woman's conference with the other CC's. We are asking the Lord to bring awakening to Paarl and to call all the sleeping saints in this valley to "rise up and walk".

God is faithful. We have been blessed to see the church grow from a bible study to a community of believers being burdened with the mission of Jesus in this valley. Please pray for our fellowship. We know God is just beginning His work here in Paarl in and through us at CCPV.

Misty, Michael and I want you to know that we love you and miss you more than you know. Please feel free to e-mail us and let us know how you are doing.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

The Portlands

Abiding in Him

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

We have been seeing some fruit beginning to fill the vines in the vineyards around here lately. Summer is approaching and soon all the vineyards will be overflowing with big, sweet, brightly colorful green and red grapes. Now, summer is a bit warm around here but it is also the most beautiful of times.

Though we may not be farmers in vineyards of grapes, we most definitely feel like farmers in the vineyards of Christ and His church. We feel as though we have been sowing lot's of seed and doing lot's of watering and now we are beginning to see some, oh so precious fruit. There is a real sense of expectancy and a heightened need for prayerfulness at CC Paarl Valley lately which is great. We've been seeing many new faces at church as people have begun to bring people to be a part of what God is doing. As excited as I am about being able to reach more people for Jesus and seeing the church grow both spiritually and numerically I personally am most excited because I, nor did any other man make things happen. It's all Jesus.

In this update I will let some pictures connect you to what's happening lately here in Paarl, instead of me just going on and on.

Last month I had the privilege of speaking at a youth conference in Paarl East. It is great seeing how different cultures worship and do their services. This church is in the "colored" community which is the mixed race people group here in SA. I taught on the life of Joseph. It was a lot of fun and about 20 people took a stand for Jesus, Glory to Him.

Very bright colors all around in that church.

A few weeks ago some dear friends of ours (who happen to be the first family to come to our home bible study when we were in our home) visited us from the Karoo. Charl, Belinda, Joshua and Alice Du Toit. We love that family! Also, here with Misty and Belinda is Lillian (center)...We love her too :) It was great to see them at CCPV again.

Some of the teens from a local farm we get to love on each week.

Yeah! Three new members of the CCPV family. We are so blessed that they are here. Dave and Vicky Emmerson and their 3 month old son Elijah. They arrived here safely on the 2nd of Sept. from Scotland. They are staying in the house right next door to the church which is awesome. Please keep these precious servants in your prayers. They are still trying to raise support for their time serving here. Things have already been happening to test their call and commitment (which is expected, but never easy). Misty and I are grateful they answered God's call and came here to work with us. If you feel like God wants you to help them with a much needed and appreciated financial gift you can do so through PayPal to...hopeunseen@googlemail.com (it will not work if shortened to gmail.com)

Adele Niekerk works with some of the teens after church to discuss what they learned from the teaching on Sunday.

We are blessed by our three Zimbabwean families.... Sarah, Rosie, Ben, Mike, Thomas, Frank, and Jonathan. I wish you could meet them, they are some of the most wonderful people. Thomas just gave his life to Jesus last Sunday and now he wants to be baptized.

Just a cool shot of some folks chatting after church. (the building looks crooked because it's 3 pictures fused together as 1). Mountains behind us and mountains in from of us. The Paarl valley is so beautiful.

Also we started going into a local prison here on Thursday mornings. Unfortunately I can't take my camera inside but if that changes I will post some pic's. We have already seen some really encouraging stuff happening with these inmates. Please pray for God's Spirit to work powerfully through His word to save souls and change lives at Drakenstien Maximun security prison.

We have been super busy and super blessed by what God is doing here in Paarl. We are hoping to see a team from Calvary Chapel Tustin coming out in January to help with VBS which would be awesome.

Misty and I just want you to know that you are loved dearly. Please pray for new Christians to be added to His church. Please pray for our health and for financial provision. We know it's a hard time financially for many of you, but anything you can give is appreciated and needed. We want to thank the few of you who have been faithful to support us monthly! Most grateful to those of you who pray for us. For it is Him who brings the increase ultimately. Please pray for our marriage and family and anything else that comes to your mind as you pray. We love you and hope to hear from you soon.

To be continued (by God's grace)........

Love, Mike, Misty and Michael Portland (and Biscuit)

Ministry in Paarl

Hello dear friends and family!

Well, to say that we are in a whirlwind right now would be a bit of an understatement. First of all, our time in the U.S. was a great blessing for our family. It was so good to see so many of you while we were in California. By about the 3rd week of being away I was really starting to miss the church here in Paarl, obviously meaning the people. However it was difficult leaving all of our friends and family again, But it was great to get back to all of our friends here too. Misty and I want to thank you who support us financially and contributed for us toward coming home for a visit. We really appreciate your prayers and financial support as that is what keeps us going here. You can continue to support this ministry, first by praying for us (which is most practical) and also financially too as you are able.

So, what are we up to right now? To be honest we feel like we are just holding on a bit until the Emmerson family get here. Misty is busy being a mom and wife and also doing some administrative things as she is able. So it's pretty much just me (in Him, and through Him) doing church and keeping things running. It's no secret that starting a church is not the job of one guy, especially with a wife and young child to care for. The Lord has been confirming in me lately the absolute necessity of gathering a core group to help get the church off and running. Churches are started in lots of different ways practically, But one thing is always true and that is the fact that churches grow as people are inviting their friends and family to come and check it out. So the next season for us involves developing a core group out of the 20 or so people that have been coming to our services faithfully and sharing the vision more specifically with them and sending them out as missionaries so to speak, in their own circles of influence to share the gospel and invite people to be apart of what God is doing here in Paarl. The people who have been with us faithfully for the past year or so have been growing tremendously in their understanding of scripture and thus in their own personal holiness. I truly believe that God has within our group future church leaders and evangelists and that as they grow in His word and fall more in love with Jesus I know that they will begin to desire more passionately to serve Him. Please pray for these folks if you think about it.

We are encouraged with the growth we've seen in the few we have around us, But we also know that God wants to do much more in and through CC Paarl here in this valley. Please keep us in your prayers. Please pray for me, That the Lord will give me a greater burden for lost souls and that He would give our church a burden for them as well and boldness to share Christ unashamedly. Please pray for Misty as we are having some trouble with her Visa at the moment, We know that the Lord is on the throne. We just want God's will to be accomplished through us. Please pray for David and Vicky Emmerson and their new baby boy Elijah who will be moving here next month to work with us in Paarl. Thank you guys so much!

More to come...I promise some pic's too.

Blessings,
The Portlands