The Gauteng Department of Health announced on Saturday that total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the province as at May 8 sits at 1851, with 1247 recoveries and 18 deaths.

Many families have had to adjust to new routines with the extension of the lockdown. Nathan Adams writes about life in Cape homes in a time of crisis

Almost six out of every 10 new infections recorded on Saturday were from the Western Cape province, data released by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize shows.

The near-term economic fallout of the pandemic in the country was expected to be severe.

Book lovers can have their books delivered to their doorsteps, alongside their favourite takeaways. This development is as a result of the partnership between book-selling Exclusive Books and UberEats.

Safety preparations for public service employees to return to work under the Covid-19 level four regulations should have been made long before workers were recalled for duty, the Public Servants Association said on Saturday.

More than 1600 people have now recovered from the Covid-19 in the Western Cape, the provincial government said on Saturday.

Denis Goldberg lived his with integrity, and devoted it to fighting racism and inequality.

At least 500 000 people took advantage of the inter-province travel window period and returned to Gauteng by Thursday, said premier David Makhura.

A 56-year-old Johannesburg man was arrested during a roadblock at Calvinia in the Northern Cape this week for storing drugs in his spare tyre.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Saturday descended on the Western Cape as pressure mounted on the national government to intervene in the coastal province.

After 19 hours of being beaten and forced at gunpoint to extort money from family and friends a Bellair man is lucky to be alive.

The tally of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases reported by 53 African Union (AU) members states by Saturday stood at 57 746 confirmed cases; and 2 151 deaths.

Supermoms who have been on the front line since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic said passion for their jobs had sustained them during difficult demanding times.

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2).

God knows how to get results.

God makes leaders by taking people with the right raw material, putting them through the right experiences, and teaching them the right lessons. That's how he trained Peter, and the results were astonishing. In the first twelve chapters of Acts we see Peter initiating the move to replace Judas with Matthias, preaching powerfully on the Day of Pentecost, healing a lame man, standing up to the Jewish authorities, confronting Ananias and Sapphira, dealing with Simon the magician, healing Aeneas, raising Dorcas from the dead, and taking the gospel to the Gentiles. In addition, he wrote two epistles that pass on to us all the lessons he learned from Jesus. What a leader!

Peter was as much a model of spiritual leadership in death as he was in life. Jesus told him he would be crucified for God's glory, and early church tradition tells us that Peter was in fact crucified. But before putting him to death, his executioners forced him to watch the crucifixion of his wife. As he stood at the foot of her cross, he encouraged her by saying over and over, "Remember the Lord, remember the Lord." When it was time for his own crucifixion, he requested that he be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die as his Lord had died. His request was granted.

Just as God transformed Peter from a brash and impulsive fisherman into a powerful instrument for His glory, so He can transform everyone who is yielded to Him.

You will never be an apostle, but you can have the same depth of character and know the same joy of serving Christ that Peter knew. There's no higher calling in the world than to be an instrument of God's grace. Peter was faithful to that calling—you be faithful too!

Suggestions for Prayer

• Praise God for the assurance that He will perfect the work He has begun in you (Phil. 1:6).
• Ask Him to use the experiences you have today as instruments that shape you more into the image of Christ.

For Further Study

Read John 21:18-23.

• How did Jesus describe Peter's death?
• What was Peter's reaction to Christ's announcement?
• What misunderstanding was generated by their conversation?

From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

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• The MacArthur Study Bible
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