NEW LIFE !
SEPT/OCT 2014
GOT LIFE A Priceless Gift By Pastor Mel
A few weeks ago I went to a funeral in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I didn’t know the deceased as long as I knew of him (there is a big difference between knowing and knowing of someone). During my early college years, several pastors from South Africa came to the States at the invitation of my father. While I had some interaction with all of them, I can’t say that I really got to know any of them, with the exception of Bishop Haines, until more recent years. It would be about 15 years later before I would get to know Bishop Louis Barends Sr. I remembered him as the cool Pastor from South Africa, who was very upbeat and engaged with everyone when he came to Houston.
I remember him saying something later in the conversation like, “You didn’t make a mistake in calling me, because God wanted us to connect again.” I didn’t know how true that was. From that moment a relationship begin to grow. Through social media we stayed in contact. Over the months of planning the trip and updating he and Lady Barends, it soon became a friendship. I remember that first meeting, after so many years, at the airport. It was like seeing long time friends. There was an instant connection. The following year I fly down from Kenya for a few days to attend the Easter Conference that was being held in P.E. (as the city is called by South Africans). Unexpectedly, I ended up preaching 2 of the 3 days.
I would say our relationship begin due to a mistake. My mum had tasked me with planning our trip to South Africa several years ago. So it was my job to contact all During that conference two the pastors, lay out the itinerary things happened. First, a Moses to and plan our travel route. Joshua relationship call went Thinking I was calling Bishop forth. Secondly, I gained a father, Haines, because the office who first was friend. supposedly gave me his number, I Both of these events were and instead called Bishop Barends. My are very vital for me. In fact, it has whole intro was knocked out of become my whole mandate for my the water, and I was a bit present purpose of going to that embarrassed when I heard, “No Continue on page 2 this is Bishop Barends...”
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Dinning Together I’m a fan of dinner parties. There is something beautiful about those small gatherings of people enjoying each others company. I don’t know if I fell in love with these intimate parties from my early years of watching so many black and white movies, or if I subconsciously was aware that small gatherings reveal things about people that you won’t discover in those noisy over crowded parties. However, I have noticed that dinning together, or even just enjoying coffee with a group of people, tend to lead to some type of relationship. For 8 weeks, many of us had sort of a spiritual dinner party, as we studied the Word of God together and talked about faith. Hopefully, those weeks of dinning together will bring about relationships with your church family that will continue to grow. And as God bring new members to our family, let us invite them to dine, spiritually and naturally. -Pastor Mel
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