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October is a special month for the Nahoon Methodist Church, with the organisation celebrating its 100th anniversary.
“It started in 1921 with a minister noticing a number of children playing on the beach and they had nowhere to go to Sunday School,” said Reverend Andrew Els, who is currently in serving his 11th year with the church.
“They [the early church] started in someone’s garage first, got all the kids together and started having Sunday School with them, and it developed from there.
“The families got together and the place was too small, so they built a little church here [on Kennington Road]. The church grew and grew and they built a bigger structure over the little one, and that’s how we’ve grown through the years.”
Els said the church has been celebrating their centenary throughout the month of October.
“We had a Thanksgiving service in the beginning, then we had what we call a laity service where the general membership ran the service on the Sunday,” he said.
“Last Sunday we had a testimony service where some folk just shared the impact being a part of this family has had on their lives, those who’ve been here for a long time and even those who have been here for a short time.”
The month will be capped off with a special celebration held on Sunday October 24.
For Els, being a part of the church has meant working hard to be a beacon of hope in the community.
“We’ve been trying to develop that part of our ministry, outside in the community.
“There’s Nahoon Community Outreach – which is Nahoon Methodist, Stirling Baptist and St Michael’s [Anglican] – that has gotten together and run ministry in the community together.
“We run soup kitchens and a job club, help people compile CV’s for jobs, that sort of thing.
“We want to focus on giving people hope outside of just these four walls.”
For more information, visit the Nahoon Methodist Church’s Facebook page.
