Church Under The Tree (CUT)
St James Church in Ladybrand has started an outreach ministry for car guards in the town. This grew out of a weekly fellowship group in which members of that group were challenged to initiate a community project.
CUT started slowly at the end of 2014 with a Christmas lunch launch. A retired local pastor gladly agreed to bring a message in Sesotho to those present. ‘Those present’ had been rounded up from the town by the rector of St James Anglican Church which is also the venue for CUT and another colleague . The message was preached by Pastor Sipho and a good meal shared.
After this, CUT followed a monthly pattern of ‘roundingup’ a congregation, presenting a message by Pastor Tshepo and sharing bread(lots of it) and soup (lots of it). In the winter this congregation was so eager to hear more that we have held CUT every week since June. We were also able to hand out warm clothes in the worst weeks of winter.
A remarkable facet of this ministry has been that there were enough clothes when it was cold and there always seems to be enough to eat! On average we cater for 30-40 people, but this last Friday there were close to 60 present.
It has been exciting to try and keep up with what God is doing in this one.