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Dear Friends,
Each New Year, it’s helpful to remind ourselves of the key focus and direction of our lives.
At my Installation, I invited the people of our province – and all our friends – to be partners with me in the gospel, focusing time and again on what it means to be ‘the body of Christ’ in today’s world. Since then, I’ve returned repeatedly to these words, which seem to set the scene for every aspect of ministry. They offer hope – the hope that the gospel speaks into every situation, and every circumstance.
But they also offer challenge, because each situation and circumstance must encounter the reality of God’s promises in Jesus Christ, in ways appropriate to their needs – just as Jesus individually addressed each person he came across.
This is also the challenge HOPE Africa faces. What is the message of the gospel? Not only in sweeping truths of love, peace, justice, forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but specifically in the multitude of situations that they tackle.
Please pray for Delene and her team, and everyone they work with, as together they observe God’s call in the many different situations they’ll face in the coming year. And may they, and all of us, as Archbishop George Carey famously said, not become so worried about the work of the Lord that we fail to keep our eyes on the Lord of the work.
Thank you for being our partners in the gospel, in your ongoing and loyal support for HOPE Africa. May God bless you, and make you a blessing to others.
Yours in the service of Christ
The Most Reverend Thabo Makgoba
Archbishop of Cape Town |
