Pastoral visits: a full calendar

They travel by air, sea, or land and log mile after mile as they bump over rough terrain and potholed dirt tracks in four-wheel drives. Getting to their congregations can be exhausting for Apostles and even dangerous.

Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will celebrate his first divine service of the year 2018 with our brothers and sisters in Banjul (Gambia). A week later he will be in Cologne (Germany) and shortly thereafter in Pakistan, Switzerland, and South Africa.

Already now the Chief Apostle’s calendar for 2018 lists forty-nine divine services. As in the past years, he will visit Church members on all continents. And not only that. Often there are also meetings with local Church leaders as well as concerts. Also on his 2018 programme are two conferences of the International District Apostle Meeting. The first one will take place in Washington (USA) in May 2018 and the second one in November 2018 in Zurich (Switzerland).

The Chief Apostle’s programme also lists three youth conventions, a divine service with confirmation, several divine services for ministers and their wives, retirements of four District Apostles, as well as the appointment of their successors. There will also be several national assemblies with the District Apostles in America, Europe, Africa, and South East Asia.

Pastoral visit in Angola

On his recent trip to Angola at the beginning of December, District Apostle Rainer Storck (Germany) covered hundreds of kilometres by four-wheel drive. It was his last trip of the year and he visited hard to reach congregations in the eastern part of the country, close to Zambia. With him was District Apostle Helper João Uanuque Misselo as well as other ministers.

On his agenda was the dedication of a new church in Luau, the ordination of ministers, meetings with ministers, and the celebration of divine services. He started out by celebrating a youth service in our central church Luanda-Palanca, which was attended by 2,000 young people. Pictures and videos of the District Apostle’s trip are featured on the website of the New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia.

Pastoral visit in Nigeria

District Apostle Michael Ehrich (Germany) visited his brothers and sisters in Nigeria. In Aba and Abak, two cities 600 kilometres east of Lagos, he celebrated divine services with hundreds of participants. While in Nigeria he also carried out ordinations and retirements of leading ministers and held a meeting of the Apostles and Bishops.

The members of the congregation Ikeja-Central gathered for a special divine service on the second Sunday of Advent. Bishop Yohanna Magaji was placed into retirement. The divine service was broadcast by a national television channel.

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