Dear brothers and sisters, As we come to the end of year 2023 and we look retrospectively, we cannot but thank Our God for His goodness and abundant grace in our lives as a church. We rejoice with you for the union you have in Christ and the fellowship with one another. We began 2023 with a family camp at Chêne de Mambré , Trou d’Eau Douce. Brothers and sisters from the Poudre d’Or Church joined us for the first weekend of January for three days of study and reflection of the biblical theme of “Family”, together with a glorious worship service on the Lord’s Day. The environment was very convivial for lots of fun as well along the beach in a warm and breezy weather. (Pray for our next Church Family Camp that will be, Lord willing, in January 2025) The Family Camp concretely strengthened the bond of fellowship between the IBF-Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and the Poudre d’Or Church. We are so thankful to Our Lord that this fellowship strengthened further when we started to have combined-service on the first Sunday of every month at Rose-Hill as from the second half of the year as well as supporting the church in the north by sending one of our preachers once every month to preach at Poudre d’Or’s church. We also thank God for the faith of the many brothers and sisters and their sanctification through their regular participation in our Wednesday Bible Study this year where we studied together the Expository Studies in Ruth & Esther, Holiness by Jerry Bridges and various special studies. We especially note the spiritual growth of several young men, namely; Dan, Kiran and John and their wholehearted service to the Lord. We thank the Lord for Dan for his perseverance in his studies in theology and pastoral ministry. Our desire is not only that you know the Bible – yes, we must know His Word - but that you know Jesus Christ and that your lives are transformed as we are grow together in the image of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Pastoral New Year 2024 Message to the Church A desire of the church was to see every member of our church family to be involved in evangelism and be competent to share his or her faith. Evangelism classes were conducted on Sunday afternoons after the main church service. We do recognize that further effort has to be made next year as we go and share our passion with the neighbourhoods. A gospel track was printed and distributed among those members who desire to be involved in evangelism. Since years, even before the Covid-19, the Church dreamt of singing Christmas Carols to the public in the shopping malls. The Christmas Carols are so pregnant of Gospel’s truth that singing these songs to the public can be a powerful tool for evangelism. A Choir was set under the abled direction of Shannon and to His glory, the Choir did a glorious performance on 23 December at La City, in front of Artisan Coffee. Over a hundred people attended the Christmas Carols. We thank the Lord as well for the celebration of the Reformation Day with an open Worship Service to the public in the neighbourhood. Very few people turned up but we rejoice having the presence of Pastor Clayton Alexander, Principal of the Mauritian Bible Training Institute and Pastor Vincent from Community Baptist Church, Pereybere, Grand Bay. We pray that we have further interaction with these like-minded people for the proclamation of the true Gospel with power. It is with mixed feeling that we thank God for the emigration of Avneesh to France. While being sad for his departure we praise God for his success. On the other hand, we rejoice to have Itodo from Nigeria among us. We thank our Lord that lately he got married to Elizabeth. We thank the Lord for the Youth and Young Adults (YYA) monthly meetings and the keen involvement of Kiran, Mevin and Dan. Our objective for the YYA is to consolidate the bond of friendship with like-minded young people and provide a platform for the discussion and practical application of God’s Word in their daily lives. We desire that our young people be rooted in the solid truth of His transforming Word. In this vein, and following the baptism class which started in the second half of 2022, we rejoice in the baptism of three members of our church, namely; Francesco, Diano and Tania and two from the Poudre d’Or Church, namely; Ethan and Evans. The baptism ceremony took place at Mont Choisy on Saturday 3 rd June. We also want to mention the monthly Men’s meeting – an opportunity to fellowship and grow in the grace and knowledge of His Word. The Men are encouraged to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, to have a passion for the Lord so that the Men are conformed into his image, that each family reflect Jesus Christ, the head of the Christian home. Over the last quarter of 2023, a Ladies’ meeting was initiated to fill a pressing request from our dear sisters to have their own Bible Studies and moments of sharing and fellowship. We are so thankful to Our Lord for their enthusiasm and their desire to grow in the Lord. We place these meetings in the hand of the Lord, praying that two or three of the woman from our fellowship will step forward to lead these studies. We also thank the Lord for the visit of our brother Jason Deutsch, the Founder of the International Bible Fellowship. His visit was an encouragement to the whole church. On the regional level, through contacts established by Mevin, the church extended its generosity to Mario Manneville, Pastor of Reformed Community Church, Cape Town, South Africa in evangelising the poor and vulnerable groups in the community. We also praise God for the visit of Bernard, Mevin and sister Nayla to Madagascar in November 2022 for the International Summit for Expository Preaching. This International Summit allowed our brother Mevin to renew friendship with Pastor Faly of Madagascar. He was also privileged to meet Voddie Baucham and Conrad Mbewe of Zambia and Justin Peters and others from the USA. One of the direct outcome of this Summit was the participation of Mevin in the Media and Arts Seminar in Zambia in May 2023. We praise Our Lord for using Mevin mightily as an instrument to sharpen Pastors and Christian workers on the topic: “A case for the Christian Mind in Media & Arts”. Keep him in prayer as he is invited this 2024 to speak same topic for a Reformed Baptist Church coalition in Uganda and same in french for the Malagasy biblical churches, Lord willing. For the year 2024, our prayer is that we persevere to grow and cultivate a vibrant relationship with our risen Lord Jesus Christ, that we never stop pursuing Christ who is the pearl of great price and the greatest treasure in the universe, that we spend the rest of our life growing in intimate knowledge of him. We look forward to have a married couples fellowship starting next year, God willing. We also desire, God willing, to have other reformed churches in the Island of Mauritius and in Rodrigues as well. There is no greater work than giving yourself to the service of the all-glorious Saviour, who alone saves and sanctifies. May His will be done in our lives as we fight the good fight of faith in 2024! HANA’S FATHER Pastors Jean Marie Leung & Prem Goolaup In Christ, for His Glory, 2 2 4 0