Faith is also something akin to goal-oriented loyalty. And sometimes mid-term goals are worth celebrating: big and small anniversaries, personal and joint anniversaries.
-
Photo: NAK Süddeutschland
-
Photo: NAK Süddeutschland
-
Photo: NAK Süddeutschland
-
Photo: NAC Zambia
-
Photo: NAC Zambia
-
Photo: NAC Southern Africa
-
Photo: NAC Southern Africa
-
Photo: NAC Southern Africa
Fifty years ago Italian-speaking members in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt (Germany) experienced their first divine service with an interpretation into Italian for them. This is celebrated annually with a festa annuale, the traditional annual meeting of the Italian-speaking New Apostolic Christians in southern Germany.
Apostle Volker Kühnle called on Priest Klaus Weber to assist, who has been looking after the Italian-speaking members since 1982. Apostle Kühnle placed him into retirement during the service. The “coro italiano” sang during the service.
After the service, everyone met at the church’s recreation centre, Forum Fasanenhof, where they had set up a delectable Italian buffet. The afternoon was spent singing and listening to pieces on the piano and the accordion.
To celebrate their District Apostle’s thirtieth anniversary as an Apostle, the brothers and sisters of the congregation in Ndola (Zambia) treated Charles S. Ndandula to a wonderful surprise at the end of May. They welcomed him with huge banners. In a letter to the brothers and sisters following his return from the Copperbelt region, he said how touched he was by this: “Whatever contribution I have made to this great work of redemption has not been from my efforts alone but the collective efforts of the teamwork in our District Apostle Area.”
Charles Ndandula was ordained an Apostle in 1987 at the age of 33 by Chief Apostle Hans Urwyler. In 1995 he was appointed as a District Apostle Helper. And in 2005 he was commissioned as a District Apostle.
The congregation in Nogoyá in Argentina had two occasions to celebrate in May. The congregation was celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, and Deacon Jorge Oria and his wife, Irma González, received a blessing on their fiftieth wedding anniversary. The couple did pioneering work in the congregation. On the day the church in Nogoyá was dedicated they celebrated their silver wedding anniversary.
The New Apostolic Church Southern Africa has dedicated a whole section to wedding anniversaries. There is not only a short explanation of the anniversaries—silver, ruby, golden, and diamond—but also a link to the various reports from the congregations, right back to the year 2013. This way, dozens of couples are honoured.