Emmanuel's Christian Fellowship Church

After 12 months of unwavering prayer, a series of prophetic uttering’s ushered in a new dawn. Heeding the call, 20 April 1991 Emmanuels Christian Fellowship was born as 7 God fearing families congregated at Southview Secondary.

In a world awash with disease, sin and evil, Emmanuel Christian Fellowship was into this dark world to serve the Lord by proclaiming his name to all who would listen. Even as a fledgling church, all departments were fully operational in that very school. It may have been a little church however the sound of our praise would echo for generations to come.

The multipurpose classroom were ECF humbly began could not contain the numbers that were added to them daily. Owing to the scores of men and women hungry for the things of God the services moved to the staff room of the School to cater for the increasing volume.

Time moved on and so too did the work of the Lord, after 3 years in the school, even bigger premises were sought as the congregation grew in leaps and bounds. Through divine favour, house 899 Ivy Street was purchased. For the first month a tent was pitched on the Ivy Street property for all church services, while the current house was transformed into a church hall.

We continued to grow at a rapid pace and had now outgrown our current location and after miraculous interventions and undying faith, we were blessed by our affiliation body; AFM, with land at a fraction of its value, which we would later develop into our current church. Until we could have a church building, we were housed in a tent that we used for all our services and church activities.

Despite moving forward to the tent with only a handful of former members as many still preferred the comforts of former glories, the church of God moved forward and grew consistently.

Just like every tree planted by the rivers of living waters, flowers blossomed and fruits eventually saw the light of day. We never despised our humble beginnings, we never shunned the call and our initial vision of building a community church for all in was about to be realised.

There were times when all we saw before us were insurmountable obstacles however every single time without fail, Jesus brought us through. When others are nervously peering over the edge of a cliff, the faithful in Christ learn to fly in faith.

On the 23 September 2006, after a long journey of faith, prayer, tears and joy, Phase One of ECF was complete. Glory be to God. After early years of struggle and sacrifice, we had finally reached our promised land. Shortly after our opening, Phase 2 of the vision began, which saw comfortable and appealing Sunday school classrooms built. God never forgot the early tears shed along this journey; The Lord has truly been good to us.

Current Happenings

Since opening our doors, true to our vision, our community church has hosted numerous community projects, including:

· Community Health day in association with Care Network International, where both medical treatment as well as medication was handed out. Further to this, opticians were on hand to offer eye tests as well as prescription glasses. During our Health Day, all who were willing were also counselled and underwent HIV testing.

· Drug/Alcohol awareness workshops –Our community is ravaged by drugs and alcohol abuse, we have been regularly hosting workshops helping all to make the right choices and also lending a hand of support to those trying to break free of those chains of addiction.

· Youth conferences- We are proud of our persistent investment in our youth and their wellbeing. Together with various past stakeholders including the SAPS, we successfully host a Youth Conference every year to cater for both the spiritual as well as the physical welfare of our future generation.

· SANBS blood donor drives - our community church has hosted several SANBS Blood Drives, where people from all backgrounds and beliefs gathered together under one roof to donate a part of themselves to save many a life.

· Winter blanket drives- ECF has in the past been privileged to have been a part of a blanket drive in our area, where blankets were purchased through donations and handed out to all in need during the unbearable Johannesburg Winters.

· Food Hampers- Consistently and without fail ECF has been for years, handing out grocery hampers to the less fortunate in our immediate community several times during the year. We take the wellbeing of all very seriously and we are passionate about helping people.

Even with our ever increasing list of community activities, we have never and will never fail to continuously host our regular church services and meetings. We are blessed to have a fully functioning:

· Sunday School Department

· Youth Ministry

· Prayer and Intercessory Team

· Praise and Worship Team

· Ushers Ministry

We are a Christ centred church who strive each day to be more like our Lord and Saviour however we are also focused on the upliftment and empowerment of all in our community.

Our church continues to grow, new members join on a regular basis and we continually support the vision that God has for the church.

Please take this as an invitation to join us; come along and share in the love and joy of God with us.

Our Future

Phase 3 Completion

Phase 3 of our journey involves your help. We are burdened for our community and this Phase is solely intended to cater to the needs of all our people.

This Phase will house the following:

· 24hr counselling centre- we plan on offering this 24hour service to all, paying specific attention to those needing counselling, support and prayer for drug and alcohol addiction, teen counselling, su***de counselling and counselling and support to r**e victims and also support to victims of crime.

· Recovering Addicts Programme (RAP) – we will be hosting and running a recovery support programme for anyone needing support and guidance in staying sober or drug free.

· Community Hall- Within the third phase contains a Community Hall that we fully intend on using as a base for community empowerment projects as well as a venue for future Drug/ Alcohol and other Awareness Campaigns and workshops.

· Library and Bookshop- Our bookshop and library will be open to the entire public for educational and edification purposes. We hope to instil in all the joys of reading and the rewards thereof.

With the kind and selfless generosity of people like you, we can make this vision a reality and cater to the needs and cries of our dying community. We are ready and willing to make a difference, are you?

Feeding scheme Initiative

Currently we host a Kids Club every Friday where children from all faiths and backgrounds are welcomed and are also given a hot meal before they leave. We initially started with approximately 125 children however in the last few months our numbers have grown significantly and we are currently catering for well over 200 children every Friday. Areas that are transported to and from the Kids Club include, Vlakfontein, Lenasia, Lawley, Wheelers Farm and Lenasia South.

Solely on the generosity of donations and sponsorships, we provide a cooked meal to each and every child and person that requires it. Even though our numbers are constantly increasing, we never turn anyone away. We are however in dire need of support and donations to keep this initiative going; there is no greater satisfaction than to feed a hungry child and we are hoping that with the support of people like you we can continue to feed the scores of hungry children that stand before us every week.

Your contribution no matter how small will make the biggest impact in someone’s life. To whom much is given, much is required and we have been blessed with much, it’s time we started to pay it forward. Let’s start today.