Revival Seeds Germinate March 2018 (part 2)

12. Taking back lost Territory

The indifference of the churches to evangelistic outreach has always been a problem all around the Peninsula. The situation in Woodstock and Salt River had no good record in this regard. The two crime- infested suburbs, made up of people of lesser means, had become predominantly Islamic within a few years in the early 1990s.

In March 1994, Pastor Graham Gernetsky, the senior pastor of the Cape Town Baptist Church, organized a missions week with theological students from the Cape Town Baptist Theological Seminary. 
            Reverend Gernetsky reacted positively to my suggestion to engage in prayer warfare with the students not only in Bo-Kaap, but also in Woodstock. This would be tantamount to an attempt to take back territory that satan had stolen through drug abuse, prostitution and gangsterism.

          During a prayer walk with the students - which formed part of the missions week - a local Woodstock resident mentioned Pastor William Tait and his fellowship. This led to contact with the local Assemblies of God congregation there. When Pastor Tait started his ministry in 1989, that suburb was becoming completely Islamic, albeit not for a reason that made Muslims proud.  Christians were leaving Woodstock as gangsterism and prostitution took the area by storm.  By 1990 it had become the drug hub of the metropolis.

                                                By 1990 Woodstock had become

                                                the drug hub of the metropolis

The 1994 missions week was also the start of closer co-operation between the Assemblies of God fellowship and the small local Baptist Church. (I had been preaching occasionally at the Baptist fellowship, which had no pastor at that time.)

The Face of Woodstock changed

Towards the end of the decade, the notorious suburb slowly changed its religious complexion.  The centre of drug-peddling and prostitution moved to more lucrative areas. Pastor Tait and his church were ably assisted by the small local Baptist Church under the inspiring and pioneering sickly new minister, Pastor Edgar Davids. Sadly, Davids died in March 1998 after his body rejected a transplanted kidney.

The two buildings where these churches congregated, visibly demonstrated the need for change in the area. Both structures had become quite dilapidated by 1995. The Baptist Church bought the ruin of the old Aberdeen Street Dutch Reformed Church, and soon they started to restore it with financial and practical aid from North Carolina believers in the USA.

The Fountain of Joy Assemblies of God - the new name of the vibrant fellowship -initially rented a delapidated building from the Woodstock Presbyterian Church in 1997. The Presbyterian congregation found it difficult to survive in the deteriorating suburb. (Almost all their members had either left the area or passed away but they still ran the adjacent retirement centre.) The lively fellowship was in many ways an exception to the general indifference. From 1994, the Fountain of Joy Assemblies of God conducted prayer meetings every morning on weekdays at five o’clock.

            God started using these two fellowships of Woodstock - to gradually change the face of the suburb. Almost before our eyes we could see this happening.  The restored churches, respectively in Clyde and Aberdeen Streets, that once had been the shame of local Christianity, now stood there as a visible testimony to God’s renewal power in that suburb. In the new millennium we continued praying that something similar would happen in the spiritual realm.

           

Sports in Outreach

In 1991 a Christian surfing club was started at the Cape Town Baptist Church in an attempt to reach unchurched surfers. Mike Geldenhuys, a young believer who proceeded to study theology at the Cape Town Baptist Seminary, invited Roy Harley, a devout surfer from Durban, to come and challenge the youngsters at a camp. Nathan, the son of Graham Gernetsky, the pastor, invited his friend Terran Williams. Demitri Nikiforos and Nathan Gernetsky were two other teenagers who, like Terran Williams, later went into full-time ministry.

Demitri Nikiforos became a pioneering pastor of Calvary Chapel in the Mother City and Terran Williams became the leader of the Common Ground denomination in 2017.

A Basketball ministry at the Cape Town Baptist Church in the mid-1990s was started by Elsabe Odendal that would have a huge impact among City teenagers. At the time of the 2010 World Cup, soccer was also used as a vehicle to reach out to many juveniles who knew very little about the Gospel before that.

While Pastor Brian Wood was the senior pastor at the Cape Town Baptist Church the sports ministry thrived. Gospel seed was sown into many a young Muslim heart. Eric Hofmeyer became his youth pastor, who took the sports ministry of that congregation to an even higher level.

Prayer inspired by the Fear of civil War

The concrete fear of civil war inspired prayer across the racial divides at the beginning of 1994.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Methodist Bishop Stanley Mogoba convened a meeting between Dr Nelson Mandela and Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, trying to resolve the deadlock posed by Inkatha Freedom Party’s threat to boycott the elections. Rev. Michael Cassidy and his Africa Enterprise enlisted prayer assistance from all over the world. Few other countries participated in the international prayer effort like Kenya and Nigeria. In a special move of God’s Spirit, Pastor Willy Oyegun from Nigeria and a group of prayer warriors from that country were led to come and intercede in South Africa in February 1994.

Soon hereafter, on 16 March 1994, Constand Viljoen severed the close link with Dr Buthelezi through the Freedom Alliance. Viljoen formed his own political party, the Freedom Front, and agreed to participate in the elections. I believe that this was the result of the many prayers offered in various places at this time, making the feared civil war less ominous - for that moment at least.

                        The country came close to civil war.

God called a police officer, Colonel Johan Botha, to recruit prayer warriors. The press took up his story, reporting how God supernaturally came to him in a vision. An angel stood before him on 23 March, 1994 with the message: “I want South Africa on its knees in prayer”. A national prayer day was announced for 6 April, 1994 - a national holiday at that time called Founder’s Day. The country was very close to a civil war, which surely could have sent many foreigners and other ‘Whites’ fleeing in all haste just before or after the elections.

Reputable Negotiators brought in

Two reputable negotiators were brought in, along with the more or less internationally unknown Professor Washington Okumu. Lord Carrington was a former British Foreign Minister, who had brokered an accord for Zimbabwe at Lancaster House in London in 1980. Dr Henry Kissinger, a former US Secretary of State, headed off a major crisis in the Middle East through his shuttle diplomacy in the 1970s. The distinguished group of three negotiators had great difficulty however in their attempt to induce the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) to participate in the elections.

An ominous Civil War looms

After both President de Klerk and Nelson Mandela had refused to postpone the elections, along with other difficulties during the negotiations, the two prominent gentlemen from the UK and the USA left the country, acknowledging their failure to achieve a settlement. This happened on 13 April, 1994 - only two weeks before the elections were due. The scene was set for the outbreak of civil war of massive proportions. Journalists flew in from all over the world to witness and record the carnage that was expected to follow the elections.

God intervenes spectacularly

Professor Okumu heeded the request of Michael Cassidy to stay behind when his prominent Western colleagues left.  On 15 April, Okumu rushed to meet Dr Buthulezi by taxi at the Lanseria Airport to explain a new proposal to be presented to the Zulu King, but he was too late. He could only see the aeroplane taking off.

                        Divine intervention occurred. Some

                        strange navigational reading caused

                        the pilot to return to the small airport.

Divine intervention occurred when it was announced that the aircraft was returning. Some strange navigational reading caused the pilot to return to the small airport. (Afterwards no fault was discovered with the machine). God indeed had to intervene supernaturally to get the aeroplane, in which Dr Buthelezi was sitting, to return unexpectedly to the airport for a divine appointment with Professor Okumu.)                                                                        Under the spiritual leadership of Dr. Michael Cassidy, founder of African Enterprise, thousands gathered in a stadium in Natal to pray for peace. It was with godly wisdom and insight that Dr. Cassidy and other Christian leaders negotiated for peaceful elections and community with support from all peoples. The world expected a bloodbath, but the Church got to pray in all urgency.

The request to Professor Okumu thus coincided with a special prayer event at Durban’s King’s Park Stadium on Sunday 17 April. In spite of warnings and the risk of bombs exploding, 30,000 Christians gathered for that occasion. There Okumu’s proposal was passed to leaders of the IFP, the ANC and Danie Schutte of the Nationalist Party. In frantic negotiations almost around the clock it was finally agreed not only to add the picture of Dr Buthulezi to the ballot papers, but also to get the process in motion to do this on 80 million of them and surmounting other huge logistic hurdles.

Media teams from every major network around the world flew in. As millions of people stood in long lines waiting to cast the first vote of their lives, it soon became evident that a miracle was happening. Within twenty-four hours, media teams were called home because there was no story, seen from the normal journalistic perspective that concentrates on calamities and catastrophes. 

To God Be the Glory!

How wrong the international media were! What would follow was in fact a miraculous story. This was God answering the cries of His children.  This was a miracle happening in our generation. 

Many Kenyans had been praying for South Africa in its moment of crisis. It was very fitting that God used Professor Okumu to broker the accord with the IFP and Dr Buthulezi. It was a move that literally steered the country away from the precipice at the eleventh hour. Millions of ballot papers had been printed. Hurriedly a similar number of stickers were prepared to be added to the ballot papers to give the South African electorate the added option of voting for the IFP. Believers in different parts of the world, including Kenyans and thousands of South Africans - gave God the honour for divinely guiding the country to an unprecedented four days of peaceful revolution, as the election process was dubbed.

          In answer to the prayers of millions, God brought about the miracle elections that might have gone awry if satan had his way. It was clear that in the end it was primarily neither military actions nor boycotts which toppled apartheid. It was God’s sovereign work.

International Initiatives that impacted the Cape

Something very remarkable happened in 1999 in England when Peter Craig challenged young people in England to pray non-stop for 30 days, asking the Lord for this generation of young people to come back to God. It began as the vision of a local church in England based on the model of Count Zinzendorf in Herrnhut in the 18^th century.

            Bennie Mostert and Daniel Brink attended a conference led by Tom Hess in Jerusalem, bringing the message back to South Africa. In September 1999 this new challenge commenced in South Africa as 24-hour prayer watches. Since then hundreds of new 24/7 prayer watches have started globally.

Start of a 24-hour Prayer Room

„Sooispit” - the turning of the soil – in preparation for the building of a prayer room in the Western Cape, took place on February 9, 2000. The premises in Bellville were earmarked to become a 24-hour prayer room for intercessors from the entire continent.

Daniel and Estelle Brink were called to lead the NUPSA initiative to get a 24-hour Prayer Watch off the ground at the Cape. That this was spiritual warfare of a high degree became evident when Daniel Brink became critically ill shortly after commencing his new function. The Lord touched and healed him in answer to the prayers of many intercessors.

Outreach to Foreigners

When we started to pray about the possible ministry to foreigners at our Friday lunch-hour meeting, God used these occasions to prepare Louis Pasques’s heart. He had just become the senior pastor of Cape Town Baptist Church. When the destitute Congolese refugee teenager Surgildas (Gildas) Paka pitched up at the church, Louis and his wife Heidi sensed that God was challenging them to take special care of the youngster. One weekend Louis and Heidi had their parents over for a visit. They asked Alan Kay, an elder and the administrator of Cape Town Baptist Church, to provide accommodation to the destitute teenager.  Gildas captivated Alan’s heart. This was the beginning of an extended and unusual adoption process. One thing led to the other until Alan Kay not only finally adopted Gildas, but he also got more and more involved in compassionate care of other refugees. Soon the Cape Town Baptist Church became a home to refugees from many African countries. Gildas and our son Rafael became quite close friends and Basketball buddies.

            Allain Ravelo-Hoërson (The Evangelism Alliance Mission, TEAM) played a big part in establishing the ministry among Francophone Africans at the church, along with other missionaries who had been working in countries where French is the lingua franca. Allain ministered there faithfully from 1998 to August 2001, when he and his wife left to study in London. He was supported by Ruth Craill, a SIM missionary, who had ministered in West Africa with her husband Edgar.  

                                     

A positive Change towards Refugees

The attitude of ‘Whites’ in the Cape Town Baptist Church hereafter gradually changed positively towards refugees. Before long, quite a few refugee-background Africans started attending our churches services, especially when special ones in French were arranged monthly and later twice a month. This was started as an effort to help equip the Francophone believers for loving outreach to the Muslim French-speakers from our continent. The goal was not achieved but the word spread quite well, so that in due course also other churches started opening their doors to refugees.

         The need for refugees to get employment was the cause for the English language classes at the church to be revitalized. This inspired the offer of free English lessons to many of these refugees. The simultaneous need for a discipling house for Muslim converts and a drug rehabilitation centre gave birth to the Dorcas Trust. I hoped that the city churches could take ownership of these needs in a united venture. (That turned out to be easier said than done.)

The Koffiekamer as a Channel of Blessing                                                                                               The Koffiekamer, once rejected as the venue for a 24-hour prayer watch, suddenly became a major channel of blessing when an Alpha Course was started there. A special role in the effort towards transformation in the city was accorded to it when many a homeless person was transformed by the power of the Gospel, and prayer meetings for the city started at that venue on every last Wednesday of the month. This is where we got increased contact with Vlok Esterhuyse, an Afrikaner believer linked to the Gardens Presbyterian Church. He would become one of our faithful intercessors at the Cape Town Central Police Station.

                                    Many a homeless person was transformed by the

                                                            power of the Gospel

Praying through the Window

At the sending of prayer teams to different spiritual strongholds in 1997 as a part of the prayer initiatives called Praying through the Window, a team from the Dutch Reformed congregation Suikerbosrand in Heidelberg (Gauteng) followed the nudge of NUPSA to come and pray in the Mother City.

This was spiritually significant because Heidelberg had once been the cradle of the racist and right-wing Afrikaanse Weerstandsbeweging (AWB). That the AWB town was sending a team to pray for Bo-Kaap, might have hit the headlines had it been publicized! But all this was undercover stuff. This was transpiring at a time when PAGAD was still terrorizing the Cape Peninsula. The Bo-Kaap was not geographically situated in the 10/40 window, but NUPSA (Network of United Prayer in Southern Africa) leader Bennie Mostert discerned accurately that it was the case ideologically. (It had become a Muslim bastion because of Apartheid.)

Moravian Hill hosts a strategic Meeting                                                                              

As part of this visit from Gauteng, a prayer meeting of confession was organized for November 1, 1997, in front of the (former) Moravian Church in District Six. Our intercessory co-worker Sally Kirkwood not only had a vision for the desolate District Six to be revived through prayer, but she also informed Richard Mitchell and Mike Winfield about the event. The Cape prayer movement received a major lift. I asked Eben Swart to lead the occasion. That turned out to be very strategic. Eben Swart’s position as Western Cape Prayer Coordinator of Herald Ministries was cemented. He got linked to the pastors’ and pastors’ wives prayer meeting led by Ps. Eddie Edson.  The confession ceremony in District Six on November 1, 1997 closed with the demolition of an altar that satanists or other occultists had probably erected there.

The event on Moravian Hill attempted to break the spirit of death and forlornness over the area, so that it would be inhabited again. However, it would take another seven years before that dream started to materialise (and abused for election purposes in 2004).  (Twenty years after 1997 not much has happened in terms of new inhabitants coming to District Six, but ideologically a change was taking place. It has been becoming increasingly Islamic. The group of people that determined who would be allotted housing there, saw to it that Muslims would be the bulk of the beneficiaries by far.)

                                                A District Six watershed for many participants

1 November 1997 became a watershed for quite a few participants.  Afterwards Gill Knaggs, Trish and Dave Whitecross were challenged to go and serve in the Middle East. Sally Kirkwood became a significant Cape intercessor. Richard Mitchell, Eben Swart and Mike Winfield linked up more closely in a relationship that would have a significant mutual effect on the prayer ministry at the Cape in the next few years, and on transformation in the city at large.

Mike Winfield belonged to the Anglican congregation in Bergvliet. (This Anglican parish became prominently involved in the transformation attempts in the Mother City with Trevor Pearce as their new pastor via the mass prayer rallies at Newlands Rugby Stadium in the first years of the new millennium.) 

Citywide Prayer Events

1998 brought significant steps to effect more unity in the body of Christ city-wide through the initiatives of NUPSA and Herald Ministries. Regular prayer meetings at the Mowbray Baptist Church ensued, with believers coming from different parts of the Peninsula and from diverse racial and church backgrounds. The meetings carried a strong message of unity. The Mowbray exercise brought together two racial groups for prayer, becoming the forerunner of citywide events.

Work among Refugees in Cape northern Suburbs 

Many Angolans entered the country after 1994. With the arrival of Pastor Cleber Balaniuc from Brazil and the implementation of a clear discipleship strategy, the congregation grew and developed to a point where 90% of ministry functions were performed by former Angolans.

The outreach to refugees became one of the most blessed aspects of the life of the Bellville Baptist Church.  The church leadership also discerned the important responsibility to develop and train Christian leaders. The Bellville church assimilated French speakers within the existing structures of the church. These have been expanded to provide Bible studies in French, English lessons and computer classes for refugees.                

Lima Zamba fled to South Africa from Angola in 1994. He became a follower of Jesus a few years later and married a South African. After completing his studies in 2006, Lima served as pastoral assistant at the Parow Portuguese Baptist Church.  He had a strong call to serve as a missionary in his home country Angola. At the end of 2007 he left to serve there as a missionary.

A Link forged with Community Transformation elsewhere

Pastor Eddie Edson of the Shekinah Tabernacle Full Gospel congregation of Mitchells Plain organised two all-night citywide prayer events on 25 June and 15 October 1999. By this time ‘White’ pastors started to attend the monthly pastors' gathering more regularly, even at places like Die Hok in Manenberg, a former drug den and headquarters of the Hard Livings gang.

          Rev. Trevor Pearce, an Anglican minister from the township Belhar, started joining these prayer meetings. He was no stranger to the pain and hardship of discrimination and violence, yet his gentle disposition was often used by God to fulfil the role of peacemaker. Trevor Pearce attended a Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) retreat in Richmond, Virginia in the USA. It was at this conference that he heard a story that gripped his heart and mind. Director John Guernsey told the miraculous story of God at work in the city of Cali, Columbia. Reports of saved lives, community transformation, and national influence resounded so deeply in Trevor's heart that he felt broken, thinking of his own home country. Was it possible that South Africa could ever experience this kind of transformation?

He sat and listened to every word, not missing a detail of the incredible story. It felt as though the words were exploding into his soul, and in an instant he knew that God was birthing something of such importance and significance that he could not wait to return home.

Flying home to South Africa, Rev. Pearce guarded his most prized treasures - an audio copy of the retreat and a bound copy of the soon to be published book Informed Intercessions by George Otis, jr. This documented account of what happened in Cali (Columbia) also included principles for successful community transformation.

          Trevor Pearce wasted no time in getting to a pastors and wives event. As the group listened to the recorded voice of George Otis and watched the stories of transformation and redemption, they too felt that deep stirring in their hearts. There seemed to be so many similarities between the two countries. Drugs, death, and despair had all been part of daily life for the residents of Cali, Columbia, until the Holy Spirit brought transformation through the praying church. What satan had intended for evil, God was using for good.

          At the city-wide prayer event at the Lighthouse Christian Centre on 15 October 1999 the Transformation video was viewed by the audience.

The Body of Christ made visible       

The unity of the Body of Christ became visible to some extent at a mass half-night of prayer on 18 February 2000 on the Grand Parade. On the same weekend Pieter Bos and Cees Vork, representing the prayer movement in Holland, joined local Christians in confession and in praying against anti-Christian spiritual strongholds in the Cape Peninsula. Four thousand Christians from a wide spectrum of denominations gathered there.

            Denominationalism, materialism and other evils of South African society in which the Church had played a role in the past, were confessed. In a moving moment just before midnight, Pieter Bos and Cees Vork confessed the catastrophic contribution of their forefathers to the evils of Cape society.

A prayer network evolved countrywide through the prayer watches. Here the electronic media played a big role. What a blessing it was to see how the ‘seeds’ that we had been sowing from 1992 at the Cape, were starting to germinate. 

          The event on the Grand Parade was followed during the next days by strategic ‘Closing the Gates’ prayer occasions.  Other meetings like a combined church service on the Bellville Velodrome gave the impression that revival was in the air.

            The moving confession of Pieter Bos because of Dutch colonial guilt at the shrine of Sheikh Yusuf at Macassar, the pioneer of Cape Islam, moved an Indonesian brother deeply. Hereafter we went to Vergelegen, the farm of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, a notorious 17^th century Cape Dutch governor.

A Vision partly fulfilled        

In October 2000 during our prayer walk group in Bo-Kaap I was very much encouraged. We met a Congolese Bible School student who was on the verge of returning to his home country as an evangelist after being impacted and trained in Cape Town.  One of our long-time visions had been to see individuals equipped in South Africa holistically who could be a blessing to their country of origin on their return there.

         Alan Kay, the administrator of Cape Town Baptist Church, had been studying Theology part-time, ultimately graduating at the Baptist Seminary. After he left the Cape Town Baptist Church, he linked up with the Salvation Army, where he soon accepted a pastoral post. He also attended a newly formed fellowship of the Calvary Chapel in the church hall of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.

         Alan Kay had been very much involved with the ministry to foreigners at Cape Town Baptist Church since its inception in 1996. This was done by missionaries from various agencies who were fluent in French. Anaclet Mbayagu from Burundi was one a number of refugees who left Cape Town Baptist Church in 2002. He later became one of the stalwarts of the Calvary Chapel fellowship. The Calvary Chapel congregation, at which foreigners were fully integrated, soon had more members from other countries than South Africans.

+ Culture among Youth in the City Bowl                                      

Our second eldest son Rafael returned from Germany at the end of 1999 where he had been evangelising with Youth for Christ in a mobile bus for the greater part of the year. After his return from overseas an interdenominational youth ministry called + culture (cross-culture, with the emphasis on the emblem of the Cross) started to flourish. With his music talent, our son Danny was quite pivotal in this movement.  Unfortunate interference by a pastor who had little vision for the unity of the Body of Christ brought the promising revivalist movement amongst youth to naught.

Emulation in other Churches                                                                                                                              The example of the two Baptist churches, the one in the City Centre and the other one in Bellville, found emulation in other Baptist congregations, not always with an easily discernible link – notably in Meadowridge and Fish Hoek - but also in spiritually-related ones like the Life Church (formerly Atlantic Christian Assembly, ACA) of Sea Point and the Jubilee Church in Observatory.  Alongside these ‘mainline’ churches, nationalist ones sprang up and others, where foreigners could enjoy their home culture and speak their own language or dialect. As a direct effect of the xenophobic violence of May and June 2008, many local Christians started appreciating foreigners and the contribution they were making. However, the negative attitude towards Black Africans continued almost unabatedly in some townships. A few ‘White’ churches were positively impacted through those difficult months when many a foreigner was accommodated in their church complex and in homes. Some congregations consciously launched a programme of providing employment via their cell groups. These formerly almost completely 'White' churches – i.e. those consisting of predominantly English-speaking Caucasians - became a haven for many a new African sojourner at the Cape.

Demonic Forces at Work

PAGAD was prematurely given the blame for a bomb explosion at the car park of Cape Town International Airport on 18^th July 2000.

                                                Demonic forces tried to

                                                create havoc and anarchy!

Obviously, there were demonic forces at work trying to create havoc and anarchy! The protracted violent conflict between taxi drivers and the Golden Arrow bus company resulted in quite a number of people dead or wounded. This was a reminder that a miracle was needed to turn the tide. 

            In October 2000 PAGAD members were arrested and some of their leaders tried.  The tension in the Middle East had a spin-off, when big Islamic rallies were held. The one on 14 October 2000 at the old Green Point Stadium was counter-productive in respect of the Islamic faith when supporters damaged cars and property such as at McDonald’s. The crowd had been hyped up at the rally against Americans and Jews.

          The prayers of God’s people - that the tension between Muslims and Jews locally would not spiral out of control - were surely answered when a time bomb under the car of a Jewish man was discovered and defused before the device could cause any damage. However, a bomb explosion near to the offices of the Democratic Alliance in Kenilworth on 18 October 2000 kept the tension alive because the leader of that party, Tony Leon, was known to be a Jew. Was PAGAD getting a new lease of life? Muslim unity at the Cape seemed to be resuscitated in the wake of the Middle East conflict.

Special Dream of Graham Power

During their annual holiday in Spain, the businessman Graham Power had a very special dream.  He had a supernatural visitation, during which he was challenged to approach the Western Province Rugby Board for the use of their stadium at Newlands for a mass prayer event. Graham did not expect an easy ride to get permission for a mass prayer event on 21 March 2001, but what he did not envisage was massive opposition of Church leaders. Many meetings were scheduled, but the response was not encouraging.

            At a meeting in the Black township of Langa where he narrated his vision, the response was overwhelmingly negative. This is how it is recorded in his book Not by Might nor by Power.

‘The room got hotter, and for a moment his mind wandered away from the debate until he was sharply brought back at that moment by a voice that broke through the questioning crowd.

             Slowly standing to her feet, a Xhosa woman called Mamela, spoke with conviction and authority. The room seemed to settle in an instant as her voice cried out, 'What is this thing? When God gives a vision we are not to question, we are to come alongside and support.'  That caused the breakthrough.    

          The big event on 21 March 2001 at the Newlands Rugby Stadium and its repetition in the years thereafter, augured very well in human terms. Concerted prayer, followed by action in the Helderberg region and in Manenberg (of gangster fame), altered the respective communities significantly for the better.

Transformation begins to take Shape

Trevor Pearce and John Thomas are two clergymen who were in more than one sense radiating the face of Cape Transformation the first years of the new millennium as they became involved on the practical level. As the pastor of the church that began CCFM radio, John Thomas utilised the medium fully already in 1999 to challenge churches, especially those of the Fish Hoek Valley, to get involved with assistance to the poor and needy. 

             Specifically with regard to schooling and HIV/AIDS, Rev. Pearce was very much a pivot in an attempt to get the church and the business world partnering, an effort that would change the former informal settlement at Westlake significantly for the better.

          The annual Transformation events in sports stadiums were followed by a ‘week of bounty’, where the more affluent churches were motivated and encouraged to share sacrificially with those on the other side of the economic divide. That this effort was organised and planned fairly formally, diminished its value in terms of spiritual renewal. (In genuine revivals phenomena like these happen spontaneously.)

Ministries to Drug Addicts

The Lord brought new role-players to reach out lovingly to drug addicts. The Ark was a ministry that was started in Durban. When a few workers came to the Cape in the early 1990s, their ministry focused on the homeless, but drug addicts soon found their way there, where some came to faith in Christ.                                                         Teen Challenge, a ministry that was founded by David Wilkerson through a special outreach to gangsters in the USA, was God’s divine instrument for similar ministry from the mid-1990s.  They started operating at premises in the northern parts of the metropolis at Eerste River.

           The drug rehabilitation ministry with arguably the greatest impact at the Cape to date is Victory Outreach. This agency was founded by Nicky Cruz, the hero of the Billy Graham-sponsored movie The Cross and the Switchblade. (Nicky Cruz was one of the first converts emerging from the work of Teen Challenge). Pastor James Brady came to the Cape with a small team in 2006.  The ministry blossomed and expanded within a matter of months. Many young people have since been delivered from drug addiction in Jesus’ name.

A Fight for Freedom in religious Expression       

Twenty thousand Cape Christians from different races and denominations marched in unity on 2 September 1998, fighting for freedom in religious expression.  One of the banners proclaimed 'United we stand'. This was a wry reminder of PAGAD’s main slogan. Wisely, the government dropped its plans to regulate radio stations prescriptively.

          The mass march to Parliament in response to the perceived government attack on community radio stations was followed by a big prayer event on Table Mountain a few weeks later. At the big prayer rally on September 26, 1998 a few thousand Christians prayed along the contour road of Table Mountain in an effort to rename the adjacent reviled peak ‘God’s Mountain.’ The event inspired a new initiative, whereby a few believers from diverse backgrounds started to come together at 6.a.m. for prayer on Signal Hill on Saturdays every alternate week.[1]                                                                                                                                                Quite a close relationship developed to Richard Mitchell and his family after we had started early morning prayer meetings on Signal Hill. When a door opened for a regular testimony programme on Friday evening on Radio CCFM, Richard Mitchell was a natural choice. The programme ‘God Changes Lives’ with him as presenter was also used to advertise the citywide prayer events.[2] As a rule I did the spadework behind the scenes, conducting the interviews with the people.

A renaming Attempt of ‘Devil’s Peak’

The unofficial renaming attempt of ‘Devil’s Peak’ to ‘Disciples' Peak’ in 1994 - led by Pastor Johan Klopper of the Vredehoek Apostolic Faith Mission Church - and regular prayers at Rhodes Memorial, fitted into the pattern of spiritual warfare. These venues had been strongholds of satanists. Next to the battle against the lie and deception of Islam, the attempt to rename ‘Devil’s Peak’ to ‘Disciples' Peak’ would turn out to be a very big hurdle to surmount.

          Murray Bridgman, a Cape Christian advocate, felt God’s leading to perform a prophetic act in District Six. He had previously researched the history of Devil’s Peak. Along with Eben Swart, Murray Bridgman provided some research that encouraged Dr Henry Kirby to lobby Parliament to change the name of Devil’s Peak to Dove’s Peak. (Duivenkop had been an earlier name.) Dr Kirby’s role as the prayer co-ordinator of the African Christian Democratic Party resulted in a motion tabled in the City Council in June 2002. The motion was unsuccessful, fuelling suspicion that satanists may have significant influence in the City Council. In 2009 the issue was tackled again.

Prayer Efforts in the City Bowl

Some churches in the City participated in a forty-day period of prayer and fasting from Easter Sunday to Ascension Day 1998.  Rev. Louis Pasques of the Cape Town Baptist Church spearheaded this endeavour.  A weekly meeting with a prayer emphasis gained ground slowly after the 40-day effort from April to May 1998. Later that year, combined evening services were held once a month in the City Bowl in participating churches, with the venue rotating very time.   

          A corresponding period of prayer and fasting in 1999 - this time for 120 days - was concluded in the Western Cape in the traditional Groote Kerk celebration of the Lord’s Supper when pastors from different denominations officiated. This was a visible sign of a growing church unity. At that Ascension Day event, Dr Robbie Cairncross was divinely brought into the situation.  He came to the Mother City with a vision to see a network of prayer developing in the Peninsula. His prayer for an office for his Christian Coalition/Family Alliance near to Parliament was answered in a special way when he moved into the premises of the Chamber of Commerce (SACB), a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament.

Restitution made practical

Dr Robbie Cairncross helped to organize a visit of Cape church leaders to Argentina in 1999.  While he was in Argentina, Pastor Martin Heuvel of the Fountain Christian Centre in Ravensmead was moved to apply the principal of restitution to the situation in South Africa.  Pastor Heuvel realized that there was a need to make restitution practical. He began by having shops run by Christian volunteers, where all kinds of second-hand clothing and other utensils could be purchased cheaply. This idea was further developed in different suburbs. Included in this demonstration of practical Christianity were various programmes related to skills training that had been running for some time to help the homeless and the unemployed, such as the initiative The Carpenter’s Shop in the Mother City.

          The most advanced venture in this regard was possibly the Living Hope Community Centre in Muizenberg, using the acronym H.O.P.E. - Helping Other People Earn. Apart from providing healthy meals and ablution facilities, spiritual direction was also given, together with life skills training.  At the various Living Way ministries medical, social, psychological and spiritual care are given to those people who suffer from HIV and AIDS. 

An Initiative towards church-led Restitution                                                                                          Pastor Martin Heuvel attempted to get White church leaders to move beyond mere oral confession and especially towards restitution for the evils of apartheid over a period of more than two years. Some of the personalities whom he approached had been involved with the prayer movement in the country for a long time. In 2002 Pastor Heuvel approached Charles Robertson, long known for his prayer initiatives, and the catalyst of the monthly prayer concerts at the Cape since the 1980s. Here Heuvel found a prepared heart. This finally led to the establishment of the Foundation for Church-led Restitution, where believers from different races and church backgrounds have been meeting occasionally. They started to discuss possibilities to nudge the Church towards meaningful restitution, and especially to address and rectify the wrongs of apartheid.

            This initiative of Charles Robertson surely is a step in the direction of revival. However, the implementation of real unity on biblical grounds in the spirit of the person and example of Jesus - without semantics and doctrinal bickering around issues like baptism and women in the pulpit – seems to be still some way off. The Church universal still has to acknowledge collective guilt for the doctrinal bickering that led to the establishment and rise of Islam. The maltreatment of Jews by Christians falls in the same category.  This appears to remain a major stumbling block to the collective turnaround of Islam or Judaism.

Annual Marches protesting for the Life of the Unborn
Reminisicent of the protests of the Black Sash with their actions to mourn the rape of the constitution in the Apartheid era when people of colour were removed from the voters’ roll, Africa Christian Action hosts a March for Life every year on 1 February, followed by a prayer rally outside parliament. For the procession — in the form of a funeral procession — that gathers at the Keizersgracht parking near to the wall painting of an African woman, particnts dress in black. A short memorial service and wreath laying ceremony is usually held in memory of babies killed by abortion in South Africa since 1997.                                                                   The Roman Catholic Church seems to be the only denomination that still reminds the legislators of this abomination.  In 2018 a service was held on Thursday February 1 In St Mary’s Cathedral near to Parliamen, to mark the anniversary of the passage through parliament of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act in 1997, and to pray for a change of heart on the part of all who disregard the rights of unborn children.

Rumblings at the Moriah Discipling House

A period of spiritual conflict seemed to occur towards the end of 2001.  I suffered a personal setback after I had reacted inappropriately to a manipulative phone call from our house, where we disciple new followers of Jesus who had been persecuted and evicted because of that decision. 

            That set off a negative chain reaction. During the next two and a half months the tension levels in our team remained extremely high.  For my part, I was careless. After travelling by bus all night from Durban and after having had very little sleep, I resumed with my work rather carelessly on Friday, March 15, 2002. This triggered a stress-related loss of memory the next day. After a day in hospital and further medical treatment, I was cleared - with the instruction to return after a year. We realized that there were major spiritual forces involved.

13. Seed Germination at the Turn of the Century

         Rosemarie had a strange dream in October 2003 in which a young married couple, clad in Middle Eastern garb, was ready to go as missionaries to the Middle East. Suddenly the scene changed in the dream. As she narrated: ‘While the two of us were praying over the city from our dining room facing the Cape Town CBD, a massive wave came from the sea, rolling over Bo-Kaap.  The next moment the water engulfed us, but we were still holding each other by the hand. There was something threatening about the wave, but somehow we also experienced a sense of thrill.’ Then Rosemarie woke up, very conscious that God seemed to say something to us through this dream. But what was God trying to convey? The interpretation of the dream became clear quite soon. We had to prepare for a wave of opportunity – a tsunami, as tidal waves got called from the following year.

                         

A Wave of Opportunity

We heard about a conference of Middle Eastern Muslim leaders in the newly built Convention Centre of Cape Town. We decided on short notice to have our Friday prayer meeting there nearby instead of in the regular venue, the Koffiekamer of Straatwerk in Bree Street. Lillian James, one of our prayer partners, was on hand to arrange a venue for us near to the new Convention Centre. 

         The same Friday afternoon Rosemarie and our colleague Rochelle Malachowski went to the nearby Waterfront where they literally walked into a group of ladies in Middle Eastern garb. The outgoing Rochelle had no qualms to start chatting to one of them. Having resided among Palestinians in Israel, she knows some Arabic. Soon they were swarmed by other women who were of course very surprised to be addressed in their home language by a ‘White’ lady with an American accent. A cordial exchange of words followed.

         Rosemarie was reminded of her dream, sensing that God might be sending in a wave of people to Cape Town from Muslim countries. We understood that we should also get ready to send young missionaries to that area of the world when it opens itself up to the Gospel. Shortly hereafter we heard of various groups of foreigners who had come to the Mother City, including a minority group from China.

Prostate Cancer diagnosed

A medical check-up was due a year after my stress-related temporary loss of memory in March 2002. This led to a period that seemed to lead to the last lap of my 'race' on earth when prostate cancer was diagnosed on 9 October 2003. At that time however, Rosemarie also had the above-mentioned dream cum vision.     

         I had been striving for years towards achieving a more visible expression of the unity of the body of Christ, with very little success. God over-ruled via my hospitalisation for the prostate gland operation to catapult me into a co-ordinating role in the prayer movement at the Cape. I was challenged anew to look at the City Bowl 24-hour prayer watch as a matter of priority for the first half of 2004. The unity of the body of Christ, i.e. believers in the crucified and risen Saviour, had been very much on our hearts. I realised that the prayer watch could be a decisive vehicle to make this more visible - to be used as a powerful means to take the city for God.

The Net thrown wider

Soon we were serving (Uyghur) Chinese and Somalians in loving ways.  The latter group in Mitchells Plain stretched our patience. We stopped teaching English to the Somalians after a few months in mid-2005 when it became clear that they resented being taught by Christians.

            English teaching to foreigners in a small fellowship on the corner of Dorp and Loop Street on Saturday afternoons where Gary Coetzee was the pastor, turned into a double blessing. There we could not only help a few new sojourners in our city, but we also soon found a link to the nearby Boston House on the corner of Bree and Church Streets. We supplied learners from the ranks of refugees and African traders for their TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) students.  A Cameroonian was one of these students. With him we had on-going contact - one of those who became like additional sons and daughters. When we invited him to share a meal with us, the discovery that Hausa was his home language was the trigger to watch one of the More than Dreams testimonies with him. This would ultimately evolve into a weekly Discovery Bible Study with a few Muslim background foreigners

Impact of an event Film

When the movie The Passion of the Christ was released in March 2004, it was clear that this would be another event film. Hardly anybody suspected that its ripples would go around the world with so much speed. Objections by individual Roman Catholics and Jews only gave more publicity to the controversial film. Believers in Jesus Christ, ordinary cinema visitors as well as people from different religions around the globe, were deeply moved as they witnessed the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ in the unusual movie.

God used the film to communicate the Gospel as rarely before, also at the Cape. The very opposite spirit that had motivated Muslims to go and view the movie – that of the forgiving Jesus - came through.  The message of loving your enemies, and Jesus praying to His Father to forgive his persecutors while still on the Cross, hit many a theatre-goer powerfully. Quite strikingly, many Muslims hereafter seemed to start accepting the death and resurrection of Jesus, doctrines which are denied by orthodox Islam. That Jesus addressed God as his Father surely shook many of them. (In Muslim countries children learn in a nursery rhyme that God neither has a son, nor does he beget.) The effect of the film was one of the most spectacular visible and known answers to the ten years of prayer for the Muslim world. Thousands have been turning to faith in Jesus Christ in Southern Asia and the Middle East since then.

Africa Arise!

Prayer events were held in the 58 nations and African countries with its adjoining islands of the continent were held in May 2004, linked by satellite to the Newlands Rugby Stadium. With thousands of African Christians praying, it left a deep imprint on the continent.  The theme for the afternoon was that the time had come for the ‘Dark Continent’ to become a light to the nations. In an inspiring message, Argentine evangelist Ed Silvoso led millions of believers in stadiums across the continent through prayers of repentance, dedication and commitment. Two items that recurred again and again in the prayers were HIV/AIDS and poverty relief. In subsequent years many lives were saved with anti-retroviral medication as a result of a government turn around in the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients. New ministries of compassion to the poor and needy have already arisen since the 2001 event at the Newlands Rugby Stadium and its annual repetition. One of the fruits was The Warehouse, which started at St John’s Anglican Church in Wynberg. This NGO would do stalwart work during the 2008 xenophobia-related ministry at the Youngsfield Military Camp.

Contact with special Foreigners

For an Indonesian missionary colleague who had worked in China years before, it was very special to watch the video version of The Passion of the Christ in our home together with two Uyghur female medical doctors from China. Our colleague had a special burden for the Uyghur, a Muslim tribe in the Northwest of the vast and populous country. For years she prayed for those people, without seeing any change. And now God brought some of them to Cape Town. Within months we had contact with more Uyghur folk who had come to Cape Town. (The increased interaction with the Peoples' Republic of China brought many nationals from that country to Cape Town. With the Olympic Games of 2008 looming, many students came to learn English in Cape Town.)

            At this time we were introduced to Leigh Telli who loves Jews. Her husband, a North African Arab, comes from a Muslim background. An old vision was revived, serving to confirm our calling of ministering to foreigners and linking our ministry to Jews. This also brought a dormant wish of us to the surface to facilitate reconciliation of Jews and Muslims at the Cape through faith in Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

Impacting Asians

The conversion and baptism of two Uyghur Chinese in the first quarter of 2005 were very special, the result of divine intervention. One of the two converts needed a second dream to convince her that Jesus was indeed the one to follow. The other Uyghur had a similar dream of a figure radiating light, sensing a divine presence in his room.

Run-up to a Continental Prayer Convocation

It was fitting that the prelude to a prayer convocation for the African continent at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Bellville, from December 1-5, 2003 would also include a visit to Robben Island. This was a follow-up of the ‘Closing the Gates’ event of September 2001. Dr Henry Kirby, a physician at Tygerberg Hospital and a well-known intercessor, ran into problems when he tried to obtain access to the famous island as part of the prayer convocation. Just at this time, a Muslim background believer contacted Radio CCFM. It was possibly no mere coincidence that I was on the spot at the Radio CCFM premises when her fax arrived there!

          When I invited the young lady to our home for a preparatory talk with regard for a radio interview, I learned that she had been working on Robben Island for many years. Through her intervention, the necessary arrangements could be made for the prayer warriors, some of them coming from various African countries, to go and intercede on the famous island.

          

The 7-DAYS Initiative

As a follow-up strategy of Transformation Africa prayer in stadiums all over Africa in 2004, a ‘7-Days initiative’ was launched. Daniel Brink of the Jericho Walls Cape Office distributed the following communiqué: ‘...From Sunday May 9^th thousands of Christians all over South Africa will take part in a national night and day prayer initiative called ’7 Days’.  The goal was to see the whole country covered in continuous prayer for one year from 9 May 2004 to 15 May 2005. On relatively short notice, believers in communities, towns and cities in South Africa were challenged to pray 24 hours a day for 7 days. The prayer initiative started with the Western Cape taking the first seven weeks. Daniel Brink invited believers of the Cape Peninsula to ‘proclaim your trust that, when we pray, God will respond. Declare your trust that if we put an end to oppression and give food to the hungry, the darkness will turn to brightness. Pray that houses of prayer will rise up all over Africa as places where God’s goodness and mercy is celebrated in worship and prayer, even before the answer comes.’

Global Prayer Watch, the Western Cape arm of Jericho Walls, filled the first 7 days with day and night prayer at the Moravian Church premises in District Six, starting at 9 o’clock in the evening on May 9, 2004.  Every two hours - around the clock - a group of musicians would lead the ‘Harp and Bowl’ intercessory worship, whereby the group would pray over Scripture. In another part of the compound, intercessors could pray or paste prayer requests in the adjacent ‘boiler room’.

What a joy it was for Hendrina van der Merwe, the fervent Afrikaner intercessor, to be present on the 9^th May 2004 in the Moravian Chapel. However, she would neither experience a spiritual breakthrough towards new church planting in Bo-Kaap nor the start of a 24-hour Prayer Watch in the City Bowl. She went to be with her Lord on 31 December 2004 with the Bible in her hand.

Jericho Walls challenged millions of believers all over the world ‘to seek the face of the Lord and ask him to fill the earth with his glory as the waters cover the seas’ (Habakkuk 2:14) from the 6^th to the 15^th May 2005. Young people were encouraged to do a ‘30-second Kneel Down’ on Friday 13 May, and to have prayer, a ‘Whole night for the Whole World on Saturday 14 May, just before the Global Day of Prayer. ’

Additional Disclosure

Adriaan Vlok is the only former apartheid Cabinet minister (of Law and Order) to have testified before the Amnesty Committee of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Former President P.W. Botha had ‘intense interest’ in security. A central role was given to the police to ‘sort out’ unrest. Botha had congratulated Vlok for police operations, including the bombing of Khotso House in Johannesburg where the South African Council of Churches’ has it headquarters. Vlok received amnesty from prosecution for a series of bombings.

                                    An apartheid Cabinet minister                                                                                                     apologised to a prominent                                                                                                                anti-apartheid activist

In mid-2006 Mr Adriaan Vlok came forward with an apology for a number of acts that he had not disclosed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and for which he could therefore be prosecuted. In a very special gesture, the former apartheid era Minister of Law and Order apologized (initially privately) to Reverend Frank Chikane, a prominent anti-apartheid activist and a trusted adviser to President Thabo Mbeki. As secretary-general of the South African Council of Churches, Rev. Chikane had been targeted by the security establishment for assassination. Subsequently, Adriaan Vlok extended his journey of repentance by washing the feet of 9 widows and mothers of the 'Mamelodi 10', who were lured to their deaths by some police agent. Their bodies were burned and buried in a field in Winterveld, near Pretoria, where the remains were found and identified by the National Prosecuting Agency.                                                                                The gesture of former Minister Vlok had a blessed aftermath when he shared his testimony in many a church all around the country.

Personal Challenges

Towards the end of 2003, it was my turn to be taken by the scruff of the neck. During the post-operative period in Kingsbury Hospital after the removal of my cancerous prostate, I was challenged to stop looking for other people to get a 24-hour prayer watch going in the City Bowl.

Superintendent Fanie Scanlen became an important instrument in our effort to get more prayer into the Central Police Station. That was a significant part of the preparations for the first Global Day of Prayer on 15 May 2005.  Scanlen also organised a teaching course with Christian principles at the police station, which allowed us to meet other Christians working there. Trevor Peters and I started building a good relationship with Tania de Freitas, who was ranked captain.  Starting in 2006, Tania faithfully attended our Wednesday meetings, becoming God’s instrument for the transforming of many lives in the course of her duties in counselling traumatised people. Along with Vuyani Nyama, another policeman working there, meetings were organised on Fridays which very much had the stamp of revival.  People were healed and lives changed. The arch-enemy must have been very unhappy, because thereafter there was fierce opposition at the police station to these meetings.

Captain Tania de Freitas would become a fearless stalwart prayer warrior at the station who challenged the station leadership towards the end of 2009 to uphold absolute ethical norms.  This caused her to be hassled and ostracised by many at the station. In February 2018 she was still there as the pivot when regular monthly prayer resumed at the Losie, the former venue of a freemason lodge at the Police Station.

A Prayer Venue at the Civic Centre

In due course Die Losie became our regular prayer venue. As preparation for the 2006 Global Day of Prayer, prayer drives were organised during which participants prayed Scripture.  The prayer drives converged at the Central Police Station in Buitenkant Street. God used this event to touch at least one person in a special way. Wim Ferreira had been a transport engineer working with the City Council. He was challenged to resign from his position to concentrate on prayer for the City. He was hereafter invited to work with the Deputy Mayor of the metropolis.

            When all the groups had arrived at the former freemason lodge, Daniel Brink, the co-ordinator of the event, asked me to share in a few words how God had changed things at the police station. Wim Ferreira was deeply impacted there. He promptly requested a room for prayer in the metropolitan Civic Centre where he had just started to work. This was another divinely orchestrated move. A few months further on, a regular Friday prayer time was functioning in a board room of the Civic Centre. Before long, a trickle of workers from all walks of life was coming to faith in Jesus as their Lord as a result of these prayers. On Wednesdays at lunch time believers from different denominational backgrounds gathered there to pray and intercede for the city. The Lord also challenged Wim Ferreira to start a 24-hour prayer facility at the Civic Centre premises. Soon a prayer room near to the parking area on the ground floor was frequented by many people throughout the day. The foundation stone towards 24/7 prayer in the CBD of the metropolis was laid.

Mysterious Ways of God

We all know that God moves in mysterious ways. But I could not even remember how it happened that we met a young couple from Green Point, Andy and Lizelle Draai. They started praying with us, both in the Koffiekamer and at our once a month prayer meetings in Bo-Kaap from the beginning of the millennium.

            We heard that His People Ministries started a new fellowship at the Waterfront. When we attended there soon thereafter, our friend Tim Makamu was the preacher. He had become the senior pastor in the vibrant denomination that had planted quite a few churches in the Western Cape and elsewhere by this time. He immediately spotted Rosemarie and me in the audience and promptly called me to the front. I utilised the occasion to challenge the obviously upper class congregation to get involved with outreach to the refugees at the near-by Home Affairs premises and to come and join us, praying for the Bo-Kaap. After the meeting Andy and Lizette Draai came up to meet us.

            Our friend Bev Stratis came with the idea of performing a Jericho stint in respect of Bo-Kaap at this time. We got ready to pray up and down Buitengracht Street along the border of Bo-Kaap on six days and doing it seven times on the seventh day. On one of these prayer walks we were joined by Andy and Lizette Draai.

The Starting Gun of the Revival?

Would it be too much of conjecture to suspect that the arch-enemy might have special insights with regard to God’s plans for spiritual renewal and revival? Already in biblical times, satan appeared to try and thwart God’s plans to prosper and bless the nations. The Almighty has apparently had some special plans for the African continent for centuries, when large geographical areas of early Christianity like North Africa became Islamic. Christian strongholds like Alexandria and Carthage were turned into historical relics.  It is good to remind ourselves that when the Jewish nation, the apple of God’s eye, seemed to be at its absolute lowest point in every sense - devastated and destitute, such as during their 70-year exile - the Almighty gave them special words. The prophet Jeremiah said at this time about divine thinking: ‘… thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope…’ (Jeremiah 29:11).

Prayer Warriors invade Chambers of Government

Other interesting things had also been happening at the Cape. After Pentecost 2007, I joined Wim Ferreira and other prayer warriors including Pastor Barry Isaacs in a board room at the Cape Metropolitan Civic Centre for prayer every Friday. Barry Isaacs, had just become the new co-ordinator of the Transformation Committee.

                                    The Lord put the unity of

                                    the Body of Christ on our

                                    prayer agenda once again

The Lord had put the unity of the Body of Christ on our prayer agenda once again. We continued with efforts to get Capetonian believers to pray together.  This was to us an important step towards the revival we yearned after.

Prayer meetings started in October 2007 at the Uni-City Council Chambers on the third Saturday morning of every month at 5.30 a.m. Wonderful answers to prayer were subsequently experienced month after month. At one of these occasions, the lack of the availability of the Civic Centre Banqueting Hall for a combined prayer event on Ascension Day 20008 touched Peter Williams, the secretary of the Provincial Parliament. He promptly extended a provisional invitation to the group to come and pray there as well.

On 31 May 2008 more than 100 believers gathered in the legislative house of the Western Cape for prayer at 6 a.m. Three days later there was a hush – and no mocking - as two Christians shared their biblical convictions at the same venue, as part of normal parliamentary procedure. This was for Peter Williams a direct result of the united prayer at that venue!

A Word from the Lord

Just like in the hurly burly days of 1985, when waves of violence swept through the country in September and October of that year, the Lord spoke again to Michael Cassidy, the leader of the mission agency Africa Enterprise.[3]This time, in March 2008, Rev. Cassidy heard God saying to him during a time of spiritual retreat ‘Jehoshaphat!’ When he consulted 2 Chronicles 20, which reports the escapades of a lesser known king who ‘set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout Judah', Cassidy saw what God needed him to do.  He was especially touched by the prayer of Jehoshaphat in verse 12 of the chapter: ‘we have no power…nor do we know what to do, but we turn to you.’ In an exceptional repeat of the 1985 event, Cassidy convened a conference on short notice, calling it the National Initiative for Reformation in South Africa (NIRSA) to Boksburg, a suburb on the Rand.

In June 2008 Mike Cassidy reported about the inaugural National Initiative for Reformation in South Africa (NIRSA) at the Lighthouse Christian Centre in Parow.  He encouraged the audience with the divine word to Jehoshaphat: Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:17).

The Boksburg event might well have been the birth pangs of the revival that we pray would ultimately sweep across the nation. Or was the event a few days earlier in another part of the country in Greytown (Kwazulu-Natal), the beginning?  Amazingly, over the weekend of 18 April 2008, 62 000 men attended the Mighty men’s conference with Angus Buchan.  During that time it was suggested that a mighty shift had taken place in the heavenly realms! Such a claim would be difficult to verify, but it surely was significant that so many men, hungry for the Lord, were content to stay in tents, after travelling for many hours. They came from all over the country and from as far away as Namibia, basically for prayer.

                          The Mighty Men’s Conference was more

                           than merely a flash in the pan

The first Mighty Men’s Conference was more than merely a flash in the pan. Real reconciliation between fathers and sons took place, fathers and husbands returning home as changed men, and families were restored.

11. Opposing Demonic Activity

              Possibly not many Christians have considered that Hitler’s demonic activities with regard to Jews could have been used by God to bring the Jews back to the land of Israel. Hitler’s actions to expand his Reich (empire) was the cause of World War 2 were demonic. Few Christians are however aware that the prayers of a Welsh intercessor, Rees Howells, played a big role in turning that war around.

             In a similar way the event on the Green Point Track miracle on 13 August 1961 - when a ‘White’ lady was supernaturally healed with Ds Davie Pypers, the young Dutch Reformed clergyman of the Gestig Sendingkerk[4] congregation as a divine instrument - played a significant role in the spiritual realm. It happened in the opposite direction.

          The effect of the miracle was almost nullified by news that came from another part of the world on that same day. The report of the building of the Berlin Wall resounded throughout the world! A new type of battle was cemented - the ‘cold war’ between Soviet Communism and Western Capitalism!

Rise of Islam

Imam Deedat would thereafter almost single-handedly contribute to the rise of Islam from the ashes. What was perceived as the defeat of Ahmed Deedat, and thus of the Muslims at Green Point, inspired a call for revenge. Deedat stated publicly that the original motivation for public debates was his humiliation at the hand of Christians. He was not willing at all to accept defeat.

          Ahmed Deedat established the Islamic Propagation Centre in Durban, from where he staged an onslaught on Christianity. Using distortion and untruthful methods cleverly - and confusing many a Christian in the process - he became known not only in South Africa but also internationally.  He would become a household name among Muslims around the world. Deedat became an expert at the distortion of biblical truth via tracts booklets and clever editing of public debates with prominent Christian apologists into video recordings. Soon Muslims around the world believed more than ever before that the Bible had been changed and that Islam would ultimately conquer the world! Ahmed Deedat was their star fighter!

Islam linked to Communism?

As the ensuing ‘Cold War’ increasingly became the focus internationally, the enemy of souls abused Communism with its atheist basis. This was an obvious demonic attempt to stifle the spreading of the message of the Cross, as it had been proclaimed at the Green Point Track.

                                 Was there a subtle link to Communism

                                             in opposition to the Cross?

The event of 13 August 1961 may have had great importance in the spiritual realm. One tends to suspect that the Islamic Crescent may have been subtly linked to Communism in opposition to the Cross at that occasion. (This would happen again in reverse in 1990 after the demise of Communism. Islam took over the mantle from the atheist ideology as a threat to world peace when the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait. However, that event also became the catalyst for many Christians to start praying for an end to the bondage and deception at the base of the ideology of Islam as a destructive spiritual force.) 

Boosts through Apartheid Legislation    

At the Cape Islam had been receiving a significant boost through Apartheid Legislation. A part of the area that was known as Bo-Kaap already had a big Cape Muslim Population (In the case of the Schotsche Kloof Flats it was 100%). When the Christians had to move out when Bo-Kaap was declared a Muslim residential area – or embrace Islam if they wanted to remain living there – the suburb became a religious stronghold.

          The Group Areas legislation probably contributed more to the regional spread of Islam than any other factor. In the 1950s Cape Muslims were still living in a fairly concentrated area, in District Six and Bo-Kaap plus a few other suburbs like Wynberg. The relatively slow growth of Islam of the 1950s was easily eclipsed by that of the three decades following 1970. Mosques arose in the new townships of the Cape Flats where there hitherto had been very few Muslims.

          The slogan of the Islamic revolution rebounded at the Cape when Muslims joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) en masse. Becoming Muslim was seen as part and parcel of the ‘struggle against Apartheid’. Two of the leaders of the UDF Dr Allan Boesak and Advocate Dullah Omar were often seen sharing the stage together. Marriage swelled the numbers of Cape Muslims when the Christian partner converted to Islam, and remaining Muslim even after divorce. Often these marriages had been ‘prepared’ by a pregnancy.

Another National Day of Prayer spurs a Backlash

Already in the early 1980s the Libyan President, Muammar Khaddafi, had been a major champion of worldwide Islamic expansion. In October 1995 the Sunday Times published a report about the Islamic conference held in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

                                      Africa to be Islamized

                                    by the end of the 20^th century?

At the Tripoli conference the intention was expressed clearly that Africa would be Islamized by the end of the 20^th century. To bring this about, the South African infrastructure would be used. The strategy of making the country ungovernable – which had been fairly successfully implemented in the 1980s to bring the apartheid government to the negotiating table - would be repeated. The Western Cape, with its favourable infrastructure, and the presence of well over a quarter of a million Muslims, was regarded as the ideal springboard from the South. In the spiritual realm this attempt was however frustrated by the 30 Days of Prayer during the fasting month of Ramadan in the first term of 1996, as well as by a National Day of Prayer.

The 1996 Day of Prayer with the theme “Healing the Land” was preceded by the fifth national 40-day fast in which some 100 000 people participated. The culmination of this fast was a national assembly in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where about 20,000 people gathered. Christians were challenged to fast and pray in the 40-day period leading to the National Day of Prayer on July 7, 1996. All in all, seven national fasts were completed in the decade from 1990 to 1999. Then God broadened the focus to include the continent. Satan was bound to respond in some way.

Conditions in Manenberg became almost unbearable

In 1995/6 living conditions in the township of Manenberg were almost unbearable for the local people, and things seemed completely out of control. Rev. Chris Clohessy, the local Roman Catholic priest, had earned the trust of many people there, moving fearlessly also in gangster territory. PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) was initiated by a group of Muslims in 1996 - strived to create a gangster-free and drug-free society. Rev. Chris Clohessy joined the group but in the ensuing inter-faith venture Muslims were soon dominating proceedings.                             PAGAD developed anti-government and Western sentiments. The organisation believed that the South African government posed a threat to Islamic values. It also aimed to get better political representation for South African Muslims although they were already proportionately over-represented in Parliament. Prominent figures like Imam Achmat Cassiem were reported to have performed a palace coup. As the leader of Qibla, Achmat Cassiem subtly changed the anti-drug, anti-crime movement into an organization that sought to bring Islamic rule into the Western Cape by any means. PAGAD radicals saw this move merely as part of the plan to implement the October 1995 decision in the Libyan capital Tripoli, to attempt Islamising the African continent from the South.

                                                Rashaad Staggie was burnt alive

                                               in full view of television cameras

PAGAD became known publicly on 4 August, 1996. That was the occasion when an influential gang leader and drug lord, Rashaad Staggie, was burnt alive in full view of television cameras.  The crisis that followed the PAGAD eruption of August 1996 presented the churches with a challenge, an opportunity to touch the problem areas of the Cape townships.

Escalation of Violence

In the Western Cape, where most commuters travel by taxi, the taxi wars were escalating. These wars were the fights between taxi associations and individual minibus taxi drivers. At the same time an organization called PAGAD (People Against Gangs and Drugs) began to fight against the high incidence of drugs and gangsterism among the young people of Cape Town. Originally started as an inter-faith civic group, their ranks soon became infiltrated by Islamic fundamentalists and radicals. As the group began to move towards militancy, Christians and moderate peace-loving members began to distance themselves from the organization. The first series of bombs were intended to warn and frighten drug dealers. Later the bombs were laced with nails and sharp objects that killed and maimed innocent people.

A famous Cape Drug Lord hospitalised

Through the late 1990s, twenty-two bombs exploded, killing and maiming hundreds of men, women, and children who happened to be in the path of this nameless cruelty. Ordinary citizens became fearful, numerous lives were lost. As chaos ruled the streets, the Church continued to pray more earnestly once again.

          In March and April 1999 dramatic things happened in quick succession. Rashied Staggie, by this time a famous Cape drug lord, was shot and hospitalised. Staggie made the news headlines from his bed in the Louis Leipoldt Clinic in Bellville through his public confession of faith in Jesus Christ.  Once again, the Cape was setting the pace in the aftermath of the violence by extremists, which might eventually prove to have paved the way for the possible ultimate demise of Islam as a political force.

          Eddie Edson, a pastor from a poor community in Mitchells Plain and a former gangster, had first-hand experience of conditions as he lived in the heart of the troubled areas. He had not only been gathering pastors to pray every month, but he had also started to disciple gangsters. Believers started to pray with a new fervour and determination, intentionally turning to God in prayer, attempting to access the powers of heaven for the transformation of South Africa and all of Africa.

A Drug Lord shot and killed

On Easter Sunday 1999 one of our co-workers called us, telling us that Glen Khan, a drug lord and gang leader, had been shot and killed. The Mitchells Plain gang leader and drug lord whose wife had been a secret Christian believer for some months, was assassinated on Easter Sunday - only a few days after he had committed his life to Jesus as his Lord. The next morning we rushed to Mitchells Plain to assist with the funeral arrangements because a crisis had arisen. The Muslim family was claiming to have the corpse for an Islamic funeral that would happen within 24 hours! The young widow - still a secret follower of Jesus - insisted that he should have a funeral from the Shekinah Tabernacle where he made that commitment under the ministry of Pastor Eddie Edson.

               The new babe in Christ gave a powerful  

                            message to the packed church

When ‘Brother Rashied’ was called up to give a tribute at the funeral service, it caused quite a stir because the media had evidently been tipped off that the changed drug lord would be there as well. Almost overnight he had become a celebrity of a different sort. The new babe in Christ gave a powerful message to the packed church. Many were listening outside to the service that was relayed via the public addressing system. The funeral audience included a significant contingent of gangsters. Staggie, who had been avidly reading the Bible in the preceding weeks, challenged his followers present, quoting from Scripture that the Lord was the one to take revenge: ‘My kom die wraak toe’.  He emphasised: 'We are not going to retaliate!' Coming from someone who had virtually escaped death after an assassination attempt, the message could hardly miss the mark.

Renewed Interest in the Lives of Gangsters                                                                                             The Glen Khan assassination was divinely used to bring churches together, not only for prayer, but to some extent also with a vision to reach out to Muslims in love.  Following Khan’s death, some churches showed renewed interest in the lives of gangsters. Pastor Eddie Edson discerned the need to disciple them, starting a programme of special care for gangsters who wanted to change their life-styles. The gang war triggered a significant increase in evangelistic ministry, notably at Pollsmoor prison.                                                                                      It was evident that the Holy Spirit was at work. Supernatural visitations came to the fore in March 1999. A Muslim woman phoned CCFM after she had various visions of Jesus, receiving instructions from the Lord to read portions of the Bible that very clearly related to her life. Soon thereafter she accepted Christ as her Saviour. The phone-in programmes of Radio CCFM and the sister Afrikaans station, Radio Tygerberg, proved very effective. A number of Muslims, as well as converts and secret believers were phoning in. Elsa Raine, the CCFM worker responsible for the prayer ministry, faithfully passed on to us all Muslim-related calls for follow-up.[5] A very special result was when a Muslim lady, Fazleen, who had phoned the station in 2003, could be ministered to. The new convert later also became a co-worker, responding to the calls of Muslim enquirers.

PAGAD marginalised  

In the wake of Glen Khan’s assassination and Staggie’s powerful testimony at Khan’s funeral, a trickle of Cape Muslims started turning to Christ. Suddenly PAGAD felt themselves threatened. A direct result was the birth of the Cape Peace Initiative (CPI) where church leaders mediated between PAGAD and gang leaders. At a consultation in the Pinelands Civic Centre on 22 April 1999 God intervened powerfully. PAGAD was suddenly ready to speak to the government together with them - unarmed! This was an answer to the prayers of the warriors around the country who had been interceding for the proceedings. To all intents and purposes PAGAD was marginalised.

Variations of Jihad                                                                                                                                        At an Islamic conference in Abuja, Nigeria, a new strategy of Jihad, Islamic holy war, was set out to bring Africa into the Islamic fold completely. Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa would be targeted as strategic countries in the West, East and South of the African continent.                                                                                  Somalians brought another variation of jihad into play in 2009. Pirates received millions of dollars from the ransom for ships with valuable cargo on board that were sailing past their coastline. The revenue was partly used for the Islamic expansion in Kenya, e.g. for the building of mosques in that country. In Nigeria churches were burned and insurrection stirred up between Christians and Muslims. Around the centrally situated city Jos, retaliation of certain Christians played into the hands of Islamists, leading to the killing of scores of Christians in the first months of 2010.

After its founding in 2002, the increasing radicalization of Boko Haram's in Nigeria led to a violent uprising in July 2009 in which its leader was summarily executed. The government's establishment of a state of emergency at the beginning of 2012, extended in the following year to cover the entire northeast of Nigeria, led to an increase in both security force abuses and militant attacks.

Possible covert demonic Activity

Already in 2009 the Lord put a public demonstration of the unity of the Body of Christ quite strongly on my heart. I hoped to see believers uniting with the possible renaming of 'Devil's Peak', linking up with Pastor Barry Isaacs and Murray Bridgman, a local advocate. Murray had been praying with us at different venues over a number of years.

          Taking supernatural activity as a premise, it is possibly not unreasonable to suspect that satan would not let a revival take off without a good fight. 'Devil's Peak' – historically linked to the corrupt rule of Willem Adriaen van der Stel at the turn of the 18^th century - was ruling supreme over the Mother City. Jacob Zuma, an ANC politician had become State President in 2009. His link to criminal charges of corruption was widely known. They were set aside irrationally, possibly through the aid of his special connections. That would haunt the country throughout his presidency. Many are still hoping that this might still come to an inglorious end.

          This was only one way in which the demonic activity was fairly evident. Wide-scale xenophobia had not only brought the country to the brink of wide civil unrest in 2008, but the government seemed to be supporting it covertly, notably at the Department of Home Affairs with the maltreatment and discrimination of refugees from African countries. Widespread township violence kept simmering after intermittent slowing down. Farm murders was another issue which reared its head in October 2017 like never before.

Outreach Efforts

Already since 2003 we switched the focus of our ministry to Muslim foreigners. Teaching English to the newcomers from other countries seemed the obvious area where we could serve them. With our previous experience of outreach to Cape Muslims, it flowed naturally that foreigners with an Islamic background would get much of our attention. Although we had only a few workers at our disposal, a wide variety of foreigners soon came under our radar and over our door step. It stretched from Chinese students to refugees from various African countries. 

In 2007 we formalised the ministry, starting a non-profit organisation that we gave the name Friends from Abroad.

Encounter with Corruption

During our outreach at the Foreshore Home Affairs premises, we soon heard from our contacts among the refugee foreigners whom we served with sandwiches and at our bead workshop at the Discipling House of the intense corruption at the venue. Mr Mvuso Msimang became the new national Director of Home Affairs, a government department that was notorious for corruption.  As the person who engineered wonders in another government department, much was expected of him. 

            When it came to our attention that Mr Msimang humbly invited people on grassroots level via TV to assist, I volunteered on behalf of Friends from Abroad. In a series of emails I repeated our wish to meet him or a representative to give some suggestions on how we think matters could be improved.

            Protests by PASSOP (People Against Suppression, Oppression and Poverty) against the undignified treatment of refugees at the Foreshore Home Affairs premises where many refugees were now also sleeping, highlighted their plight.

                                    We gladly endorsed the vision

                                       to oppose xenophobia and

                                             to fight corruption    

We were subsequently invited to meet Ms Martha Mxagashe, the new Acting Home Affairs Provincial Manager of the Western Cape. We gladly endorsed her vision to see the Western Cape take the lead countrywide to oppose xenophobia and fight corruption.

            I linked up with Braam Hanekom and other refugee ‘stakeholders’ in an attempt to address the rampant corruption at the Home Affairs offices.  We were initially quite frustrated by the reaction to our suggestions to bring down the back log of asylum seekers through their inefficiency. We were thankful however when the national head office sent Mr Dean Pillay to come and assist with this very task. How we rejoiced when corruption at the expense of the refugees seemed to have been rooted out within a matter of months. In due course I took a leading role within the group of stakeholders more or less by default along with Braam Hanekom, the leader of PASSOP. Some of the agents who had set out to assist refugees became corrupt themselves. We continued to monitor corruption at the Refugee Centre until 2011 until we were prohibited to be on the Home Affairs premises in a rather strange way. 

Vibes and Bribes

It was more or less an open secret that the South African Ministry of Home Affairs was one big mess. The government more or less conceded that but a correction to the system looked to be as far away as ever when Rochelle Smetherham-Malachowski[6] asked at our prayer meeting in the Koffiekamer on Friday 30 March 2007 whether we could not go and pray at the Foreshore Home Affairs premises. Perhaps she thought about the memorable precedent of October 2003, the praying at the Convention Centre that ushered in the start of outreach to foreigners. Operating with Rosemarie at our Tuesday workshop with refugee-type ladies, she could of course hear the vibes of the bribes at that institution all the time. Talking about their experience, refugee women were speaking of how much the highly valued paper ‘costs’ which would take them out of illegality. (For a thousand Rand one could get the document the same day. For half the price one would have to wait for three weeks and without paying a bribe, you might as well forget about getting the highly valued section 22 permit extension.)

         Also at our English classes we heard the sad stories of people who had to wait for days before even speaking to an official. To hear of so many irregularities was no pleasure at all. Without any discussion, we agreed to go and pray at the Foreshore Home Affairs. There we saw some of the rumours confirmed, but we were also deeply challenged about involvement practically.

A personal Crisis

Our obedience to a call to reach out lovingly outreach to foreigners who had come to the Cape, brought matters to a head in our mission. Our newly elected national mission leaders could however not accept the combination of reaching out to Cape Muslims and involvement with foreigners. This ultimately led to our resignation from Worldwide Evangelisation of Christ in July 2007. Already at the beginning of 2007 the umbrella-type networking organisation Friends from Abroad had been established formally. The arrival of Floyd and Sally McClung in the city with a similar vision - to send out missionaries to the ends of the earth - made things very easy for us. We linked up with All Nations International, finally joining them in 2008.

        

Prayer at the University of Cape Town

Since 2006, young people from different churches, backgrounds and cultures in the Rondebosch area have been coming together to ‘simply’ worship once a quarter. In mid-2006 a Simply Worship service was held in the Jameson Hall of the University of Cape Town (UCT). There our son Sammy was challenged to go forward and call people to prayer at UCT. About ten people came to him afterwards, indicating their interest in joining him. They started meeting together to spend time in worship and intercession on a weekly basis, but they also spent much personal time with God in the prayer room at UCT.  Eventually they organised an event, where they decorated the prayer room and encouraged people to worship God, using their creative gifts. The students prayed continuously for 77 hours, leading to the next Simply Worship evening. There in the prayer room our son Sammy and Sheralyn Thomas, a UCT Social Science student, met each other for the first time.

         Our road would cross that of the young female student quite intensely hereafter. The King of Kings Baptist Church had been very much involved in compassionate care to the Somalians at Masiphumelele. Sheralyn Thomas (daughter of John and Avril Thomas) played a major role in the negotiations between the South African ‘Blacks’ and the Somalians, but we were not aware of this. (Sheralyn had been hearing about our ministry to refugees from her mother and taking a keen interest in them, even before she and our son Sammy met each other.)

Somalians killed in Masiphumelele

While we were in Holland in mid-2006 to discuss our possible resignation from WEC with our sending base leaders, we read about many Somalians who were being killed in the township of Masiphumelele near Fish Hoek. This was because of xenophobia towards them by the Xhosa-speaking original inhabitants, fanned by the traders. (Later we heard how Alan Profitt, a SIM missionary colleague, and Sheralyn Thomas were involved with negotiations between the two groups.)

         We were still open to the possibility that the ‘new thing’ could still happen within WEC confines. We remained committed to operate in a positive frame of mind until the end of July, while we prayed for clarity about what God had in store for us. We were sure that our ministry in Cape Town had not been completed yet. We discerned that God was possibly using the personal trauma to shake us towards flexibility for change.

A ‘new Thing’ sprouting      

Towards the end of 2005 Rosemarie and I went through a very traumatic period as a couple. We decided to resign as team leaders of the Western Cape WEC International evangelism team. We were however personally encouraged by Isaiah 43:18, to forget the past and to expect a ‘new thing’ that had been sprouting.

         During the first term of 2006 an Operation Mobilization (OM) missionary started to work more closely with us. An OM missionary who was praying with us and ministering with us occasionally in the township Parkwood, also had a vision to minister to foreigners. In the course of looking for a neutral venue where we could assist the sojourners from other countries with English lessons, the missionary colleague suggested that we pop in at the home of Pastor Theo Dennis, one of the OM leaders in the Western Cape.

                                     I experienced a sense                                                                                                                                  of home-coming once again

When Theo shared about their ministry in Coventry some years ago in the UK[7] with the title Friends from Abroad, I experienced a sense of home-coming, especially when Theo mentioned that the group no longer operated in the UK under that name. Ever since our return from Holland in 1992 I had been hoping to be a blessing in a similar way to foreigners coming from other countries.

         The very next day I took Rosemarie along to the home of the Dennis family in Maitland. We started discussions for the establishment of an alliance with other mission agencies and local churches to be called Friends from Abroad. Both Rosemarie and I felt that this was the new thing that had been sprouting, a renewed challenge to get more intensely involved with foreigners.

         After some collaboration with Theo Dennis, we decided to approach a few City Bowl pastors regarding a common effort. Initial responses were positive when I asked them to pray about possible involvement. But we were wary of getting too excited prematurely. Haven’t we been disappointed more than once when we attempted to get churches of the City Bowl to do something together? Perhaps this was just God’s time. Could the plight of the destitute and exploited foreigners possibly be the vehicle to bring about the revival we have been praying for so long?

Equipping and Empowering People from the Nations

When we heard that Floyd and Sally McClung were coming to the Cape with the vision to ‘establish a training and outreach community in Cape Town that impacts Africa from Cape Town to Cairo’ and the vision ‘for a multi-cultural community that exemplifies the kingdom of God’, we became quite excited. This was more or less what we wanted to see happening, even though our vision was somewhat broader, including countries outside of Africa to be impacted from Cape Town. Getting the vision across to local Christians and pastors remains however a big challenge.

            One of the new ventures of Friends from Abroad (FFA), long before its official inauguration on 17 February 2007, with which we started before we left for Europe in 2006 was fortnightly sessions of fellowship, Bible Study and prayer with a hitherto unreached people group in respect of the Gospel, a few Uighur believers from China in Cape Town, as well as other Asians. The philosophy of FFA is to equip and empower people from the nations to serve their own people, akin to the way I had been impacted while I was experiencing an (in)voluntary exile in Holland.)

We resumed our contact with Bruce van Eeden, the former pastor of the Newfields EBC, with whom we had started children’s work in 1992.  (In 1995 he initiated a Mitchell’s Plain-based mission agency called Ten-Forty Outreach.) We thought that his ministry could be a valuable complement to our Friends from Abroad concept - to bless indigenous Christians and be blessed by them.

           Through Pastor Theo Dennis we linked up with Ds. Richard Verreyne, pastor of the Soter Christelike Gereformeerde Kerk in Parow. Pastor Deon Malan and his wife Iona, a couple with mission ministry experience in North Africa and our colleague Rochelle Smetherham-Malachowski had become members of our core team of Friends from Abroad (FFA).

           We started free English lessons for refugees and other foreigners at the Soter Christelike Gereformeerde Kerk in Parow. It was an added blessing that we had a short-termer from Germany at our disposal to keep the little children of the refugee ladies busy in a good way. This was a forerunner towards a weekly children’s club at the same venue with refugee and local children. The FFA compassionate outreach to foreigners soon included a jewellery workshop for refugee ladies, the bulk of them Muslims. This helped them earning something and we also taught English to quite a few of them at the Soter Christelike Gereformeerde Kerk. Our involvement at that venue opened the rather conservative Afrikaans-speaking church for subsequent fruitful ministry to foreigners, including regular French services there.

            After the prayer session there on Friday 13 April 2007, we decided to start feeding the refugees and other foreigners at the Foreshore Home Affairs offices once a week in conjunction with Straatwerk and local churches. This looked to me to be another wonderful opportunity to get local churches involved in a combined effort, demonstrating the unity of the Body of Christ. With Straatwerk we networked wonderfully, but from the churches’ side only the German Stadtmission came on board with two volunteers. (It still troubles me that churches seem to stick to their little cocoon, with so little vision for the bigger Body of Christ). We stopped our 'feeding scheme' when the refugees were henceforth served at new Home Affairs premises in Nyanga. But the question was: When should we throw our nets out again? And what was ‘the other side’? We grappled with these questions, praying that clarity would come soon.

Disasters shake young Christians

Towards the end of our stay in Germany in July 2007, where we had gone for the wedding of our eldest son Danny, we received an email from Sammy, who had returned from Germany earlier than us. The subject of the email was ‘pray’. Sammy shared that Rüdiger (Rudi) Hauser, his close German friend who had gone to Austria to study, had been killed in a mountain cabin with some friends the day before, when a gas explosion collapsed the house. Rudi and another friend died on impact. The incident shook Sammy very intensely. He had been leading the Bible group at the German High School with his close friend Rudi.

                            Students were moved to 

                        contribute sacrificially towards a

                           deposit for a children’s home.

            At a ‘Simply Worship’ event shortly hereafter, the Holy Spirit ministered to Sammy and Brendan Studti, another student friend, independently of each other. They were moved to contribute sacrificially, to give savings and a bequest towards a deposit for a children’s home.

            A group of UCT students now started to come to our home quite regularly on Fridays, as they prayed and organised on behalf of such a children’s home.  One of them was Sheralyn Thomas. We were nevertheless quite surprised when Sammy blessed us with his gift on Christmas Eve of 2007 - wrapped in newspaper and containing a picture of him and Sheralyn!!

Georg Muller emulated!

We were blessed to witness the purchasing of premises for a children’s home from close by in what could be termed an emulation of the 18^th century Georg Mueller of Bristol, who ran a children’s home without appealing for funds for many years.

            Our son Sammy, Sheralyn, Brendan and their group of UCT students soon not only found a house in Diep River that they deemed suitable. Nobody outside the close circle of family and friends was allowed to share the need for ?? million elsewhere.  The students trusted that God would provide the funds.                                                      The seller was a believer who supported the cause He shifted the posts a few times when the funds for the payments did not come in as the students had hoped. Some affluent Christian foreigner from abroad who happened to visit our shores, came to have a look at the building. She could have paid cash but was not guided to do that.

            When the Resurrection Day commemoration of 2008 approached this was also the final date, after which the students would have forfeited the deposit. Instead of fretting, the students had a day of worship at the premises a week before the due date, getting it ready in faith.

            On the Wednesday they got a phone call. Some student colleague who had heard about the children’s home had a rich uncle in Johannesburg who wanted to donate furniture. This of course a blessing which they gladly accepted. When the atheist lawyer arrived there the next day with the donation, he walked around the place, commenting after listening to the intention:  ‘Here is some special energy here, Brendan. I am however curious how you intend paying for the property. Brendan Studti shared how they had used their savings plus some donations of Christians and how they are trusting God to see to the rest as well.’

            ‘How much do you still owe?’

            Jokingly, Brendan replied: ‘Well, we only owe ?? million which is due to be paid by Monday.’

            The lawyer was in no mood for jokes. He was touched: ‘Listen, Brendan! Tomorrow is my birthday. Already as a child I wanted to contribute a children’s home. Please give me the bank details’

            The Tuesday after Easter the full amount owed was in the bank account of the seller of the house.

Special Provision of House Parents

In the second half of 2008 we had Zimbabwean young men living in our Discipling House who needed accommodation in the wake of the xenophobic at the crisis of that year. Under the joint leadership of Munyaradzi Hove, the Zimbabwean who had been doing the CPx course with us, a simple church operated there in the second half of 2008.  It had been made clear to the young men that this was a temporary situation. The house was primarily meant for those who had been persecuted or evicted because of religious reasons.

            Two of these men had been trading on Green Market Square became followers of Jesus, but they also grew spiritually substantially. One subsequently went to do the CPx of all nations and the other one wished to marry the lady who was raising their son in Zimbabwe. When she came to the Cape neither he nor his bride had any money for a wedding.

            When we shared this need to Floyd McClung, he agreed without any hesitation that we could stage the wedding at Africa House. Our son Sammy and his Sheralyn got married in January 2009 while serving as youth pastors of Jubilee Church. When they heard of the predicament of the Zimbabwean couple, they likewise agreed immediately that Nicholas and his wife could use the garb they had used at their own wedding.

            We were blessed when Sheralyn and Sammy volunteered to also serve as house parents of our Discipling House for a year. Nicholas and his wife served as house parents of the children’s home while the student group were still praying for a suitable permanent couple. The Lord provided also in this regard when a former missionary and his wife agreed to serve in this capacity. They had to leave a Muslim country against their will after the government had been evicting many a Christian missionary. They had been serving there in a children’s home.

A Church Planting Movement established among Foreigners?

My wife Rosemarie and I were encouraged by the arrival of Floyd and Sally McClung at the end of 2006, especially because we detected kindred spirits when we got to read their reasoning for coming to the Cape. We now started to endeavour even more to see a church planting movement established among those foreigners who have come to the Mother City of our country. We longed intensely for the metropolis to become the Father's City at last. With the McClungs, leaders of the relatively new mission agency All Nations International, we had a common experience of seeking God’s will for the next step in our lives.  Floyd and Sally had come to a dead-end in the church in Kansas City (USA) that they had been leading. We felt the same way with our mission agency here in Cape Town in respect of outreach to foreigners.

            After their arrival, Floyd and Sally linked up with two YWAM missionaries. Soon YWAM and All Nations International joined hands in prayer walks in the two nearby townships Ocean View and Masiphumelele. Many different groups had been involved in the latter township, notably the King of Kings Baptist Church with their various Living Hope Projects. Pastor John Thomas and his congregation had been ministering there for over two decades.

            One thing led to the next until Rosemarie and I joined the Church Planting Experience (CPx) course at the beginning of 2008, with the intention of becoming members of the All Nations International family. Along with our Friends from Abroad colleagues we now started to partner with local fellowships, to get believers in home groups from the nations equipped, hoping and praying that they would minister in their countries of origin in a similar way in the future.

The 'Ten Days for Jesus' concept had a special sequel when participants started not only to lead the event in the subsequent years but also got envisioned to take the concept in different formats to all sorts of places. In 2010 'One Day for Jesus' was held in Masiphumelele, but plans were also made to have 10 'Ten Days for Jesus' in Zambia and India.

Christian Response to Xenophobia

The xenophobia, discrimination and corruption at the Refugee Centre of the Department of Home Affairs soon came to our attention. When we discerned an opportunity to invite the body of Christ to serve the foreigners in a loving way at the Foreshore premises of the Home Affairs at Customs House in 2007, we bumped into one disappointment after the other. Apart from Straatwerk, two ladies from the German Stadtmission - who assisted for a few weeks - were the only believers to come and assist. 

In the Weekend Argus of November 3, 2007 it was reported that a Zimbabwean refugee died of starvation on the streets of the Cape Town CBD. The death of Adonis Musati ignited a flood of goodwill. Gahlia Brogneri, an Italian-background Christian, became God’s instrument to launch the Adonis Musati Project.  Through this endeavour she started to care for the refugees outside the Department of Home Affairs’ Foreshore premises in a holistic way. The Adonis Musati Project would assist many a refugee the next few years. Gahlia Brogneri recruited volunteers to get involved in the Adonis Musati Project. They assisted the refugees in finding accommodation and employment. They also helped to get foreigners on training courses that included security and fishing.

A Farmer became an international Celebrity

The biographical film Faith like Potatoes depicted how Angus Buchan, an ordinary Natal farmer, experienced an amazing personal revival and then began to impact the lives of many others. His Mighty Men Conferences and other revival events would impact thousands in subsequent years. At a meeting on 19 July 2008 at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld Rugby Stadium, Angus Buchan suggested that change in our country should not come out of the Houses of Parliament but from the kitchens.

A similar event took place at the Cape’s famous Newlands Cricket Stadium on 12 and 13 September 2008. The Weekend Argus of Sunday 14 September lauded the event with a large caption GOD VISITS THE MOTHER CITY. The event had been sold out weeks before the time. Buchan moved to other South African cities and Namibia’s capital Windhoek on his evangelistic tour of the country. Thereafter he became an international celebrity.

Outreach to Somalians

The biggest challenge of all to us was always the Somalians of whom the biggest concentration in our country is in Bellville – up to 20,000 of them in 2010 and today many more are living there. The African Islamic Propagation Centre is also situated in Bellville near to the station in the same complex. Aware that a breakthrough among the Somalians in Bellville could make an international impact with a snowball effect, we were always careful not to rush things. To get the Christians in Bellville towards some semblance of unity proved to be quite a challenge, just as it remained a big problem to see something happening in the City Bowl with the Body of Christ uniting.

          A request by Professor Pieter Els to join him in teaching at a seminar at the DRC Church of Bellville West on 28 March 2009 - where his son Johan was a minister - led to a teaching series in conjunction with Metro Evangelical Services (MES) that was led by his daughter-in-law Ilse. This occasion included outreach on the last Friday of every month into the area that had been taken over almost completely by the Somali community.

Networking with Pastor Tertius Bezuidenhout of a local congregation resulted in an outreach of friendship to the Somali community. Using soccer as a tool to forge friendships, they made some progress. Pastor Albert Mbenga, a Congolese pastor, also succeeded to engage with the Somalis using sports.

Prayer Outreach

By 2010 we had been praying for Bo-Kaap for many years. When we heard how Blair Carlson, the director of the Lausanne III Conference got accommodation at Mesopotamia Place in Leeuwen Street for him and his family, we were understandably quite excited. They came to prepare the global event at the International Convention Centre a few months before the conference and they were due to stay there for a few months thereafter.

            Privately I was also hoping that Cape Town might influence world history again as it had done in the 1820s through the writings of Dr Philip. This assisted to bring about the end of slavery in the British Empire. Noting that the venue used by the Lausanne III Conference was more or less equidistant from Sea Point and Bo-Kaap, the respective Cape strongholds of Judaism and Islam, I had hoped that the conference could express some form of regret or even confession for the negative ways in which heretical Christianity had impacted Islam. For many years I had attempted more or less unsuccessfully to disseminate my views in this regard. We prayed that breakthroughs in Sea Point and/or Bo-Kaap might lead to simple house fellowships in these suburbs and ultimately in reconciliation under the Cross which would send ripples into the rest of the continent, from Cape Town to Jerusalem. We even hoped that it would ultimately trigger a spiritual revival. Dreams and visions of various believers encouraged us to prod on.

World Cup Outreach

The promising build-up to 2010 in which Cape Town was the host of the Global Lausanne III event and the Football World Cup during which a lot of talk took place, turned out to be an anti-climax. Proper Church and Mission networking was minimal and evangelistic activity took a nosedive thereafter.                                               The football World Cup of 2010 afforded us a unique opportunity to impact the nations. During a visit to our children in London we had been inspired by OM missionary colleagues who operated there with a literature table. Ahead of the global event we procured hundreds of tracts in many languages. We finally received permission to set up a literature table on Green Market Square.   We also had many copies of More than Dreams, a tool that God had been using to speak to many a Muslim around the world. This DVD contains the dramatized testimonies in five different languages with English subtitles. We had been using it a lot already with some impact.  Prior to the big event, copies of the More than Dreams DVD had been dubbed into French and Arabic.

            One of the highlights of our World Cup outreach was the day Algeria played in Cape Town. On the day that their national team played in Cape Town, we distributed many DVDs to the Algerian fans. (They were quite conspicuous in their green and white attire.) What made this outreach very special was that our missionary colleague Rochelle Smetherham, on a visit on 'home assignment' in Washington D.C. in 2012, bumped into a Syrian national there who reacted so excitedly when she saw a copy of the More than Dreams DVD. The Syrian wondered whether this was the same DVD about which Algerians were raving!

            Another evangelistic attempt circled around the North Koreans who also played in Cape Town.

The hostess of our church home ministry group, who held a top position in the Cape Tourism industry, had easy access to people who organised the accommodation of the various teams. Via Amanda we found out where the North Koreans were accommodated.

At that time we had a Korean language student living with us who came to faith in the Lord here in Cape Town. The student was attending a Korean church where she was also doing children's work. Via her fellowship we procured a number of Korean Bibles.  After a number of phone calls we succeeded in getting the Bibles to the hotel in Newlands where the North Koreans were accommodated. At the end of their stay we fetched the remainder of the Bibles. Via our contacts with Open Doors these Bibles were to be couriered to North Korea, an extremely closed communist country in respect of the Gospel. Is it too outrageous to hope that one day we might hear how one of these Bibles impacted the one or other North Korean?

Dreams of a Man in White

After the World Cup we continued with weekly outreach every Thursday. We had been very much encouraged during the World Cup using the More than Dreams video. We hereafter chatted to traders in the city and elsewhere, trying to find out those who could possibly be open for the Gospel. It had become known that many Muslims had become followers of Jesus after having dreams of a man in white. It didn’t pan out for us in a similar way, but it did give us quite a lot of encouragement. (In one case Rosemarie bumped into a leader of his expatriate community in Cape Town who had three dreams of Jesus. In another scenario a young man with a dream of Jesus became part of a chain reaction to see another African trader ultimately getting ready for ministry in North Korea.)

Treasure Hunting

From different sides we heard of this new method of evangelisation. We decided to get some teaching about it in August 2011 when a Dutch missionary joined our 'bead workshop with refugee ladies occasionally.  After two training sessions, we started applying some of the teaching doing Treasure Hunting. We would have some exceptional experiences in the course of the next few months doing this. We were not surprised at all that we met folk from Bo-Kaap 'by chance' in the city from time to time as 'treasures'. Time will tell how God used these occasions in His special mosaic.  

The Treasure Hunting gave us such fun as we evangelised. We used this especially when groups came to join us, such as those coming from overseas via the YWAM base in Muizenberg.

Discovery Bible Study                                                                                                                                     Using English as a vehicle to serve Muslims from other countries was simultaneously a tool to befriend them. One of them was a trader from Cameroon whom we subsequently invited for a meal. His home language is Hausa. This was a natural invitation to watch the DVD More than Dreams of which Hausa is one of the original five languages of Muslims who came to know Jesus via a dream.

In the course of our outreaches in the city and at the Home Affairs Refugee office we served the folk with some drinks. There we met a few foreigners who displayed openness to the Gospel.

A localised Gangster Impact

The intense involvement of Muslims in illicit drug peddling had a long-standing connection to gangsterism. In 1992 we were involved in a fairly successful response to the gangster violence via Operation Hanover Park in a networking effort of local churches. The gang lords were all too often Muslims and many a businessman with collar and tie was a co-religionist who was plying the same trade. When the locally produced drug called ‘Tik’ (crystal methamphetamine), swept across the Cape Peninsula, causing great devastation among the youth, we attempted to revive Operation Hanover Park. (The drug had been virtually unknown as late as 2003.) This attempt was seriously impeded when it became known that certain pastors were on the payroll of drug lords. The link of township pastors to drug-related activity, along with drug addicts who get back-slidden would remain a weak point, hanging like a cloud over wonderful ministry and victories in the outreach to gangsters and other criminals in prisons.

Peace Deals between Gangs

The Cape Peace Initiative of the late 1990s, the role of which has been recorded fairly extensively in Seeds Sown for Revival, possibly had the biggest impact of all peace accords with gang leaders. It became the divine instrument that ultimately marginalised PAGAD (People against Terrorism and Drugs). Simultaneously this period catapulted Rashied Staggie, a drug lord, into prominence in two areas. At first he was the spokesman of the gang lords opposing PAGAD, appearing frequently on television, especially after his twin brother was executed by PAGAD on 4 August 1996. In April 1999 he confessed his faith in Christ publicly at the funeral of Glen Ghan, his co-leader of the Hard Livings gang. A few eeks prior to this, Rashied Staggie had been shot and hospitalised. In the Louis Leipoldt Hospital his conversion became front page news in Die Burger, a Cape Afrikaans newspaper.

          A peace deal between gangs in Lavender Hill at the end of 2011 was met with optimism from residents, but the most poignant response came from children who could now venture out of the “territories” they were born into. Members of the Junky Funky Kids (JFK), Corner Boys and Mongrels walked together into each other’s areas to apologise to residents for the bloodshed.  The three rival gangs signed a peace accord. They made a commitment to do their best to keep this peace. The areas would thereafter be open to everybody. A resident expressed about the truce. “I hope the peace will last forever, and not just until New Year like in the past.” Many residents had been praying for peace. “

Gang leaders confidently told people that the agreement would work because there was now constant communication between the gangs. One of them also asked for community support and for members not to be ostracised. Involved in the process were various community and religious leaders which included Western Cape Community Outreach, which is chaired by Ivan Waldeck, a former gang leader from Hanover Park. The peace was however not completely enduring. In April 2013 there was a new eruption of gangster violence, albeit not widespread. The 2017 version terrorised many a township for months on end.

          Rashied Staggie would become the proverbial ‘Achilles Heel’ of gangster conversions. So many gangsters returned to their previous life-style after their parole or discharge from prison. Rashied Staggie had become quite an embarrassment to Church folk after he had been paraded publicly – possibly prematurely – as a sort of trophy, e.g. at the big Newlands Stadium event of March 2001. After he was finally set free from prison, he displayed no remorse nor did he become positively involved with Christians, although Pastor Ivan Waldeck assisted him with employment. The link to drug peddling continued to play a role in the background of many a township pastor.

Taxi Violence addressed

Pastor Bongani Mgayi of Glory Manifest Church, organised a reconciliation and repentance prayer meeting in Philippi on 5 November 2011. The meeting was well attended by Christians, leaders and pastors from Crossroads and all around Cape Town and even further afield. Adriaan Vlok, an Apartheid era Minister of Law and Order, also attended the meeting and addressed the elders and community of Crossroads. asking for forgiveness for all the atrocities and hurt caused by the Apartheid government. He then asked to wash the feet of the elders from the community and the taxi leaders.

            At the meeting, Mrs Mene – a retired school principal who was forcibly moved to Old Crossroads in the 1970s by the Apartheid regime – told her story after hearing the address of Mr Vlok. She was relieved. She had always yearned in her heart to face the ‘White’ people who had caused her and her family so much pain.

          Hereafter months of praying and meetings were held in private. The meetings were hosted at Power Group offices between prominent Christians and ministers from Cape Town and the taxi leaders from SANTACO and the taxi industry’s 15-15 committee. The 15-15 committee is a structure set up by the two taxi associations, CATA and CODETA, to self-regulate the industry and to work towards unity and peace.

Devil's Peak to be renamed?

At the beginning of 2011 the possible renaming of 'Devil's Peak' came to the fore once again. With municipal elections due later that year, we did not want the issue to become embroiled in the run-up to the elections.

            On election day 2011 our little group, i.e. Pastor Barry Isaacs, Advocate Murray and I deliberated again. We requested Barry Isaacs to take the matter to the executive of the Religious Forum for input from that side as well. The provincial Heritage Council was initially quite favourable because we had researched that the peak had previous names like Windberg and Doves’ Peak. The matter turned out to be quite an intricate issue when Table Mountain was declared one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We knew that satanists had vested interests in the retention of the name.

12. Jews and Muslims as a Priority

          In the mid-1980s the German missionary colleague Walter Gschwandtner got believers praying in the home of the Abrahams family at 73 Wale Street in Bo-Kaap, a Muslim dominated suburb of Cape Town just below Signal Hill. The knowledge of the Bo-Kaap prayer meetings got almost lost when the Gschwandtner family left for Kenya in the early 1990s.

Turning the Clock back

At the Cape Town Baptist Church a few believers, including Hendrina van der Merwe, an Afrikaner intercessor, prayed at the church when outreach groups would go to nearby Muslim areas like Bo-Kaap, Walmer Estate and Woodstock.

Turning the clock back in areas that had become Islamic was our goal. In fact, we prayed that these communities would become vibrant ones for Christ, even more than before!

          Prayer walks in Bo-Kaap resulted in the resumption of a fortnightly prayer meeting in mid-1992 in the home of Cecilia Abrahams, the widow of a Muslim background believer from Wale Street. The prayer meetings focused on reversing the effect of Apartheid on Bo-Kaap.  

          Soon thereafter we also started with a monthly prayer meeting for the Middle East in our home in Tamboerskloof. This evolved from the fortnightly event in Bo-Kaap. The vision grew to see Jews and Muslims reconciled around the person of Jesus Christ. This vision received fresh nourishment when we started praying on Signal Hill from September 1998 on every alternate Saturday morning at 6 a.m. (Signal Hill is situated just above three residential areas that are associated closely with the three Abrahamic religions. Tamboerskloof is a predominantly ‘Christian’ suburb, Bo-Kaap is still a vibrant Muslim bastion and in Sea Point the bulk of Cape Jews are living.)           

Friday Lunchtime Prayer Meetings  

Lunchtime prayer events started in September 1992 in the Shepherd’s Watch, a small church hall at 98 Shortmarket Street near Heritage Square. These lunchtime prayer meetings would be the catalysts to many a blessed ministry in the years hereafter. When the building was sold a few years later, the weekly event switched to the Koffiekamer at 108 Bree Street. (The venue was used by Straatwerk for their ministry over the week-ends to the homeless, street children, and to certain night clubs.)  In addition to prayers for a spiritual breakthrough in the area, a foundation and/or catalyst for many evangelistic initiatives was laid at the Friday lunch hour prayer meetings. The vision - to get prayer groups formed all over the Peninsula so that the spiritual eyes of Muslims might be opened to Jesus as the Saviour of the World and as the Son of God - never took off. Here and there a prayer group started and petered out again. Two prayer groups operated in Plumstead and Muizenberg for a few years apiece. The leaders of the respective prayer groups, Sally Kirkwood and Gill Knaggs, later got involved with the Cape prayer movement.  The only prayer group that continued functioning over many years was the one in the Abrahams' home in Bo-Kaap's Wale Street, later relocated to the home of Daphne Davids diagonally across the road. The Friday lunch hour prayer meetings persevered in the Koffiekamer of Straatwerk until July 2007, when it was relocated to our Discipling House in Mowbray and moved to another day of the week.

A special Impact on (Cape) Jewry

When the Bo-Kaap prayer meeting in the Abrahams’ home in Wale Street was changed to a monthly meeting, it made room for a prayer event where intercession for the Middle East was the focus. The new monthly meeting - at our home in Tamboerskloof and later in the suburb Vredehoek from 1994 - also included prayer for the Jews, those in Israel as well as those in Cape Town. The catalyst for the Jewish part of the prayer meeting was Elizabeth Robertson, whom God had used to stir the Jews of Sea Point in 1990. She had been confronted at that time with a very difficult choice when she was about to convert to Judaism, in preparation for her marriage to an Israeli national. Her autobiography The Choice made an impact on Cape Jewry when it was published in 2003. In the same year it was read on the programme Story Teller via CCFM radio.

Slaughtering of Sheep in Bo‑Kaap

In our loving outreach to Cape Muslims it seemed as if we could never penetrate to their hearts. We had been reading how Don Richardson had a similar problem in Papua New Guinea until he found the peace child as a key to the hearts of the indigenous people. We started praying along similar lines - to get a key to the hearts of Cape Muslims.

            Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son at their Eid-ul Adha celebration. This made me realize how near the three world religions Christianity, Judaism and Islam actually are to each other. The narrative of Abraham and the near-sacrifice of his son is central to all three faiths.    

         One day our Bo-Kaap Muslim friends invited us to the festivities around the Korban, the slaughtering of sheep.  Attending initially with some trepidation and prejudice, the occasion became such a special blessing to my wife and me.

                                                The Lord gave us a key to the

                                                   hearts of Cape Muslims

Five sheep were slaughtered that Sunday afternoon. Vividly we saw how one sheep after the other went almost voluntarily to be killed. At the sight of the sheep being led to be slaughtered, Rosemarie and I looked at each other, immediately knowing that the Lord had answered our prayer. He had given us the key to the hearts of Cape Muslims. The ceremony brought to light the biblical prophecy of Isaiah 53 that I had learned by heart as a child. It points to the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world – Jesus!

         A few minutes later the message was amplified when a little girl came into the kitchen where Rosemarie was talking to the ladies. (I was in the living room according to prevailing custom). The animal-loving child sought solace from her mother. ‘Why do the innocent sheep have to be slaughtered every year?’ The answer of the mother was special: “You know, my dear, it is either you or the sheep.”  Noticing furthermore the washing movement as part of the ritual, we were amazed how the atonement concept was actually passed on in their religion.

         It was wonderful to discover somewhat later that according to Jewish oral teaching tradition Isaac was purported to have carried the firewood for the altar on his shoulder, just like someone would carry a cross. In many a church I hereafter preached how resurrection faith was birthed in Abraham’s heart. Utilising the Bo-Kaap experience, we also shared the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus to many eager-listening Muslims, usually without any objection (Officially Muslims are not supposed to believe that Jesus died on the cross, let alone that He died for our sins!)

A Breakthrough in the spiritual Realm         

Contact with Jan Hanekom of the Hofmeyr Centre and SAAWE in Stellenbosch was quite strategic. I linked up with the countrywide prayer movement through this unheralded spiritual giant of the South African missions and prayer movement. (He was prayerfully preparing entry into Bhutan as a tent-making missionary when he died a few years later – so to speak honourably wounded in the spiritual battle - after contracting some mysterious disease.) Local Christians joined him and Bennie Mostert to pray at the Islamic shrine of Macassar.  In October 1992 the group interceded at the shrine of Shaykh Yusuf, the man generally acknowledged to have brought Islam to South Africa. At this occasion Bennie encouraged us to concentrate on uplifting Jesus. Just under twenty years later, I was reminded of this occasion, which I used prayer colleagues to join me in singing Jesus, we enthrone you as King...

          Something significant happened on that day of intercession in October 1992 at the shrine. The ‘martyr seed’ – the son of Ds. Ali Behardien, a Muslim background believer of Paarl, was killed - might have played some role in the spiritual realms as well. Together these factors seem to have signalled a breakthrough in the heavenlies. Increasingly individual Christians started showing more interest in praying for Muslims, although in general, the churches remained indifferent.

          A new brand of convert from Islam emerged nevertheless, people who were bold and willing to suffer ostracism and persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ. One example is Esmé Orrie.  For a long time after her conversion in July 1992, she was very fearful and suspicious. However, from 1994 she started to testify boldly in churches and on the radio. (On 10 March 2000, listeners to the CCFM Christian radio station were invited to react by telephone to the programme God Changes Lives after she shared her testimony.) On a memorable Wednesday morning, 22 March 1975, we baptized five converts who had come from Islam, including two connected to our ministry. At that occasion we also heard about Johaar Viljoen, who had won over many Christians to Islam in his Islamic hey-day. (This former imam came to faith in Jesus in the prison of Caledon. His conversion in 1992 - a demonstration of the power of prayer - shook many Islamic inmates who regarded him as their religious leader.)  Johaar Viljoen hereafter also shared his conversion story in churches fearlessly, in spite of quite a few threats.

                                      A Cape fellowship ushered

                                      in spiritual dancing, using

                                      visible artifacts in worship

A link to the Cape Flats township intercessors existed through the fellowship in Greenhaven which was led by Mercia and Vincent Pregnalato.  This couple held the fort in an area that was becoming Islamic at an alarming pace in the late 1980s. They also ushered in spiritual dancing, using visible artifacts like flags as part of worship. This spread in due course to audiences throughout the country.

               The connection to the countrywide prayer movement was expanded when I met Gerda Leithgöb. She had introduced the use of research for prayer in South Africa in different cities. I promptly invited her as the guest speaker - along with Ds. Davie Pypers - for a prayer seminar in Rylands Estate in January 1995 that focused on Islam.

Preparation for Marches for Jesus

At a workshop with John Robb of World Vision at the Cape Town Baptist Church in 1993 I met Trefor Morris, who was closely linked to Radio Fish Hoek, a pioneering Christian Cape radio station. Trefor became a regular of our Friday lunch time prayer meeting while he was assisting with the work done on the OM missionary ship the Doulos in the City dockyard. He was also the link to get Rosemarie and me invited to the radio station to give some advice and teaching to the ‘prayer friends’. These were the people who had to advise those Muslims who phoned CCFM for telephonic counselling. Trefor became my Fish Hoek link for the 1994 Marches for Jesus and a hopeful for the envisaged prayer network in the Cape Peninsula.  (My vision of a prayer network came to fruition partially in the new millennium when the Consultation of Christian Churches (CCC) in the Western Cape, in conjunction with Jericho Walls, attempted to stimulate the formation of houses of prayer across denominational barriers.)

Prayer Warriors respond

A divine response followed when individual prayer warriors from different communities were raised. A fourth national 40-day fast was organised in conjunction with an international initiative called A Day to Change the World. Thousands of people participated in this fast, which culminated in Marches for Jesus all over the country on 25 June, 1994.

                                       The country lapsed back into its traditional

                                               racial and denominational divisions

Although much of the mutual distrust was temporarily overcome, the country lapsed back into its traditional racial and denominational divisions. The recipe of Pete Grigg, an internationally known prayer leader, was very appropriate: ‘If there is not significant unity, the first step is to bring together the believers in prayer or in renewal and teaching until there is reconciliation and brokenness.’

Publications assist a networking Effort

In June 1992, Majiet Pophlonker and Zane Abrahams, two Muslim-background believers and their families, visited our home. After hearing Majiet’s moving story, seed was sown in my heart to write down the testimonies of converts from Islam.

At one of the first discussions with Manfred Jung, a SIM missionary colleague, the idea was mooted to publish the testimonies as a networking effort. I enjoyed collating the testimonies from some of the Muslim-background believers, sometimes making notes at meetings and once I took a tape recorder to a house. Eleven of the stories were finally selected. The result was Op soek na waarheid, a booklet that we planned to launch at the prayer seminar in January 1995. Elizabeth Robertson, one of our Bo-Kaap and Vredehoek prayer meeting regulars, painted a beautiful cover for the booklet, a typical Bo-Kaap scene.

            Because of its sensitive nature, not a single one of my missionary colleagues was prepared to stick his neck out. Converted Muslims could be exposed to persecution if the testimonies would be published. Furthermore, the person(s) responsible for the publication of the booklet would have to reckon with the same treatment. In the end, I had no other option but to use the mission agency WEC International to which we are linked, as the publishers. The compiler and the names of the converts remained anonymous. This was a weak link in the publication. However, we had to protect the converts, some of whom had reason to be quite afraid because of threats and intimidation.

Prayer Results after new Efforts

The Lord used the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 60 as part of a devotional in a Friday lunch hour prayer meeting at the Shepherd’s Watch to call Gill Knaggs into the mission to the Muslim World. She attended the prayer meeting on a once-off basis, but this was enough to get her in motion. She started praying about getting involved in full-time missionary work.  

Gill helped us to start translating (from Afrikaans) and editing the testimony booklet as Search for Truth.[8] For a number of years she also hosted a prayer group for Muslims at her home. When Cape Community FM (CCFM) started a radio programme aimed at Muslims in 1998, she was available to write the scripts - something she continued to do for many years.

          As a result of the 1994 Marches for Jesus, some Cape churches got to learn more about the local missionary work of WEC International among Muslims. One of these churches was the Logos Christelike Kerk in Bellville. Not only did this church become a major distributor of the Ramadan Prayer Focus, but Freddy van Dyk, an elder of the church, who worked at the Cape Town City Council, also joined the Friday lunchtime prayer meeting at the Shepherd’s Watch. This participation led to some members of that prayer group eventually taking a course in pastoral clinical counselling by Dr Henry Dwyer in the second quarter of 1996 to strengthen their ministry.

Global Ramifications

Gill Knaggs would become one of the first students of Media Village that had been started by Graham and Diane Vermooten in Muizenberg, a ministry linked to Youth with a Mission. The founders, Graham and Diane Vermooten, set out to train believers for media work and also to tell the stories of God around the Globe. Gill wanted to make a documentary of our ministry at that time as a part of her practical work. Looking back, we are quite happy that it did not materialise. It could have jeopardised our sensitive ministry at a moment when it would have been quite perilous too if the footage had come into the wrong hands. Her documentary on Robben Island was subsequently used on the ferries to and from the renowned island.

            In later years the Media Village DVDs and stories would carry the story of Transformation Africa and the Global Day of Prayer around the world.

From Cairo to the World!

A church service on 28 July 1996 in the Moravian Church of Elsies River, a township-like Cape northern suburb would have world-wide ramifications. Mark Gabriel, the pseudonym of an Egyptian believer, shared his testimony in the church at a combined youth service that Sunday evening, (Mark had previously been forced to flee his home country where he narrowly escaped being shot by his father for becoming a Christian.) This event added a new dimension to the Cape Muslim ministry effort. Gabriel’s printed testimony had just been published in South Africa under the pseudonym Mustapha with the title Against the Tides in the Middle East. Within a few days, the booklet which contained his story was in the hands of a Muslim leader. Maulana Sulaiman Petersen correctly suspected that Mark Gabriel had contact with local missionaries. Threateningly he enquired after him on Wednesday 31 July.

                                      Mark Gabriel was forced into hiding

            Reminiscent of the situation when Martin Luther was taken to the Wartburg castle for safety, Mark Gabriel was forced into hiding. The televised Staggie 'execution' by PAGAD as a part of the national news on 4 August 1996 reminded Mark of Muslim radicals of the Middle East.  He now started with significant research of jihad (holy war) in Arabic Islamic literature, finishing the manuscript in 2001 in Orlando (Florida, USA), where he had moved to in the meantime. The September 11 event of that year made Mark Gabriel's book on the topic a best-seller when it was published at the beginning of 2002. It came out under the title Islam and Terrorism. That book became a major factor in the exposure of the violent side of the religion, the last teachings of Muhammad.  (Subsequently the book was translated into more than 50 languages). Those teachings became the script for radical islamist groups like Al Queda, Al Shabbab and Boko Haram.

Arson Attempt on a Church 

A 10-week teaching course ‘Love your Muslim Neighbour,’ in which we worked closely with Renate Isert, a German missionary, emphasised prayer as integral to ‘spiritual warfare’.  Just before the course was scheduled to begin, there was an arson attempt on the intended venue, the Uniting Reformed Church in Lansdowne.

                                                A Lebanon type scenario with

                                               Christians and Muslims fighting each

                                      other appeared even more ominous

          When Muslims offered to assist with the repair of the damage, the suspicion was confirmed that satanists were not really behind the arson attack as had been suggested by a Cape Argus reporter.  A Lebanon type scenario with Christians and Muslims fighting each other now appeared ominous. (We did not know at that time that Lansdowne was a PAGAD stronghold). 

          The reason that the ‘Love your Muslim Neighbour’ course was relocated and postponed to the St James Church in Kenilworth from 3 September to 5 November 1996 was exactly because we wanted to use it as a test to make sure that we were in God’s will. That congregation had experienced a vicious attack in July 1993, which God used to get South Africans to pray as never before. For the Love your Muslim Neighbour’ course in Kenilworth I used my devotional teaching on John 4, the interaction of Jesus with the Samaritan woman - for the first time as a ten-part series.[9]

         

Churches from many Denominations joining Hands

It was truly significant for the Cape Town Metropolis in April 1997 when churches across the city and from many denominations joined hands for an evangelistic campaign on the Newlands Cricket Stadium with the evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of the renowned Billy Graham.  Pastor Walter Ackerman from the Docks Mission Church in Lentegeur and Pastor Elijah Klaassen from a Pentecostal church in Gugulethu/Crossroads, worked tirelessly to enlist people from the Cape Flats and ‘Black’ churches for this event. Transport from the townships was provided free of charge.

          In the Western Cape, Eben Swart became the coordinator for Herald Ministries. He worked closely with the Network of United Prayer in Southern Africa (NUPSA), which had appointed Pastor Willy Oyegun, a Nigerian pastor, as their Western Cape coordinator.  Together they did valuable work in research and spiritual mapping, along with Amanda Buys who counselled Christians with psychological problems.

Impact of Radio CCFM          

At the Global Consultation of World Evangelisation (GCOWE) conference in Pretoria in July 1997, Avril Thomas, the Directress of Radio CCFM, a Cape Christian radio station, was challenged to use the facility to reach out to Cape Muslims, the main unreached people group of the region in terms of the Gospel.  She phoned the author, offering airtime for a regular programme to this end.  We had to warn Avril of the unsuccessful arson attempt on the Lansdowne church building where we wanted to stage a Love your Muslim Neighbour course the previous year. She and the CCFM Board were prepared to take the risk for the sake of the Gospel.

          I wrote a radio series on biblical figures in the Qur’an and the Talmud, which was transmitted towards the end of 1997.  The consistent denial of the Cross in the sacred book of the Muslims had struck me. It was more than compelling. It was just too subtle to be humanly inspired. Knowing the history of the compilation of the Qur’an, the question was how I could share this potentially devastating information in a loving way. The fact that I would possibly be addressing Christians and Muslims via the radio simultaneously would of course not make things easy.

          During one of our prayer walks in Bo-Kaap it became clear to me that I should not speak over the airwaves myself. I preferred to remain behind the scenes, with someone else reading my script. CCFM agreed to the suggestion. After a gradual increase of occasional programmes geared to address the Cape Muslim population, we felt challenged to start utilising the CCFM offer to use the medium on a regular basis.  A Dutch TV testimony programme, God verandert mensen, was my inspiration to start a similar programme on a weekly basis.

Fulfilment of Messianic Prophecies

During a lunchtime prayer meeting of City Bowl ministers in October 1996, a Messianic Jewish pastor entered my frame. He was known at that time as Bruce Rudnick. Bruce was the pastor of the Beth Ariel Fellowship of Messianic believers in Sea Point. That is where I got to know the servant of God who later changed his name to Baruch Maayan.

          For many centuries the fulfilment of Messianic prophecies had remained fairly obscure while so-called Replacement Theology remained prominent. In recent years things started to change gradually, notably at the Lausanne Consultation of Jewish Evangelism global event here in Cape Town in 2010.

          Isaiah 19:25 was regarded by a few individuals down the ages as a prophecy of wide-spread conversion to Jesus as the Saviour and Messiah in Egypt, (As)syria and Israel – in that order. The general interpretation of the prophecy was understood by some believers to usher in the reign of our Lord as global ruler for a thousand years.

The African Highway of Holiness

Pastor Bruce Rudnick attended the ‘All Africa Prayer Convocation’ in Ethiopia in 1997.  A prophetic word that came strongly at that time was 'An African Highway from Cape Town to Jerusalem.' In due course the Church was regarded as a spiritual body on the continent of Africa with the feet in South Africa, the knees in Kenya. Uganda stands in this symbolism for the womb and thus for birthing. The heart of the African giant is in Ethiopia and the head is Egypt. One hand reaches over to Morocco and the other hand to Jerusalem. This sleeping giant needed to be awakened to come into its calling.  The vision would become an integral part of the prophecy of Isaiah 19:25.

          Baruch and his family made aliya, leaving for Israel in 1999. He taught subsequently that Egypt stands in the Isaiah 19 prophecy for Africa and Assyria for Asia. (The Back to Jerusalem Movement had been around for many years already, starting in China.) In Israel Bruce changed his surname to Maayan.

Towards Muslim/Jewish Dialogue and Reconciliation

For many years our love for the Jews found very limited expression. This changed to some extent from 2004 when we increased our networking with missionary colleagues who ministered to Jews. During 2004 our missionary colleague Edith Sher organised a prayer breakfast in Sea Point during which   a Cape Muslim background believer shared his testimony. God sent other people to help us in this effort.  Lillian James is a long-standing contact and one of our prayer partners. She grew up bilingually in Woodstock among people of different cultures. After she had become a committed follower of Jesus, she grew to love Jews and Muslims. She had been one of the believers who attended our prayer meetings for the Middle East where we prayed for both groups and she introduced us to Leigh Telli and her husband. Leigh loves the Jews and her husband comes from North Africa. All this served to confirm our calling of ministering to foreigners and linking our ministry to Messianic Jews. Rosemarie and I were encouraged anew to attempt stimulating Jewish dialogue and reconciliation at the Cape.

More Reconciliation Moves

The next step was a seminar on reconciliation on February 19, 2005. It was our vision to attempt achieving reconciliation under the banner of Jesus, using Messianic Jews and other followers of Jesus – also those from Muslim background.[10] In our preparation for the seminar we worked closely with Leigh Telli. She shared in her contribution the role of the descendants of Isaac in the last days, and I did the same for Ishmael.  Subsequently a manual of our papers was printed, in which some of Leigh’s paintings also featured.

            Soon thereafter there was an open-air service in Camps Bay that was dubbed ‘Shalom Salam’, signifying the intention to reach out to both Jews and Muslims. These efforts became the start of a close friendship between Rosemarie and Leigh Telli, and a strengthening of the ties to Edith Sher who later started a weekly radio programme on Sunday afternoons via CCFM under the auspices of Messiah’s People.  (Edith Sher became an important additional source of information for my manuscript Pointers to Jesus, in which I highlight how the Hebrew Scriptures point to Jesus.)[11]

Confrontation with the Holocaust

After resigning from WEC International in July 2007, Rosemarie and I linked up with Floyd and Sally McClung, whom we knew since our time in Holland. We joined the Church Planting Experience (CPx) course at the beginning of 2008, becoming members of the All Nations International family. (CPx teaches a new dimension of church - whereby simple non-denominational independent fellowships are planted that attempt to come as closely as possible to the practice of the first generation of ‘New Testament’ followers of Jesus.)

In one of the sessions Floyd challenged us to ‘tithe’ our ministry time. Rosemarie had been battling for years with the guilt of the Germans in respect of Jews. She was deeply convicted, resolving to give a tenth of her ministry time to loving outreach to Jews. This implied quite a challenge for her as a German in the light of the Nazi history of her nation.

God was not slow in answering her prayer on this score at all this time. Soon thereafter our friend Leigh Telli challenged her to share the platform with a holocaust survivor. Our being so busy with the CPx was a good reason for procrastinating the issue.

Rosemarie and a Polish Holocaust Survivor

At a meeting in Durbanville on 31 May 2008 Rosemarie shared the story of her upbringing as a post-World War 2 child in Germany. David, a Polish holocaust survivor was the other speaker at this occasion. Quite a few Jews present were clearly touched when she highlighted the fact that she learned to appreciate Jesus as the scapegoat for our sins. Here is an excerpt of what she said in her talk at that occasion:

‘… I also stand here this afternoon with great humility. After having listened to David and his enormous sufferings during these horrible years of the Holocaust (and what this caused most probably for the rest of his life) brings myself as a German descendant to a place of utter humility and shame. And yet I want to thank God that He has given me this opportunity to stand here today. For many years I was searching for a way to express my deep feelings of regret, sorrow and shame as a German towards what has happened, to Jewish people in general, but even more so towards those who have suffered so much themselves during the Holocaust and those who have lost family and friends in a senseless and cruel way…’

She closed with the following words: …I also want to ask forgiveness for the Church, whose role should have been to stand up for the Jews in the times of horror, instead of being mainly silent. As for myself, it feels like being insulted myself when anybody says something negative about the Jews. I love them with all my heart and I am glad that I had the opportunity today to speak out what has been in my heart for a long time. God bless you all.’

Hope springs eternal 

Hereafter a Jewish lady wanted Rosemarie to come and speak to her group in Sea Point. This took place at a follow up meeting in August 2008. There she, Leigh Telli and Cecilia Burger, a veteran Dutch Reformed church worker among the Jews, were warmly welcomed. Leigh wrote in her October 2008 newsletter: ‘I believe that R’s message touched many hearts that day.’           

The effect of this meeting was however blunted a few weeks later when someone malignantly spread the news that Rosemarie and Leigh were missionaries to the Jewish people. It looked as if we would be back to square one with respect to a breakthrough in Sea Point.

Out of the blue Rosemarie was then however invited to share her story at a meeting of Jewish business people on the 20^th of April 2009, together with another holocaust survivor. The organiser of these events was Mirjam Lichtermann, a 85-year old energetic Jewish lady, likewise a holocaust survivor. 

A further invitation followed at a Jewish home in Claremont on 20 May 2009 and another meeting in Sea Point on the same day. At this occasion Rosemarie was attacked with heavy depression in the run-up to these events. Early the morning of 20 May she prayed fervently as she felt so completely inadequate. The Lord encouraged her not only with a word from Matthew 10 that she should not fret about what she should say, but she was blessed when she deemed it a special privilege to encourage the Jews with Isaiah 40:1 Comfort ye my people....

Thereafter things went quiet for quite a while in respect of Jews. We continued to pray that God would bring natural Jewish contacts on our path.

Isaac and Ishmael reconciled?

At the beginning of 2010 I was deeply touched when I discerned that Isaac and Ishmael, the two eldest sons of Abraham, had actually buried their father together (Genesis 25:9).  The evident reconciliation between the two sons of Abraham was probably preceded by confession and some remorse. Or was there some reconciling agent involved?

         I started to pray more intensely that a representative body of Christians might express regret and offer an apology on behalf of Christians for the side-lining and persecution of Jews by Christians.

            On 11 October 2010 the Lord ministered to me from Romans 1:16 when we received the Quarterly Bulletin of the  Lausanne Consultation for Jewish Evangelism (LCJE). That edition of the LCJE Bulletin highlighted the legacy of Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus. In the paper that Rosen delivered as part of the Jewish Evangelism track at Lausanne II in Manila in 1989, he highlighted 'Jews first'. In the printed summary of his paper he proposed 'God’s formula' for worldwide evangelization, the bringing of the Gospel to the Jew first.  Highlighting the example of Paul: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek’ (Romans 1:16), Rosen proposed in the same paper that ‘by not following God’s programme for worldwide evangelisation – that is, beginning with Jerusalem (Israel and the Jews) – we not only develop a bad theology because of weak foundations, but we also develop poor missiological practices.’ I felt personally challenged to get involved with loving outreach to Jews.

            The very next day our friend Brett Viviers, a Messianic Jewish believer and long-time friend, a former elder at Cape Town Baptist Church, whose daughter's prayers for Muslims were instrumental in linking us up with that fellowship in 1993, visited me. He wanted us to start Ishmael Isaac Ministries. At the end of 2010 we made another attempt at Muslim/Jewish dialogue and reconciliation, an effort to link Messianic Jewish believers and Muslim background believers at the Cape. On Fridays Brett Viviers and I started doing prayer drives and prayer walks in Sea Point.

Tears rather than Laughter?

For years I had been looking at the history of revivals. I discerned that a) united prayer across border of church and race and b) genuine remorse, accompanied by tears, are signs that a revival was not hyped up carnally. On Signal Hill at the beginning of October I stated publicly the need for tears of remorse as a possible condition for genuine revival. I was praying that I might also genuinely experience this.  In different places we had been seeing ‘laughing in the Spirit’, notably in the Toronto movement of the 1990s. But the deep remorseful crying to God as I had been reading about, was lacking. Via an experience in 1995 with our youngest daughter the penny had dropped for Rosemarie and me that it is not the ‘laughing in the Spirit’, but our weeping for the lost that honours God more!

Overawed by a Sense of Guilt

On 19 October 2010 we received an email from our friend Liz Campbell, with whom we started prayer meetings for the Middle East in the early 1990s. She shared 'that Baruch and Karen Maayan (Rudnick) and their five amazing children are back in Cape Town from Israel.  A quick and sovereign move of God believe me, and worth coming and finding out why! … we have sent this out to not only those who know Baruch and Karen but also to those we know will be greatly touched and taught by Baruch's ministry.'

         The meeting on the Saturday afternoon of 23 October at a private address in Milnerton with the Maayan family was a defining moment. Baruch shared his conviction that he was sent to Cape Town a second time to challenge believers with the highway message.

         I was very much embarrassed when I broke down in tears uncontrollably.  I was completely overawed by a sense of guilt towards Jews, while I felt a deep urge to apologise on behalf of Christians for the fact that our fore-bears had been side-lining the Jews. Christians have haughtily suggested that the Church replaced the nation of Israel and the Jews. My weeping was an answer to my own prayers, but it was nevertheless very embarrassing, especially as many others present followed suit. (The 'sea of tears' however knitted our hearts to the Maayan family. The Lord had called them back to be part of a movement to take the Gospel via simple churches from Cape Town throughout the continent of Africa, ultimately back to Jerusalem.

Replacement Theology still an Issue?

It was very special for Rosemarie and me to attend an event that was linked to the international LCJE Conference on 15 October, 2010. For the first time this was held in Cape Town. People from all over the world attended who are somehow involved with outreach to Jews - including of course those who specially came for Lausanne III.  It was however very much of a shock to us to hear that a few lines in the draft document for Lausanne III were supportive of so-called Replacement Theology - that the Church has replaced Israel as God's special instrument. The flaw was thankfully corrected in the final revision when it was published in the Cape Town Commitment.

Cape Jewish-Muslim Relations

On Wednesday afternoon, 27 October 2010, I had a meeting lined up to launch Jewish-Muslim Reconciliation under the banner of the Lamb with Achmed Kariem and Brett Viviers. It was very special to have the Hindu back-ground Ps. Richard Mitchell, with us. (He was visiting us after serving as a volunteer at Lausanne III.) He linked up wonderfully with Brett. We agreed to invite a few followers of Jesus from Jewish and Muslim background to a meeting on Saturday 30 November.

Start of the Highway Fellowship

Soon after the Milnerton meeting of October 2010, Baruch Maayan also approached Brett Viviers and me. At a meeting in the Company Gardens, he announced that he would start with weekly prayer on Monday evenings at the home of Gay French in Claremont. The 30 November meeting in Sea Point would become the beginning of monthly Highway meetings, during which however the Ishmael element was unintentionally side-lined.

         After a few months it was decided to have ‘Highway meetings’ every last Saturday of the month at the Sea Point High School. Pastor Light Eze, a Nigerian pastor, who had responded obediently to a divine call to rally the Church at the Cape to repentance and prayer, was at this time fairly closely linked to the group. He had also started a fellowship in Parow, where Maditshaba Moloko became a prominent member. She would also become connected to the Maayan family and the Highway fellowship when the Maayans moved to Pinelands.

Simple Churches on the Route to Jerusalem

Obedient to Romans 1:16 and Matthew 28:19 and 20, we attempted to share the Gospel with Muslims and Jews, praying that some of them who would have been open to the gospel, would become followers of Jesus. Thereafter new believers had to be discipled and we hoped that ultimately we would possibly still see the one or other enlisted in the planting of simple churches everywhere on the route to Jerusalem - the spiritual African Highway from Cape Town to Jerusalem ­- and to the ends of the earth. We believe that there is a special unction on Jews as the apple of God's eye and that they will have an important role to play in the end-time spurt of the Gospel. Rosemarie and I decided to take this as the focus for the last period of our ministry and service. This was however not easy at all to implement.

          It is still our firm belief that reconciliation of Jews and Muslims at the Cape could send powerful signals around the globe. In Cape Town we have the special situation where we have sizeable minorities of Muslims and Jews next to the majority group of Christians. On top of that we have a heritage and history where representatives of the three Abrahamic religions have been living harmoniously next to each other for decades in places like District Six, Bo-Kaap and Green Point until the 1950s. Of course, at that time no one even remotely thought of the possibility of a common movement like the one that we now have in the Middle East called Musalaha[12] where Christians of both Jewish and Arab extraction are meeting from time to time.

Run-up to the annual Jerusalem Prayer Convocation                                                                        Baruch challenged all Monday evening regulars in mid-2011 to pray about becoming a part of a group to attend the annual Jerusalem prayer convocation. On June 27 Baruch, Karen and a few other believers in Claremont prayed fervently that the Lord would confirm clearly whether Rosemarie and I should step out in faith to join the Jerusalem convocation.  Knowing that our children wanted to sponsor Rosemarie for her 60^th birthday in July 2011 so that we could fulfil a secret wish. I prayed now for confirmation for myself before the 30^th. This was very clearly confirmed.                                                                                                                        The very next day I received a letter from Germany which informed me that I would receive a small monthly pension, retrospective from 1 January 2011. I sensed that this was the confirmation to trust the Lord for all the funding necessary for the Jerusalem convocation, even though the situation in Israel was very unsettled because of the threats of the Palestinians.

         For Rosemarie it was very special that she could now be a part of the South African delegation. (She went to Israel in 1973, assisting there in a children's home as a volunteer for a few weeks.) Their leader had expounded from a Bible study during her visit to the Holy Land that nations would in future be going up to Jerusalem.

          When we left for Israel for the annual International House of Prayer (IHOP) convocation in Jerusalem in October 2011, we had one special prayer: We did not want to be the same on our return to South Africa. The Lord clearly answered our prayers.

In the Holy Land

At the convocation we took a firm decision to spread the word of the Highway of Holiness to our personal contacts. As a group of 11 South African Christians from diverse racial, and geographical backgrounds (Messianic Jewish, ‘Black’, ‘Coloured’, Afrikaner and English-speaking), attending the (IHOP) convocation in Jerusalem, we prayed separately for our country. At the first session we set out issues for praise and prayer.

Even before we looked at praise points, the concern came up to pray in remorse and confession for divine forgiveness because of the biased expressions of certain leaders in Church and State regarding Israel. We knew that such utterances could incur the wrath of God.  We agreed to disseminate the following lines via personal emails to our friends:

We derive from Scripture that since the two sons of Abraham buried their father together, we believe that loving both Muslims and Jews is the biblical position to take for followers of Jesus.

We ask God for his favour upon our country and for a change in the official position of our government in favour of a negotiated settlement (not the unilateral one the Palestinians are striving after). An even better suggestion would be if our government could take an independent line, striving to encourage Arabs and Jews to live peacefully next to each other as the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael.

 We praise God for divine intervention and the leadership of racial reconciliation that spared our country a civil war in the 1990s…

We note with sadness and remorse that African theologians played such a big role in doctrinal bickering that set the pattern for the disunity of the Church. Concretely, we repent of the resultant side-lining of Jews and the perception and belief of many Christians that the Church is understood to have replaced Israel. The Bible makes it clear that the divine wrath because of their rejection of Jesus as Messiah was temporary. Gentile Christians are merely grafted into the true olive tree Israel (Romans 11). In all humility they are enjoined to love Israel and provoke them to a jealousy that could bring them to discover their lost son who was pierced (Zechariah 12:10).

Arabs and Jews in Harmony

At the prayer convocation we were blessed to listen to Israeli Arab and Jewish pastors who met each other regularly. As in every effort of reconciliation, a price has to be paid. But the biggest price of all has already been paid by no less than God himself, who gave his one and only, his unique son to reconcile us to himself. This is the basis of Paul’s challenge to all followers of the Master, viz. to get reconciled to God, to accept his gift in faith, the death on the cross for our sins.

          What a surprise it was for Rosemarie and me to hear and see how Orthodox Jews and Arabs were actually living in close proximity in the controversial East Jerusalem. How sad it is that all around the world people are still clamouring for this portion of land to become the capital of a Palestinian State and thus perpetuating the strife, instead of praying that the day might be hastened when they would serve the Almighty together as descendants of Isaac and Ishmael. This would of course be the culmination of the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy. We were challenged towards increased commitment to usher this in via the Highway of Holiness from the Cape to Jerusalem via a 24/7 prayer room.

          Already a few decades ago an 8-year old child of Steenberg with the name of Julia van Diemen, who married an Indian with the surname Naidoo, had a vision for Israel along these lines. She ministered to the poor and needy in the township of Hanover Park. Julia Naidoo would become like a mother to Mark Wilson, a young man from Pinelands that would be robbed and killed in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) on 7 January, 2015 in the course of a prayer journey from Cape Town to Jerusalem.  Mark believed that the diversely prophesied revival would start at the Cape and that it would ultimately spread throughout Africa and then to the rest of the world. He believed that this prayer journey would be seed for revival. In a sense his death can thus be seen as the blood of a martyr!

13. Run-up to a new Season of Spiritual Warfare

          At one of our Monday evening prayer times with Pastor Baruch Maayan in Claremont we heard about the intention of the ANC to commit the country to the ancestors of their ANC founders and past leaders at its centenary celebrations from 6 - 8 January 2012. This spawned a season of intensive spiritual warfare in which Pastor Light Eze, a Nigerian pastor, played a prominent role. He had responded obediently to a divine call to rally the Church at the Cape to repentance and prayer. In an email, I suggested that we cherish and celebrate the Christ-like legacy of ANC founders like John Dube and Albert Luthuli, but I also mentioned that we oppose the abomination of ancestor worship.

          Repeating my suggestion to uplift Jesus, and inspired by that very special prayer time at Rhodes Memorial, the programme was prepared by Pastor Light Eze and a few other prayer leaders.

Another Chapter of the name Change Effort of a Mountain Peak

The name change of the mountain peak, where satan worship has been practised for decades, was high on our prayer agenda. Noting that racial prejudice, discrimination of all sorts, unwitting demonic activity via ancestor worship and freemasonry have been practised in traditional religious rituals, repentance and forgiveness were included in our prayers. Central in all of it was the uplifting of Jesus. 'Jesus, we enthrone you!' was our theme song throughout the week.                                                                             
             We invited believers to join us. We prayed that the Unity of the Body of Christ might be visibly demonstrated in the prayer event. All of this was part and parcel of a new attempt to achieve a concerted effort by the Body of Christ. The vision was to move step by step until we would ultimately bless the nations around the globe.

8 Days of Prophetic Prayers

Pastor Light Eze called 'the city watchers, gate keepers, prophetic intercessors, and leaders of His people … to seek His face and to take responsibility to prepare the way for an unprecedented outpouring of His grace, His spirit, and His Blessings upon the Cape in 2012.' In an email he listed the following goals:

1.    To understand the spiritual significance of 2012 and to seek to understand God’s specific message for Cape Town, the Western Cape and South Africa (“SA”) in 2012;

2.    Taking biblical steps to deal with the strong man over the Cape and to reposition the City, Province and SA for the pursuit of her prophetic agenda;

3.    Annulling the evil machination of the leadership of ANC, to officially dedicate SA to the spirit of the ancestors on the 6th of January 2012;

4.    Dealing with the Israel, Palestine and South Africa issue;

5.    Personal Deliverance, Restoration and Revival;

6.    Releasing Africa into her prophetic destiny in 2012;

7.    Establishing the foundations and spiritual infrastructure to enhance Economic Empowerment among God’s people;

8.    To take a corporate spiritual stand against the Top-TV plan to further destroy morals by launching a 24hr pornography in South Africa in 2012;

9.    To open the gates and welcome our Lord and King into our City, Province and Nation from Cape Town ( the tip of Africa, the rainbow city, the feet of Africa and the prophetic muzzle of the revival gun);

10.               To raise an altar of unity unto the Lord to deal with the issue of racial discrimination in Cape Town and South Africa as a whole;

11.              To bring judgment against the spirit of the bond woman, Jezebel, homosexuality, prostitution, Satanism etc, in Cape Town and

12.              To seek God’s wisdom, strength, guidance and blessings for those in leadership positions in Cape Town, the Western Cape and SA.

Pointers to divine Approval?

Supernatural things seemed to point to divine approval as we attempted to uplift Jesus. Water coming from the ground next to St George's Cathedral where we were praying - as if it was coming from a well, could never have been manipulated. Similarly, water dripping from the lions' mouths at Rhodes Memorial, was very special. Deep remorse was evident at the evening at national parliament for some of the laws promulgated that encouraged sexual immorality. We prayed for a reversal of them. Our prayers at the Green Point Stadium had an attack on all sexual immorality as the pivot, but they included also thanks and praise to the Lord for the victory of 2010 when the Lord so wonderfully answered our prayers regarding human trafficking. (Hundreds of prostitutes had been ‘imported’. They were hardly used because so many men who came to the event brought their wives or partners along.)

            The trip with 29 people to Cape Agulhas, the southern-most point of our continent, was surely a highlight. There Messianic Jewish Pastor Baruch Maayan led the prayers for progress of the Highway of Holiness from the Cape to Jerusalem.

            A few extra sessions were added at the international airport and the main station of our city - as a signal of blessing to those coming to our city and for missionaries departing to take the gospel to the nations.

            The last evening was definitely the cherry on the top. There on Signal Hill we have never had such a diverse crowd before – one of the best representations of the body of Christ that I have ever experienced in every respect. Very special was the extended session of praying for Israel and for the Jews.

            Pastor Chris Eden of Bridges for Peace showed us from Scripture where we have faltered as a nation and as the Church, guiding us in our praying. Thereafter all pastors present were asked to come forward. The prayers included repentance for the replacement of Israel by the Church down the ages and for the side-lining of Jews. Thereafter Pastor Light invited all persons present with a special link to a nation to pray and repent on behalf of that nation in its dealing with Israel. 18 countries from all continents were represented. Maditshaba Moloko, a Tswana intercessor, led us in a prayer of blessing for Israel and the congregation was thereafter requested to stretch our hands to the north, so to speak in the direction of Israel. At that point in time a rainbow formed around the moon. What a confirmation this was of the divine unction on the apple of His eye! In a few prophetic proclamations, Pastor Light Eze interpreted this as God's special approval of our prayers.

A Bulls Eye in Spiritual Warfare

We were aware that a lot of spiritual warfare was waged at Rhodes Memorial. We could have discerned that this venue was a proverbial ‘Bulls Eye’. Our battle had as target the corruption that was associated with the Zuma administration.  Advocate Murray Bridgman had been sharing how Devil’s Peak was said to have received its name. The origin of the legend could be traced to the corrupt regime of governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel. Unintentionally, the venue of our Rhodes Memorial prayer would trigger off a train of actions with ramifications on various university campuses as far afield as Oxford in England and Los Angeles in the US in 2015.

A Satanic Backlash

We must have angered the arch enemy at least to some extent at this time. Some of the main Cape evangelical role players experienced the one or other form of attack at the beginning of 2012. Murray Bridgman put some persevering stalwart work into the process, but only by the end of 2013 there appeared some light at the end of the tunnel. We decided subsequently that we would use word of mouth as a strategy to achieve our goal.

It seemed to me no co-incidence that it was touch and go or I was eliminated personally in the night of 30/31 January 2012. This happened a few days before a Transformation Africa event that was scheduled for Saturday 4 February at Rhodes Memorial for a mountain peak name change event where I was listed as one of the speakers.

          Severe artery blockages should have taken me out.  But God had fore-stalled this massive attack on my life. A few days prior to this, God gave a vision to Beverley Stratis, a good friend of us and a faithful intercessor while she was praying. She saw in this vision a dark cloud and a life threatening vibe of death surrounding me. That was the cue for her to engage in intense intercession for me.

          About two weeks later Erika Schmeisser, an intercessor who attended our Saturday evening fellowship with Pastor Baruch Maayan regularly, came up to me to tell me about her special experience. She had heard that I had a heart attack. At that moment she woke up from a massive pain in her chest. Fearing that she was going to die, Erika immediately sensed that this was the experience of someone else and that she must intercede for the person who was having this severe pain.

          This circumstance highlighted Isaiah 53 to me in a special way because doctors and nurses were so surprised that I had no need for tablets for pain in the chest region. (The doctor who sent me to hospital for an EKG initially was very surprised that I drove there by myself with the low pulse that she had felt.)

          Initially it was suspected that I had a ‘slight heart attack’. At the angiogram performed on me two days later, it surfaced that I had a complete blockage of a main artery and two blockages on another one that should have caused death. Three stents gave me a new lease of life. Also at Vincent Palotti Hospital where I admitted subsequently, they were so surprised that I experienced no pain. The Gospel message became clear to me as never before, namely how Jesus could bear our sins, ailment and pain vicariously, in our stead.

Prayer Service on Human Rights Day 

A meeting was also held on 15 February 2012 at the CODETA offices at Site C, in the taxi rank of the Cape ‘Black’ township Khayelitsha. Mr Mtengwana from CODETA called this meeting 'a historic meeting that has never been seen at this office and taxi rank.' The meeting was attended by the taxi leaders and over 40 Christian members from CODETA and CATA, the two main Cape taxi operators.

Thereafter the Western Cape taxi industry hosted a prayer service for forgiveness and peace in the taxi industry at the Philippi Stadium on 21 March 2012. The prayer followed a request from the two taxi organisations who asked the Church to host a day of prayer for the taxi industry. They had lodged this request at a reconciliation and repentance prayer meeting organised by Pastor Bongani Mgayi on 5 November 2011. 

            The taxi leaders asked Mr Adriaan Vlok, former Minister of Law and Order under the Apartheid government, if he was willing to come and speak to the community. He accepted the invitation and paid for his own flight. He said in his address: 'Apartheid was wrong. It was evil. Though I never created it, I fully supported it.'

            Adriaan Vlok addressed the crowd in the stadium: 'Apartheid hurt you and I want to say sorry. I am asking for forgiveness.' After Mr Vlok washed the feet of the taxi leaders, various ‘Black’ leaders washed Vlok’s feet and blessed him.

Give the Taxi Industry another Chance!
Taaibosch pleaded with the community to give the taxi industry another chance. He led a prayer with all the taxi operators standing in the stadium, confessing their wrongdoing and asking for forgiveness.

Pastor Ivan Waldeck led in a prayer of confession, listing the atrocities and evil deeds which were perpetrated by the taxi industry. The list included murder, killings, corruption and immorality. He then closed this era of the taxi industry symbolically, by closing the door of an old taxi with the words “violence, corruption, murder” written on it. He then prayed a prayer of repentance and asked for the Lord’s forgiveness.

Waldeck thereafter declared a new beginning in the taxi industry. He prophetically opened a new door, referring to words written on another taxi, and highlighting “education, unashamedly ethical, good business management, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation”.

He then invited all ministers to pray with him as he led a prayer, blessing the taxi industry. Then everyone in the stadium stood as he dedicated the Western Cape and Cape Town to our Father in Heaven.

The day was filled with messages of forgiveness and repentance, songs of praise and worship to our Lord. The trumpet sound of shofars, fervent prayer and excitement filled the air. A group of youngsters blessed the audience with spiritual dance.

After the prayer event, people walked out of the stadium with broad smiles on their faces and positive expectations of things to come.

A biblical Paradigm

A biblical paradigm would be the attitude of our Lord to the Samaritan woman of John 4 and Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-11). It was not the condemnation – like the rest of their respective societies – which brought about the change in the adulteress and remorse in the reviled collaborator with the Roman oppressor, the chief tax collector. In fact, when everybody looked down upon the small man – in a double sense – Jesus looked up showing respect, displaying the opposite spirit of his compatriots. He gave Zaccheus dignity, by enjoying a meal with the notorious traitor. Jesus not only allowed despised people to serve him, but he even allowed socially repugnant people like lepers and prostitutes to touch and anoint him!

            I took liberty to suggest that Church leaders everywhere – also to evangelicals after September 11, 2001 – should use ISLAM as an acronym: I Shall Love All Muslims. Having experienced first-hand how powerfully the principle operated both in the wake of the St James Church massacre of July 1993 and the PAGAD scourge of August 1996 to November 2000, South Africa could show the way. Positive examples in treating groups on the fringes of society in a dignified manner could go a long way to demonstrate the spirit of love, compassion and care. An expression of regret or better still a confession in respect of the omission and neglect towards Muslims and Jews is something that still has to be addressed.

A new Version of Huguenots?

In the early 1990s gangsters and prostitutes started making Woodstock and Salt River hotspots of crime. The influx of Black African refugees into these suburbs turned the situation around to quite an extent. Because of other reasons however, these new residents were not valued. The flood of refugees – many of them came because of economic reasons - caused xenophobia.  South African ‘Blacks’ saw them as a threat and competition to the already tight employment market. This unfortunately drove some of the expatriates to the lucrative drug trade - and criminals were soon on hand to take control of mafia-style operations.

             In contrast to that, the Cape Town Baptist Church turned out to become a model for other congregations, not only by taking care of foreigners, but also in being blessed by them - indeed a 21^st century version of the French Huguenots.

              The intensive prayer on many a Friday night into the next morning, plus intercession on some Saturday mornings, especially by those coming from the Congo region, was apt to bless the city with spiritual renewal. Competitive rivalry and materialism linked to prosperity theology cancelled much of the positive effect.

Ongoing Xenophobia

As we were constantly interacting with foreigners who worked as traders and with the refugee-background ladies at the beadwork workshop, at which we assisted a few of them to provide some semblance of livelihood, we were also time and again reminded quite tragically of the ongoing xenophobia. What made us very sad was that this also happened at government institutions, notably at the Department of Home Affairs. The hassling and rudeness that people were experiencing at the refugee department were blatantly xenophobic. Even we as stakeholders had to bear the brunt of sheer rudeness and bad manners of officials. During 2012 we had to witness our hard work of the past being eroded as the government seemed determined to close the facilities for asylum seekers and refugees in Cape Town. When stakeholder colleagues took the government to court successfully, the response was new hassling of our clients. Those whose files were somehow still at other centres like Johannesburg or Durban, even though they have been in Cape Town for years, were hereafter required to go there for the extension of their permits every month.

Issues around the Prayer Room

During our visit to Israel Rosemarie and I were challenged with regard to a prayer room we felt that had to be built at our home. We did not expect the prayer room to be built at our house to be a cake walk. The planning and building of a prayer room would keep us on edge for many months.

We were initially very much blessed when Doug Smetherham, a structural engineer and the husband of our missionary colleague Rochelle, expressed willingness to donate his services towards the project.

There were however so many delays to get the plans approved at the city council. It would take months before we had the final approval.

A big challenge was the funds. But we had faith after so many experiences over the previous decades that God is faithful to see us through if He initiates something.

Is this your Idea, Lord?

Because of inclement weather conditions on the first Saturday of December 2012 we had the prayer warriors congregating at our home who normally would have gone to Signal Hill. What an encouragement it was when Baruch Maayan climbed on to the roof above our dining room where the prayer room would be built. He duly anointed the place.

            Here and there a financial gift came in towards the project, but nothing substantial. At the turn of the year, amid the blessings we experienced when many believers turned up for prayer events, we became somewhat unsure paradoxically whether it was indeed the Lord's commission to us to have the prayer room built or was it just a nice idea? In His faithfulness, the Lord confirmed this in no unsure way when Rosemarie came out of the dining room door, seeing a repetition of the fleece experience of Joshua. Above the awning and the area adjacent to it on the table on our north-facing balcony it was completely wet whereas the rest of the balcony was completely dry. Because the awning was just below the place where the prayer room would be built, we gladly interpreted this as a confirmation that the Lord was very much confirming the project.

            A few weeks later, just before the Passover week-end, we had a devout young German medical student visiting us who worked in one of our townships as an intern. When he heard about the prayer room project, his down to earth question was how we expected to fund it. We had no hesitation to tell him that we expected God to see to that.

            We were however very much surprised - dumb-founded - when the very next day we received an email from Holland. The WEC International office had received a bequest for the missionary work of the Cloetes in South Africa in 2010. This had just been cleared. They were not compelled to pass this on to us since we were not WEC missionaries anymore. The committee felt however that they should honour the wish of the deceased. We had no qualms to accept the bequest. We were blessed because it more or less covered the bulk of what we would still need for the building of the prayer room. How we rejoiced at this divine intervention and provision! There would be many more delays before we could start with the actual building of the prayer room.  (In the end it also costed us significantly more than the original quotation. But God provided all of it in His faithfulness.)

Visit of Pastor Umar Mulinde from Uganda

Umar Mulinde from Uganda, a Muslim background pastor, miraculously survived an assassination attempt.

On Christmas Eve 2011 after a church service, where many Muslims received Jesus as Lord and Saviour, Pastor Umar was on his way to his car when he heard someone calling, pretending to be a congregant,  “Pastor, help me!” As he turned around, acid was thrown into his face. He ran back to the church and more acid was thrown onto his back. He suffered unbearable pain and was rushed to the hospital in Kampala. Due

to inadequate medical facilities and more attempts to kill him, Pastor Mulinde was taken to India to receive medical treatment and from there taken to the Sheba Medical Centre in Israel. The acid badly burnt the right side of his face and he lost his right eye.

            Through a spectacular divine sequence of events he landed in a Tel Aviv hospital where he received the best treatment he could have enjoyed anywhere in the world.  In search of a Muslim background follower of Jesus and speaker with a love for Israel, the Lausanne Consultation for Jewish Evangelism organizers at the Cape surprisingly invited him in faith.

He was however still very sick indeed. In fact, he had a major operation only 10 days before his arrival in Cape Town. Pastor Mulinde’s schedule was filled with many a meeting despite his brittle health condition.   Pastor Umar had his last operation ten days before he came to Cape Town and was still not well at all, but he was convinced that the Lord wanted him to visit South Africa. By the time he came here, he had already undergone five major operations.

Grace to Forgive

Pastor Mulinde received divine grace to forgive his assailants. His heart’s desire for the Muslims is that they should hear the gospel and be saved.

            Coming from a person who had been persecuted for his faith, we were encouraged with the words of Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7: 'For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind.' Pastor Mulinde highlighted that believers often keep quiet because of fear, whereas people whose plans are evil are bold. A silent believer is powerless. The Lord requires prayer and action. While the world is filled with hatred, we as believers must not keep quiet. 'We have to oppose the spirit of Islam, but love the Muslims.'

He is our Peace

The South African Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism (LCJE­SA) conference theme with Pastor Umar was taken from Ephesians 2:14, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” Christ Church in Kenilworth experienced the unique presence of a number of believers from Muslim and Messianic Jewish background. Amongst the 150 people who attended the two day conference there were Messianic Jews, Christians from a Muslim background and other Christians. The unity was also emphasised when a Jewish believer and an ex-Muslim told their stories of how they came to faith in Messiah Jesus.

            Pastor Umar Mulinde, the keynote speaker at the conference, said: 'I’m not a stranger. I’m your brother from another mother... We are from different backgrounds, but we are one in our Messiah Jesus.

A very remarkable meeting took place in our home a few days later, on Tuesday afternoon 28 August 2012, with an audience of over twenty people. More than half of them came from a Jewish background. Pastor Mulinde’s deep love for God’s chosen people and his concern for the safety of the land of Israel became apparent in the course of the afternoon. A Jewish woman with a background in radio broadcasting dropped the million dollar question: “So what led you to become a Christian?” Pastor Mulinde thereafter shared how he came to accept Yeshua as his Lord and Messiah.

            At the end of his message, one of the Christians, Jamie Campbell, felt prompted to pray for Pastor Mulinde. He concluded his prayer with the words “...in the Name of Jesus the Messiah”.

            Jamie’s prayer was the catalyst for a conversation with a couple from Orthodox Jewish background. Our friend Leigh Telli reported about this conversation: ‘I was caught off guard when a woman looked at me saying, ‘I noticed that that man prayed in the Name of Jesus the Messiah. We Jewish people don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah, you know. I once asked the rabbi why Jesus isn’t the Messiah and he said that when Messiah comes, he will bring peace to the earth and that didn’t happen with Jesus.’

            I waited a couple of seconds and was given an invitation to reply with complete freedom when her husband looked at me and said, “How would you answer that Leigh?” She utilised the opportunity to share how Jesus came the first time as “Messiah ben Joseph”, a Suffering Servant, to reconcile us to God but that at His second coming He would bring world peace during His reign as “Messiah ben David”. 'I encouraged them to read Isaiah 53 to see how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Suffering Servant.’

What was especially striking to the people listening to the story of Pastor Mulinde at the different venues, was that, he who clearly bore the marks of someone who had suffered greatly for his faith, also stood with Israel and the Jewish people.

Naive Hope

I hoped naively that Church leaders would get on board against our government's anti-Israel stance. I wrote an email to minister colleagues with the following content after the visit by Pastor Umar Mulinde where he had shared at meetings in August how the Church there countered efforts to introduce Sharia Law in their country:

Dear Pastoral Colleagues,

At the City Bowl ministers' fraternal this week, one of the colleagues brought up the concern that a Cabinet minister has recently presented a government view that is in all likelihood only supported by a small majority of the population.

The tragedy is that the anti-Israel position our country has taken, may take us towards an economic precipice. It is probably no co-incidence that the view expressed on 14 August was followed by the Lonmin mine disaster two days later which brought the currency decline and the unprecedented rise in the price of petrol and a string of mine strikes in its train. (This is definitely not the first time that some form of divine wrath followed the 'cursing' of the apple of God's eye (Compare Genesis 12:3).

The brother colleague expressed his concern at the ministers' fraternal that the Church is so quiet. In recent weeks Pastor Umar Mulinde of Uganda encouraged us with the example in the country when a minority of the population succeeded to get a proposal for Shariah Law onto their statute books. The Church stood up in united opposition to that move.

The question is: Must we wait until similar moves also happen here? The point is that there are many a precedent in Africa where countries went into serious economic decline after turning against Israel in recent decades (DR Congo (Zaire), Malawi)…

There was hardly any response.  Also other efforts to get the local churches of the Cape Town City Bowl joining in concerted action, floundered.  Although the Lord had already comforted me at the end of 2011 on this score that unless he builds the house, I would toil in vain, I was nevertheless disappointed when there never seemed to come a change in this regard.

A Role for the Church in corporate Restitution?

A group of believers looked at the follow-up of the conference at the Drill Hall in December as the 5 R's (Repentance, Reconciliation, Restoration, Restitution, Revival) with restitution at its core. The intention was also to get some unified action going by the Body of Christ. In a response to notes by Hilary-Jane Solomons, I wrote the following lines after attending one of the meetings where I was so excited to hear of biblical research around Sabah and Ramah as the possible ancestors of the first nation of South Africa, the Khoisan:

Confession by the Body of Christ for the gradual increase in the first A.D. centuries of anti-Semitism of non-Jewish background Christian believers and for the Replacement Theology of theologians, including the Church Fathers – that the Church replaced Israel. General global confession is also needed for the subsequent side-lining of Israel and Jews (notably by the decrees of Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century) and for the general neglect of the Tenach ('OT') as second-rate in respect of the 'New Testament' by the Body of Christ at large.

I believe that a possible subsequent return of the Body of Christ to the Torah in a non-legalist and loving way and/or giving prominence to it could be something which the Father will honour in a big way….

​Hilary-Jane Solomons became critically ill hereafter. The initiative petered out to some extent although the movement for church-led restitution, started by Dr Charles Robertson and Pastor Martin Heuvel, prodded on perseveringly.

More Prayer Room Dilemmas

On Monday evening 11 March 2013, Rosemarie went alone to our weekly prayer meeting in Claremont while I attended the occasional meeting of the 5 R's (Reconciliation, Restitution etc.) group. In Claremont they prayed especially for another builder to finish off the prayer room. Another disappointment occurred when extensive damage to the lamination of floors was the last straw after we had pleaded with the builder to cover the open roof area properly the day before. (An extraordinary deluge on Friday 8 March did however give us another special experience of the mighty ‘Eagle's Wings’. It was already special that our daughter Tabitha and her husband Mike happened to be present – completely unexpectedly - when we were at our wit's end to keep the water out of the kitchen, using all our towels to keep the flooding in check. While we wrenched towels into a bucket, we decided to praise the Lord instead of allowing the trial to bog us down. Supernaturally, we experienced the peace that surpasses all rational thoughts.)

On Monday afternoon 11 March 2013 we had been interviewing a builder. As impressive the gentleman was, Rosemarie and I felt instinctively that we should not use him. In the meantime, we had a long list of potential project managers and builders that were sent or given to us. I was rather overwhelmed by the thought that I would now have to phone and/or interview them one by one. Ahead of another interview on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. Rosemarie and I prayed that this would not be necessary, that we would immediately have unity whether the person was the one to take or not. Our hearts really clicked with the builder, a former gangster who had been in and out of prison, whom we saw that day. As the conversation progressed, we were overwhelmed in another way, sensing that this was of the Lord. At one point all three of us were crying. His motives etc. were so completely different than anybody else from the building fraternity to whom we had spoken. Coming from a background of having been a vagrant and having been in prison for a number of years, he progressed to start his own business. Not interested in making money, he instead wanted to serve the Lord and the poor.

                                               

                  14. Correctives in Church Practice

One of the necessary correctives of South African History is the role of the Church in the Apartheid era. While it is true that the big churches were more often than not guilty through complacency, fear and indifference, there is a side that has generally been ignored. In Gateway News of 31 August 2012, Pastor Bongani Mgayi made an attempt to fill that void.  He rightly highlights in that article that the accounts of history we have in the Gospels are accounts by simple men who had no status.

We must preserve our own history…

The academics, historians and authors of the time had no interest in keeping an accurate record of the Lord’s work or writing an account of the work of the Church.  He concludes that 'We must preserve our own history and testimonies, lest we allow the world to write a distorted history for us.'  He furthermore wrote as follows:

My parents have a different account of history. They remember how they as Christians would pray and fast, holding night vigils and meeting illegally in back rooms to intercede in the townships. This was while the politicians were in jail, in exile and on the streets murdering other ‘Black’ people through necklacing, and humiliating old ladies by giving them OMO washing powder to drink as punishment for going to work.

My mother remembers vividly how they were praying in a shack in Crossroads when a group of security police stormed in to arrest and beat them. But as they crashed inside they found the women praying, took off their hats and quietly slipped out…

Pastor Nkomonde, an elder at the Assemblies of God, once told of an account how they as young men were working as assistants to Nicholas Bhengu. Bhengu would set up tent crusades in townships ... With the tent’s arrival there would be peace and criminals would return their loot, violent men would bring their weapons to the tent and there would be no stone-throwing or tyres burnt in the streets – a kind of peace the Stability Unit of the police could never achieve.

Mrs Mene, a retired school principal from Old Crossroads, recounted for us at a recent prayer in Cape Town how they were living in fear, while the ‘witdoeke’ – a group led by Johnson Ngxobongwana – were burning down shacks and hacking other black people to death in the streets. She mentions that their only comfort was to meet at churches and pray...

            The Church was part and parcel of the struggle for freedom in South Africa and does not need to justify its existence to the world and onlookers. The Church must unapologetically assume its position as the bona fide agent of peace, justice and transformation in society.

A Caribbean Journalist called to the Cape

In April 2005 Wendy Ryan, who hails from the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean and former director of Communications for the Baptist World Alliance, visited Cape Town. During that time Wendy toured the different Living Hope facilities. She observed this work of mercy and heard testimonies of how God was changing lives because of it. She felt a powerful tug in her heart. Compassion filled her soul as she felt God calling her to come to the Cape.  As complex and impossible as it seemed, God put all the plans together and - under the commission of Evangeline Ministries (EM) - Wendy returned to Cape Town in January 2006.

Sewing Classes

After listening to women in HIV support groups, the Holy Spirit impressed on Wendy that these ladies, mostly poor and under-educated, needed skills to help them earn a living for themselves and their families.  With the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs (ARV’s) they were no longer consigned to death.

With the blessing of John and Avril Thomas, Wendy began a sewing programme. Evangeline Ministries (EM) determined that this would be given free of charge to the women from the Living Hope support groups.  Once they began, Wendy was challenged to give to the women a skill and also a tool. EM decided to award each graduate from the sewing class a new sewing machine. By the end of 2011, EM has given 66 new sewing machines to graduates.

Teach One to teach Many                                                                                                                      Each woman received a Bible in the Xhosa language and each class ends with Bible study and prayer.  At graduation and other times, special speakers come in to present the gospel message in the proper cultural context and invite them to accept Christ.  Some are already believers, but others are steeped in traditional spiritual ways and EM believes God when He says, 'The entrance of thy word brings light' (Psalm 119:130). 

An additional focus is now to teach women who will in turn teach others in their communities.  Three women from another informal settlement, Sweet Home Farms, are already putting their training to use and are showing the women in their HIV and AIDS group and others how to sew.  They have inspired Wendy, and the Holy Spirit has used their example to show EM the way forward.  'When we plant the seeds, God gives the harvest!' 

Prayer Mushrooms as a Key

Helen Phillips, a Cape intercessor and radio presenter, had a vision in 2011 of a big mushroom of prayer that would impact the country. In a newsletter she described it as follows:
All of a sudden in my mind's eye I had an aerial view of Cape Town. I do not know if it was from Table Mountain or if I was just floating in the air but I saw everything so clearly, the buildings, streets, parking spaces and parks.  Then I saw little mushrooms coming up in the streets and on the buildings, little mushrooms coming up everywhere. I was puzzled as mushrooms do not grow in tarmac or concrete and I asked God what this was.

He said clearly in my heart that these were the prayer groups in business and they were the true body of Christ as they were prepared to unite over denominational barriers and witness, worship and pray in the world's system. He said I must find them, encourage and grow them and start more as they needed support and motivation.

I said eagerly, that of course I would do it. 'Yes Lord'

Then the vision changed and I saw a huge mushroom cloud over the city, growing and growing like an atomic cloud enormous and vibrating with light and sunset colours. I was filled with awe as I could feel the energy and power from this explosion but it was so beautiful.

I asked God what this meant and He said this was the power that would come out of the prayer groups, saving our communities, cities and country. Isn't that exciting? We can have a part of the salvation of our world in these end times and it is our united prayers that will do it. There is great power in our united prayer.

Substantial Contributions of Lay Church Members

South Africa is no exception regarding Church practices that are far removed from biblical teaching. A hierarchical set-up is common, not only in denominations which are structured that way. Also small congregations which are not linked to a denomination have a (senior) pastor who leads proceedings all too often prescriptively. Also there where things are done more biblically, the concept that normal so-called lay church members should also have substantial contributing input, is not widely found at all.

            In September 2012, the Lord spoke vividly to Maditshaba Moloko, one of our friends, during her time of devotion. She felt charged 'to gather His people so He can speak to them, to gather the five-fold Ministers in the City so that He can make known to them His plans for the Church and city, country, continent and Israel through some of His sons and daughters.' The result was a special Conference organised on fairly short notice in the Good Hope Centre on 10 and 11 December.

A special Conference

In 1 Chronicles 12:32 it says that "And of the children of Issachar, who were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were under their command." Maditchaba wrote: 'I believe that the Lord is ready to empower His Church for the journey ahead so that as His army we will understand the times and know what we ought to do in this hour. The Church of Cape Town, this is your hour ... you were born for such a time as this!

The churches confessed their passivity in ignoring this emerging crisis for too long, issuing a declaration.

We do stand with all people who suffer and seek justice in the current context.

While being thoroughly aware of the complexity of this matter, and as we are deeply saddened by all the suffering as a result of the current state of affairs, we direct the following to the various role players.

1.  To the workers/employees: As we are following the example of Christ, we as the church has to be seriously concerned about people’s quality of life. We fully understand the need to protest against circumstances and wages that do not adequately acknowledge the dignity of workers. We urge you to keep on voicing your opinion in a peaceful and non-violent way – and to take up your role in the wage negotiations. Your fate as workers is inseparably linked to the sustainability of agriculture.

2.  To the producers/farmers: We acknowledge and appreciate the contribution of numerous producers to improve the quality of life of their workers. As spiritual leaders we are well aware of and sensitive to the many economic realities which have to be considered in order to maintain a sustainable industry. Churches can hardly dictate about minimum wage structures, but will always plead for remuneration that give people hope and the opportunity of a decent quality of life (living wages vs minimum wages). We urge producers to adjust wage structures accordingly and where necessary. We also urge you to come to an interim agreement in order to address the current crisis.

3.  To organised labour: Thank you for putting the matter of benefits of farm workers on the agenda of our country. As you surely will know, there is a fine balance between wage structures and the retention of jobs. This balance should be respected by trade unions when bargaining. We ask for wisdom and a long-term perspective which also keeps job creation in mind. We also ask that you guide workers to withstand all types of intimidation and incitement to violence.

4. To organised agriculture: We urge you to participate actively to help find solutions to the situation in both the short and the long term. 

5. To the South African Police force:  We strongly urge you, while maintaining law and order, to treat all people in a dignified way, without any brutality and with the utmost constraint at all times 

6. To the national government: This is a national socio-economic and welfare crisis, but at the same time an opportunity. It is inappropriate that local producers (farmers) are kept solely accountable for the total welfare of thousands of seasonal workers. Subsidies may be one way of linking grants to job opportunities. We fear that, should local producers (farmers) remain the only ones responsible for the challenges of compensation and caring for permanent and seasonal workers, thousands of job opportunities will be lost. Should minimum wages be increased without considering all socio-economic factors, many of our smaller producers (farmers) may go under. Only the larger, established farmers will survive, while smaller, emerging farmers will disappear.

7. To our congregations: We thank you for your compassion with both workers and producers. And we are also thankful for the constructive role that churches are able to play. We ask you to join hands to ensure that dialogue and an earnest seeking for long term solutions may continue. Let us not withdraw in a spiritual role alone, but continue to promote the Gospel truth of the human dignity of all people as God’s image bearers. May our own example and involvement continue to embody this.

Transformation in Lavender Hill?                                                                                                         In four months, 15 people were killed in gang violence in Lavender Hill, near Muizenberg, resulting in the community becoming the most notorious in the province in terms of gangsterism.                                                The death of yet another victim of the gang war brought some sanity. Representatives of the Corner Boys, Mongrels and the Junky Funky Kids – the three gangs at war mainly over drug turf – signed a peace pact. Twenty gangsters and a handful of religious and community leaders met at the Methodist Church in Lavender Hill for the gangsters to formally vow to put an end to their war. The gangsters, many with tattoos on their arms, sat on plastic chairs and bowed their heads as prayers were said.

Dan Plato, a member of the provincial government executive, thanked those who had helped organise the peace accord. “I also want the killing of people to stop. The idea is that we must stop the killings, the bloodshed,” he said.                                                                                                                                        The leaders of the Corner Boys, Mongrels and the Junky Funky Kids signed the peace accord, shook hands and stood alongside one another, smiling.

After the funeral of the victim of the gang war, the gangsters then walked around the area apologising to community members for what they had done, seeking forgiveness for their killings. Residents cheered. Outside a block of flats where Grade 8 pupil Carmelita Martin was fatally shot in October, a member of the Corner Boys, addressed residents: “Listen, we want peace. We’re asking for your forgiveness. We are sorry for this,” he said.

His voice was drowned as residents cheered. While walking to another area, a member of the Junky Funky Kids, said he welcomed the accord. “… I hope this does put an end to the shootings,” he said.

Tobias said yesterday it was the first time in two years he had been able to walk in the street without a gun, which he previously carried to protect himself from rival gangsters.

Vivian September, a resident, said she believed the peace accord would end the gang violence in Lavender Hill.

But another resident, who declined to be named, said she feared the gangsters would start fighting again. She spoke while standing in her home next to a window which had a bullet hole in it, from a recent gang shooting.

Another Attempt to impact Cape Judaism

The visit of Pastor Mulinde opened up a significant contact with Jews at the Cape. Camps Bay High School was the venue of yet another significant event on Wednesday evening 31 October, 2012, namely an attempt to counter the false information spread by the media about Israel. This event coincided with an announcement by the ANC leadership to support the international Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) programme directed at Israel.

           The official dedication of the Western Cape Province to God on the Grand Parade at this time, in which Pastor Light Eze from Nigeria was the pivot, was a united act of faith by the body of Christ in the province by which we expressed our total dependence on God. ‘By this act, we are bringing our land, the people, the resources and all elements of creation in the Western Cape and South Africa to the Lordship of Jesus Christ both now and in all generations. It’s a united declaration by the body of Christ that we will serve no other gods!’

On Signal Hill on the 12 December 2012 at 12 noon about 7 of us were there to intercede for the Bo-Kaap and the Jewish Communities of Cape Town. We also had a wonderful history lesson by Ashley to give us background that was very encouraging when we prayed for these communities. We bound the strong men that were binding up people’s hearts and minds and loosed the Gospel to be preached and received by those how heard it. For a release of boldness for those of us with the truth by signs and wonders and that God would truly be with us in the highways and byways of life. We asked the Lord to forgive us for the damage done in the past and the lack of love and that Cape Town would truly be that Gateway of LIGHT AND LIFE UP AFRICA TO JERUSALEM.

We prayed for God's LOVE to be released and the power of God to be experienced. We were aware of all the other prayers going up and that the unity of the Body was felt. The fact that it was during Chanuka was very special - the season of MIRACLES that Yeshua was conceived, the true LIGHT OF THE WORLD..............

Rise Up Against Violence Against Women & Children!  

The rampant national crisis of sexual violence against women and children in SA dominated the media since the horrific rape and murder of 17 year old Anene Booysen in the W/Cape for weeks. South Africans - including President Jacob Zuma, who mentioned the incident in his State of the Nation Address - were shocked by the violent nature of her death and demanded action.

Social studies that have emerged made South Africa the world leader in sexual violence and domestic abuse against women. Despite all the public discussion about this horrendous scourge in our nation, the Christian Church remained mostly silent and disengaged.

Visit of Pastor Youssef Ourahmane

In December 2012 I was approached to help invite folk to hear about what God was doing in Algeria. At various occasions Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, a former Muslim, narrated how over the last 30 years there has been a revival in that country. Before 1980 the number of born-again followers in Algeria could be counted. In 2013 there were already over 100, 000 believers in the country. He had personally seen imams, Islamic scholars and terrorists come to faith in Jesus. In 2006 the Algerian government prohibited evangelism of any kind would be allowed and ordered several churches to close down. The churches refused to obey the government and said “Build more prisons because we are not going to do what you are ordering!” Since 2006, because of the persecution of Christians, the church has grown faster than before and the Algerian government came to understand that they would never be able to stamp out the church. Subsequently the Algerian government said to the church “You must train your pastors!!!” and the government gave permission for a Bible Institute to be set up.                                                                                                                               At the various events during the first days of March 2013 that they addressed at the Cape, Pastor Youssef and his wife did not only share these facts but they also shared with us their ‘secret’ – a prayer chain.

A Fasting and Prayer Chain takes Shape

Furthermore, response for the prayer and fasting chain was positive. On Friday afternoon 19th April a few people came to our home in this regard and a few more showed interest to participate. The same evening believers gathered for a half night of prayer.  That this was noticed in the spiritual realms became evident when my car battery was removed, although I had specially parked the vehicle under a lamp post. When Jack Bruce announced what happened two days later in their Sunday service, some believer had been divinely moved to drop an envelope into the collection. The content was intended 'for a new car battery for Pastor Ashley'. 

An email from Pretoria announcing a National Day of Prayer for 19 May 2013 sparked a country-wide reaction. That was the background of my question to other Cape prayer warriors. The reaction was quite swift. Within a few days the Drommedaris Hall of the Good Hope Centre in the City was booked and plans made for a meeting from 2-5 p.m on the 19^th of May.

A Movement with MBBs and Messianic Jewish Believers?                                                                   We used the visit of the couple from Algeria to challenge a few Muslim background followers of our Lord to organise an evening in Mitchells Plain. We were encouraged when the overwhelming feeling was that the occasion should be repeated with regularity. To implement the intention was a great challenge however.              Jack Carstens, the leader of the David and Jonathan Foundation that supported Messianic congreagions in Israel substantially and our missionary colleague Cecilia Burger organised a meeting for Messianic Jewish Believers on April 20, 2013 in Brackenfell. This was the first time that such an event took place in Cape Town, with about 40 of them attending. Our vision of a movement of reconciliation of the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael was thus fed in this way. At this occasion we had invited only a few MBBs.

Two Muslim foreigners, a male and a female who had been living in Bo-Kaap, were significantly impacted in due course. We baptised the young man from Sudan in December 2013 along with another MBB from Senegal. The lady, who had been married to a Somalian, was baptised soon thereafter. Within the space of two months seven were baptised that were linked to our ministry. A few other male MBBs came into our frame during the next few months, where accommodation for them became a matter to be addressed. At some stage we had three of them living in our home!                                                                                                 A young believer from Algeria, who came to a meeting with Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, was impacted there to attend a Bible, graduating at the end of 2016.

Things remained fairly quiet on the front of Reconciliation between Jews and Muslims. Yet, the visit of Alon Grimberg, a German with a Jewish –background, who is married to an Arab believer, kept things alive. As leader of the Lech Lecha ministry to Jewish and Arab young people in Israel, he was invited by Messianic Testimony for their annual conference of 2014, and speaking at a few churches. Rosemarie and I could do our little bit during our Sabbatical, which ended with a visit to reconciliation initiatives and individuals in Israel. 

Prayer for Revival gets a Fillip                                                                                                                 In 2010 Daniel Brink read in Rick Joyner’s book The Power to change the World about the Welsh revival. He was challenged to see similar phenomena also at the Cape. Halfway through 2013 when I visited him at his office, we were both rather discouraged about the lack of unity of the Body of Christ everywhere. Already towards the end of 2011 the Lord had spoken to me through the words of Psalm 127 that it was not my business to try and forge such unity of believers locally. He would build the house.

            But then something started to happen with Daniel Brink. He noticed that the clock sometimes had ‘doubles’ like 09h09. He decided to make a deal with the Lord. He was willing to pray for revival daily if the Lord would confirm that by letting him see such doubles in quick succession. Soon after this deal he looked at the clock. There it was 11h11. 

            He decided to be obedient. The prayer movement got a dramatic fillip. And also in our ministry there was a sudden push forward. In December 2013 and January 2014 seven new believes were baptised that had been impacted through our ministry, after a few years without any visible fruit.

Events to highlight the five-Fold Ministry

Events to highlight the five-fold ministry (Ephesians 4:11)[13] kept the prayer for revival alive. A significant move in the spiritual realm occurred when Maditshaba Moloko, who had been ordained as Pastor, was appointed as the co-ordinator for the annual Jerusalem prayer convocation.in 2014. The gifted intercessor and visionary moved with her business into office space on the 20^th floor of the Thibault Square Building in mid-2015. Soon thereafter a monthly prayer meeting for Jerusalem started there. This would become the venue for many strategic city-wide meetings linked to prayer events, such as meetings ahead of a big event at the Lighthouse in July 2015.

Ignition of the #Mustfall Movement                                                                                                       The statue of Cecil John Rhodes on the UCT campus triggered the Rhodes Must Fall movement. The first protest, and the action that started the Rhodes Must Fall campaign occurred on 9 March 2015, when Chumani Maxwele threw human faeces onto the statue. The student protest was initially about the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes, a symbol which the protesters felt was oppressive, and grew to encompass institutional racism, the perceived lack of racial transformation at the university, and access to tertiary education and student accommodation. Protesting students created a Facebook page entitled 'Rhodes Must Fall'.

            A train of ‘Must fall’ campaigns followed that would culminate in the Fees Must fall and Zuma Must Fall campaigns that became rather anarchic in due course. Students made use of occupation, civil disobedience, and violence during their protests.

(Lack of) Evidence of Ecclesiastical Unity

The steam of the Highway event of November 2014 at the Lighthouse Christian Centre seemed to be dwindling after a few months. We were blessed by an initiative of Elizabeth Jordaan of Jericho Walls in Durbanville which linked the Cape with believers in Malaysia and Holland in April/May 2015. This displayed some evidence of Church unity. During the first half of 2015 there was very little other evidence of a broader unity.

Michelle and Arthur Coetzee, a couple from Krugersdorp that has a ministry in the prophetic, were invited to bring a message from God that they were led to share with the Church in Cape Town. On Sunday, 7 July 2015 the Body of Christ was called to come in unity for worship and prayer. The 'Uniting in Prayer and Worship' meeting on the 7^th July was a most inspiring and exciting event.

As a symbol of unity and dying to self the leaders knelt and cast their crowns, symbolic of their ministries, at the foot of the cross. Different people prayed for seven 'gates of influence' in society, viz. Family, Belief systems (church), Government, governance and leadership, Economy Education,  Science and Technology, Media, Arts and Culture. 

Another big prayer event was called on the 13th of September that was labelled as a National Day of Repentance for South Africa. The main event was in Bloemfontein where the ANC dedicated the country to the ancestral spirits. In the Mother City an event was arranged on short notice to co-inside with that one in St Mary's Catholic Cathedral just outside Parliament, uniting for prayer with Catholic believers. 

A uniting prophetic Word from Jerusalem                                                                                                           A prophetic word given in Jerusalem, was brought to Cape Town by 2 couples. (On the 10^th November 2015 Rick Ridings of Succat Hallel 24/7 House of Prayer overlooking the Temple Mount). The Cape Town Unite in Worship and Prayer Committee had a prophetic a vision of a wave across Africa shaking witchcraft and idolatry, and thereafter bringing increased Kingdom harvest. They shared the vision of someone striking the waters off Cape Town with a staff. Lyndy Haslam, who hosted the Jerusalem folk, had an almond staff stored a staff of Baruch Maayan in her garage. (Baruch went to Uganda in 2011 with a rod made from an almond tree in their Pinelands garden. The conference in Uganda was a prayer initiative for Isaiah 19 and was attended by a Chinese believer from the ‘Back to Jerusalem’ movement. The Chinese brought a rod and an Ugandan brother brought a rod from Egypt.) These rods were unplanned by man but evidently inspired by the Holy Spirit.                                                                                                                                                                     Later that day after the group had prayed, they heard that Baruch was planning to be in Cape Town within the next 2 weeks!!! A prayer event at Cape Point was triggered by the email of Rick Ridings, to take place on Friday 11 December. The Cape Town intercessors - together with the folk who had come from Jerusalem - decided that Baruch needed to be the person to strike the waters with his staff. What was the chance of Baruch coming suddenly to Cape Town?                                                                                                 That 50 intercessors rocked up at the venue for which one had to fork out quite a few bucks, was something akin to a miracle. A group of leaders and intercessors performed a prophetic act in Cape Town at Cape Point on the 11th of December 2015, led by Baruch Maayan.

That prayer event was very timely. On Wednesday 9 December 2015 President Zuma had replaced an able Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene – barely two years after he took office. In a shocking move that saw the rand plummeting, President Jacob Zuma appointed a relatively unknown backbencher David ‘Des’ van Rooyen – who served as a member of the finance committee in Parliament – to replace Nene. (Nepotism was all too evident. Nene had been at loggerheads with SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni. The latter served as the chairperson of the president Jacob Zuma’s education trust with a record of discord with an array of other cabinet ministers.)

It is impossible to gauge and compare the impact of the prayer that was rallied. The effect was one of the most significant since our miracle elections of 1994 where prayer was clearly also the driving force.  That President Zuma seemed at least to have the courage to heed the advice given to him was a miracle looking back. (In 2016 he stubbornly held on to his position in spite of many calls – also from within the ranks of his party – to step down.) He appointed Mr Pravin Gordhan, a former Finance Minister who had a good track record, in a desperate act to salvage the economy of the country. The Rand recovered in resuscitation mode to a level near to where it had been before the appointment of Mr van Rooyen. Hereafter believers would pray a few more times into the possibility of economic collapse as sinister forces seemed to collude to bring Pravin Gordhan down. The latter was subsequently replaced by Mr Mavusi Gigaba.

New Tyres?                                                                                                                                           When I turned 65 in December 2010 I started looking more intensively at re-tyring – ‘putting on new tyres’ as I called it, not merely retreading. We seriously considered relocating to the Middle East to share the Gospel low-key there among Arab speakers or also engaging in some itinerant teaching.                              During our sabbatical in 2014 we were in Holland for two weeks. We were very much challenged by the fact that hardly anything was done by believers there in the loving outreach to the Moroccans, many of whom had been living there for generations. The health of Rosemarie – concretely we got very concerned about her constant coughing, that had been triggered by the dust at the building of our prayer room – got us considering relocation to Holland during the middle months of the year. (With three of our children living in England and Germany respectively, this option looked quite attractive in the light of Rosemarie’s intense coughing that approached an asthmatic condition during the Cape winters.)

            By September 2015 the war in Syria had been causing many refugees to flood Europe. We seriously started to consider relocating once again to go and minister in Europe. After careful consideration and prayer we decided to rather concentrate on Holland where up to that point in time very little had been done in that regard, starting in 2016 with a trial period of three months.

            After our return at the end of August 2016, we seriously contemplated another extended stint in Holland in 2017. Major problems during our absence at our Discipling House brought about second thoughts. We felt hereafter that our succession as leaders of Friends from Abroad should be properly in place before we would attempt another extended stint abroad. We ultimately left for only six weeks of which we were in Holland only two weeks.  We were very specially blessed when one of our MBBs shared just before our departure how the Lord had showed him that he had been deceived. He had been caught up in Mariolatry to such an extent that our ways had parted temporarily.

HAMAS leaders red-carpeted

In October 2015 when our ANC government gave red-carpet treatment to HAMAS leaders. This had an immediate backlash in the spiritual realm, boiling down to the complete opposite of blessing Israel.

Completely without any connection apt from this spiritual dimension, a train of ‘Must fall’ campaigns followed that would culminate in the Fees Must fall and Zuma Must Fall campaigns that soon became rather anarchic. Students made use of occupation, civil disobedience, and violence during their protests. Property and vehicles were damaged, buildings gutted.

           The short-sighted actions of our government were opposed by many believers, sparking an escalation of prayer.

A prayer event with Pastor Baruch Maayan at Cape Point on 11 December 2015 was organised on very short notice. Around 50 intercessors attended, some coming from far-away places. The event transpired in the context of intense spiritual warfare that had the country reeling economically. Simultaneously God raised a Christian in East London, Pastor Robbie Black, to initiate prayers all around the country on the last Sunday of February.  A movement was birthed called United Prayer of South Africa.

United Prayer for South Africa

At a meeting in January 2016 in the 20^th Floor offices at Thibault Square of Pastor Maditshaba Moloko with church leaders it surfaced that nobody knew whether anything was happening in the Cape Peninsula regarding the United Prayer for South Africa initiative. I had picked via Gateway News that Pastor Robbie Black of East London had the vision to get South Africans to pray on Sunday the 28^th of February 2016 at 14:00. He had suggested: ‘It is time for us as Christian believers to rise, take a stand and unite in prayer for our nation. I pray that you as a fellow Christian will share in the excitement and join us in the “United Prayer for South Africa” … to have a prayer session at prayer points all across our country, mobilizing as many towns and cities as possible.’

            Just like 1994 when my inquiry brought the Marches for Jesus in the Western Cape into my lap, I hereafter found myself attempting to get United Prayer for South Africa off the ground in our part of the country. This time round it was however fairly easy with the technological advances of emails and whatsapp at our disposal.

We were not buying the Saturday edition of the Cape Argus as regularly as we used to do, but we happened to buy a copy on Saturday the 27^th of February 2016. There on the front page it was disclosed that President Zuma was about to get Pravin Gordhan, the able Finance Minister, removed. It was only natural to mention that as a main prayer point at Rhodes Memorial the next day, along with prayer for Dove’s Peak, the attempt of name change of the mountain peak that seems to rules supremely over our city.. We were blessed that our prayer intervention could clearly see a divine response when the sinister links of the President and his cronies to the Gupta family and came to be known as the state capture were exposed in the weeks thereafter.

The event on 26 February 2017 would become a part of the run-up to a massive prayer event in Bloemfontein with a million intercessors from all around South Africa – divinely orchestrated in six weeks.

It is Time ...!                                                                                                                                       Crime, corruption and a general wave of negativity was sweeping the nation during the first months of 2017. When Pastor Angus Buchan announced ‘It is Time ...!’, calling intercessors to converge on Bloemfontein for a day of prayer on April 22 and expecting a million intercessors to rock up. However, the preparations had to happen in a space of six weeks. This would have been humanly speaking be impossible... but God!                    From all around South Africa Christians came in their numbers with vehicles of all sorts. Modern technology enabled an event of a magnitude that would have taken ages to prepare not too long ago.  Significant at the occasion of April 22, 2017 was that Angus Buchan mentioned in his sermon cum prayer that we would be able to witness the result in Parliament. This happened on Friday, 24 November 2017.                        At that time one expected especially that the nation would finally see the end of the corrupt regime of President Zuma. That was not to be, not even via an extended process for parliamentarians to vote via secret ballot. This could theoretically have been a way - also for ANC members - to express no confidence in him on 8 August.                                                                                                                                                         Zuma survived not only that, but also many exposures of corruption that became known as a part of state capture. It seemed that it would need a miracle to unseat him before the elections of 2019.

Surprising Input from Elsewhere                                                                                                                        3 November 2016 would mark the start of a new season of more visible evidence of the unity of the body of Christ in the City Bowl. Advertised as a private meeting with Dr Richard Harvey, a Messianic Jewish believer from the UK, we also a few of our MBBs present, respectively from Algeria and the Ivory Coast next to Jewish friends.                                                                                                                                                            In the months immediately prior to this, we had started with a weekly prayer time and interaction with Peter Chapman, a local pastor who had come to serve at the Gardens Presbyterian Church. When we had to find a venue on short notice for a meeting on 1 April 2017, that congregation obliged immediately. We gave some more substance to the event with Omri Jaakobovic by making the event of Hosting Israeli Travellers (HIT), the first of a three-part 10^th anniversary celebration of Friends from Abroad.                                          That event would turn into a monthly worship event on the last Sunday of every month. In August an email reached us that referred to a vision of a Brazilian couple of 40 Days of Worship, due to start on 24 September.  One thing led to another until we changed the venue of our monthly worship event to Rhodes Memorial for that occasion. This occasion was city-wide, with our friends Phillip and Selby Shaw in the thick of things. At various other venues the 40 Days of Worship took place. Next to worship, praying for rain was a hot topic all around the Western Cape. When we had Francis and Mildred Lire, the Brazilian couple, here at our home a few days later, it was very special indeed when unseasonal rain pelted down while we were worshipping in the Isaiah 19 prayer room.

Run-up to 40 Days of Worship                                                                                                          Eddie de Beer and his wife Ansa have a flat at their house in Vereeniging (Gauteng). At the beginning of 2011 a prophetic word from God came to Eddie de Beer that international people would come and visit Sasolburg in the second half of 2012.’ He requested his wife Ansa to prepare the flat on top of the garage for any people who could come.                                                                                                                                       In April 2012 they met a couple from Weenen in Kwazulu Natal who spoke about an experience they had in Pemba, Mozambique. The moment they spoke about Pemba, he sensed that they had to visit Pemba as a family. This was confirmed by their pastor from Sasolburg within 3 days, without him knowing about their divine challenge.                                                                                                                                               They visited Pemba in the busiest time of the year. The Iris Ministries centre was overcrowded and they were not receiving private families during this time. But God made a way for the De Beer family from Vereeniging. One of the sons of Heidi Baker, the leader, said that he would like a very special couple to pray for the De Beer family. He introduced them to Francis and Mildred Lira, a couple from Brazil.          Francis and Mildred became the first international guests who came to lodge in their flat. Two years later, in August 2014, Francis and Mildred Lira were booked into a hotel for three days in Johannesburg at the airport on their way back to Brazil. Eddie collected them from the airport to come and live with them instead. 

            Following a clear vision that a revival would start at the Cape soon, the Lord opened a door for Francis and Mildred to come and live in the Mother City in September 2017, just prior to the 40 Days of Worship. The Lord brought them in contact with Pastor Mark Killian who had been divinely called into a ministry of reconciliation between farmers and their workers.

A Catalyst for Revival

No event in recent years seems to rival the 40 Days of Worship as a catalyst towards the revival. The actual 40 Days of Worship were very special. Apart from indoor events throughout the country there were also worship occasions on the heights of the Cape and at Blaauwberg Beach. Shofars were invariably used. As the 24^th of September was also the last Sunday of the month we linked our monthly City Bowl occasion with that of other intercessors at Rhodes Memorial where we of course also mentioned and prayed for the name change to Dove’s Peak.                                                                                                                                        At the various venues praying for rain and all many a declaration was part of the programme.  On Tuesday 26 September we invited Francis and Mildred Lira to our home  . In our prayer room it was quite crowded, but very blessed when our friend Ernald Arends from the Elim Mission station led us in worship. Divine presence was almost tangible. While we were praising the Lord, an unseasonal downpour suddenly pelted down as confirmation that God was pleased with our adoration. Organised by our friends Selby and Phillip Shaw, intercessors gathered at Rhodes Memorial every Sunday afternoon. Also at various other places worship events took place during these 40 days.                                                                                     Towards the end of the period we heard that there would be a prayer time in Parliament with Pastor Angus Buchan on 24 November. This felt like a continuation of the 40 Days of Worship although the nature was completely different.

A Response to the Murdering of Farmers                                                                                            ‘One Settler, One Bullet’ was a rallying cry and slogan originated by the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), during the struggle of the 1980s against apartheid in South Africa. The slogan parodied the African National Congress's slogan 'One Man, One Vote', which eventually became 'One Person, One Vote'. ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer’ was the competing slogan of Peter Mokaba of the ANC at the April 1993 funeral of assassinated South African Communist party leader Chris Hani.                                                                   When the fight against apartheid neared its end, a settler was defined as a ‘White’ participating in the oppression of indigenous people and that did not include all ‘White’ South Africans. Those among them whose "sole allegiance was to Africa" were considered part of the African nation were excluded from the settler category.^[                                                                                                            In 2015, the student activist group Rhodes Must Fall and other affiliated movements revived the slogan by chanting "One Settler One Bullet" at rallies at the University of Cape Town and by statements on social media. A gradual increase of farmers being killed reached its peak in October 2017 when in different parts of the country ‘White’ farmers gathered for prayer, joined by other Christians. At the Cape quite a number of ‘Coloureds’ joined in these events.                                        An interesting phenomenon surfaced when suddenly a move surfaced from Zimbabwe. Grace, the wife of Robert Mugabe, had manipulated to be in the wings to succeed her ailing husband as president. Her plot to get Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s deputy, back-fired when an unpresented call followed for his resignation of Mugabe. This finally happened on 18 November 2018.  Many believers saw that as an answer to prayer, especially when the new president, started to return farms to ‘Whites’ who had been robbed.

            This fanned the hopes in South Africa that the end of the Zuma era was nearing, especially when Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as president of the ANC at their annual congress December 2017.   Many were still hoping that Jacob Zuma would step down voluntarily, so that there would not be a clash of leadership. This would however not be the case. By contrast, true to what had happened in the years prior to this, he clung to his position tenaciously. That Ramaphosa deemed it fit to participate publicly in ancestor worship dampened the spirits of evangelicals who had been hoping for spiritual renewal within the government party.

White Friday

Black Friday – the day after the annual day of thanksgiving in the USA - also found its way to South Africa. 24 November 2017 was a day to remember, so much so that I dubbed it White Friday.                   Around 250 church and prayer leaders from all over the country had been invited with Pastor Angus Buchan as our special speaker.  The venue was the old chamber of Parliament where Dr Verwoerd had been stabbed in 1966, thus laden with nostalgic dynamite. It would become very hot for me when one speaker after the other recalled laws that had affected my life down the years such as the Group Areas Act and the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act.  (As a result of the former law and the related practice of so-called ‘Slum Clearance’, almost all the buildings and places of memories of my childhood had been eradicated and the latter law was the reason for my exile of just over 18 years. I was very glad that I found a seat where I was more or less out of sight of the TV cameras. I was crying quite a lot there. I heard later that many other tears were flowing freely, tears of remorse and repentance!). Anneke Rabie started off the moving repentant prayers: …’I stand before You and every Black, Coloured and Indian person of SA. I stand in the gap as a White Afrikaner woman. I stand for all White people in SA – both Afrikaans and English. I stand for the White people of the past, present and future generations. I also stand in the gap for those White people of SA whose hearts are hard and who will never say sorry. I want to ask forgiveness today to all my fellow’ Black’, ‘Coloured’ and Indian South Africans’. The confessions on behalf of ‘Blacks’, e.g. for the farm murders and other atrocities inspired by hatred of Whites and then perpetrated by ‘Blacks’, were just as moving.

How special that Rev. Michael Cassidy, the aged stalwart founder of Africa Enterprise and initiator of the - albeit unsuccessful battle - against same ex marriages in 2005/6, also offered a prayer. (He had been the driving force with the late a few others who are almost now with the Lord in the organizing of the Rustenberg Conference of November 1990, the event which divinely ushered in our democratic era out of the apartheid quagmire.)

In his contribution Steve Swart ACDP, a Member of Parliament, confessed the anti-Semitism of the government during World War II years when Jews that had fled the Holocaust in Germany, were not allowed to disembark in Cape Town. The attitude of our present government towards Israel is of course something that we are not proud of at all as followers of the Jewish Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.  We continue to pray that the government may change towards a stance towards reconciliation and for a change in the xenophobic practices so evident in its treatment of African expatriates at the Department of Home Affairs!

Not surprisingly – the cherry on top of the cake was the relatively short speech and the terse powerful prayer for rain of the unique Pastor Angus Buchan. A few times AMEN!!!  would roar out loud through the auditorium!  Significant in his speech was a simple prophetic proclamation that the Cape dams would be full by the end of March. In due course that would became a cause for many an attack on the messenger of God.

A spur from Israel

The presence of a prayer leader from Israel in our home who had attended a significant international prayer gathering in Abu Gosh, 10 Km from Jerusalem on the rod to Tel Aviv shortly before she came to Cape Town, led to a special prayer event in the Isaiah 19 prayer room on December 3, 2017. In turn, this led to a wonderful occasion two weeks later, the Day of Reconciliation, at the 20^th floor premises of Ps. Maditshaba Moloko.

            There she shared fully how the Holy Spirit had ministered to about the new heart that God has given to the country.  (See the relevant appendix for the full text.)

            At the same occasion Pastor Mark Killian - the son of a domestic worker, an orphan who witnessed how money was exchanged between a farmer and a social worker – shared powerfully how God called him into a ministry of reconciliation between farmers and their workers.

It’s time again!

In mid-January 2018 Ps Angus Buchan sent out a Whattsapp call for another It’s time occasion like the one in Bloemfontein of 22 April 2017 in the Cape on 24 March. Someone abused his name to call intercessors to a time of prayer for rain on Wednesday 24 January at 13h. The hoax message, claiming to be from Buchan, and written in his style - referring back to last year’s historic “It’s Time” prayer day in Bloemfontein - spread rapidly through Christian social media networks.                                                                                             South African believers, concerned about the water crisis in the Western Cape, took up the call for an hour of prayer from 1pm to 2pm on Wednesday 24 March, sharing the message widely, promoting it in churches and at events, and planning ways to participate in the national prayer event in groups or alone all over the country.                                                                                                                               Jericho Walls posted a call to prayer on its website, saying: “Several groups asked for Christians to unite in prayer on Wednesday 24 January 2018 to pray especially for the water crisis in Cape Town, but also the drought that is plaguing nearly the whole country. “Pray as individuals, but try to unite in prayer in groups anytime between 12:00 and 14:00 or in the evening.”                                                                               Although the effect might have been blunted when it was corrected just prior to the day, the response was tremendous. Denominational boundaries crumbled as people came to pray in all sorts of venues and in homes. At the meeting in the Mowbray Baptist Church, intercessors decided to make this a weekly event – to pray for rain and revival. I found myself attending this prayer meeting – taking along a few people including a Hindu background follower of Christ and a MBB. I got linked up to the ministry Message Trust, that had been operating at the Cape since ??                                                                                                                  Alaistair Buchanan, an old stalwart and friend since our short stint at the beginnings of the Jubilee Church in the early 1990s, had been the pivot with Anja Morkel, as his very able assistant. Down the years many down and outs have been impacted and changed through this blessed incarnational work.

Reporter for Gateway News?                                                                                                                           The first time I was approached to be a reporter for Gateway News, an evangelical news agency, I had no liberty to answer in the affirmative. I was already at a stage of my life where I wanted to do less, so to speak winding down into retirement and hoping to pass the leadership of Friends from Abroad into younger hands. When I met Andre Viljoen, the editor, personally in 2016 at an event in Jeffery’s Bay in the Eastern Cape, we briefly spoke about us coming to Port Elizabeth for a seminar with a few MBBs from other countries. (That never materialised).

            When Andre Viljoen requested me to write a report of the preparatory event with Angus Buchan at the Lighthouse Christian Centre on Wednesday 7 February 2018, I had no hesitation because I was due to go there anyway. The same thing happened a week later when Jericho Walls had their annual summit at the same venue. I was hooked, sensing that the Lord was confirming my calling for the last days of my life. Now I could do it with more purpose –and without feelings of guilt. I could do what I like and for what I had a passion!

Political Ramifications

Not only were 17 of the 21 nations occupying the Bethlehem Gate-region in Africa (one of the 12 Gateway-regions of the world designated by the number of portals in the ancient wall which surrounds the old city of Jerusalem) present but there was also a unique spirit of unity among delegates and visitors which produced a sense of sheer joy — especially toward the end. 

A powerful prayer meeting in the Provincial Parliament prompted intercessors to call a united prayer meeting in Cape Town on July 5, 2015, focusing on unity and 24/7 prayer for revival.

“We are contacting all churches, intercessors, prayer warriors, watchmen on the wall and prophets to come and join us,” says Helen Phillips, founder of Prayer Mushroom Ministry.

She says that “as a result of the tremendous power generated in our prayer in Parliament on the 8th May” a Gauteng couple, were given a vision by God to urge the regular parliamentary prayer group to organise a meeting to “pray in unity for Cape Town, our communities and our country”.

Prayer leaders in Cape Town are encouraged by a stronger than expected response to a recent call to prayer warriors in the city to join in a united prayer gathering around the themes of unity and 24/7 prayer for revival.

A venue at the Lighthouse Family Church in Parow that can accommodate about 400 people was booked for the united prayer gathering on July 5.

“But the Lord wanted to do something in our day that even if we were told of it we would not believe it! (Habakuk 1:5) We had over double the number and the Lighthouse Church Leadership graciously moved us to a larger hall! Grace, Grace, Grace!” says Maditshaba Moloko, a member of the working committee that helped facilitate the gathering.

WELCOMING THE GLORY OF THE LORD IN AFRICA - 2016

Last year a group from the Solomon Islands contacted me to ask for assistance in their All Pacific Prayer Assembly (APPA) initiative “From the Ends of the Earth Back to Jerusalem” or “Deep Sea Canoe Project”, with which they travelled to all the continents for the past few years on their journey back to Jerusalem. The focus of their initiative is: TO WELCOME THE GLORY OF THE LORD. It is very significant to see how the Holy Spirit is leading different prayer groups to prepare for the fulfilment of His prophecies. Please pray with us as we prepare for this initiative to arrive in South Africa next year towards the latter part of the year.

All glory to the Lord Jesus Christ who is working to build His church and to prepare the nations for His return. May He find us faithful and engaged in the work of discipling the nations when He returns.

           

In a counter to the preparations for the ANC centenary celebrations of January 2012 that included a lot of ancestor worship, Pastor Light Eze initiated '8 Days of prevailing prophetic prayers

Sabbatical Snippets

In the run-up to a three month sabbatical in 2014 we heard about the conversion of male Muslims on a surprising scale. (We had been involved with the discipling and baptism of three of them ourselves towards the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. We also got to know a Muslim background pastor of Hanover Park with an exceptional testimony and thereafter got involved with the conversion and discipling of a gangster leader that led to the substantial decrease of criminality in the Athlone area. Because email contact was by 2014 very common, we were blessed with news snippets from the Cape such as a prayer march in the Northern suburbs in which our colleagues Dennis and Denise, our Discipling House parents, deeply involved. We also heard of an initiative Durbanville for Jesus at Pentecost where likewise believers from different denominations came together for prayer. Knowing that this was usually part of the run-up to revivals, I got obviously quite excited.

         The few weeks in Holland supported the idea of spending the middle months of the year in Holland to help giving a possible fillip to outreach to the Moroccans living there. Moving to Germany, ahead of the final part of our sabbatical in Israel and Jordan, we were challenged. Bombings from Gaza made such a trip very risky. A vision which Rosemarie had at this time, enhanced the fear that we might lose our lives there. After intensive prayer into this, we were ready for that eventuality.

         What a blessing the subsequent visit to Israel and Jordan turned out to be. We met both Messianic Jewish and Arab believers. We were encouraged to have another bash at the Cape, in an attempt to bring believers together from both Jewish and Muslim background.

         After our return from overseas our excitement was dampened when we heard that the presence of various males from Muslim background, some of them new believers, had caused a crisis at the Discipling House. The need of another Discipling House – one for male MBBs – seemed to be urgent. (Two of them, one apiece from Ivory Coast and Sudan, were residing at our home.) We also heard however

Folk in Holland started making plans to send us a container in which they wanted to send us various artefacts as they did at the beginning of the millennium.                                                                                                   It all turned out to be very premature. While we took it in our stride that the new MBBs came from the drug culture, we knew that this would not be easy. We were very much blessed when Andre van der Westhuizen, a member of the DRC Bergsig Church in Durbanville took a keen interest along with a few members of that congregation to bring a Discipling House for males into being. When Almo Bouwer, a builder, revealed that the Lord had challenged him to build something in District Six, the venture got somehow also linked to the mountain peak name change operation that meandered very low-key.

Crossing the Jordan! 

‘Crossing the Jordan’ became our goal as Rosemarie and I prayed more intensely from three couples to take over from us. We were blessed when shortly thereafter a couple contacted us that has been serving as Missionaries in Mozambique, intending to return soon because of the education of their two school children.

South Africa on the Rise?

At the beginning of 2016 various Christians felt challenged to oppose the negativity in South Africa. The argument of the South Africa must rise campaign – an initiative of Pastor Errol Naidoo, well known via the Family Policy ministry - was that ‘If everything must fall - then eventually, the nation will fall’.

            The death of our revered (former) President Nelson Mandela in December 2013 had inspired me to make our love story available in hard copy for our grandchildren, kick starting the low-key publication of WHAT GOD JOINED TOGETHER in 2015. We joined the #SAMustRise Campaign as we continue our journey of crossing the Jordan! We believed that one of the best tools available was still the written word, albeit that Facebook, Twitter and Whattsapp was taking over from books.

Instead of only having my books and manuscripts available on our blog called www.isaacandishmael.blogspot.com, we also joined the #SAMustRise campaign via the other social media with a parallel one. Our son Sammy started #hopeforsa as a catch word and using our book WHAT GOD JOINED TOGETHER in the campaign via Facebook. He wrote: I quickly put together a website over here: www.whatgodjoinedtogether.co.za. Let's spread some more good news #hopeforsa! This led in turn to an invitation for Rosemarie and me to a live interview on the TV programme Afternoon Express.

A Groundswell of Prayer                                                                                                                           A groundswell of prayer came out of concern of where the student unrest and seeming never-ending corruption in government circles were taking us. The "State Capture" report in which the actions of various government officials were exposed brought a significant correction. The National Prosecuting Head, Shaun Abrahams, who brought the country to the precipice of economic collapse with threats and actions against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and other SARS officials that sounded like a vendetta, was asked by the State President to write why he should not be suspended.

          In an Isaac Ishmael prayer update on 21 October 2016 I took liberty to remind the recipients that the crisis into which the #Feesmustfall campaign had thrusted our nation, had actually started a few days after Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal addressed a government-endorsed rally in Cape Town on Wednesday 21 October 2015. I went on to highlight the biblical connection, writing ‘Because we as a nation cursed Israel - via the invitation and high-profile treatment of Israel’s worst enemy last year by our government - we reaped what we saw on our television screens in recent weeks.’

         In the same email I noted South Africa’s voting with 23 nations to give its preliminary approval to a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) resolution that ignores Jewish ties to its most holy religious sites: the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. 

This ignited correspondence around a possible petition. Furthermore, the Church seemed to be waking up from its dormant state of recent decades because of two new Bills around Hate Speech and general Freedom of religion. Bible-believing Christians are making their voices heard. Whatsapp technology end email petitioning made it quite easy to get onto the worthwhile bandwagon. There has also been an element of hype in this communication, which made it not completely truthful. This was detrimental to the credibility of the message of the Church. 

Countering a Threat around Jerusalem

Whatsapp was in the thick of matters in January 2017 in a big way. The real threat of a tense situation around Jerusalem via a so-called Peace conference in Paris on 15 January ignited an unprecedented world-wide call for prayer. Followers of Jews linked with Israel and Jews praying that the enemies of God might be scattered and confused. He did this in no uncertain way when the UK – possibly intimidated by the prospect of the incoming new US President Donald Trump who had put the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – sent o low-profile delegation to Paris and clearly stated that they would not sign the final statement. Likewise, in New York on 17 January 2017, the feared UN Security Council resolution was not passed that would have given the right of way to the Palestinian Authority to divide Jerusalem unilaterally.
           Many of the fires in the Western Cape which caused extensive damage were probably started by politically motivated people. The result was an unprecedented wave of prayer as these fires coincided with a serious shortage of water. Thousands of churches around the country prayed for rain on 22 January.

Cape Town for Jesus Campaigns                                                                                                              Dag Heward-Mills, a Ghanaian Minister based in Accra, (Ghana), approached Cape church leaders in 2015 to have an evangelistic campaign after one that was scheduled for Kwazulu Natal, had to be cancelled because of the wide-spread xenophobic expansion there.  The success of the campaign that had to be organised in seven weeks, encouraged the 30-odd Cape pastors to repeat the event possibly on an annual basis as Cape Town for Jesus Campaigns. In 2016 it was held in Belhar with a resounding success.  At the beginning of 2017, the Athlone Ministers’ Fraternal approached the steering committee of the Cape Town for Jesus Campaign.  With Pastor Trevor Herbert of Eerste River as Chairman, the group got many churches participating actively in various capacities.

            The 2017 campaign was a very blessed occasion.  From across the Peninsula, from places quite far away from the Athlone Stadium, the venue, folk rocked up for the three-day event. That ‘White’ Christians did not join in the fun – and some rain on two of the nights - could hardly dampen the spirits. Around 1000 filled in the slips for a possible follow-up.

Special Encouragements

As we prepared for the 2017 United Prayer for South Africa initiative, I was very much encouraged that Terence Phillips, an Indian background believer who had originally come from Durban, took over the baton as Regional Co-ordinator.

A phone call from Cecilia Burger made me very excited on Thursday 23 February 2017. She had met a gentleman with the name of Reggie on the Jewish cemetery who had played some role in the salvation of Michael recently. Michael was a vagrant who had come to see Jesus as his Messiah at the premises of Hillsong and died not long thereafter. Cecilia wanted to inform me that Reggie Mpumgose had a significant spiritual encounter on or near to the mountain peak above Cape Town that we had been attempting to get changed to Dove’s Peak.

The next day I went to meet Reggie at his place of work in Burg Street. Reginald Mpumgose came to the Cape from Soweto in 1997. Here he was basically living on the streets as a vagrant. When he heard of the Shelter in Salt River with the name Loaves and Fishes, that place became the haven where he also came into a living relationship with God. In AD 2000, he went to pray on the mountain. On the third day of fasting he met a jogger with a jar of oil. The man had come from a smalll town 80 Kilometers from Cape Town with the divine charge to come and pray on the mountain to 'unchain it from demonic sources.

Soon after the jogger had left, a woman came walking in Reggie’s direction. Glynnis, a saintly woman from Manenberg, a notorious township of Cape Town, had also been fasting and praying for a few days. For five years they operated together among vagrants before finally getting married.

Possible Additions

A prophetic word of Kim Clement about Cyril Ramaphosa of six years ago started doing the rounds. If you would like to listen to it - and pray into its fulfilment - I would be just too glad to forward it to you.

Appendices

Subject: SOUTH AFRICA ARISE - Prophecy 22 Jan 2013

The Lord shows me of the breaking down of satanic influence and rule in the South African terrain. The Lord is shattering the strongholds of darkness, corruption, injustice, violence and the rule of fear. I see in the Spirit that satan cannot keep his management of the territory because there is a sovereign shaking of the terrain in which he is standing. From underneath his feet is emerging a generation of men and women who are the True Rainbow Nation – Faces without Races. They are locked arm to arm, step by step taking back the land from deceptive pretenders and politicians.

 Piece after piece is broken from his control and these pieces are coming together to form a whole new nation. This stranglehold will be broken. It will not be a ‘Black’ or white or coloured South Africa. It will be a whole new nation. The spirit of Apartheid will be broken for good and forever (1994-2014). These Egyptians you see today you’ll never see again. The system of slavery will be completely destroyed. This system of rule of fear, oppression and intimidation will fall by the wayside. Satanic influence on South Africa’s destiny will be minimalized. It will become a minority race because the Lord Himself will silence the enemy. Satanic forces will not utter their voice in the streets, in the media and in their communities. Where He is heard, the enemy will be silenced!

 A new sound will be heard in the political arena. A call for oneness. A call for true sons of Africa. A call for Africa to Arise. The call for death and destruction will be silenced by the overwhelming resonance of excitement of joy of the birth of a new nation.

 South Africa the next two years are seasons of prayer and hiding in His presence. The angel of death will send His judgement on those who violate His blood and His redemption of this nation. The blood of His righteous Son has been shed No other blood need to be shed. His life was given for South Africa’s redemption, no other life need to be taken.

 God is rising in jealously for her. He is going to execute swift judgement on those bent on hell and destruction. You will see Him sovereignly moving them out and He will terrorize them with fear of Him.

 The Church must arise from her lethargy and connect together and not collide with each other. He is summoning fathers in the land to humble themselves and surrender their self-identity for a corporate dynamics of destiny. He will bring the fathers together with their agenda but under His kingdom mandate and agenda. Those who refuse to yield because of bitterness will be removed and side-lined. They will be like Uzziah alienated till the day of their death. Some will be like Hezekiah who will follow this course of destiny for a while and then revert back to the old. Though God will extend their years, they will lose all by the next generation.

 South Africa will rise once again and become the Cape of God’s Hope. There will be life and not death. The winds of adversity will give over to winds of refreshing and restoration. We will see fulfilment of what we have believed. It is only a matter of time now, wait patiently; wait earnestly; wait in His Presence. When He rises, You will.

 God’s Servant,

 Dr. Jonathan David

 Website : www.jonathan-david.org

A new Heart and a new Spirit for South Africa

Maditshaba Moloko egarding 3 December 2017

Ezekiel 36:26

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

This is the word the Lord gave me on Wednesday, the 29^th November, 2017. He is fulfilling it today the 3rd of December 2017. It's also not a coincidence that today, 50 years ago the first and history making transplant took place in Cape Town.  As the medical field observes this historic milestone, the Lord is busy giving the nation of South Africa a new heart!

When Samuel anointed Saul to be the first King of Israel, a new heart was given to him and a new spirit came upon him. Sometime last week I received a word out of Jeremiah 1:10 that while the Lord has been pulling down, destroying, rooting out and shaking that which is not of Him, it is now time to plant and rebuild in this nation. But not according to our ways or those of the world but according to the guidance of His Spirit. Remember that which is born of the Spirit will overcome the world.....

Here is the background to the word about a new heart. My dad had a heart attack last week. He was admitted to Pretoria Heart Hospital on Monday, 27 November (my dad is fine again). This is the same hospital the late and former President Mandela was hospitalized before his passing.  I arrived on Tuesday to tend to my family and I was oblivious to this information until my mum mentioned it! There and there I realized I was on an assignment from the Lord. I was surprised about the assignment.

In summary, the ailing heart of the Nation needed to be removed and a new heart installed. South Africa is receiving a new heart today. A heart that will follow only after the true and only God.

The Lord also released the hearts of the children from bondage to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. He sent children to the hospital on the 30th of November to release worship unto Him.

My assignment lasted until today. It took 5 days (a sign of grace) and I only realized today that it's the 50^th anniversary of the heart transplant that took place in SA. It's a season of release for South Africa!

I was asked to sound the Shofar 12 times today at the hospital to declare His Government over this nation and it's new heart.  I obeyed duly.

List of prophetic words over SA

The following is a summarised version of prophecies to herald,to declare, to proclaim, to utter over SA in this season. The full prophecies may be requested from info@vukaafricafoundation.co.za

Declare and say:

1.    The Lord has been visiting nations but now He has visited SA

2.    He has sent angels to help the Church in SA in this fierce war of His presence. The angels arrived, they are here to work with the Church.

3.    The Land of SA is secure, do not fear what you hear or what you see.

4.    The river of healing, which is the move of the Holy Spirit to birth the revival has begun to flow in this nation bringing healing wherever it goes. South Africans are called to bring healing to the nations, “That is my healing and miracle power that will flow from South Africa to the rest of the world. It will start there. I have a plan and no one will stop Me.”

5.    The fires of revival will soon break out, the fire will spread to every province and from SA it will spread to the whole continent up to north of Africa and to the nations of the world.

6.    A prayer movement is rising in this nation to birth a revival of prayer which will usher one of the greatest moves the world has ever seen. A prophetic word is going forth; an instruction is given to the people so they will undergird it in prayer. The word spoken in prophecy is going to be birthed in prayer and carried into a place of fulfilment.

7.    The revival will be birthed and sustained through prayer and worship. Songs of healing and restoration will be released in every province. “The the glory of Lord will arise over you South Africa and will be seen upon you because you are My glory bowl and your people are My glory vessels.”

8.    South Africans will go out to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God to the whole world. When they go Africa will be saved and Africa will evangelise the world, and this initiative will start from South Africa.

9.    God is going to break corruption and root it out. He is going to send the power of His Spirit to crush those who do illegal things under legal pretenses. Those who say it is legal to do evil will have no power to do that any more.

10.  God is going to dismantle the works of the enemy. The Church has a major role to play in all this. The Church will lead the process of change in the nation.

11.  There will be no political party against this move of the Spirit of God. It will suddenly arise beyond political decisions. It is a non-partisan, Spirit-led movement.

12.  South Africans of every colour will join forces, and a people movement will arise which will keep the enemy out and push evil out. The movement of the people is growing in momentum and spirit. This movement is led by the Spirit. God is releasing a template and a model pattern of running the nation to fulfil her divine destiny, showing the way to the rest of Africa and the world.

13.  There will be a change of government in this nation, for God will raise a godly man that will institute godliness in the laws of this country, godliness in prisons, godliness in our hospitals. The Spirit of the Lord will breathe upon the people that have been oppressed. “And I will turn this nation towards Israel again, and I will breathe upon this nation and this giant shall be woken again.” says the Lord.

14.  More people who serve and know the Lord will enter parliament. Healed, delivered and set free. The Church holds the major key in doing what needs to be done, beginning now until the elections in 2019. In the Church, people’s minds are going to change, they will want to see the nation being blessed.

15.  God is restoring hope in you South Africa so that you no longer need to fear anymore. The Spirit of Hope is released and is commanding the spirit of devastation, corruption and destruction to leave in Jesus name. Hope will rise in Africa and Africa will turn. The wind of the Spirit is coming, Africa is going to change and will become a clear model.

16.  South Africa will be a new nation and new things are about to happen. It’s time to arise. This is not the time to run out of South Africa. Do not let your heart be troubled, don’t flee. God is bringing knowledge back to this country.

17.  South Africa will rise again! The economy will turn around, become stronger, the wealth of the nation will not be found in the pockets of the wicked, but rather it will be shared so all communities will rise. God will stabilise the South African currency — it will not go into free fall. God is the God of currencies. He holds the destinies of nations in His hands.

18.  In the next three years — 2017-2019 — God is going to dismantle the power of the enemy and begin to usher in the kingdom of God — Daniel 2:44-45 – “And in the days of these Kings the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. In as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold — the Great God has made known to the King what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.” 2017 is the year of the coming of God’s Government into South Africa — Isaiah 9:1-7.

19.  I am sending three angels in the year 2008 into the continent of Africa, one shall be called the angel of Fire, The next shall be called the angels of Winds of the Lord and the third shall be called the angel of Judgement. The wind that I am bringing is a mighty wind, the Ruach of God. And the angels shall open the doors of heaven and allow my Spirit to blow from the north, south, east, and west. What shall this wind do? It shall blow every demon off this Continent of Africa. It will blow into the nations that have oppressed Me. It will blow in the nations and there will be a season of change.

20.  After 60 years of the so called liberation of Africa, the Lord has remembered you Africa to do you good; He has visited you to bring you out completely from the Babylonian system. On the other hand 2018 marks the completion of 70 years, the establishment of the system of apartheid in South Africa. This is the season of the completion of the liberation of Africa. South Africa shall play a major role in the process of the liberation of Africa.

21.  The vision seen at the Union Buildings on the 3/10/2017 during a time of wailing for the sins of the nation and for the fulfilment of the prophecies over SA: A clock hanging on the building with both arms of the clock on the number 12. The Word of the Lord – “I hold the times and seasons in my hand. The time for this land has come and I have determined a season of transition in this nation. What was before shall not be in the day to come for I have raised for Myself a new leadership after my pattern and order. A leadership that will be given spiritual authority and governance. Leadership that will understand and establish eldership pattern in the land. I will release resources and wealth upon them for my people. They shall be like shepherds in the land and My people will no longer be oppressed. The vision you saw speaks of the times that have been ordained by My Word over this nation. Says the Lord!”

“Get Ready South Africa for what is about to happen, says the Lord.” Get ready! Get ready!Get ready!

Note:
The above are extracts taken from the prophecies which were released by the following Prophets and Apostles:
Kim Clement in 2008, Pastor Amaka Abe in 2011, Chuck Pierce and Apostle Kure in 2015 and 2016, Dr Jonathan David in in 2016 /2017 and Pastor Mpho Mosoeu on 3/10/2017.

one of the most active years for spontaneous prayer initiatives around the country. A growing uncertainty in our nation is leading to more and more people crying out to God.

The recent calls for nation-wide prayer for the on-going drought, crime & violent deaths, are some examples of these.

One of the nation-wide prayer initiatives is the “7 Days on the Wall”, engaging thousands of churches, schools and other groups across the nation to pray for Spiritual Awakening, Salvation of Souls and Social Justice.

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[1] This was later changed to a monthly event.

[2] Soon CCFM used the title as a slogan – the station that changes lives for good.

[3] In 1985 four hundred Christian leaders, drawn from 48 denominations, came to Pietermaritzburg for three days of consultation. That event can possibly be considered as the impregnation of the new South Africa. At that time Michael Cassidy issued the significant ‘Statement of Intent’ on 18 July 1985, which was followed by the National Initiative for Reconciliation (NIR) from 10 to 12 September 1985.

[4] The church building was part of the institution where the South African Mission Society was founded in 1799.

[5] Elsa subsequently contracted cancer, ultimately going to be with her Lord.

[6] She had married Doug Smetherham, a South African.

[7] Theo and his family were confined to the UK after OM had decided that people with South African passports were too much of a liability on their ships.

[8]This can be found on our internet blog.

[9] The latest version of these studies – expanded to thirteen chapters - can be read as A Revolutionary Conversation - Lessons from the Master teacher to share the Gospel cross-culturally at www. isaacandishmael.blogspot.com.

[10] Our co-worker Rochelle Malachowski who had been working in Palestine, reported on the ministry of Musalaha in the Middle East.

[11] For quite a few years Esther Krüger, an Afrikaner, produced a programme for Jews on Radio Tygerberg called Israel Kaleidoscope on which Leigh Telli featured frequently.

[12] Musalaha is a non-profit organization that works towards reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians based on the Biblical principles of peace, justice, and love. The name Musalaha comes from the Arabic word for 'reconciliation'. Musalaha, which means "reconciliation" in Arabic, was founded in 1990.

[13] The four-fold or five-fold ministry is a Charismatic and Evangelical Christian belief that five offices mentioned in Ephesians, namely those of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors (or "shepherds") and teachers, remain active and valid offices in the contemporary Christian church.