Come and meet Pastor Leonard Gcabashe and be encouraged by how God is working through his church.
Pastor Leonard leads Embo Community Church (ECC) in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, an area where over 50% of
the community are unemployed and many live in poverty. In the midst of these challenges, Leonard
believes that the church has a vital role to play in serving this community.
When Leonard and his wife Gladys first started the church, they were involved in providing end-of-life
home-based care for an overwhelming number of people with AIDs. Now, with support from the UK
charity MAI, the church runs a primary health clinic providing over 3,000 consultaQons a month.
The clinic also has a community caregiver team that conynues to visit people at home, supportng the most vulnerable and marginalized people, often struggling with HIV and other chronic illnesses. The team reaches over 300 people a year, and their work is truly changing lives – and oSen saving lives. The practcal love of the caregivers, clinic and neighbourhood health care volunteers helps people see the Lord’s unconditonal love.
The church also runs a 90-bed respite care home, a small children’s home caring for up to 12 children, and a nursery a[ended by over 150 children every week day.
Going out and serving the community has seen the church grow from a small home group in 2002 to
seven churches across the Embo area, with a total congregaton of over 800. Just last year, 76 people
decided to follow Jesus through the work of the caregivers and clinic, and 14 of them have been
baptsed. A further 34 gave their lives to the through the witness of other church members, and 23
were baptsed.
Come and hear the incredible story of how God is working through Pastor Leonard and his church,
with the chance to ask questons and be inspired by what God can do through us when the body of
Christ comes together to serve.
www.medicassistnternatonal.org