Exodus 34: 6b -7a “I am the Lord. The Lord is a God who shows mercy and is kind. The Lord doesn’t become angry quickly. The Lord has great love and faithfulness. 7 The Lord is kind to thousands of people. The Lord forgives people for wrong and sin and turning against him. (Int. Children’s Bible)

Reflecting on 60 years of African Enterprise, I remember hearing Bishop Festo Kivengere speak when I was a teenager in England. “Walking in the light” was the message of the man with a very dark skin, reminding those with white skins, that all our hearts were black – all needed to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus to purify us from all sin and be able to have fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7).

Festo came to Melbourne with Michael Cassidy in 1978, and with my husband Malcolm, I went to the first African Enterprise meeting, beginning our prayer commitment to AE.

The Lord revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai is the One preached for sixty years in AE. As we begin this Gold Anniversary year, God’s faithfulness to forgive is my point for praise.

“But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 The Passion Translation).

May we allow His light to search and cleanse our hearts, so that we may be reconciled to one another and able to demonstrate Jesus by His and our love on display together in deed and word.

One of Festo’s favourite stories reminds us of how good the Lord is at fixing us:

“One day a little girl sat watching her mother working in the kitchen. She asked her mummy, ‘What does God do all day long?’ For a while the mother was stumped, but then she said, ‘Darling, I’ll tell you what God does all day long. He spends his whole day mending broken things.'”