Simon Ramoroka serves as the pastor of Southern Gateway Church in Polokwane, South Africa.

March 2025 Update

Greetings

We bring you greetings from our little church family. We have had a busy end to 2024 and a good start to 2025 in our church happenings. Thank you for your patience with us in our silence, we hope that this news update will encourage you and bring you much joy as you celebrate with us in all that the Lord is doing in and through us here at the Southern Gateway Church Plant.

Church Growth

When we held our first Sunday service on Sunday, 4 February 2024 we had no visitors from our local community. Everyone that attended that first Sunday Service was either part of the team sent from Christ Baptist Church or visitors from Christ Baptist Church. Over the past months we have gone from have zero families from the community to around six families that were faithfully attending for a number of months. We are so grateful to the Lord that we now have 19 families faithfully attending our Sunday services. Please join us in praising our Heavenly Father for the way that He is growing this young church.

A Time for Celebration

Can you believe that we have been meeting for one year already? On Sunday, February 2^nd, we had a special service and time of fellowship to celebrate our 1 Year Anniversary! Looking back over the past year we are so grateful to the Lord for all that He has done in and through us. Our fellowship time was in the form of a Special Lunch where we enjoyed a traditional South African Braai.

Ministry Update

Sunday Services - We are grateful to the Lord for the time that we spend together on Sundays. We start with Adult and Children’s Sunday School. Our Adult Sunday School is working through “Fundamentals of the Faith” - we have chosen to work through this book slowly which allows for questions and also for those who need a slower teaching pace. And then proceed to our Sunday service, we are currently working through the book of James. We have a time of fellowship around a cup of tea or coffee every week. It is a blessing to see how those who attend the services each week serve one another on “Tea Duty”, where they take turns to provide milk and a sweet treat for all of us to enjoy.

Prayer Meeting and Evangelism - We come together on a Saturday morning twice a month for a Prayer Meeting and then we go out into the surrounding community to do Evangelism. We are blessed by the faithful attendance at this meeting and it is encouraging to see their willingness to go out into the community for Evangelism. When we go into the community to share the Gospel of Jesus we sometimes struggle with outright rejection. But we praise the Lord for the times where we are warmly received by the people in the community, sometimes they will just engage with us on the street, sometimes we are welcomed onto their property, and other times we are welcomed into their homes where they give us the opportunity to share the Gospel with them. We praise the Lord for these open doors and we pray more specifically for open hearts to the Gospel.

Reasons for Praise

• We thank God that He is building His Church!
• We thank God that He is bringing people to this church plant from the community.
• We thank God that He has kept us during our first year of ministry.
• We thank God for a faithful ministry team.
• We thank God for continued and faithful prayer and financial support.

Prayer Requests

• Pray that we will continue to faithfully serve our Lord here at Southern Gateway and that we will have the strength and wisdom needed to persevere.
• Pray for continued boldness as we go out on Evangelism.
• Pray that we will see true salvation in those who are currently attending our services.
• Pray that the Lord will raise up faithful leaders in this church plant.
• Pray that the Lord will continue to provide for practical needs.

Thank You!

I am grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him as Pastor at the Southern Gateway Church Plant, and for the leadership team that He has placed in this ministry. Thank you for your support of this ministry. Your continued interest in what is happening here in Polokwane is a true blessing to us and our ministry. May the Lord continue to bless you as you serve Him.

Pastor Simon Ramoroka