What you’re about to read is a
very brief overview of how and
where Manna began, where we are
right now, and where we’re
headed in the future! My
personal new life began halfway
through 1977 in my bedroom, when
one day I knelt down and invited
Jesus Christ into my heart, and
turned my life over to Him. Some
days later I was filled with the
Holy Spirit in a dream, and went
out to buy a Bible and find out
what had happened to me!
Before this I had never read the
Bible. My life was completely
revolutionized, and I devoured
scripture, and responded to the
new life Christ had given me
with great passion, enthusiasm
and total devotion. For 5 years
God took me on a journey of
local and itinerant ministry
that involved up to 8 meetings a
week in order to get through the
task at hand. It was the
beginning of the Charismatic
renewal that was being sparked
in this area at that time, and
the trail led through White
River and into Hazyview,
Malelane, Hectorspruit, Sabie,
Ngodwana, Barberton, Ermelo &
Swaziland.
What an exciting time! Full of
surprises, highs and lows,
challenges and victories!
Amazing testimonies, healings
and miracles, and standing in
awe of the work of the Holy
Spirit. I often wondered why I
was so privileged to be part of
what God was doing in and
through my life in these places.
The vision for Manna Christian
Fellowship was conceived in my heart
in the middle of 1982. It was
birthed at the end of 1982 in
our lounge, with 13 people
present, my husband and our 4
children and 7 friends.
Within 5 weeks our lounge had
become far too small for the 50
passionate souls who came
faithfully to everything that
was happening. So we hired a
hall in town, and after 5 weeks
had to look for bigger premises.
The land we are now on came to
our attention. 14,5 hectares of
nothing but some trees, rocks
and a very old wattledaub
farm cottage. Through a series
of some amazing happenings and
intervention of God, we
purchased our new home and moved
in!
Then all hands on deck! Everyone
did something! Even the kids
were part of the painting squad
... enough said in that
department, but those who
weren’t painting were cleaning
or supplying "sarmies" to feed
the workers who were fixing
windows, ceilings or just
generally being part of the
great adventure!
Obviously a whole lot of the
K.O.G. “Fruit” happened in that
first year, with many souls
being saved, baptized, filled
with the Holy Spirit, healed,
delivered, and all the wonderful
etc.’s
A whole lot of church family
"stuff" also happened. Too much
to mention here. But the big
picture that came out of it all,
was God very firmly placing me
in the office of Senior Pastor,
(Which I had fought against, and
avoided like the plague, calling
2 qualified male pastors in to
do the job for me ... as I
didn't want to mess up God's
plan by standing in the pulpit
as a woman!) However as always
God has the last word, and the
rest as they say is history.
From the little house at the
bottom of the land, which now
serves as class rooms, we
leveled ground and began to
build what is now housing the
Teen Church, and Admin
block. It took one year to get
to roof height, debt free, and
one afternoon a freak wind blew
through the valley and flattened
it all ... except for the 4
corner pillars! So we cleared
the rubble and began again!
Today we're praising in a
wonderful new auditorium, and
all the glory goes to our
Almighty Father, and heartfelt
thanks and appreciation to His
many children who responded in
obedience to His call, and have
come in to help fulfill the
Vision, People often ask, "Why
such a big auditorium?" Simple to
answer. We believe in
the great commission and are
preparing for it! We're building for future
generations. We will leave a
legacy and fruit for our
children's children. (If Jesus
doesn't come before then, and if
He does, we've kept busy with
our Father's Kingdom, we have
not limited Him, and we've
learned a whole lot, and had a
whole lot of fun! Also, it's
kept us out of a whole lot of
mischief!)
In 1989 we began to reach out
into the outlying areas around
White River and touch many lives
with the power of the gospel of
Christ, seeing countless souls
born again, healed, delivered,
and following Jesus. We ran
soup kitchens, and crusades, and
established home cells, and
began to train leaders.
In 1997 God instructed us to
make available courtesy buses to
bring our outlying congregation
without personal transport, into
Manna for Sunday services.
Because of the language barrier,
we had to do this at a 2nd
service with an interpreter. For
5 years we as a ministry paid
for buses at no extra cost to
our congregants. In this way we
built people as God had directed
us. At the end of 2002 the Holy
Spirit led us into the next step
of the Vision, which was to
"sow" those we had impacted with
the gospel back into their
communities, and establish
permanent structures to house
the present congregation, and
make room for exponential
growth. Well this is where we
are now. Already with 4 new
churches built in one
4 of the areas.
On a Sunday morning our "Frontliners",
those with evangelistic gifting,
go out to our out stations and
take the meetings in the
different areas. We train and equip leaders in our outlying areas as an ongoing initiative establishing point people and pastors.
Those with teaching gifts stay
at home base and do the
training. Our home cells are a
very vital and integral part of
our vision at Manna, and this is
where the pastoral gifting gets
developed. Every one of our
partners needs to be part of a
home cell, in order to be cared
for properly. Where we're
going? Towards establishing
permanent structures that will
become our future Family Care
Centres. We've established 4 centres, and from these and 1 other point we feed
459children in distress and 242 caregivers a hot meal from Monday to Friday, with rations issued for the weekends. At these points the children are also ministered to spiritually and monitored for any health problems.
Vegetable gardens have been established at all feeding points to provide fresh vegies on a daily basis.
The caregivers are also visited regularly and ministered to.
Future plans for Manna are a Frail Care Centre as well as about 30 Cottages for our Senior Partners. |
