Pastoral care means compassion and being there

Earthquake in Taiwan

The latest earthquake in Taiwan has claimed the lives of at least 40 people. A number of people are still missing. Members of our Church were also affected, but escaped injury. The responsible district leader wrote: “We are grateful for the angels’ protection and pray to God to be gracious to those who died and to their loved ones, who are now grieving.”

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 struck the south of the island at the beginning of February. Several apartment buildings were toppled by the quake. In Tainan, a 16-storey apartment building collapsed. This is where the most lives were lost.

Pastoral care visits in Brazil

Santa Catarina, Paraná, and São Paulo were the places District Apostle Montes de Oca visited on an extended road trip to the east of Brazil just recently. He conducted several divine services and seminars. Pastoral visits were also on his agenda. Priest Walter Irigoita from Uruguay and Bishop Eduardo Haeffner from São Paulo (Brazil) accompanied the District Apostle, who leads the New Apostolic Church in Brazil. The trip began with a divine service in Schroeder (Santa Catarina) and ended ten days later in São Pedro (São Paulo).

With its eight million square kilometres Brazil occupies more than half of South America’s landmass. It is the fifth largest country in the world. About 200 million people live here. There are also a number of New Apostolic congregations, although these are few and scattered. Many New Apostolic families live far from any congregation. They receive pastoral care letters and receive visits from the ministers.

Travelling in Suriname

In January Apostle Peter Klene from the Netherlands travelled to Suriname, a small state on the north-eastern tip of South America, to visit the New Apostolic congregations there. It was his first visit there this year. On the weekend of 16 and 17 January he conducted three divine services with Holy Sealing. In the divine service on Saturday in Tapoeripa three young sisters were sealed.

The Sunday morning service was celebrated by Apostle Klene in Taman Sari, the youngest congregation. Here he sealed two children and seven adults. This is a beautiful development and is wonderful for these relatively small congregations, the Apostle said. A third service took place in Balingsoela. Many had come so that the church was very crowded. On Monday Apostle Klene visited several members at home and conducted a seminar to which all leading ministers and functionaries from the congregations in the interior had been invited.