Seven years after the Lord called a group

of young people to serve the poor; we sold

up our home and headed off to Dundee on June 1, 1986. To say that we did

not know what we were getting

into would be an absolute un-

derstatement! Our only desire

was to truly serve Jesus. Follow-ing a prayer seminar, the Lord

gave us the word from Matthew

16:24 “Whoever wants to be my

disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” We did

not realise just how practical and relevant

the word of God was then and is now.

When we arrived at Mahyeno (as it was

formerly known), there was no welcoming party or any special accommodation for us.

It was winter and we had two small boys

aged 3 and 15 months. We hit the ground

running with responsibilities for homeless people. Our leader at the time was called

away and we had to “step up” or more

aptly put, “take up our cross and follow”.

The cross was all our uncertainties, all the

demands of needy people and denying our-selves literally as we had to take the little

finance we had and invest in the ministry.

Looking back, it was probably the best way

for us to “put our hands to the plough”.

The pioneering years were intense and

gruelling. We did not go to Bible School,

but to the “school of hard knocks”. We

have been privileged to experience God’s

faithfulness as we learned to trust Him with limited finances, little knowledge and

life experience. When we set out we had

no sending church or supporters. By all

natural means, we were destined to fail but

the Lord had spoken to us through John 15.16: “You did not choose me, but I chose

you and appointed you so that you might go

and bear fruit - fruit that will last - and so that

whatever you ask in My name the Father will

give you.”

Learning dependence on the provision and faithfulness of God was not only a faith

statement but also a practical experience.

We have lived a simple lifestyle and yet a

full and fulfilling life nonetheless. We never

lacked food, shelter or clothing. Our children were able to attend pre-school,

primary school, high school and even

university. The Lord provided for every

situation. At the outset we may not have considered these “practicalities” and many

were the nay-sayers who were convinced

we were foolishly escaping “the real

world”.

Living in community has been an amazing experience as we have served alongside

amazing people of God. When we faced

the darkest days of our lives in ministry,

the Lord gave us the word from Isaiah 55:5 “Surely you will summon nations you know not

and nations you do not know will come

running to you, because of the Lord your God.”

The Lord kept his promise and volunteers

from “other nations” have joined our team and we have become a family of God.

And here we are now, 30 years down the

line; we continue to be challenged by the

journey of faith and serving the poor. But we are eternally grateful to God for

entrusting to

us this great

ministry. May

the Lord find us faithful as

we continue

to serve Him.

A U G U S T 2 0 1 6

Melusi Christian Community

“Whoever

wants to be

my disciple must deny

themselves

and take up

their cross

and follow me.”

Matthew

16.24

30 years faith journey!

Peter & Angeline Hambidge

Some of the highlights of MYC were a

talent show and a drawing competition,

which the young people thoroughly

enjoyed. The youngsters loved it and to

see all this talent was truly amazing.

Our team was supported by a great

group of volunteers including Melusi fel-

lowship members, residents, our friends

from Australia and 20 youngsters who are part of our discipleship program. The

unity amongst the staff, the passion and

commitment was outstanding.

MYC was life changing not only for the

people who attended, but also for those who volunteered. We believe that if God

can change a heart, this will change a life

and by that you will change a community.

And indeed, God changed many hearts!

King of hearts Melusi held its first MYC (Melusi Youth

Conference) from the 31st March to the

2nd April under the banner King of

Hearts. 250 to 300 young people from Dundee and Glencoe inundated Melusi

grounds daily for three days. Our guests

included guest speaker Pastor Steve

Morrison and a team from Bendigo, Aus-

tralia and Pastor Mlambo from Glencoe.

Melusi team organized the logistics (e.g.

a huge tent, hundreds of chairs…) and

program including the transport, lunch

and afternoon tea for the youngsters.

In all that, our hearts desire was to love each and every young person who came

through our gate and to introduce them

to Jesus Christ — the King of hearts.

At the conference, Bonginkosi Khulu, who joined the Melusi team in February

and Ayanda Mdlalose, our trainer from

Siyasebenza, shared their testimonies.

They spoke in a very personal way about

their own journey with God and how Jesus became the King of their hearts.

“If God can

change a heart,

this will change

a life and by

that this will

change a

community”

M E L U S I C H R I S T I A N C O M M U N I T Y

P A G E 2

Sandile Khumalo (visitor of MYC — King of hearts)

My experience with MYC was beyond amazing. I learned things I didn’t know about God and

Jesus Christ. At home I used to worship ancestors, and my life was a mess. Now, I have found Jesus and let Him into my heart, I have peace. During the conference I had dreams about fire

and light, evil and angels, good and bad. In one of those dreams I was in the middle between

fire and light, and a voice told me to walk to the fire.

I resisted as I knew I was going to burn myself. The next day

I spoke with Pastor Peter Hambidge about this dream, and he explained to me what this dream meant and that I had to

choose between evil and good. It was my toughest decision

I had to make, but it was the right one. I chose Jesus as the

King of my heart. Thanks to God and all MYC people.

P A G E 3 Margie Johnson (volunteer from

Melusi Fellowship)

MYC was truly an uplifting event. The

Melusi team, leaders and disciples were insp ir at ion al and the

participants’ joy and excitement was

tangible. The success of MYC cannot

be measured in numbers, but by the ongoing effect it has had on the

communities it served. More and

more teens are becoming involved in

the Melusi programs, which is such a

blessing and evidence of the success of the conference.

Congratulations to the Melusi team

and community for organizing such

an amazing conference for our youth.

Lungie Mazibuko and Khazi Buthelezi

(two teenagers from our discipleship group) “MYC was indeed a great experience: full of praise

and worship, meeting new people, sharing God’s

love, helping together as disciples throughout the conference, and most

importantly being in God’s presence.

The theme “King of Hearts” absolute-

ly made us think about another way around our Christian life. When we

give God an opportunity to be the

King of our hearts, we will grow in

our relationship with Him and will

become spiritually stronger. MYC was indeed a conference to encounter Jesus.

The messages shared were impacting and encour-

aging to us. It was exciting to see other people’s

lives transformed; it was an amazing experience.”

Marg Truscott (volunteer from Australia)

While visiting Melusi in April I had the privilege of being involved in the

first ever MYC. It was so great to experience the unity as everyone worked together to make the Conference a success. I loved the

enthusiasm of the young people as they joined in, I loved the singing and

African worship style, it was so beautiful to hear. And the food, well there

was plenty of food to satisfy even the biggest appetites. But most

importantly it was so good to see the openness of young people's hearts to receive the message that Jesus loves them and by believing in Him they

can know freedom from every bondage that holds them and their lives can

be changed. It was encouraging to see the young disciples being so

involved. Well done team for such an amazing Conference.

P.O. Box 503, Dundee 3000, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Tel/Fax (034) 2124445

Email: melusi@mweb.co.za

Registration No.: 039-181-NPO

A Miracle wedding

Many of their friends and neighbours came

to the wedding service and celebration. It

was a wonderful day full of joy, singing,

dancing and happiness for the couple. Sitting in the middle of everyone Eric and Maria

couldn’t believe what was happening. Full of

gratitude and humility they celebrated what

God had done in their lives.

Our team were grateful and blessed as well.

Firstly, we were privileged to be part of

their story and secondly, the meal was

miraculously enough. We catered for 100

people and somehow we were able to feed 230 guests. At the end we literately had five

pieces of sausage left. God provided

wondrously and performed miracles in Eric

and Maria’s lives.

A Miracle journey

What happened a few weeks ago seemed to

be impossible a couple of months ago. At

the end of May, Eric [63] and Maria [59]

were married in our Sunday service at Melusi. We had been in good contact with

Maria for quite a while beforehand,

where she had joined our weekly

bible study in her community.

At the beginning of this year Maria

began attending our Sunday services

regularly. Eric wasn’t interested in

God at all. The few times he came

to the bible studies we had to ask him to leave as he was totally

drunk. Strangely enough from the

day that Maria was baptised his life

changed amazingly. In April Eric gave his life to the Lord and asked

to be baptised as well. But that

wasn’t the end of their story. They

had been living together for more than 20

years but Maria did not want to marry him because of his lifestyle. When Maria saw

how God had changed Eric’s life she could

not contain her excitement. Now she

wanted to be married before God at Melusi

which had become their spiritual home. What a testimony for their community.

P A G E 4

Schalk arrived on our doorstep

three years ago. He was destitute,

had lost everything in life and had

been on the streets for 20 years. His words were, “I will only stay

for one night.” but the next

morning he didn’t leave. Schalk

found a home, a new family and his way back to God at Melusi.

A family from our partner church in Bendi-

go, Australia came to visit in 2013. Schalk

became friends with them and kept in con-

tact after they left. “I thought about them often and in my heart I had a dream to visit

them one day.” So he began to save money

that he earned from washing cars, receiving

a grant and labouring for a builder.

Within 14 months Schalk applied for a new ID and his first passport. He was able to pay

for his flight ticket on his own. From that

day on he hardly slept because of his excite-

ment.

“In April this year I went on the journey of

my life to see my friends in Australia.

Helping on their farm and sitting for days on

the tractor gave me time to examine my

life and my relationship with God. I had an amazing time with my friends and the local

church. They made me feel very much at

home.”

What a miracle and testimony for someone

who came to stay for “only one night” to experience God’s transforming love in his

life.