Glimpses of God’s Mysterious Ways September 2022

Glimpses of God’s Mysterious Ways - including adversity and suffering TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction Abbreviations 1. A Blow to Slavery from the Cape 2. Swimming Against the Stream of Prejudice 3. More Cape Church Expansion 4. Practical Christianity at Work 5. A Teacher of the Nations 6. Pioneering Women at the Cape 7. Cape Jewish-Christian Moves 8. Redemptive Suffering Under Apartheid 9. Support for Victims of Pass Laws 10. Student and Youth Impact 11. Gangsterism: A Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone? 12. Special Initiatives at the End of the 20th Century 13. 21st Century Evidence of Spiritual Warfare 14. Carried on Eagle's Wings Jesus replied: “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13:7). “If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest.” Corrie ten Boom. Main Abbreviations used in this book ANC - African National Congress APO - African People’s Organisation CCM - Christian Concern for Muslims CCFM - Cape Community FM (radio) CSV - Christelike Studentevereniging DEIC - Dutch East India Company DRC - Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk) Ds. – Dominee (equivalent of Reverend) DTS - Disciple Training School LMS - London Missionary Society OM - Operation Mobilization PAGAD - People against Gangsterism and Drugs SACC -South African Council of Churches SAMS - South African Missionary Society UDF - United Democratic Front UNISA - University of South Africa UCT - University of Cape Town UWC - University of the Western Cape V.O.C - Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagne = United East India Company WCC - World Council of Churches WEC -Worldwide Evangelization for Christ YWAM - Youth with a Mission Z.A. Gesticht - Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht (South African Foundation) Preface “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8, 9) In earlier years we used to enjoy singing: I want God’s way to be my way As I journey here below For there is no other highway That a child of God should go Though the road be steep and rough Where He leads me ‘tis enough I want God’s way to be my way every day Little did I know back then that this chorus would go on to become like an anthem over my life. Time and time again, my wife and I were able to experience God’s clear leading in our lives - particularly on those occasions when the road was indeed ‘steep and rough’. One of the most rugged roads was undoubtedly the one that ultimately led to our wedding on 22 March 1975. A by-product of choosing to walk this road was an involuntary exile from my country of origin, forced upon me by the apartheid legislation that was in place in South Africa at that time. I returned to Cape Town, the city of my birth in January I992 after living in Germany and Holland for many years. Born in Bo-Kaap in 1945, I was raised in District Six and Tiervlei (later the ‘Coloured’ section of this suburb was called Ravensmead.) Regarding God's 'mysterious ways' in my own life, they were sometimes linked to deep pain in the lives of other people. I came to learn that adversity and suffering seem to be among God's prime instruments to bring about significant change in the lives of people and even in countries. Leukaemia and the ultimate passing away of my teenage hero were for instance part of the run-up to my calling into ministry in 1968. Twelve years later the same sequence, namely the same type of cancer and the death of my only sister resulted in a six-month stint in South Africa with my wife Rosemarie and our two eldest children – by special permission of the apartheid government. Those six months turned out to be quite special in the opposition to two pivotal apartheid laws that were scrapped four years later. By January 1969 significant correction had already transpired to my own thinking in respect of the subtle indoctrination of the South African racially segregated society. I had been perceiving that missionaries were 'White' as a rule. Seeing myself as a short-term missionary going to Germany, I was initially scheduled to be there for a year. That stint was ultimately extended to one of just under two years, during which a romantic relationship ensued. I knew that this could result in my exile from South Africa due to an apartheid law. (I loved my country quite intensely so that the possible marriage to a German young lady plunged me into quite a big dilemma.) In some poor unsuccessful compromise, I tried to get Rosemarie reclassified as a 'Coloured' so that we could live together here in South Africa. The Father dealt thoroughly with my racist prejudicial expectation that my future wife had to be a 'Coloured' South African. I was hoping to spare myself the destiny of an exile in this way. (I put ‘Coloured’ consistently between inverted commas and with a capital C when I refer to the racial group. To the other races I refer as 'Black' and 'White' respectively, with a capital B and W, to denote that it is not normal colours that are being described. In a country as ours where racial classifications have caused a lot of damage, I am aware that the designation 'Coloured' has given offence to many people of the racial group into which I have been classified.) We perceive it as quite significant that God used difficulties to move us forward in terms of ministry involvement. Thus the problems I had encountered around the christening of babies became a significant catalyst for my resignation as Moravian pastor of Utrecht, but also for the founding of the Stichting Goed Nieuws Karavaan, a unique regional expression of followers of Jesus operating in unity in the Dutch town Zeist. It has been quite a humbling experience to discern divine over-ruling in my life. I made some unwitting grave mistakes that had tragic consequences and intense pain for some people. In His mercy God thankfully not only rectified those errors that I had to confess, but He would all too often over-rule and even use them sovereignly to His glory. How glad I am that the Father did not answer my prayer for a possibility to avoid the life of an exile. (I thought arrogantly and naively that I could contribute much better towards racial reconciliation inside South Africa, rather than if I would live abroad.) In His divine over-ruling wisdom my presence in Holland could not only be used in the ideological spiritual battle against apartheid, but also in a small way towards the dismantling of a wicked Communist regime in Romania. Assignments for a post graduate course in missions at the Bible Institute of South Africa (BI) caused me to be ‘bitten’ by a bug – historical research. In due course this became my hobby. Many a manuscript ensued over the years. Having been raised in the Moravian tradition, attending their schools as well as being trained and ordained as a minister of that denomination, there developed in me over the years a strong interest in general Church History, that of the Moravian Church, as well as in Islamics and Judaism. Having been involved in missionary work with WEC (Worldwide Evangelization for Christ) International and in the prayer movement here at the Cape for many years, I have also been jotting down some personal experiences. Many of them have been included in the latter chapters of this book. It has been such a blessing to discern how these ‘mysterious ways of God’ were, as a rule, answers to prayer. The bulk of the material in this book has been taken from unpublished manuscripts, notably Spiritual Dynamics at the Cape, Some Things wrought by Prayer and The Road to the Global Day of Prayer. These documents can be accessed at www.isaacandishmael.blogspot.com. Whereas I consciously omitted references to make the material more readable for the rank and file Christian in my recently published Revival Seeds Germinate Part 1, I do supply many of them this time, without however, claiming to have done this consistently. This is merely an attempt to bring material more clearly into the public domain that has been on my blog for a long time. (For the same reason I refrain from writing Old Testament and New Testament in inverted commas.) When many people around the world were still groaning under the effects of the Covid 19 virus, I took liberty to revisit an earlier version of this manuscript again before dropping it on my blog. With Parts 2 and 3 of Revival Seeds Germinate well advanced in respect of publication, I sensed a challenge to get this book published first, initially as an E-book. I have basically selected glimpses of some mysterious divinely guided ways at the Cape until 2012. In the selection I would have liked to highlight events elsewhere that impacted the country. From my teenage years I still vividly remember the post Sharpeville turmoil, that caused the World Council of Churches to bring Church leaders to Cottesloe at the end of that year. A special glimpse of divine mysterious ways occurred when the lies and deception of apartheid among Afrikaner colleagues at the time became the kairos moment for Rev Beyers Naudé. It was the trigger to start the Christian Institute. Thereafter the Church emerged as the authentic mouthpiece of the oppressed, notably via the Christian Institute with its Afrikaner leaders Rev Beyers Naudé and Theo Kotze. Likewise the Message to the People of South Africa at the inauguration of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in 1968 was a turning point in Christian responses to apartheid. We pointed already to the Holy Spirit inspired Congress on Mission and Evangelism with Dr Billy Graham and its two spiritual children in Nairobi (PACLA, 1976) and Pretoria (SACLA, 1979). The support of the SACC for conscientious objectors may be controversial in the view of some Christians. That it swung matters towards a peaceful solution of our racial issues has some divine dimension. Civil war with massive devastation seemed nevertheless inevitable in the late 1980s. Rev. Michael Cassidy was one of the divine instruments among a few other Church leaders who not only laboured hard to prevented that. Inter alia he initiated a big Church conference in Rustenburg of November 1990 that ushered in our democracy. Africa Enterprise played a pivotal role in organising a strategic prayer event on Kings Park Stadium in Durban which ushered in the miracle elections of 27 April 1994. We have been experiencing quite a few more mysterious divine ways in recent months, notably in the wake of the Covid lockdown of 2020. I hope and pray that you may be blessed and challenged to read how God has been working in many mysterious ways, just as I have been in the course of the research and the collating of the material. Ashley D.I. Cloete Cape Town, August 2022 Introduction The British poet and hymnist William Cowper, who wrote the poem God Moves in Mysterious Ways, struggled throughout his life with depression, doubts, and fears. In this book I try to highlight different kinds of the mysterious divine moves that Cowper refers to: the afflictions and tribulations that were sovereignly used by God to counter moves by the enemy that could be described as demonic. God Moves in a Mysterious Way God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill; He treasures up his bright designs, And works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the LORD by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding ev'ry hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flow'r. Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.[4] (by William Cowper) One of the Mysterious Ways of God is that He seems to love using repentant remorseful people. In this book we read not only of folk who were saints, those who were more or less blameless in the eyes of the world, but also about more than one believer who had some skeleton in his cupboard. Like the morally despicable King David, whose remorseful heart made him a man after God's heart, the difference is whether people repent, when they take responsibility for their behaviour and make restitution where possible. However, whatever restrictions or hindrances our failings and weaknesses place on situations intended to bring about God’s purposes he nevertheless works his ‘bright designs and works his sovereign will’. (Ephesians 1:11, Romans 8:28). In fact, all too often difficulties, losses, frustrations and unbearable pain are given to us to grow us to a new level in our spiritual life or to prepare us for something better For those believers who wonder if their lives have made or will make any contribution to God’s kingdom purposes, or if the circumstances in their lives or those of their nation will prevent God’s kingdom from being established, we pray that this book may provide strong encouragement to keep believing and trusting in the God of the impossible. I intend the material presented in this book to be part of the run-up to an event that is being prepared in Genadendal, the first mission station of South Africa for 23-25 September 2022. This book is a follow-up to the second edition of Part 1 of Revival Seeds Germinate that covers some of the pioneering role of Moravian missionaries at the Cape. Much of chapter 1 in this book has been dealt with there. It is very basic to this work because it is quite special that a 'mysterious' aspect runs like a golden thread throughout our history, namely how events at the Cape influenced world history. Thus slavery was dealt a death blow worldwide from the Cape. Dr Andrew Murray's seminal book The Key to the Missionary Problem, written at the Cape, would kick-start revival in many parts of the world. In recent years the Global Day of Prayer had its roots in the Mother City of South Africa. The first heart transplant world-wide was performed here. Many believers pray that this will be the fore-runner of a massive spiritual heart transplant, a revival that would ultimately impact the whole world, the fruition of the revival seeds sown over many centuries here at the Cape. Chapters 2 and 3 of this book give some measure of summary of material in Revival Seeds Germinate (Part 1) plus some additional information. What we have collated in this volume are mere glimpses of divine mysterious intervention here at the Cape. I have been blessed to glean much of this not only through my private studies, but also from many oral sources. Last not least, I have been blessed to experience so much of this in this regard personally, together with my family and in our ministry, notably in answer to prayer. And yet, as the British poet Alfred Tennyson said long ago: Much more is wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. In this book I have limited myself very much to what happened at the Cape. But even in this regard I have been very selective. All glory to the mighty God we serve, the Almighty who works in mysterious ways all the time, performing miracles in the lives of people. 1. A Blow to Slavery from the Cape The exodus experience of the Israelites - liberated from bondage in Egypt - was the precursor to God’s people around the globe: to be led out of the bondage of sin into liberty. This freedom ushers in a new kind of allegiance, when the doulos (in the related meaning of slave and servant) gives his all in the voluntary committed service of his new Master, the Lord Jesus. In New Testament terms the optimal way to ‘assist’ God is through persevering prayer. In fact, the Father is ‘desperately’ expecting and hoping for our co-operation in this way. He seeks for such prayerful people, who worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23,24). Paul, the apostle and prolific epistle writer of the early church, encouraged the followers of Jesus not to be bonded in a yoke of legalistic slavery (Galatians 5:1). It is no co-incidence that a spiritual battle was revolving around the slaves at the Cape from the outset. It seems that the vast majority of slaves were initially open to the Gospel, but sinful attitudes - including materialism and racial prejudice on the part of the Dutch colonists, along with authoritarian denominationalism of the church - played into the hands of satan. Many slaves became Muslims as a result. Slavery as such was already in existence in biblical days. It has been a major tragedy within Christianity that an important element of the teaching of Paul, the missionary apostle, was completely ignored, namely that Christian slaves were to be regarded as siblings of the faith, brothers and sisters (In the Bible book Philemon, Paul encouraged Philemon not only to take back the run-away slave Onesimus, but also to regard him as a brother and partner). Motivation for a Half-way Station at the Cape The Dutch had already intended in 1619 to create a half-way station between Europe and the East. The British also had similar ideas in the interim. It was however the shipwreck of the Haarlem in 1647 which gave the decisive input. Significantly, in their memorandum to the East India Company in Amsterdam, Leendert Janzoon and Nicolaas Proot, two from the stranded crew, motivated the beginning of such a station with the need of bringing the Gospel to the indigenous Khoikhoi. Contrary to prevalent European perceptions, their document projected a favourable impression of the indigenous people that they encountered. These primal people made a very favourable impression on them. The ship-wrecked Dutch were forced to stay here for five months, until another homeward bound ship could pick them up. It is special how the Remonstrantie, which was written by Leendert Janzoon and Nicolaas Proot, contradicted the common view of the indigenous people of their day and age, referring to ‘a popular error’: ‘Others will say that the natives are savages and cannibals, and that no good is to be expected from them.’ The Khoikhoi at the Cape impressed them as possible candidates for ‘the magnifying of God’s Holy Name and to the propagation of the Gospel.’ The two VOC men expressed a wish that such an establishment would offer an opportunity to bring the gospel to the indigenous Khoi. Racial Prejudice Entrenched Before this, the interest in the Khoi was completely mercantile, occurring at a time when spices and profits came before souls and patriotism. Of course, there was economic interest as well, especially when the Dutch discovered that the soil at the Cape was fertile and that the indigenous people, because of their cattle, could be an asset. The input of Janzoon and Proot seems to have either not been passed on, forgotten or simply ignored. European colonists not only came to the Cape with racial arrogance, but this prevailed. The prowess of Western civilization served to entrench racism, which had already been prevalent for centuries. The Greek classification of ‘Hellenes and barbarians’ - which was fairly neutral with hardly any racial connotation - was replaced by ‘Christians and heathens.’ The former were Europeans and the latter the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa and all new areas that were discovered. ‘Bushmen’, Hottentotten and slaves at the Cape remained sub-human in the eyes of Westerners. Cape Colonists were indoctrinated with a theology in which racism was rationalized and defended.’ It has been suggested that ‘racism as a racial ideology owes its origin - in our Western cultural history - to attempts at a moral justification of slavery as a social institution’ (Esterhuyse, Apartheid must die, 1981:22). From this basis it easily developed in South Africa to a defence mechanism and justification for racial prejudice. Slavery in the Spiritual Battlefield Slavery seems to have been part of the ideological battleground of the forces in the unseen world. The vast majority of the slaves, who came to the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century, originally seemed to have been open to the Gospel. However, sinful attitudes - including materialism on the part of the Dutch colonists and the authoritarian denominationalism of the Church locally - played into the hands of evil forces. During the 15th to 18th centuries, very few people in Europe and North America had ethical problems with slavery. The inhuman practices linked to slavery were regarded as reconcilable with Christian norms in spite of the views of early critics, such as the Spanish priest Alfonso de Sandoval in 1627. Furthermore, high-ranking people with great influence like Queen Isabella of Spain and Queen Elisabeth I of England had their reservations about the trade in human beings. Sensitivity to the inhumanity of slavery broke through slowly Due to the lack of international communications, sensitivity to the inhumanity of slavery broke through only relatively slowly. The system of slavery at the Cape was similar to that practised in other colonial societies. It was part of the contemporary mercantile system, driven by forces outside the Colony. The slaves played a significant role in the internal economic development of the small Cape refreshment station which became a relatively established economy by 1795, when Britain became the colonial power. Baptism and the Setting Free of Slaves Linked Paul, the epistle writer, had already discerned that materialism is idolatrous by stating that greed is a form of idolatry (Colossians 3:5). The link between baptism and manumission - the setting free of slaves - had been clearly expressed at the international Synod of Dordt (1618) in the Netherlands. In the early beginnings of the Cape Colony this was still widely practised. Thus Catharina, a Bengalese slave, was freed soon after she had been baptised. It is interesting to note the increase in status which was linked to baptism at this time. The view was basically theologically sound that ‘Christians could not be kept in bondage’, especially when one keeps Bible verses in mind like’If the son sets you free, you are free indeed’ (John 8:36) and ‘it is for freedom that Christ set you free’ (Galatians 5:1). Slaves and Religious Persecution The early history of Cape Islam runs parallel to the Dutch extension of their commercial interests in the East. The first known Muslims were brought to the Cape as slaves in 1658, i.e. only six years after Jan van Riebeeck had landed here. These Muslims, from the Indonesian island of Ambon, were called Mardyckers, indicating that they had been free people, i.e. not slaves. Even before they left their home soil, many of them had turned to Islam in solidarity with their fellow Ambonese - in opposition to the oppressive Dutch colonizers. The Cape Mardyckers were immediately discriminated against. As part of Dutch colonial policy, their religious practices and activities were severely restricted. The threat of a death sentence hung over their head if they tried to convert anybody to Islam. Thus they worshipped with a very low profile. The Dutch East India (trade) Company - backed by their rulers in Holland - fought Islam in the East with military means. When rebellious Muslim religious leaders offered stiff resistance in the Indonesian Archipelago, the developing refreshment post at the Southern tip of Africa provided a handy place for the banishment of political convicts. The first religious prisoners came with the batch of slaves from the East that arrived on the Polsbroek from Batavia on 13 May 1668. These Muslim leaders were not prepared to take the religious repression passively like the Mardyckers before them. They immediately befriended the slave population at Constantia, teaching them the religion of Islam. Thereafter they held secret meetings in the Constantia forest and on the mountain slopes. Shaykh Yusuf, an Islamic Sufi resistance leader whose real name was Abidin Tadia Tjoessoep, came to our shores on the Voetboog in 1694. With the arrival of the banished Shaykh Yusuf the battle in the spiritual realms started to heat up. Persecution Reaping Blessings Stephen became the first martyr of the ‘New Testament’ Church for his bold witness of the crucified and resurrected Jesus. To the early church to be a witness (in Greek μάρτυς (martys)) meant to be prepared for persecution and suffering. Many would follow Stephen through the ages. Paul, the apostle, speaks in the context of suffering about the spiritual weapons of the right-eous man. The inference is that suffering and persecution are weapons in the arsenal of the believer, because the suffering of the believer for the sake of the Gospel contains the seed of resurrection: ‘We always carry in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body’ (2 Corinthians 4:10). At the Cape the persecuted French Huguenot refugees brought with them spiritual correction at a time when corruption and immorality was rife amongst the Dutch and early German colonists. Elsewhere the missionary work of the Moravians started on the back of religious persecution by the Roman Catholic Church in Bohemia and Moravia who had found a safe haven on the state of Count Zinzendorf. Religiously persecuted refugees started the East German village Herrnhut in 1722 in Saxony. The first missionary to South Africa came from Herrnhut. A Prayer Chain Emanating from Conflict Seen against the background of the religious intolerance of the time, the first missionary enterprise by the Moravians was a miracle. The start of their endeavour occurred as a direct result of prayer. It developed out of the revival in Herrnhut in August 1727, after the laborious counselling and prayers of Count Zinzendorf. He had talked and prayed at length with the quarrelling role players in the village who had been coming to his estate from different church backgrounds. The infighting brought the village Christians to the brink of open confrontation and a split was imminent when divine intervention set in. The Holy Spirit prepared the hearts of estranged believers from the different factions in the church of Berthelsdorf (the village adjacent to Herrnhut) on August 13, 1727 where they went for Holy Communion. Tears of remorse and repentance were streaming freely in the service. Two weeks later, on August 27, a few revived members of the congregation started a remarkable ‘hourly intercession.’ Forty eight believers committed themselves to pray every day in pairs for an hour apiece. That developed into a prayer chain, that continued for over a hundred years. After a few years the focus of this prayer movement became missions. A Caribbean Slave in Divine Service The cause for the start of the missionary movement was Count Zinzendorf’s encounter with a Christian slave at the coronation of Denmark’s King Christian VI in 1731. The Holy Spirit was evidently at work when the Count did the very unconventional thing of speaking to Anton, a slave from the Caribbean island of St Thomas, who came for the occasion with his owner, the aristocrat Von Pless. Anton immediately challenged the Count, mentioning his slave compatriots who had not yet heard the Gospel. Zinzendorf invited Anton to repeat the challenge in his home congregation in Herrnhut. There Anton challenged the Moravian believers to help liberate those who were in double bondage, and to take the Gospel to his Caribbean relatives and countrymen. Anton warned the committed believers however, that his slave countrymen were so overloaded with work that there would be no time for sharing the Gospel except during working hours. The start of the great missionary movement is documented in the well-researched You Tube movie First Fruits: Zinzendorf and the Moravians, https://youtu.be/ZghVDKYvE9I. In the revived Herrnhut congregation the believers were touched by his appeal. Not even the awesome prospect that potential missionaries would have to share the slave life-style could hold the eager congregation back. The very next year, in 1732, the first two missionaries left for St. Thomas. They were the first of many from the village of Herrnhut to different parts of the world during the following decades - backed by the 24-hour prayer chain at home. Count Zinzendorf’s encounter with a Christian slave was thus the trigger for the greatest missionary movement ever - and coming from a single congregation at that! The evangelical awakening in England that came about through John Wesley and George Whitefield from around 1740 was a direct result of the Moravian endeavours, as they left Germany to spread the Gospel in the New World. In North America the movement coincided with the first Great Awakening, where Jonathan Edwards coined Concerts of Prayer. This itself was the result of a wave of prayer. South Africa as a Beneficiary of Banishment Because of his support for the Moravian refugees, Count Zinzendorf encountered problems with his authorities. Eventually the Count was banned from Saxony in 1736. The Cape has a special connection to the Herrnhut revival of 1727. In 1728 the gifted committed teenager Melchior Nitschmann went to Moravia with Georg Schmidt where they were arrested as they were fellowshipping with believers. Melchior Nitschmann died in prison the next year. It would be too easy to apportion blame on Georg Schmidt that he recanted subsequently, obviously under great pressure, to get his freedom back. Schmidt was hardly back in Herrnhut when he returned to the Roman Catholic areas to encourage the Protestants there, risking a new imprisonment or even worse. Schmidt was banished by Count Zinzendorf to work amongst the primal Cape ‘Hottentots’ to compensate for the perceived damage he had done to the cause of the Gospel, sent out alone and not together with another brother as was the practice at the time. Picture of Georg Schmidt: Source Genadendal Museum Schmidt’s banishment thus proved to be one of God’s mysterious ways, when he submissively accepted the punishment to be ‘banished’ to go to the distant Cape of Good Hope alone, to minister to the ‘Wilden’, to the resistant ‘Hottentotten’. In the spiritual realm this could be seen as a divine response to the Islamic foundations laid by the exiled Shayk Yusuf, who came to the Cape in 1694. Georg Schmidt was a powerful evangelist. Various sailors on his voyage to the Cape were touched and converted. Evangelistic Beginnings in the Mother City In different parts of the world Christian missionaries played a major role not only in the fight against ideologies and barbarism, but also in protecting the indigenous people against colonial exploitation and of course, in the spread of the Gospel. South Africa was no exception. The first serious effort of swimming against the stream of racial and religious prejudice in the 18th century was said to have been made by the Dutch Reformed Ds. Henricus Beck, a Groote Kerk minister, after his retirement in 1731. A group of evangelical Christians gathered around Ds. Beck. His pioneering labour provided the foundation for the ministry of the first missionary to South Africa, the dynamic above-mentioned German Moravian Georg Schmidt, who started lively Christian groups after his arrival at the Cape in July 1737. Schmidt was scoffed at by the colonists The prayerful Schmidt was scoffed at by the colonists for attempting to reach out to the Wilden, the indigenous Khoi, whom they disparagingly called Hottentotten. Georg Schmidt was exemplary in so many ways, networking with the local church and helping to spark a missionary movement in which indigenous believers would play a big role. Worldwide, the ‘Moravian brotherhood … ever sought and found ways and means of comity and co-operation’. Schmidt initially experienced nothing but kindness from the government at the Cape. The ridicule of the colonists turned into enmity when word got around that he had actually taught the Khoi to read. However, he was seriously handicapped after Ds. G.Kulenkamp, an Amsterdam minister, issued a pastoral letter of warning in 1738 against the ‘extreme views’ expressed by Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravian movement. Under the guise of pure simplicity, the letter branded the Moravians a mystical society, that was spreading dangerous opinions detrimental to pure doctrine. (Kulenkamp was possibly referring to the ‘Blut und Wunden’ [blood and wounds] theology of Zinzendorf’s son Christian Renatus. Yet, the warning was now understood to be against the Moravians as such). Notwithstanding the opposition, Georg Schmidt soon had a small congregation of 47 and he also had contact with 39 other colonists. The evangelical group in the Mother City laid the foundation for what became a sanctuary for the slaves, the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht on the corner of Long and Hout Streets. Contemporary Cape residents were greatly impressed by the impact of Schmidt’s ministry. The widow Aaltje van den Heyden, one of Ds. Beck’s church members, played an important part in the missionary outreach to the slaves after the death of her husband in 1740. She supplied the bulk of the funds for a Gesticht, an institution for the uplifting and religious teaching of slaves that was also called an oefenschool. This would decisively influence religious life at the Cape for subsequent decades. 2. Swimming Against the Stream of Prejudice As a rule, European colonists came to the Cape with racial arrogance. The prowess of Western civilization served to entrench racism, which had already been prevalent for centuries. The Greek classification of ‘Hellenes and barbarians’, which was fairly neutral with hardly any racial connotation, was replaced by ‘Christians and heathens.’ The former were Europeans and the latter the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa and all new areas that were being discovered. Yet, the Mother City of South Africa played a significant role for the dignity of indigenous people and in opposition to the trade of human beings. Heroism at the Cape in the Midst of Moral Degradation Materialism and corruption were rife in the early days of the Cape, starting with the founder Jan van Riebeeck. He was found guilty of fraud before he came to the Cape and even here he had no scruples to use valsch geld (fake money) to barter livestock from the indigenous population. Materialistic ambition was part and parcel of the cultural baggage that was imported from Holland. Yet a special example of heroism that occurred on June 1, 1773 has thankfully also been fully recorded. Wolraad Woltemade, a dairyman and humanitarian of German origin saw the ship De Jonge Thomas driven ashore in a heavy gale near the mouth of the Salt River. The officials of the East India Company were preoccupied with saving the cargo, leaving the ship’s crew to perish, when Woltemade came past on horseback. He rode into the waves, bringing back two men holding to the animal’s tail. He repeated this act until he had saved fourteen of the crew. He went into the sea once more, but was overcome by the waves and drowned. The DEIC honoured his memory by naming a ship De Held Woltemade (The hero Woltemade). A train station has been named Woltemade, and a statue has been erected in the grounds of the South African Mutual Insurance Company in Pinelands in memory of his bravery. Indigenous Baptisms Against All Odds Christian missionaries played a major role not only in the fight against ideologies and barbarism, but also in protecting the indigenous people against colonial exploitation. Both corporal Kampen and his successor at the military base at Zoetemelksvlei described Schmidt as their spiritual father (Cruse, 1947:147). Georg Schmidt refused to be side-tracked through conversions among the colonists, preferring to go to those people who had not heard the Gospel at all. His sense of purpose is demonstrated by the fact that Schmidt moved on from Zoetemelksvlei to the Sergeants River soon after the conversion of Kampen, to get to the original reason for his coming - to evangelise the Khoi. He toiled hard among the resistant Khoi, initially without success. It was however no cakewalk in the light of the growing opposition to his work. Schmidt gradually overcame the ‘apathy of his flock’ with ‘labour of love and patience of hope’ (Du Plessis, 1911:54). It was however no cakewalk in the light of the growing opposition against his work. In the beginning of 1742 Schmidt was very frustrated and despondent after long years of toil and little to show for it. He wrote to Zinzendorf that he intended to return to Europe, partly because of the indolence of his folk, partly because he did not receive helpers. But then the fruit came in the form of the first converts. Only after five years did the first of them came to the Lord, at first two men. Spiritual fruit came in the form of the first converts Schmidt came to the Mother City to greet his friend and benefactor, Captain Rhenius, who was about to leave the country for his retirement. Schmidt’s visit to the Mother City with Willem, a convert, resulted in an unprecedented interest among colonists and officials. During this visit Schmidt picked up a letter of ordination from Count Zinzendorf. The Count encouraged him in the letter to baptize his converts ‘where you shot the rhino’, that is in the river. In March 1742 he thus received encouragement to baptise suitable candidates. On his way back, he baptised his convert in or at the Sergeant’s River, giving him the name Jozua. Four more baptisms followed in due course. Sexist Prejudice Overcome Schmidt initially only attended to males. He had to overcome his own sexist prejudice. At first he found only three men suitable for baptism. In the conversion and baptism of the intelligent Vehettge Tikkuie, there was a clear supernatural element. Schmidt only proceeded to test her Bible knowledge on 4 April 1742. Quite prejudiced against females, he did not expect much, but Georg Schmidt was rather surprised by her answers. He baptised the intelligent Khoi woman, giving her the name Magdalena, surely hoping that she would spread the news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ like her biblical namesake. She had been exceptional, progressing quickly from the Dutch ABC manual, to read the New Testament in that language. A second female was baptised with the name Christina. Much to Schmidt's surprise an intelligent, strong-willed woman displayed interest to become a follower of Jesus. Schmidt had to overcome his own sexist prejudices. Germination of Gospel Seed The seed that Schmidt had sown at the Cape during his stint of not even seven years germinated, both in the Mother City and in Baviaanskloof, the later Genadendal. Schmidt was said to have been n man van sterk geloof en ‘n bidder (Schmidt, Afrika en die Evangelie [pamphlet], Genadendal, 1937), a man of strong faith and very prayerful. His prayerful example rubbed off on his converts. In fact, colonists told his two German Moravian colleagues Nitschmann and Eller admiringly during their stay in Cape Town en route from Ceylon years later, how Schmidt succeeded ‘to teach a Hottentot to pray as he has done.' Khoi Christians shared that Magdalena was often found on her knees in prayer. On Sundays ‘de oude Lena’ would walk to the pear tree where the pioneer missionary had preached, to read the New Testament and pray with her folk. Many years after Schmidt had left, Khoi witnesses said that they came together at her home every evening where she prayed with them. In addition to this, she taught the believers from her New Testament that she had received from Georg Schmidt. At the arrival of three new Moravian missionaries, Christian Kühnel, Hendrik Marsveld and Daniel Schwinn on Christmas Eve 1792, Baviaanskloof, the missionaries found a fellowship where Georg Schmidt had baptised his five converts 48 years prior to their arrival. It had been held together by the prayerful Magdalena. Khoi showed them the New Testament that ‘de oude Lena’ received from Georg Schmidt. Magdalena herself could no longer read, due to failing eyesight, but a younger woman whom she had taught ‘opened the sacred volume and read the second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel with considerable fluency’ (Du Plessis, 1911:73). Even though Magdalena could not remember anything Georg Schmidt had taught her personally, his example and teaching was evidently still in operation. The mission station, which was established there, was later called Genadendal. If we take the finance minister of Ethiopia mentioned in Acts 8 as the absolute first indigenous evangelist, our very own Magdalena was definitely the first person in Sub Saharan Africa. She was possibly the first indigenous female church planter of all time. The first indigenous female church planter of all time Impact of Schmidt’s Ministry Schmidt impacted the lives of his Khoi congregants in Baviaanskloof quite intensely. His prayerful example influenced events at the Cape long after he had been all but forced to leave. Cape residents described the impact of Schmidt’s ministry to Nitschmann and Eller, two Moravian missionaries en route from Ceylon in 1742. In their assessment they stated that Georg Schmidt had accomplished in three and a half years ‘what others would not have affected in thirty years’ (Du Plessis, 1911:56). Georg Schmidt left in 1744, hoping to get a Dutch Reformed ordination in Holland. This would have enabled him to return to the small flock in the Overberg. But that was not to be. Schmidt died before he could hear of the resumption of the missionary work in Baviaanskloof in 1792. Death of a Khoi Believer Yields Fruit Quite soon after the arrival of the dynamic Ds. Helperus van Lier at the Cape in 1786, the legacy of Georg Schmidt worked through when Van Lier was present at the deathbed of a convert of the missionary pioneer. He saw how the Khoi believer died ‘in volkome rus en vrede van sy siel en in vertroue op die Here.’(Schmidt, 1937:6) It made such a deep impression on Van Lier that he mentioned this in one of his letters to his uncle Professor Petrus Hofstede, an influential academic in Rotterdam, who was at that stage still an opponent of the Moravian brethren. Van Lier became a major instrument not only in getting the Moravians back to the Cape in 1792, but he was also instrumental in sowing the seed for the first mini-revival at the Cape. God would use Dr van Lier not only to bring back three new Moravian missionaries, but he also did the spadework for the founding of various missionary societies. A Cape Social Revolution… As a result of the vision of the young reformed pastor, Dr Helperus van Lier, about 60 Christians in Cape Town and its surroundings set aside one day in the week as early as 1788 for the religious teaching of ‘the heathen’ at the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht in Long Street, which is now a missionary museum. Cape Town evangelicals were among the worldwide leaders in this regard at that time. A ‘revolution’ in which the Lord used Ds. van Lier, was the change in the attitude of many 'White' believers towards slaves and other people of colour. In those days slaves were initially not allowed near the entrance of the church after the closing of services and they were punished if they dared to attend the funeral of one of the colonists. Prejudice against missionaries was still rife when Van Lier arrived, but the youthful minister dared to challenge the church through his fiery sermons and personal example. The young dominee literally caused a spiritual revolution at the Cape, shortening the duration of sermons and prayers during church services. He also increased house visitation. Believers were encouraged to get involved with the spreading of the Gospel. The historian Theal reports that when Van Lier was in the pulpit, people hardly dared to sleep in church because ‘at times it seemed as if he would jump from the pulpit’ (Theal, History of South Africa Before 1795, Vol.4:379). Furthermore, his preaching was full of earnest appeals and ‘…women were often moved to tears, and sometimes fell into hysterics’. Van Lier was very zealous, spending much of his time visiting people from door to door ‘...holding prayer meetings and encouraging works of benevolence’(Theal, History of South Africa Before 1795, Vol.4:379).. Van Lier was a great visionary, seeing the need for learning the heart language of the people to be reached with the Gospel. He was one of the first to start learning Malayu, the trade language, with the object of reaching out to the Cape Muslim slaves. Fruit Internationally… Almost single-handedly Van Lier set the evangelical world ablaze. His letters from the Cape to Europe were very influential. Van Lier’s story of the influence of divine grace in his own life seems to have made a lasting impression on Rev. Newton who belonged to the inner circle of (slave) abolitionists. (The famous hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ came from Newton’s pen.) Van Lier’s humility came through when he insisted that a pseudonym Christodulus, (slave of Christ) and not his own name be used with the publication of his testimony. Several of Van Lier’s letters were directed at getting the Moravians back to the Cape. His correspondence continued to have an impact in Europe. Through his evangelical zeal Van Lier laid the foundations for the founding of a missionary society at the Cape. A letter of Van Lier may have influenced his uncle not only to attack the internal ‘onverdraagzaamheid’ (intolerance) in the church in Holland, but also to challenge the general arrogant attitude towards de heidenen' (the pagans). God used Hofstede to such an extent that religious tolerance increased significantly in the Netherlands towards the end of the 18th century. Fruit That Led to New Seeds A special result of Dr van Lier’s ministry was when South Africans started going to the mission fields themselves. Tragically, Van Lier was not around to see the actual founding of the South African Missionary Society (SAMS in April 1799. He had died of tuberculosis in March 1793 at the age of only twenty eight. Ds. Vos, who would later become the first foreign missionary of South African origin, took up where Dr van Lier had left off. (deleted irrelevant content) After returning from studying in Holland where the Holy Spirit led him to return to South Africa, he moved to Roodezand (Tulbagh) and his influence was felt all over the Western Cape. In the Mother City itself, Mechteld Smith, a widow who had been discipled by Van Lier, was performing a similar role to that of Magdalena Tikkuie in Genadendal. God used her - along with Ds. Vos as the main role players to advance the evangelical cause. The SAMS was formally constituted in 1799. The first missionaries of the SAMS at the Cape were significantly not ordained in the Groote Kerk or even in Stellenbosch, but in Roodezand (Tulbagh) where Ds. Vos was the minister. It comes therefore as no surprise to find that a second missionary was inducted there on 3 October 1799 in the home of Mechteld Smit(h), in the presence of forty-seven SAMS members. Vos's use of new methods of evangelism and his positive view of people of colour was not appreciated by all and sundry. In 1802 he left Roodezand, returning to Holland, from where he was sent as a missionary to India and Ceylon (called Sri Lanka today) in 1804. Maart, a slave from Mozambique, was blessed ‘with strong intellectual endowments’. He responded so well to the five years of Christian teaching under Ds M.C. Vos that the LMS thought of educating him ‘... to qualify him to accompany some other missionaries to... introduce into his native country ...that gospel which brings healing and salvation in its wings’. The Council of Seventeen in Amsterdam dreaded Georg Schmidt’s possible return, ‘lest another Church than the Reformed should be established at the Cape’. How powerfully Schmidt had evangelized, is further evidenced by the actions of Hendrik Cloete, the owner of Groot Constantia, who had been impacted as a juvenile under Schmidt’s ministry in 1738. When new Moravian missionaries arrived in 1792, Cloete supported them against the Cape church leaders when they used flimsy reasons to attack the missionary endeavour. Thus Ds. Meent Borcherds and his Church Council purportedly asserted - probably initially in jest – that the bell of the church in Genadendal was being heard in Stellenbosch, more than 50 kilometres away. Dynamic Teaching and Its Results After the resumption of the work by the three new missionaries in Baviaanskloof, they succeeded in special ways to tap into the giftings of the indigenous Khoi. One of these special gifts was song. A contemporary believer reported: ‘I enjoyed somewhat of heavenly rapture during their songs of thanksgiving … singing together, or responsively, with such melody, that I could not but feel a taste of celestial bliss.’ In old age ‘de oude Lena’ (Magdalena) impacted Machteld Smit(h) when the committed missionary helper accompanied Ds. Michiel C. Vos, a Dutch Reformed minister, to Baviaanskloof in 1797. Machteld Smith reported Magdalena’s special devotion to the Lord as follows: ‘… her heart evidently overflowed with grateful affection towards a crucified Redeemer, whilst confessing his grace with her aged lips’. De oude Lena was obviously one of Schmidt’s very special pupils. Although probably only semi-literate, she became the driving force towards a culture of learning in a sea of ignorance, a time when many Cape colonists were still illiterate. Change of Attitudes as Another Fruit The January 1797 visit to Baviaanskloof by Ds. Vos with Machteld Smith and other mission friends caused a marked changed of public opinion. A few weeks later, farmers told the missionaries of a revival among them, reportedly sparked by this visit. The colonist farmers, who a few years prior to this event had been ready to attack and destroy the mission station, now asked for permission to attend the worship at Baviaanskloof. They even requested that one of the missionaries should come and live among them. The attitude and stance of Ds. Meent Borcherds, once a fierce opponent of the Moravian brethren, changed after his study of (the Moravian) Bishop Spangenberg’s doctrinal exposition Idea Fidei Fratrum, even to the extent that he apologized to a visiting Moravian brother for his earlier behaviour. The Governor granted permission to cut 20 wagon loads of timber in the State forests for the building of a church at Baviaanskloof. The mutual sentiments between colonists and missionaries became so harmonious that 100 'Whites' from the neighbourhood were present in the church on Christmas Day 1799 - many of them brought their slaves along. On 8 January 1800 the sanctuary was formally opened. Soon large numbers of colonists were attending services. In due course Genadendal became the second biggest town of the Cape Colony, bigger than Stellenbosch. Genadendal became the second biggest town of the Cape Colony Indigenous Leadership Finally Takes Root Dr Helperus van Lier had the vision to see indigenous missionaries going out to spread the Gospel and getting them involved in church planting. After him Dr van der Kemp of the London Missionary Society and the South African Missionary Society had similar views. Although it would take more than a century after Van der Kemp’s death before serious church planting by indigenous believers would take place at the Cape, there were other positive outcomes. The researches into the malpractices towards Khoi and slaves at the Cape by Dr Philip would be a powerful instrument to give slavery worldwide a massive blow. Much of that has been highlighted in Part 1 of Revival Seeds Germinate. The appreciation of this ministry is reflected in the names of towns, villiages and mission station after him. The Moravians named one of their mission stations after Thomas Clarkson, his colleague in the British Parliament. William Wilberforce could build on their pioneering work which resulted in slavery outlawed throughout the Empire. In summary: The Dutchmen Janszoon and Proot shared the vision of the human potential of the Khoi. Georg Schmidt would demonstrate and implement it. Vehettge Tikkuie, alias De oude Lena of Genadendal, personified this. Dr Johannes van der Kemp and Dr John Philip, the pioneering missionaries of the London Missionary Society, swam against the stream of general racial colonial prejudice and condescension towards people with a darker shade of pale at the Cape, performed spadework for the ultimate manumission of slaves throughout the British Empire. 3. More Cape Church Expansion The Start of the Cape Town City Mission Mr Frederick George Lowe came to Cape Town in 1896, as a concerned Anglican and a businessman who sold cheap clothing. He soon got involved in loving outreach to the poor and needy, especially at the time of the Bubonic Plague in 1901. Lowe started what he called the City Slum Mission in 1902, combining compassionate outreach with evangelism. When he moved to Well’s Square, known as a venue for drunkenness and prostitution, he had meetings that drew hundreds. The Cape Town City Mission practised a combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach After Lowe’s death the mission got its present name, the Cape Town City Mission. In later years churches and all sorts of institutions of charity were started across the Peninsula. The combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach – which they took from their models, the Glasgow City Mission and the Salvation Army - became an integral part of their ministry. (This remained the case until the 1990s when the evangelistic sector became a part of Kingdom Ministries, led by Pastor Alfie Fabe.) The Cape Town City Mission would become a powerful channel for the gospel throughout the 20th century notably after Pat Kelly, a British missionary, started night Bible schools at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) premises in Darling Street in March 1952. Fenner Kadalie and his wife Joan, the dynamic Cape Town City Mission leader of the late 20th century, were part of the first group of students. Many of the night Bible school students became pastors and leaders in various denominations subsequently. The Kadalie clan would play a substantial role in the second half of the 20th century in the Cape Town City Mission. Start of an Indigenous Denomination Reverend Joseph John Forbes started off as a teacher, and was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1918 at their Buitenkant Street fellowship on the outskirts of District Six. He withdrew from the church owing to differences on the colour question, and accepted a call to the Congregational Church soon hereafter. There he did not last long, starting his own church and denomination, the Volkskerk van Afrika, in Gray Street (District Six) on 14 May, 1922. This visionary had the courage of his conviction to start a denomination for the uplifting of the poor from the Cape to Cairo. That is the reason he gave his church a continental name. His leadership qualities had clearly been overlooked and spurned because thereafter he became one of the greatest church planters at the Cape. His rejection from the two previous denominations thus led to a new branch of Christendom, in the same vein as the conflicts in the Book of Acts led to multiplied ministries. A strong element of ‘Coloured’ Nationalism was present when Joseph Forbes started the Volkskerk van Afrika. What was very significant about this denomination was that they had a special anthem, which is still sung at their annual commemoration, hailing the protea, blom van ons vaderland (flower of our fatherland). The denomination made inroads in geographical areas where the traditional churches had become slack. They even started a church in Genadendal, the first mission station of the Moravians. The new denomination was later governed from Stellenbosch, and expanded to places like Oudtshoorn (1928) and far-away Kimberley (1922). Economic Depression Contributes to Church Expansion Another Cape-bred church plant grew out of evangelism in the 1930s. The depression of the early 1930s appears to have caused a new fire for evangelism. When John Crowe listened to a Salvation Army open-air service in Adderley Street in 1932, he was touched. How happy his prayerful mother was when he shared that he had decided to follow Jesus! The ‘slightly Coloured’ family - as those with a fair complexion from that racial group were called - attended the Baptist Church in Wale Street. Almost immediately the 18-year old Crowe wanted to share the Gospel with other people in the neighbourhood of Roggebaai, near to the ship dockyard. He struck a partnership with his namesake John Johnson, getting involved in open-air services at different places. Later they were especially active on the Grand Parade, Cape Town’s equivalent of London's Hyde Park Speakers' Corner, where various political groups and others had their meetings. Harold, John Johnson’s brother, joined them at a later stage. When people started committing their lives to Jesus through their ministry, they received permission to conduct meetings in one of the Railway cottages, which soon became too small. They then rented a wood and iron construction called the ‘Tin Shanty.’ An evangelistic outreach was gradually picking up via Bo-Kaap and District Six in the first half of the twentieth century. Soon also the ‘Tin Shanty’ had become too small. In the 1950s the fellowship was allowed to use the hall adjacent to the Holy Trinity Church in Harrington Street that belonged to the Church of England in South Africa. Starting their outreach in the Dockyard, the church group which had started operating from the ‘Tin Shanty’, called themselves the Docks Mission. From its earliest years prayer and fasting belonged to the practises of the denomination. Many a Friday night was used for an all night prayer meeting. No wonder that God gave the new denomination phenomenal growth. Not only were new churches started on Brown’s Farm (Ottery) and Factreton, a new housing scheme, but also in rural areas at Wellington and Grabouw. From their early beginnings the Docks Mission also started outreaches at the prison in Tokai, at the nearby Porter Reformatory, at the Brooklyn Chest Hospital, and later at another institution for delinquents in Wynberg called Bonnytown. Many lives were changed through these ministries. After the services at the Docks on Sundays, some members went to Somerset Hospital to pray with nurses there. A branch of the Hospital Christian Fellowship (now called Health Care Fellowship). which operated at Somerset Hospital for many years, benefited greatly from this assistance. Life-Changing Ministries Docks Mission members made a national impact through ministry to prisoners on Robben Island. Docks Mission's Pastor Walter Ackerman thus witnessed to and challenged Nelson Mandela. After his release in 1990, Mandela often referred to the Christian teaching that he received over the years as an important contribution to his emphasis on forgiveness and refraining from revenge. Nelson Mandela often referred to the Christian teaching that he received as an important contribution to forgiveness 4. Practical Christianity at Work Great Expansion from Modest Beginnings Through the centuries spiritual renewal was accompanied by charitable involvement with the poor and needy. Pastor Fenner Kadalie, a son of the famous trade unionist Clements Kadalie, became one of the most well-known sons of the Cape Town City Mission. Pastor Fenner Kadalie would become the pivot of the massive expansion of the most well-known Cape social agency of compassion The Cape Town City Mission, with its modest beginnings at the beginning of the 20th century, soon had no less than four congregations in District Six, respectively in Aspeling, Constitution, Cross and Smart Street. Working closely with a young Pastor Bruce Duncan, Pastor Fenner Kadalie became a pivot of massive expansion of the Mother City’s most well-known social agency of compassion. When the community was forced out of District Six by apartheid legislation, Fenner Kadalie and his right hand, Bruce Duncan, gathered the scattered remnants of the District Six fellowships, ministering to their needs in their new homes on the Cape Flats. Fenner Kadalie was a catalyst for the birth of many upliftment projects in and around Cape Town. Under the inspiring leadership of Rev. Bruce Duncan and Fenner Kadalie, the denomination grew rapidly in the 1970s, getting involved in various ministries of compassion. Bruce Duncan, an unsung hero of the ‘struggle’, dared to speak out against the injustice of apartheid, communicating at the same time ‘with anyone from Constantia to Hanover Park and gained credibility with gang lords that few others have achieved’. Susan Benjamin represents one of the many success stories of the City Mission and its’ role in her life made her one of the featured women in the book, Women who changed the heart of the City. She and her husband had been heavy drinkers when Jesus rescued them through the ministry of the City Mission. When the family was forced to leave District Six, Susan Benjamin asked the City Mission to hold meetings in her home. That became the start of many new congregations across the Western Cape. Her children became stalwarts in the denomination. Meeting places of the Cape Town City Mission developed into fully-fledged churches. The story has been told of a young man with an 'afro' hair style who walked into one of these churches while Pastor Barry Isaacs was preaching. The young man, Lorenzo Davids, kept coming back until he eventually committed his life to Christ, serving together with Pastor Isaacs as leaders of The Cape Town City Mission in the new millennium. By organising early Saturday morning prayer meetings in the chambers of the metropolitan Civic Centre, Barry Isaacs would play an important role in spiritual renewal in the city from October 2007. Lorenzo Davids would later become a City Mission pastor at their Burns Road premises in Salt River and in the 21st century the Director of the City of Cape Town's Community Chest from March 2013 to March 2021. Holy Spirit Training After Denial Due to Age As a 50 year old ‘White’ woman from Zimbabwe, Rose McKenna,took three steps in one week in 1983 that would forever change her life. She was baptised by full immersion and left for South Africa. In passing through Johannesburg she was confronted with the Gospel, which sent her on a search for truth. Her eagerness to get to know more about Jesus however led to one frustration with church people after the other. McKenna’s search included a Cape Bible School where she was regarded as too old and unsuitable for training. The Holy Spirit became her teacher as she now dived into the Word. Khayelitsha, the 'Black' New Home, became one of the townships where there would be some covert inter-action with folk from other races, but this was not appreciated at all due to the divide and rule tactics of the regime. The Cape Town City Mission was among the first to pioneer there from 1984 when it was still a growing informal situation. In the gifted Pastor Melvin Maxewana, whom Pastor Fenner Kadalie led to the Lord, he succeeded in finding, empowering and mentoring a 'go getter' who would plant a flourishing church in Khayelitsha, while living on the City Mission camp site in Strandfontein. AIDS and HIV Promotes Biblical Compassion At a time when AIDS was still being mentioned secretly, there was almost no ministry to people who suffered from HIV and AIDS. A ministry with close links to the Cape Town City Mission started when Val Kadalie, a trained nurse, had a deep concern for young people who had contracted sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s). She was invited to speak in many churches and schools - to warn young people about the dangers of promiscuity and encourage them to abstain from pre-marital sex. After Val Kadalie had become the matron of the G.H. Starke Centre in Hanover Park, the institution also started functioning as a hospice for terminal patients. She warned her staff in the late 1980s that they might soon have to treat AIDS patients. Her colleagues were thus ready for that, trained to care for people with HIV and AIDS long before they received their first request. The acid test came when she and her husband, Charles Kadalie, were approached to take care of a four-year old boy, Jason, who was HIV positive. One day, when Charles put the phone down at the electric power plant in Athlone where he was working, he sensed that God was challenging them as a couple to practise what they preached. Jason was the first of four children they cared for in succession, until all but one died from AIDS. Val Kadalie became a pioneer fighter for AIDS awareness In the process Val Kadalie became a pioneer fighter for AIDS awareness throughout the country, responding to calls from churches and groups of the most diverse backgrounds. Nazareth House, a Roman Catholic institution in the City Bowl, performed the same work during this period. The occurrence of HIV-positive babies started to increase. At the building in Vredehoek where the Roman Catholic Church had already started caring for orphaned children and destitute elderly since 1888, they pioneered with the care of HIV-positive/AIDS babies in 1992, possibly the first ministry of this nature in South Africa. Toby and Aukje Brouwer, a Dutch YWAM (Youth with a Mission) missionary couple, soon took on the care of AIDS babies after their successful pioneering ministry amongst street children called Beautiful Gate. In 1999 they started to care for HIV-positive and AIDS-infected little ones with government aid in Crossroads, a 'Black' township. Since then, their ministry has expanded to neighbouring countries. On 8 December 2004 a new centre was opened in Lower Crossroads. Broken lives were restored and in the case of at least one young man, a desire was born to enter missionary work. In the southern suburbs of the metropolis, Pastor John Thomas and his wife Avril were moved in 1999 to start with HIV and AIDS-related ministry. They soon built a hospice to care for people with HIV and AIDS, beginning a ministry of prevention and support which today reaches thousands of people. In due course Living Hope, with various related ministries, became a significant agent of loving service to the community. 5. A Teacher of the Nations Calamities seem to have been part and parcel of the life of Dr Andrew Murray, thus once again examples of God's mysterious ways. His link to the Keswick movement deepened during one of these calamities. In 1879 Dr Andrew Murray became ill and his throat was impacted. He lost his voice and began two 'silent years'. These years moulded Murray in a new way. He surrendered everything to God. He came to a place of deep humility and love for God and for others. In 1881 he went to Bethshan in London, a faith cure home, that was linked to the Keswick movement. Andrew Murray was completely healed there and never had trouble with his throat again. From that point on he knew that the gifts of God were for believers today, and taught and wrote about it. In 1882 he attended the Keswick Convention. Eventually, in 1895, he became a featured speaker. Murray began an extensive schedule of travelling and speaking. Twice he was in car accidents that left him with a limp. These God chose not to heal. Eventually he focused on writing books. Between 1858 and 1917 he wrote over 240 books and tracts. His books have touched a multitude of people. In 1895, Dr Murray was asked to speak at both the Keswick (UK) and Northfield Conventions (US). He was warmly received at these conferences and was later responsible for bringing the Keswick movement to South Africa. The Keswick Convention was itself, the indirect fruit of this wonderful season of awakening. The revival touched at least four different continents, bringing with it a renewed faith and vision for personal holiness and the Spirit-filled life. It was this liberating message that soon became synonymous with Andrew Murray’s personal ministry. The birth of the Keswick Convention united the emerging European Holiness Movement and thereby helped to channel the fire and energy of what became known as the 'Third Great Awakening'. However, the Keswick Convention did much more than merely unify and preserve the remaining fruit of this great revival. With a clear call to personal holiness through faith in Christ, the Keswick movement helped to prepare a new generation for the next move of God. Prayer As the Key to the Missionary Problem Dr Andrew Murray put into practice what he had taught about ‘waiting on the Lord’ when he was invited to be a speaker at the World Missions’ conference in New York in 1900. This conference was billed as the biggest ever to be held. (At this time the influence of the Enlightenment and Rationalism had significantly diminished belief in unseen forces like the Holy Spirit.) Dr Murray had no inner peace about going to New York, not even after the organizers tried to use his famous friend Dwight Moody to entice him. (Moody invited Andrew Murray to join him in outreaches in the USA after the World Missions' conference, but Murray was not to be swayed. He felt morally bound to stay with his people because of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). We may safely surmise that Murray was sensitive to the Holy Spirit, only wanting to take instructions from the Lord.) Murray’s subsequent absence at the conference ironically became a gigantic indirect cause of church growth and revival at the beginning of the twentieth century. After requesting and receiving the papers and reports of discussions from the conference, Murray wrote down what he thought was lacking at the event in a booklet with the title: The Key to the Missionary Problem. This booklet had an explosive influence on the churches in Europe, America and South Africa. Murray referred prominently to the twenty four hour prayer watch of the Moravians, calling earnestly for new devotion and intensive prayer for missions. He powerfully stated that missionary work is the primary task of the church, and that the pastor should have that as the main goal of his preaching. These sentiments were repeated in a small booklet he called Foreign Missions and the week of Prayer, January 5-12, 1902. He furthermore suggested ‘to join in united prayer for God’s Spirit to work in home churches a true interest in, and devotion to missions (is) our first and our most pressing need.’ One of Andrew Murray’s classic statements of the early twentieth century is that ‘God is a God of missions.’ He wrote powerfully in his booklet The Kingdom of God in South Africa (1906): ‘Prayer is the life of missions. Continual, believing prayer is the secret of vitality and fruitfulness in missionary work. The God of missions is the God of prayer.’ Andrew Murray summarized the link between the Holy Spirit and missions in the same booklet as follows: ‘No one can expect to have the Holy Ghost unless he is prepared to be used for missions. Those attending the conventions were always strongly encouraged to embrace a lifestyle of holiness, unity and prayer. In the 1902 Keswick Convention, five thousand Christians agreed to form home prayer circles for a worldwide outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of these Keswick praying bands was no doubt realized through the Welsh Revival of 1904. The Keswick Convention has been widely recognised as one of the hidden springs of the Welsh revival. It is surely no mere co-incidence that revivals broke out in different parts of the world in the years hereafter - in such divergent countries as Wales, Norway, India and Chile. The Cape was used in this way by God to make missionary endeavour a worldwide priority. Dr Andrew Murray was divinely used once more by God in the run-up to Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World, a book which influenced prayer for missions worldwide in the twentieth century probably more than any other book. Johnstone acknowledged this in the preface to his magnum opus. In The Key to the Missionary Problem Andrew Murray advocated weeks of prayer for the world. Patrick Johnstone wrote in an email to me: ‘As far as I know this was not taken up earnestly until 1962 when Hans von Staden, the Founder and Director of the Dorothea Mission, inspired the launching of a whole series of Weeks of Prayer for the World in both Southern Africa and also Europe.’ It was these Weeks of Prayer that made the provision of prayer information so important, and led to Von Staden’s challenge to Patrick Johnstone to write a booklet of information to help in these prayer weeks. Von Staden also proposed the name ‘Operation World’. Johnstone concludes: ‘So the book was South African-born, but then went global.’ Johnstone’s book brought united prayer into focus like no other before it. Operation World was South African-born, but then went global. 6. Pioneering Women at the Cape A Special Missionary Diamond... In the wake of the wars on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony, a group of Xhosa speakers from the Eastern Cape became inhabitants of Genadendal. A Gaika woman, whose husband had deserted her, was such a missionary 'diamond'. She was one of the first ‘Blacks’ to be settled in Genadendal. There this woman, who later got the name Wilhelmina, became a follower of Jesus. In Genadendal, the missionary spirit took hold of Wilhelmina. Soon she urged the Moravians to start independent work among her own people. In Genadendal she was appointed as nursemaid to the children of the missionaries. Wilhelmina also assisted with the teaching of the little ones the Kindergarten of Genadendal, giving the missionaries’ children the fundamentals of isiXhosa, so that they could later bring the gospel to her people. Johann Adolph, the son of Johann Gottlieb Bonatz, one of her learners, later became one of the missionary pioneers among the Xhosa in the Ciskei. Wilhelmina, who subsequently married the Khoi believer Carl Stompjes, ploughed the soil for the equality of women, by doing work for which females would normally not have qualified. She was one of the first female translators of missionaries worldwide. … As a Xhosa Female Missionary Pioneer An Eastern Cape settlement which was started in 1828 received the name Shiloh, but the 'Blacks' called it Ebede, meaning place of prayer. Carl and Wilhelmina Stompjes were among the group who started this venture, operating as translators. Wilhelmina Stompjes can be regarded as the equivalent of Magdalena Tikkuie of Genadendal. Many newcomers came to Shiloh from different cultural backgrounds. This included a Sotho, Nakin, who had fled the Mfecane (Zulu for crushing or scattering) and a number of San, called ‘bosjesmannetjes - ‘Bushmen’ - in those days. The Mfecane , also known by the Sesotho name, Difaqane or Lifaqane, was a period of widespread chaos and warfare among indigenous ethnic communities in southern Africa during the period between 1815 to about 1840. Nakin and his wife were the first candidates for baptism in Shiloh. Wilhelmina Stompjes was an enterprising lady, who succeeded in gaining the confidence of the newcomers. She soon more or less ran the school for their children at the new mission station. Johann Adolph Bonatz, the protégée of Wilhelmina Stompjes from the days of her teaching in the Kindergarten in Genadendal, had exceptional educative talent. When he took over the leadership of the school at Shiloh, the institution prospered. He himself proceeded to become the missionary among the 'Blacks' par excellence, putting various Xhosa translations to paper. Increasingly, Wilhelmina became the advisor and support of the missionaries, besides having to act as the sole interpreter. Her translations were of a special order. She did not simply render the German words of the missionary into the corresponding Xhosa. Instead, she regarded his thoughts and words rather as being in the nature of an epigram, ‘which she then expanded to include what she considered would be suitable for the listeners and easily understood’ (Keegan, Moravians in the Eastern Cape, 2004:22). The security situation at Shiloh became so dangerous at some stage that Bishop Hallbeck seriously considered abandoning the mission enterprise there. In fact, it has been passed on how the missionaries would have been killed if Wilhelmina Stompjes did not resolutely intervene: ‘She then violently berated Maphasa, who was so dumbfounded that he quietly retreated with his men’(Keegan, 2004:22). Forerunners of Charity Arise Out of Prejudice The wives and daughters of evangelical reformers were the forerunners of charity in nineteenth century Cape society. They were allowed to play a more prominent role in public life than other women, where prejudice against the ‘weaker sex’ abounded. It is quite surprising to find that even in the family of the missionary Dr John Philip, the liberal fighter for the rights of Khoi and slaves, the same prejudice prevailed. His daughter Eliza (who later married the well-known pioneer of press freedom) was forced by her father to give up her ambition to become a teacher ‘since she would fail to gain the social virtues desirable in a young woman’. Nevertheless, many missionary wives and daughters worked as teachers or ran the business of the mission, albeit generally unacknowledged and usually unpaid. In yet another way, Jane Philip broke ground for the liberation of women. The wife of the superintendent was paid for the bookkeeping that she did for the London Missionary Society. This work was customarily done by men. In 1843 members of St Stephen’s started a system by which members contributed sixpence to one shilling (sterling) a month to cover the cost of medicines in the event of sickness or the need of burial. For modern ears it may sound strange to read that the aim of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society, which was initiated by Jane Philip, was ‘to alleviate the sufferings of deserving persons’. The care of the soul was closely linked to the relief of the suffering. Jane Philip also founded the Bible and Tract Society, distributing religious literature to the poor, as well as being prominent in establishing mission schools in Cape Town. Female Pioneers of Cape-Based Mission Agencies Martha Osborne was forced to leave India due to illness. In England she was thoroughly impacted by the Holy Spirit after conversion during a meeting of D.L. Moody, the well-known American evangelist. Osborne’s husband became seriously ill soon after his retirement, and eventually died. A newspaper reported negatively about conditions among British soldiers in Cape Town. The presence of ‘dens of the lowest description’ gripped her. This became Martha Osborne’s call to missions. She sailed in 1879, devoting herself to work among the Cape soldiers. Martha Osborne devoted herself to work among Cape soldiers In South Africa the go-getter Martha Osborne initiated evangelistic missionary work in Cape Town, Natal and Zululand. She founded a Sailors’ Home, a Ladies Christian Workers Union, the Railway Mission and the South African YWCA. In 1890, she married George Howe, who had been working alongside her with a similar vision. During the South African War the couple established no less than 27 Soldiers’ Homes. The Osborne Mission went through a number of changes and mergers. During a visit to England Martha Osborne challenged Spencer Walton, an evangelical member of the Church of England, to come and join the outreach at the Cape. Walton was the first director of the Cape General Mission that later - after a merger - became known as the South Africa General Mission. A Pioneering Slave Descendant Through her novels Olive Schreiner put South Africa on the international literary map. She also distinguished herself through her love for Dutch-speaking Afrikaners. Olive Schreiner did much for reconciliation between the two main 'White' people groups of South Africa, a fact which became widely known. However, her change towards intervention on behalf of the other underdogs after the South African War, Indians, 'Blacks' and the Chinese who had been imported by Lord Milner, is hardly known. Her contact with Anna Tempo, a daughter of Mozambican slaves, is by and large still unknown. Tempo went on to start the Nanniehuis in Bo-Kaap, a ministry of compassion to ‘fallen’ young women and prostitutes. She later became the matron of the Stakesby-Lewis Hostel in Harrington Street, District Six. The Nanniehuis in Bo-Kaap’s Jordaan Street became the model for similar projects in other parts of the country after Ms Tempo had been awarded the King George Coronation Medal for her work in 1937. (The married surname Stakesby-Lewis of the lesser-known eldest sister of the Schreiner siblings (H)ettie, passed to posterity the Stakesby-Lewis Hostel in Harrington Street, District Six.) Olive Schreiner’s Legacy The memory of Olive Schreiner surpassed that of her politician brother by far, even though her contributions to humanity were only properly appreciated fairly late in the 20th century. South Africa is indebted for this especially to Ruth First, the wife of Joe Slovo. Ruth First was killed by one of the most brutal of the apartheid machinations - a letter bomb. That tragedy helped perhaps to highlight the Olive Schreiner biography, which Ruth First and Ann Scott wrote in 1980. Their study provides testimony of Olive Schreiner’s ‘continuing ability to speak to new generations’ (Richard Rive, Olive Schreiner, Letters 1871-99, 1987:vii). All her life she fought against injustice, including the discrimination of women. D.L. Hobman, Olive Schreiner, her Friends and times, 1955:2) said that ‘there was a time when this woman was acclaimed as poet, prophet and pioneer.’ Olive Schreiner’s prophetic role in human relations – which was accompanied by ‘the reformer’s zeal’, is noteworthy. In a continent where the separateness of English, Dutch, Jews, Indians and 'Black' inhabitants was rife, ‘her voice proclaimed that all in the world is one’ (Hobman, 1954:2). Long before anybody dreamed of a rainbow nation she discovered ‘the marvellous diversity of races among us’ (Cited in First and Scott, 1980:194). In a letter to her brother, William Schreiner, dated 24 April 1909, she stated her intention to read a paper to 'White' workers, urging them to stand by the African in the coming years (First and Scott, 1980:253). Even on world politics Olive Schreiner wrote prophetically, for example in 1919: ‘But America and Russia are the two points at which the world’s history is going to be settled.’ Her keen interest in science made her prophesy atomic energy in 1911, albeit that it would still take a few decades before Albert Einstein made the breakthrough: ‘Already today we tremble on the verge of a discovery … through the attainment of a simple and cheap method of controlling some widely diffused … natural force.’ More accurate was her suggestion in the same book Woman and Labour, ‘The brain of one consumptive German chemist who, in his laboratory compounds a new explosive, has more effect upon the wars of modern people than ten thousand soldierly legs and arms’ (These quotes from Hobman, 1954:3). Through her novels Olive Schreiner put South Africa on the literary map of the world. She distinguished herself through her love for the Afrikaners. The family furthermore had an ear and eye for the underdogs of Cape society. Olive did much towards reconciliation between the two main 'White' people groups of South Africa, a fact which became widely known. Spiritual Vitality of Praying Women The spurning and suppression of 'Black' women with regard to leadership did not discourage them. Instead of becoming bitter and resentful, ‘Black’ women appeared to have accepted male leadership gracefully. Until the late 1940s, these women organised activity among themselves independently. They would often allow the men to formally open meetings, in which they participated as speakers. Photo: Methodist Manyano Gathering Source: Wikipedia Thus one finds included in a report of the Primitive Methodist Church an evangelistic campaign by Johannesburg women in the Free State. Thirty-three people were impacted under the preaching of three different women from Saturday evening the 22nd, to Monday, 24th September 1919 (cited by Deborah Gaitskell in Elphick et al, 1997:253). Xhosa women at the Cape reshaped their meetings to provide more practical instruction and opportunities for community activism. The manyanos, (the Xhosa word for prayer unions) became instruments of 'Black' empowerment virtually second to none. Women leaders would not only pray and preach, but it was here that their dignity and political awareness were also developed. Whereas 'White' and some 'Coloured' church women’s groups concentrated on fund raising, 'Black' women’s groups called themselves collectively Prayer and Service Union. The social and mutual support offered by prayer groups helped to compensate for the isolation and poor social structures which Western missionaries held up as models. Testimonies, preaching and spontaneous prayer became the lifeblood of 'Black’ Christian groups. In the manyanos’ they could develop their potential as orators without first having to be literate. By accepting a role in moral teaching of their adolescent children, 'Black' Christian women turned their backs on certain pre-Christian norms, for example those by which female relatives other than the mother had been providing sex education. In general, the spiritual life of manyano women appears to have been more creative and vital than that of the other racial groups. Dawn prayer meetings and nights of prayer were quite common. Women Leading Activist Groups If it was ever said that women are generally less sensitive about political injustice, this was proved wrong when the rights of ‘Coloureds’ to vote was taken away in the most crude way. The attempt of the new Nationalist government of 1948 to get ‘Coloureds’ removed from the common voters’ roll ushered in the defiance campaign of 1952. The Supreme Court nullified the initial legislation of 1951, heightening awareness of the shrewd moves of the Nationalist Party to bulldoze through the abhorrent legislation. Fairly wide-spread indignation over the events led to the founding of the Black Sash. The Group Areas legislation, Bantu Education, Pass Laws and other apartheid legislation joined groups which had previously differed on minor issues. We salute a small group of 'White' heroines, who bravely swam against the stream of race discrimination under the common denominator of The Black Sash. Women rose up in protest, forming an organization that became known as the Black Sash, their black robes signifying their mourning over the erosion of justice in the country. Compassion became the hallmark of the Black Sash. The Athlone Advice Office – very near to the township of Langa, was the brainchild of Noel Robb, a resident of Bishopscourt. This was a Western Cape model serving as an example for compassionate work elsewhere. The Athlone Office was started in 1958 as a bail fund facility, to enable mothers who had been arrested and imprisoned, to return to their homes and children. In a sense it was an extension of another Black Sash Western Cape initiative, the Cape Association to Abolish Passes for African Women (CATAPAW), which was founded in 1957, in co-operation with a few other groups. CATAPAW collected evidence for submission to the Secretary for Native Affairs to highlight the hardship and injustices of the pass laws. Noelle Robb was very much involved with both the Black Sash and the Christian Institute. She assisted 'Blacks' who experienced problems because of the many legal entanglements spawned by the apartheid society. Over the years Black Sash campaigning against oppressive legislation continued unwaveringly. Alongside such campaigns, Noelle Robb and others were actively involved with the victims of apartheid. The Advice Offices have been playing a unique role. South Africa can now walk tall in the tradition of these women who have trodden difficult paths but who paved the way for a nation that can now boast with one of the highest ratios worldwide of women in Parliament and in the Cabinet. ` 7. Cape Jewish-Christian Moves One of the greatest Capetonians of the nineteenth century was Saul Solomon, who came to the Mother City from St. Helena. For decades the Solomon clan, of Jewish heritage, was one of the most distinguished families at the Cape. Many of them were involved with the philanthropic movement, in which Christians and Jews worked cordially side by side. A Special Politician and Media Mogul The physically diminutive Saul Solomon, a product of the Glasgow Mission's educational ministry at Lovedale in the Eastern Cape, became a prominent politician. Saul Solomon had to stand on a box when addressing Parliament. Having been trained alongside people of colour, ‘his leading characteristic was his desire to champion any section suffering under any disability whatsoever – civil, political, or religious… He was an earnest and powerful protector of the natives, and was frequently referred to as the negrophilist member…’ (of Parliament, Hermann, The Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, A Centenary History, 1841-1941, 1935:85 ). Against the background of the traditional legacy of the deceit and lies of politicians, he was known to have ‘less cunning but more foresight’ (Hermann, 1935:87). Saul Solomon was offered the Premiership of the Cape Colony Already in 1855 it was said of Saul Solomon: ‘If ever he loses the support of his constituency … it will be in consequence of his being too truthful to his convictions and too uncompromising to expediency’ (Hermann, 1935:87). Saul Solomon was offered the Premiership of the Cape Colony in 1871 when it was about to receive responsible Government, but he declined. This Jewish background Christian, who was linked to St George’s Cathedral, was a rare breed indeed. In 1857 Henry and Saul Solomon became the printers of the first Cape daily newspaper, The Cape Argus, which they took over in 1863 as sole owners. Saul influenced public opinion for many years as editor. At that time there was also benevolent compassionate co-operation of Jews with adherents from the two other Cape religions under the leadership of Rabbi Joel Rabinowitz. Harmonious Abrahamic Relations in District Six According to a prominent Jew who grew up in District Six in the early 20th century, Dr Issy Berelowitz, there were no less than nine synagogues there at the time. District Six was regarded as the heart of Jewry in the Mother City in the first half of the 20th century, i.e. before the advent of apartheid. Poor East European immigrants are known to have lived in the area between Chapel Street and Sir Lowry Road. Chapel Street Primary School had a significant percentage of Jews until 1948 when apartheid legislation changed that. The religious-wise tolerant and multi-racial character of that part of the growing metropolis is demonstrated by the fact that Buitenkant Street had a synagogue, the Tafelberg DRC and the (Coloured) Methodist Church in close proximity to each other, with other churches and mosques nearby. There was another synagogue in Roeland Street, not far away. The first Jew to become a mayor of Cape Town was Hyman Liberman, who was in office from 1904-1907. He had a compassionate heart. When he died in 1923, a big sum was donated from his bequest for a reading room and other facilities in District Six. The Liberman Institute in Muir Street became a beacon of light. From there not only a library operated, but UCT students in the Social Sciences also did their practical work there. The building provided a neutral venue for many a meeting in the struggle against apartheid. A legacy at the Cape was that there was a cordial harmonious atmosphere between Cape Muslims and Jews until the end of the 20th century, very much so in District Six. Christianity, Judaism and Islam co-existed side by side amicably until the advent of Group Areas legislation. Even today many Muslims are still working with and for Jews without any feelings of rancour, although isolated radical elements within the Muslim community have been trying to stir up anti-Jewish sentiments from time to time. A Jewish Boy Becomes an Influential NG Dominee A remarkable mysterious way transpired in the life of a boy who was born to Polish Jewish parents in 1927. Solly Ozrovech became an influential Dutch Reformed dominee. After World War 1 the family of Solly Ozrovech immigrated to South Africa, where soon thereafter, both parents were killed in a car accident leaving Solly (7 months old) and his older brother, Mark (4 years old), in the care of the state. The boys were due to be sent to a Jewish orphanage, but because of a mix-up, they were placed in a Dutch Reformed orphanage in Ugie in the Eastern Cape. By the time authorities discovered the mistake, the boys had already been fostered and were well adjusted. Solly blossomed academically, on the sports field, as a leader and a boy after God’s heart. Over a period of eighteen months, through the prayers and guidance of a committed teacher, Solly gave his life to the Lord. Solly was so touched by God’s grace, that he wanted to enter into the ministry as soon as he finished school. He was determined to attend Outeniqua High School – even though the orphanage could not afford to send him. 'I needed to attend an academic school to study English. The orphanage elders laughed at me saying there was no money, but I didn’t accept this and went on a hunger fast in protest.' After several days, he was so ill that he had to be hospitalised. Somehow the story was spread amongst local townsfolk. Someone anonymous man offered to pay for his schooling. After completing university, meeting his lady love, Louise, and obtaining his Master’s degrees in English and Afrikaans, Solly returned to Ugie to run the orphanage where he grew up. There Solly and Louise strived to give children a home (more than only board and lodging) with love and discipline. Thereafter the energetic Solly Ozrovech led 21 tours to Israel and became a pastor of a Dutch Reformed Church in Strand. With his gentle spirit, striking humility and shepherd’s heart, Solly’s congregation increased in numbers. Whilst leading the church in Strand, he decided to start a telephone message service, where people could call in and listen to a two-minute Bible reading and half-a-minute prayer. This service became quite popular and at one stage they had 700 calls a day. The messages reached all parts and peoples of the country, across denominations and cultures. As a result of these inspired telephone messages, someone approached Oom Solly (as he affectionately became known) and asked him to create a daily devotional book. The book was an instant success and unleashed the creative writer inside Solly. Inspired by the Lord, Solly took to writing from midnight to six o’ clock in the morning, while he dedicated his days to pasturing the church. Throughout his life Solly Ozrovech has served others and looked for new ways to bring people to the knowledge of Christ. In the turbulent times of the 1950’s, this innovative DRC pastor hosted a ‘drive-in church’ during the holidays. 'When I was a minister in Strand, I noticed that every Christmas, thousands of visitors would come to the coast and because they were dressed casually and belonged to various denominations, had no church to attend. My little church was too crowded, so one day God showed me an idea for a drive-in church. One of the members in the congregation owned a drive-in cinema and we discussed using this for Sunday services. He generously donated the grounds each week and converted a stage and speakers to accommodate all the cars. Families would come from all over, bringing their children in pajamas and food for the evening. They would sit in their cars listening to the service and many were touched by God there. On average there were 4 000 people every Sunday from all ages, races and denominations. There was a strong evangelistic message in those services. It is so important that the Church gives people the opportunity to accept Christ and that pastors are prepared to preach the uncompromised Gospel.' Ds. Solly Ozrovech would impact many young people indirectly when Straatwerk started as a new ministry. The special ministry of compassion to the city nightclubs was based at the Tafelberg Hotel in District Six. It was started amongst the youth of the 'White' Dutch Reformed Church congregation of Wynberg. (This coincided with other moves among young people that served to help break down the racial barriers.) In the denomination there was initially a lot of opposition to the work. However, after an invitation by Ds. Solly Ozrovech to come and share about their work in his congregation in Gordon’s Bay, they received invitations from all over. A Reminder to the Global Church In recent decades Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus, reminded the global Church in Manila in 1989 very impressively that Paul taught 'Jews first' (Romans 1:16). Rosen saw 'God’s formula' for worldwide evangelization as the bringing of the Gospel to the Jew first. Highlighting the teaching 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 his 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.’ It does not seem that Rosen’s challenge was seriously taken note of by the global Church, let alone heeded. Perhaps some of the setbacks and opposition that the churches, mission societies and missionaries experienced, paved the way for a broader reach of God’s kingdom. 8. Redemptive Suffering Under Apartheid A strange unbiblical abuse of the Bible evolved in South Africa in the 1940s, with some input from Afrikaners who studied in Germany during the evil rule of Adolf Hitler The racist politics which heretically misinterpreted the Word to defend it, became known as apartheid. Just as in Germany, the Church was silent by and large at that time. The practice and vogue at the time was that anything that was regarded as politics, was not supposed to be mentioned from the pulpit. There were however brave individual Church leaders who dared to swim against the stream. Bishop Trevor Huddleston and Chief Albert Luthuli were among them. Luthuli verbalised in so many words that freedom from the racist oppression should take suffering in its stride. Picture of Albert Luthuli: Source Wikipedia Freedom Via the Cross After he had been dismissed as chief in November 1952, Albert Luthuli responded with his famous address which started with the momentous words: 'Thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door…' He ended with a powerful sentence: 'It is inevitable that in working for freedom some individuals and some families must take the lead and suffer - the road to freedom is via the Cross.' Long before 'Black Theology' was in vogue, Chief Luthuli expressed his conviction that apartheid degrades all who are party to it. When Church unity started to emerge in spite of the official apartheid policy, Chief Albert Luthuli was served with a muzzling banning order, silenced and confined to his village for five years in 1959. Luthuli was not around to experience the freedom which Nelson Mandela led the country into, but he paved the way. The 1960s and 1970s saw the increased enforced habitation of political prisoners on Robben Island. Quite a few of them came from the ranks of the Church. Albert Luthuli was not around any more to experience the freedom which Nelson Mandela, a Methodist member who was significantly impacted on the island. would lead the country into. Luthuli, however, paved the way. Prisons as Places of Reform and Renewal All over the world prisons have been serving as places of reform and renewal. South Africa is no exception. The transformation of our country has quite a few prominent examples of political activists who experienced a divine touch while they were incarcerated. Chief Albert Luthuli, definitely one of the greatest of all South Africans ever, was isolated in a prison cell in Pretoria while he was testifying during the Treason Trial in 1959. He was accused of incitement because he had burned the hated pass, which he dubbed 'an instrument of slavery, a weapon and humiliation of us as a people, a badge of slavery, a weapon used by the authorities to keep us in a position of inferiority'.1 There he had a special experience as he testified: '... Frail man that I am, I humbly pray that I may never forget the opportunity God gave me to re-dedicate myself, ... and above all to be quiet in His Presence. My white-washed cell became my chapel, my place of retreat.' In the Pretoria court room many people were turned away because of congestion. Luthuli was enthralled by the spectators from different races, vocalizing a special vision: 'There, in embryo, was a portrayal of my new South Africa, a company of goodwill, yearning to begin work on the building of a structure both permanent and real.' Robben Island gradually became the ‘University’ of the new South Africa. Many of those who were incarcerated there became government leaders after 1994. The government was quite successful in creating fear of imprisonment on Robben Island among all South African communities in the 1960s. What they did not reckon with was that God would use the brutality of the system just as he had heard the groans of the Israelites in Egypt in preparation of their final liberation. The most famous of all prisoners on the island was of course Nelson Mandela. Already as a political prisoner Mandela displayed a commitment to pragmatism, which helped him and his colleagues to gain many privileges. Other qualities for which he became renowned - forgiveness and refraining from revenge - were imputed via Christian teaching by people like Pastor Walter Ackerman from the Docks Mission and the Methodist stalwart Rev. Theo Kotze, who was also the Western Cape leader of the Christian Institute. After his release in 1990, Mandela often referred to the Christian teaching that he received over the years as an important contribution to his emphasis on forgiveness and refraining from revenge. It was these qualities that enabled and allowed him to treat even his enemies cordially and with respect. On this basis Mandela ultimately led the country towards national reconciliation. Initial Opposition Against Apartheid The most effective initial opposition against apartheid came – quite surprisingly - from within the ranks of the Dutch Reformed denomination. Eerwaarde2 (Reverend) Isaac D. Morkel, influenced a dynamic mover, a young clergyman, Eerw. David Botha of the Wynberg Sendingkerk. Academics from the theological sphere had been coming on board, blazing a trail, notably Professors Barend B. Keet, Ben Marais and Albert S. Geyser. The latter paid the price for being one of the first Afrikaner Nationalists to speak out against the Broederbond and apartheid on theological grounds. He was ostracised from the Afrikaner community. Government Repression of the Church Anglican leaders opposed apartheid from the outset. The Boer-Brit stigma, a traditional animosity, a legacy from the Anglo-Boer war at the end the 19th century, was however clinging to the efforts of (Arch) Bishops Trevor Huddleston, Joost de Blank and Ffrench Breytag because they hardly had support from other churches. These church leaders were nevertheless household names in the opposition to the apartheid folly in the 1950s and 1960s. Because of the harsh repression and the ‘kragdadige’ (heavy-handed) clampdown on all opposition by the government, the early 1960s were marked by indifference and inertia on the part of the Church. Fear of interrogations by the notorious Spyker van Wyk, who was apparently never called to book for his atrocities in the apartheid era, kept many potential critics quiet. When the radical Reverend Dan M Wessels was banned and restricted to Genadendal from 1962-67, there was no protest from the church ranks. The ogre of government reprisals and Robben Island as a big scare, kept almost everybody silent. Many gifted people left the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s instead. The Church as the Mouthpiece of the Oppressed The wickedness of apartheid towards 'Blacks' had been clearly exposed by the tragedy of Sharpeville in 1960 and its aftermath, but somehow it was muzzled when charismatic political leaders were imprisoned. The message of the inhumanity of ‘influx control' via the pass laws as the proverbial Achilles heel of apartheid nevertheless went into hibernation. Thereafter the Church emerged as the authentic mouthpiece of the oppressed, notably via the Christian Institute with its Afrikaner leaders Rev Beyers Naudé and Theo Kotze, but this was still very much on the fringe of a society where racial discrimination was the order of the day. The Message to the People of South Africa at the inauguration of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in 1968 was a turning point in Christian responses to apartheid. The election of the Moravian pastor Rev. August Habelgaarn, who grew up in Genadendal, as chairperson at the first 'Black'-majority SACC national conference in 1972 was a clear signal because its General Secretary, John Rees, stated at that occasion that henceforth the organisation would deliberately seek to reflect the 'Black'-majority situation of its constituency in both its staffing and executive bodies. In the second half of that decade one finds careful moves like the multi-racial Christian Institute. Reverend Theo Kotze, a former Methodist Minister in Sea Point, headed up an office of the organization in Mowbray, where the Institute of Race Relations was also accommodated. This building near to the station therefore soon became a thorn in the flesh of the government, more than once petrol-bombed by government agents. The perpetrators of these actions were usually never apprehended. The occasional protest meeting organized by Theo Kotze and the Christian Institute were however usually only attended by a brave small crowd. When almost all known peaceful opposition to apartheid seemed to be throttled in October 1977, when the Christian Insitute and its founder leader Dr Beyers Naude were muzzled, BishopTutu as the General Secretary fo the South Africa Council of Churches sensed that a special role fell on the Church as the lone voice of the people. It is sad that many a Church body failed their members who dared to step up in support of jailed politicians and their families at this time. Thus Pastor Frank Chikane lost his status as pastor of the AFM Church because of community involvement that was interpreted as too political. Likewise Rev. Chris Wessels felt himself abondoned by his leadership at his incarceration because of his support of the families of political prisoners. Both clergyment were brutally tortured in prison, but ultimately set free without being found guilty on any charge. 9. Support for Victims of Pass Laws A biblical truth, that of Psalm 133:3, that God bestows his blessing especially where there is unity, manifested when concerned citizens from all sectors of Cape society joined hands in support of homeless victims of 'influx control' as the vicious pass laws were defensively dubbed. Rich and poor, many of them church people, but also Jewish and Muslim adherents, took the plight of the destitute folk to heart. The leadership role of Quakers was significant in this regard. (Quakers believe that there is something of God in everybody and that every human being is of unique worth. They value all people equally, and oppose anything that may harm or threaten them). A 'Black' Female General in the Making Susan Conjwa had come to Cape Town as a young girl from a village in Transkei, the so-called Xhosa homeland. For many years she had worked for various 'White' employers as a domestic worker. Only at 60, or thereabouts, she was released from this work and able to embark on a new career – caring for her entire community. Aunt Sue had so much knowledge of oppressed people and their history and she knew many key persons from all political persuasions in every township. Aunt Sue had the innate ability to sense mood changes in the community, at a time when moods were volatile. Her community development training with Rev. Adendorff was a great asset. With her leadership the team serving the 'Black' informal settlement camps was able to undertake a range of activities that went beyond pure protest. In her life, Aunt Sue had moved from being a domestic worker to a community organiser and leader who commanded tremendous respect. She became one of the powerful women of South Africa, who helped change the course of our history in a dramatic way, while remaining completely humble and unassuming. Rommel Roberts, a committed Christian Quaker who recorded much of the joint community effort to assist the 'Black' destitute folk, thought her contribution to be 'so great that even the Nobel Peace Prize would have been inadequate.' (For the information I narrate here I leaned heavily on what Rommel has recorded in his book SEEDS OF PEACE, Stories of Silent Heroes and Heroines in South Africa.) In due course Aunt Sue became like a general in the battle against the Pass Laws where great leaders like Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela had done spadework in earlier years. The Crisis of Modderdam In the late 1970s Modderdam was an informal community near Bellville of roughly 10 000 people on a stretch of land along Modderdam Road, at the edges of Cape Town’s northern suburbs. These people were considered illegal by the State, which insisted that all 'Black' people actually belonged in the so-called homelands. One of the residents of the Modderdam informal settlement was the above-mentioned Susan Conjwa, alias Aunt Sue. During the tail-end of the crisis of Modderdam in 1977, thousands of families had their shacks destroyed, despite a lengthy legal battle. Shack communities sprang up everywhere as people flocked to the cities to find work, and Crossroads was one of them. When it appeared that the government was determined to destroy this community as well, a huge protest movement was set in motion, headed by Bishop Tutu, together with many leaders from Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities. In mid-1977, the State gave the order to demolish the entire settlement of Modderdam en masse. It became clear that a demolition was inevitable, and that unless volunteers helped to save these people, thousands would be left destitute and homeless overnight. Broader Response The final crushing of the Modderdam community demanded a response from the broader community. A massive gathering at the City Hall in Cape Town was organised. Rev. Dean King from St George’s Cathedral made a dramatic speech: ‘Theirs are the actions of evil, and we condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms!’ The joining together of so many to voice their resistance to the State had united and encouraged many. It was decided to directly challenge the State at a public level for their behaviour. A motor cavalcade demonstration to block Adderley Street and Wale Streets around the houses of parliament was decided upon. It would be done mainly by 'White' people, as they were less likely than 'Blacks' to be beaten and imprisoned. The signal for the cavalcade to begin was the noonday gun. The move caught the security police by complete surprise and created tremendous confusion. They were not quite sure how to respond to normally law-abiding 'White' citizens moving down Adderley Street, with banners blazing across every car. Noel Robb from the Black Sash had a sticker emblazoned across her car, ‘One South Africa, one nation’. Alas, the State did in the end act, arresting almost everyone in the cavalcade, including an 84-year old nun. Their arrests took place in the city lunch hour, when office workers were out and about, and eager to know what was going on. Growth of Crossroads With the relocation of the ex-Modderdam residents, the Crossroads informal settlement had swollen to more than 250 000 people. The intervention by 'Whites' and of business proved crucial, as it ushered in formal negotiations with the government to reconsider its stance on Crossroads. The outcries against its removal were fierce and relentless, with pressure mounting against the government from all over the world. Eventually, after a prolonged campaign in which Aunt Sue, together with many others, played a vital role, a deal was struck; Crossroads residents who qualified according to certain criteria would be granted a reprieve from the hated Pass Laws, and a new community of brick houses, known as ‘New Crossroads’, would be built. Those dark days and the massive arrest of so many people had a sobering effect on the government. Crossroads provided the impetus for a stepped-up anti-apartheid campaign, with Bishop Tutu dramatically calling for sanctions to be implemented world-wide. Sanctions gathered strength when the business community, under the leadership of mining magnate Sir Harry Oppenheimer, stepped in and condemned the government’s actions, which were, of course, bad for business. The acceptance by government of Crossroads residents was a radical departure from national policy. This was a major victory for the team around Aunty Sue. Thrown Into Cauldrons We were only getting to know about all this very vaguely via the International Star that I received every week. It was enough however to trigger a low-key 'illegal' visit to Crossroads during our six-week stint at the Cape in October 1978. From August 1980 the divine mysterious ways operated when my only sister contracted leukaemia and the well-known apartheid activists Rommel Roberts and his wife Celeste lodged with us for a few weeks. When Rommel Roberts and his wife Celeste came to visit us in Zeist, she was pregnant. A serious complication in the pregnancy not only extended their stay with us, but she also came close to losing her life because of it. In what amounted to a miracle, her life was saved. Because of her illness and hospitalisation, Celeste stayed with us much longer than they had intended. Just at this time, in August 1980, we received distressing news from South Africa that my only sister Magdalene had contracted leukaemia. She had played such an important part towards the education of us, her three younger brothers. God used Celeste to sow seed into our hearts that ultimately led to a six months stint in South Africa as a family that included a three three months stay with them in Crawford. During these months were were thrust into the cauldrons of the 'Black' women of Crossroads and a school boycott in Hanover Park. A Catalyst to the Scrapping Apartheid Laws Brute enforcement of influx legislation ultimately led to the first major defeat of the apartheid legislators. The requirement that ‘Blacks’ needed to carry special passes was relaxed. This was a major concession. Rosemarie and I at the Cape lived for three months with Rommel and Celeste in 1981. Our stay with them ‘illegally’ in a ‘White’ residential area, became in a quiet way a catalyst to the ultimate scrapping of two pivotal apartheid laws, the racially mixed marriages prohibition and influx control legislation. We shared a house with Rommel Roberts and his wife Celeste Santos initially very reluctantly, because we would thus defy the prohibition of racially mixed marriages and residential legal prescripts in that regard. Opposing a Demonic Tradition The separation of 'Black' families developed into a demonic 'tradition' in South African society because of government policy. This got accepted uncritically even by believers. We were privileged to get involved with the spadework that prepared ‘the Battle of Nyanga’. Alan Roberts, the brother of Rommel, interviewed the ladies who had been taken out of the homes into the Roman Catholic Church of Langa where they stayed for some time. I was deeply moved as I typed the stories of the hapless 'Black' people whom the government was trying to remove forcibly. It was strategic that I had copies of these stories in my possession after they had mysteriously disappeared at the court hearings, not that they helped much though ultimately. The ladies were brutally put into a bus, transported like animals to the Transkei and not allowed to leave the bus to follow the course of nature on the long trip. (Celeste's brave effort, by standing in front of the bus to prevent it from leaving, did cause some delay. It led l to her arrest and some intervention from Switzerland.) This involvement with the 'Blacks' did create in me a resistance of another sort. As I saw how 'Black' families were forced to live separately, I was not interested any more to go to the government - cap in hand - for the ‘privilege’ to live in my home country with my wife and children. (Well-meaning 'Whites' wanted to introduce me to President P.W. Botha.) From our home in Haywood Road in the 'White' suburb Crawford we advocated for 'Black' women who were regarded to be living at the Cape 'illegally' with the husbands. We networked closely with our friend Rev. Douglas Bax and other Cape Church leaders. That we could bring Douglas Bax and Ds. Jan de Waal into the run-up to the 'Battle of Nyanga' proved to be very strategic. That Rommel had been serving Bishop Tutu from 1978-1980 as a national development officer when the bishop was General Secretary of the SACC, was crucial. The need had arisen to pay for transport to bring those people back to the Cape who were forcefully 'deported' to the Transkei. The Modderdam crisis of 1977 ultimately led to the first major defeat of the apartheid government. In the following paragraphs I wish to highlight a little more the contribution of one of these heroes, Aunt Susan Conjwa. Aunt Sue’s home, an outbuilding of a small church became a central meeting place for 'Blacks' in due course. She started a brick-making project in her tree-lined yard, called Sisekho. The consolidation of several 'squatter camps' became known collectively as Nyanga Bush. In due course Nyanga Bush would be the scene of many struggles and the base for a groundswell organisation called the Nyanga Bush Front. Displaced people from all over the city descended on Nyanga Bush, which grew ever larger and more congested, until eventually it spilled over to yet a new camp – as the Cape Times dubbed it, the No Name Camp. Singing and Kindness Melt Hearts As people started settling in and Nyanga Bush grew, so too did an atmosphere of seeming normality. However, establishing their lives by ‘illegals’ was an affront to the State. Without warning, the army and police surrounded No Name Camp one day, dug a trench around the entire perimeter and refused to allow people going in or out. No Name Camp was declared a no-go zone, and a complete stand-off between the armed forces and the 2 000 or so residents of the camp ensued. An urgent meeting at Aunt Sue’s place followed to discuss the situation. A big concern was the immediate needs of the residents for food and water. Volunteers were needed to defy the security forces and take necessities into the camp. A further meeting was arranged at the Catholic Church in Gugulethu, where Father Des Curran was the priest in charge. A decision was taken there to move into No Name Camp in convoy, with whatever food and provisions was available. Aunt Sue’s place would be used as a staging area. A number of fortuitous events occurred, including the arrival of US congressmen and -women in the city. A delegation of them met Aunt Sue, and visited No Name Camp. Among the group was a 'Black' congresswoman. Nomangesi and Aunt Sue had in the meantime organised a group in the adjacent community to start singing a series of hymns, so as not to provoke the army and police. The congresswoman broke down in tears when she witnessed the scene of such simplicity and dignity in the presence of the simmering violence of the police. Meanwhile volunteers, mostly church ministers, remained in a convoy of vehicles in a long queue, waiting to be allowed to move onto the site. One of them, a normally conservative 'White' woman, prepared to do basic support work, found herself absolutely breaking down in frustration. ‘I felt moved by my Christian convictions and did not question the action that I finally took – I felt called to it’, she later said. This kind of action strengthened the resolve of the camp dwellers, who had gathered close together. Singing went on throughout the night. The spirit was one of serenity and peace, and at all times strict respect for the army and police. This dignified, gentle spirit was of course the work of Aunt Sue and Nomangesi, and it had the most profound effect on members of the security forces. As the hours wore on, and wave after wave of beautiful Xhosa hymns penetrated the air, many of the police and army were deeply affected. Some broke ranks and went home. ‘When we saw those women, their religious singing and kindness towards us, we could not help but think of our own families and parents, as some of those women could so easily have been our mothers. We came here believing we were facing terrorists, not fellow Christians, singing religious songs and displaying such a spirit of peace. Faced with this, we just couldn’t continue.’ This was the gist of what a young policeman said afterwards. The publicity generated by the photographs that reverberated across the globe the following day certainly played their part. The blockade was lifted and free movement in and out of the camp returned – up to a point. But the law had still not changed. Protest by Fasting It was time to bring matters to a conclusion. Aunt Sue arranged for a meeting of key township leaders and community members of the 'squatter camp' as informal settlements used to be called. The discussion hinged around what possible action could still be undertaken in the light of the complete lack of real progress. As the team reviewed possible strategies, two women narrated what had happened to them when they were trying to return to Cape Town by bus. They had been arrested on their bus and cast into prison in Queenstown, with no idea of how long they would be forced to remain there. They had decided to protest the only way they knew how – by fasting. After several days, the police had become extremely worried and brought them before a magistrate, who listened to their tale, and released them. Their fasting had brought matters to a head, and they had found justice, of a sort. This story moved and motivated a number of people in the hall, and a strategy began to emerge of embarking on a public fast at St George’s Cathedral in central Cape Town. The idea was presented to Dean King, who was very supportive, particularly as it coincided with the usual time of church fasting and prayer before the Resurrection commemoration week-end. The fast started with a Sunday evening prayer service, attended by over 500 people. Some of the church wardens felt that this was not right and that the folk should vacate the church. Dean King tried to persuade the group to leave, but he could not do so, with Aunt Sue prominent in negotiations with the church wardens. The fast created yet another dilemma for the State. There were various responses from the public; mostly supportive, but some extremely negative. During some of the church services, some members of the congregation walked out. The fast dragged on with no solution in sight. After twenty days, the church officials became very concerned, as they had thought that it would all be over within a week, two at most. They had booked out the entire church for a special performance of Händel's Messiah by the Philharmonic Orchestra. Seats had already been completely sold out. How could they deal with this problem? A Dominee Intervenes At this point Dominee (Reverend) Laflas Moolman, the leader of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Western Cape, agreed to intervene. An emergency meeting was arranged with Dr Piet Koornhof, the responsible Cabinet Minister, who was known to be a believer. Ds. Moolman put the matter on the table after a short prayer. Dr Piet Koornhof shared with the delegation that he was also deeply hurt by the suffering of the poor, unfortunate people, but that he could not change the law. Reverend Moolman retorted after some further interaction in Afrikaans, in which Ds. Jan de Waal had also participated: ‘Mr Minister, you have a very heavy burden on your shoulders, one that I would not like to carry. I respect your position and the conflict that it must create. Being born again places a real conflict between one’s faith and one’s actions if we feel we are forced to do things that go against our faith.... We are forced, if we say we are Christians, to do something about this suffering... Introduce legislation to change it. It is no longer feasible. It has caused too much suffering and will continue to be a sore in our eyes and the world. As a Christian, I am calling on you to make your choice.’ On the 24th day of fasting, the news finally came: Dr Koornhof suspended the inhuman Pass Laws with immediate effect. The news was conveyed to the gathering in the church. The main feeling was one of relief. There had also been a longing to be home with loved ones again. History had been made – the cornerstone of apartheid had finally crumbled. A special session of prayer and thanksgiving was held to end the fast, heralding a new beginning. In the nick of time the concert could continue as planned, with only one day to spare. Händel’s Messiah seemed very appropriate! The actions of Aunt Sue and her team, including Celeste Santos and her friend, Nomangezi Mbobosi, resisting the intimidation and harassment of the regime, would ultimately lead to the formal scrapping of influx control laws in 1985. Brave actions of Aunt Sue and her team ultimately led to the formal scrapping of influx control laws in 1985. Churches in Clearer Opposition to Apartheid The plight and determination of the women of KTC, Nyanga and Crossroads played a role in another-er sense. Churches began to take a clearer stand in opposition to apartheid laws. It is nevertheless significant that the names of many relligious leaders formed the top brass of the United Democratic Front that was started in Mitchell's Plain in August 1983. Dr Allan Boesak was the undisputed national leader, one of a few pastors in the movement that also had denominational backing. (The new leadership of the Uniting Reformed Church had taken the denomination to the left of centre, far away from its traditional conservative leaning.) A readiness to suffer because of apartheid oppression was a hallmark of the movement. Police brutality and secret disappearance of people who opposed the government or who were suspected to do so, was the other side of the coin. 10. Student and Youth Impact Down the years students and other young people played a big role in the history of the country, notably in the 20th century. A significant spiritual influence at the Cape was the Student Christian Movement, led by the American John Mott of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), along with the Edinburgh meeting of evangelicals in 1910 that became the forerunner to the World Council of Churches. All this seemed set to spawn worldwide evangelization. John Mott spoke at the Huguenot Hall in Orange Street on the outskirts of the Cape Town City Centre at the beginning of the century. This led to the establishment of the Students’ Christian Association (SCA). The Christelike Studentevereniging (CSV) would play a massive positive role in Afrikaner circles in subsequent decades. A related ministry in the 1920s was the Oxford Group, started by Frank Buchman, a German-born American. Edgar Brookes, great liberal politician of the apartheid era, described the influence of the Oxford Group as follows: 'Undoubtedly its first impact on South Africa was that of a genuine religious revival, and this made itself felt quite remarkably in the field of race relations.' Student Impact at the Cape Stellenbosch University played a prominent role with its annual mission week at the Studentekerk. This was emulated at other tertiary institutions all around the country. The work of the parallel student ministry among ‘Coloureds’ only really came into its own in the second half of the 20th century where ‘Mammie’ le Fleur pioneered this work, later followed by Chris Wessels from the Moravian Church (Chris Wessels had been in Holland and Germany before he returned to the church’s service. As travelling secretary of the Christian Students Association he would influence quite a few ‘Coloured’ young people around the country, including Allan Boesak.), At a camp for theological students in Genadendal, a tokkelok from the Sendingkerk, Esau Jacobs, was deeply moved with regard to ecumenical work, notably for the work of Ds. Beyers Naudé and the Christian Institute. Cassie Carstens came to international prominence as the executive head of the CSV from 1990 to 2000. He was the chaplain of the national rugby team that won the World Cup in 1995. Here he caught the eye of the international media. This led to the founding of the International School for Sports Leaders in Stellenbosch. Ds. Cassie Carstens greatest impact was arguably the starting of the ministry of The World Needs a Father in the 21st century. Among many other countries touched, his influence worked through via Eric Hofmeyer, a former gang leader and the Sports ministry SCAZ and then to Sollie, who more than redeemed the family legacy with committed service after his release from prison in 2015. Expecting the Lord to Call Me Personally While I was still completing my teacher training, an inner longing to also become a pastor began to tug at my heart. Chris Wessels, a young pastor who returned to the service of the Moravian Church after his stint with the SCA, had challenged me to take up theological studies, but I expected the Lord to call me clearly and personally. The decision to wait for His divine calling did not in any way lessen my involvement in evangelistic work at this time. Seed Sown on the Prepared Soil of my Heart The dedication to the Lord of a new friend, Allan Boesak from Somerset West, who stayed with us overnight when he came to preach at our youth service, made a deep impression on me. When he mentioned the ‘stranddienste’ [beach services] of the SCA (Students Christian Association), he sowed important seed on the prepared soil of my heart. (The SCA got Christians from different denominations together to evangelize. One of their big projects involved students sharing God’s love to guests at beach resorts during the Christmas holidays.) As I was getting ready for the Harmony Park outreach on Boxing Day (26 December) in 1964, I suddenly began to panic when I realized that I was not at all equipped for a task like this. I felt so spiritually empty myself. How was I going to evangelize in this condition? In desperation I cried to the Lord to meet me anew. I had nothing to share with anybody spiritually- unless God would fill me with His Spirit. And that He did. Something supernatural happened that day. In one brief moment I felt touched and lifted from the feeling of complete barrenness. I was suddenly energized and keen to join the other young folk in Harmony Park. The sense of unity and love of the young vibrant believers, who came from different church backgrounds, was a completely new experience for me. Jacobs (or Jakes as he became widely known), started his pastoral ministry in the Transkei and he had a definite vision to reach out to Muslims. He inspired many young students. At the student evangelistic outreach at Harmony Park from New Year’s Day in 1965, Jakes introduced ‘spiritual warfare.’ There he started to ignite a vision for outreach to Muslims in me, albeit still fairly vaguely. Impacted by the Unity of Believers For the other participants at Harmony Park it might not have been so significant, but the unity of the believers coming from different church backgrounds there left an indelible mark. I did not know the divine statement yet that God commands his blessing where unity exists. But I saw the Holy Spirit at work there, as I had not experienced before. There my friendship was forged with Jakes, the young pastor who came to join us after a long drive through the night from far-away Umtata in the Transkei. Along with David Savage from the Cape Town City Mission, I started learning the power of prayer there at Harmony Park. (David Savage later became a pastor in the Full Gospel Church and still later he became the Principal of Chaldo Bible School, the theological institution in Wynberg-Wittebome for ‘Coloureds’ of the denomination.) Quite a few of the participants at the Harmony Park evangelistic outreach played significant roles in the opposition to apartheid in later years. At the beach evangelism the following year, a friendship to Jatti Bredekamp started. The young man who attended school in Genadendal where he stayed with his grandmother, visited our home in Tiervlei subsequently. When he heard of my extra-mural studies at UWC, he decided to do like-wise. He overtook me handsomely with academic studies. (Our friendship resumed later when I could assist him in Holland with research at archives there in the 1980s. After our return to South Africa in 1992, he reciprocated as professor of historical research at UWC, assisting me during the course of my Islamic studies.) I experienced a personal divine call for theological studies in March 1968 at the funeral of my teenage hero Rev. Ivan Wessels, who likewise hailed from Genadendal. This was tantamount to another mysterious divine way when I was offered a bursary for studies in Germany. Barely a few months later, I was packing my bags for the trip abroad. This would however ultimately lead to exile via a romantic relationship, where I had been thinking (and even praying along those lines) that I should not marry a German. In more than one divine mysterious way God brought Rosemarie and me ultimately together in matrimony on 22 March 1975. The Jesus Movement Impacting the Cape In the radical rejection of their parents’ way of life, the hippies of the late 1960s repudiated their affluent lifestyle in which making money is the object of life and work. Not all was negative of that generation, though. The Jesus Movement became the major Christian element within the hippie subculture. Members were called Jesus People or Jesus Freaks. The movement came to Cape Town from Johannesburg in the early 1970s. Brian O’Donnell and Dave Valentine soon became the prime movers here. O’Donnell owned the Hippie Market of the city as well as a night club called The Factory. When he was spiritually revived, Brian O’Donnell decided to conduct an outreach at the night club on Monday nights and later also at Green Point Stadium. The church hall of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church soon became a beehive of Jesus People activity. The Hippie Revival Paved a Way The Holy Spirit moved mightily among the young people at the Cape, breaking through the racial barriers. Within the ‘Coloured’ sector of the AoG denomination, pastors like James Valentine and Eddie Roman worked closely alongside their ‘White’ colleagues. This was a significant contribution to the breaking down of the barriers of the apartheid era at grass roots level. In the township-like suburbs of Kensington and Factreton a special networking and cross-fertilisation of young people from different denominations took place. It crossed even the barriers of religion with the Hindu-background Daya Moodley. Trevor Pearce, Allan Smith, the Dennis siblings Denise, Glenda and Denise, Danny Pearson, his cousin Magdalene Pearson and Andrew Valentine, along with a few others, made special contributions in spheres of church and society there subsequently. Hippie Revival Spills Into District Six The ‘Hippie Revival’ spilled over to young people of District Six. Under the leadership of Clive and Ursula Jacobs at the Sheppard Street Baptist Church, bubbling youth ministry developed. The use of the bigger church hall at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church demonstrated the non-denominational flavour of the movement. From this movement many young people went to night Bible Schools and colleges. The Pat Kelly night Bible schools started at the Y.W.C.A. premises in Darling Street already at the beginning of District Six by the City Mission pastor in March 1952. Fenner Kadalie and his wife Joan, the dynamic leader of the late 20th century, were part of the first group of students. Many of the night Bible school students became pastors and leaders in various denominations subsequently. Ripple Effects of the Hippie Revival The Holy Spirit moved via the Congress on Mission and Evangelism with Dr Billy Graham. Held in Durban in March 1973, the Congress was attended by 630 delegates and observers from 31 different denominations. (The original idea of the Congress in Durban came from Michael Cassidy of Africa Enterprise and John Rees, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.) For the first time in this country, the racial barriers came down significantly at that congress. Dr Billy Graham's insistence on the absence of any racial segregation among the audience played no small role. That congress was an important forerunner of the cataclysmic meeting in Lausanne (Switzerland) the following year. There the evangelical-ecumenical rift was addressed, as well as the unbiblical schism between evangelism and compassionate outreach. This congress of 1973 was also a catalyst to the Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly (PACLA) in Nairobi in 1976. The Durban event was, furthermore, a harbinger of the related South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) in Pretoria in 1979. Whereas earlier congresses elsewhere apparently hardly seemed to touch the Cape, the Durban event did so powerfully. One of the leaders, Professor Nico Smith, was based at Stellenbosch University with its renowned theological faculty. From there he started bringing believers from different races into each other’s houses via a movement called Koinonia, which means fellowship. A Cape Methodist Becomes a Pentecostal Theo Bowers grew up in Simon's Town in a Methodist family. When Theo's family moved to the new residential area Square Hill of the suburb Retreat in his late teens in the early 1960s, he soon teamed up with David Savage, who was a few years older but who also loved the Lord. (David is my buddy from the Harmony Park beach evangelism of 1964.) Together Theo and David engaged in many an evangelistic effort. Theo got to love praying and preaching. On the praying side, he once fasted for 27 days without taking in anything, not even water. On the Grand Parade in the city centre Theo Bowers drew substantial crowds as a Communist evangelical preacher with unconventional clothing. (While at high school, he was introduced to the activities of the Coloured People's Congress. Influenced by the practical implementation of sharing whatever the members had and did, Theo subsequently became a member of the Pan African Congress and a committed Communist.) This influence got mingled with his understanding of Jesus as a liberator. He was soon preaching his own locally-bred version of Liberation Theology wherever he went. Throughout his life Theo had a fervent practice of prayer, often for hours on end. Soon Theo got a longing to attend a Bible school. He enrolled at Chaldo Bible School in Wittebome near Wynberg, while he was still a Methodist youth leader. Special Contributions of Pastor Theo Bowers Because of his alternative anti-apartheid communist life-style of the late 1960s, Theo got in touch with young people from all shades and colours. Revival vibes were moving strongly in the southern suburbs in the late 1970s. At an evangelistic campaign in the Capri 700 cinema with Theo Bowers as the preacher, folk were drawn to the meetings supernaturally. Drug dens went out of business when addicts were set free. Theo soon introduced many a young hippy to Brian O'Donnell at the Hippie Market on Green Market Square. Some of them found the way with him to the Harfield Road Assemblies of God in Kenilworth. After the preacher there voiced opposition to their outward appearance quite strongly, Theo Bowers took them to Constantia where a new assembly had started. When Lonnie Frisbee, a hippie from California, attended a pastors' meeting at the Assemblies of God Church in Constantia in 1979, he spoke highly of his pastor, John Wimber. This was the pristine beginning of the Vineyard movement in South Africa. Theo and Esme Bowers displayed an unique commitment for a visible expression of the unity of the Body of Christ, helping to break down barriers of race and denomination. Hunger for Justice Going back to my own story, more than sixty years after sexual abuse without delivery of the promise of payment as a little boy in District Six, God used my wife to unearth this as the cause of a hunger for justice. To her I shared this openly for the first time. There was nothing mysterious though when my parents led us as children after the apartheid-related expropriation of our 8-plot small holding in an exemplary way. (At that time I could not appreciate their forgiving Christ-like handling of the matter which led to our Daddy's heart ailment and premature retirement. I was fuming when I heard about it overseas, writing an angry letter to the Parow Municipality.). A few decades later we, the three sons still living after the passing on of our sister in 1980, accepted the magnanimous gesture of forgiveness of our parents when they refrained from applying for restitution for the near-theft of our property. Before I reached adulthood, I felt that it was the rightful responsibility of committed Christians to face the challenge of racial reconciliation in South Africa. At a later stage I deemed this as my special God-given duty to the country of my birth. As part of my effort, I collated personal documents and letters, hoping to get these published under the title Honger na Geregtigheid [Hunger for Justice]. In that manuscript I included correspondence with the apartheid era rulers of the 1970s and 1980s, along with comment. I hoped to win over the one or other person from the overwhelmingly Afrikaans National Party government of the time, by writing the manuscript purposely in our mother tongue. A good friend in Holland, where I was living with my family when I was collating that document, pointed out to me that the manuscript took on too critical an angle. He felt that it lacked a sense of genuine love and compassion towards the Afrikaner people group. I had to concede that the manuscript was possibly an overdose of medicine to a sick society. It has been quite a humbling experience to discern divine over-ruling in my life. I made some grave mistakes that had tragic consequences and intense pain for many people around me. God thankfully rectified my errors sovereignly. How glad I am that He did not answer my prayer for a possibility to avoid the life of an exile. (I thought arrogantly and naively that I could contribute much better towards racial reconciliation inside South Africa, rather than if I would live abroad.) In 1980, the same type of cancer, leukaemia, and the death of my only sister, resulted in a six-month stint in South Africa with my wife Rosemarie and our two eldest children - by special permission of the apartheid government. Interestingly though, our presence during those six months contributed possibly towards change in our country much more than all my letter writing activism of the previous two years from abroad. Similarly, the confession for my arrogant activism in an aerogramme posted on 4 October 1989 to the new presidential incumbent may have been divinely used. Support for the Persecuted Christians Just before my departure to Europe in 1969 I bought two booklets at the Christian bookshop in Station Road, Parow. One of them had the title Gemartel vir Christus, the Afrikaans translation of Tortured for Christ. This impacted me significantly, notably when I was also privileged to listen to the author, Richard Wurmbrand, in Stuttgart in person soon thereafter. The simmering hunger for justice in my own country resonated naturally very much in my heart. The support for the persecuted Christians of Eastern Europe in prayer and finance in a limited way became part of my life-style thereafter. And years later, we were even privileged to make some contribution to let Romanian Christians experience practically that they were not forgotten. A Substitute for Circumcision? We now go back briefly to what happened during a Bible Study with other believers in Zeist, Holland in October 1979 when Colossians 2:11,12 was read: “In him you were also circumcised... with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith...” I was deeply moved because ‘circumcision of the heart’ clearly refers to conversion to faith in Jesus Christ in the context. According to Colossians 2:11,12 the actual basis of baptism according to the above-mentioned Bible verse. I felt that my own argument for practising the tradition of christening infants was pulled from under my feet. Subconsciously I was still somehow influenced by the Calvinist argument in defence of christening of infants. According to this view, the christening of infants as the sign of the new covenant was a substitute for circumcision, which is the visible sign of the old covenant of God with Israel. I was now reading there in Colossians about the circumcision of the heart. I was hit for a six. I had not yet looked critically at the replacement theory, whereby it is said that the Church came in the place of Israel. From the context of Colossians it was clear that conversion through faith in Jesus was meant. In the preceding years and following in the footsteps of the Count Zinzendorf, I got to love Israel and the Jews even more. When I now had to think of it more deeply, the untenability of the christening of infants struck home. How could the Church put something else instead of circumcision, a practise so sacred to the Jews, albeit that the Colossian verses almost made actual circumcision with human hands redundant? In the course of my participation in a liturgical commission of the denomination in Holland, I was furthermore deeply troubled by the formulation in the Moravian (infant) baptism liturgy whereby eternal life is apportioned to babies at their ‘baptism’. As I now also studied the liturgy used at the christening of babies, I knew that I couldn’t carry on with a practice that had indeed become a tradition that seemed to be nullifying the power of God (Mark 7:13). This was now really the last straw to me. How could I continue with the practice with a good conscience? Remaining in Jerusalem My problems with the christening of babies became a significant catalyst for my ultimate resignation as Moravian pastor. By October 1980 we however still had no new position and nowhere to go after the termination of our work in the church. In due course we called to the Lord for a word, for guidance. We were surprised when Luke 24:47 came through. The verse mentioned ‘beginning in Jerusalem’. It was not clear to us how to interpret it. We thought it to mean that we should remain in our Jerusalem, Zeist. But this seemed impossible! At this time I sensed a strong challenge to visit South Africa with the family. God sovereignly intervened to make it possible, ultimately being there for six months. After our return from South Africa in June 1981, Rosemarie and I had to witness how confused our four year-old son Danny had become because of the different languages to which he was exposed. In one short sentence he managed at some stage to use the four related languages – Afrikaans, English, Dutch and German. We were convinced now that we had to return to a European country where Danny could concentrate on one language. A German-speaking environment was the obvious choice. But all efforts to get employment in Germany or Switzerland were unsuccessful. In the desperation we completely forgot the divine injunction to ‘remain in our Jerusalem’, Zeist. Back in Holland, we were expected to vacate the parsonage because my work permit had also expired because it was linked to the ministry in the Moravian Church. There seemed to be no option than to go to Germany to live from unemployment benefit. Virtually on the last minute I got a teaching position in Utrecht, which allowed us to stay in Holland by virtue of Rosemarie being an European Union resident. We would remain in our Jerusalem till January 1992. In the interim we were involved among other things with the founding of the Stichting Goed Nieuws Karavaan, a unique regional expression of followers of Jesus operating in unity and in the start of the regiogebed Zeist. The Concerts of Prayer movement that we joined, experienced special answers to prayer, notably in Eastern Europe in the run-up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and thereafter. From Zeist we were part of a divine impact into Romania and also into my dear heimat South Africa. All too clearly this was simultaneously work of the Eagle's Wings and His divine higher ways. Pentecostals Usher in Transformation Evangelicals in general, and Cape Pentecostals in particular, were not known for radical change. In fact, they were regarded as reactionary, supporting the racist structures of our society. The Pentecostal Protestant Church (PPC), much better known in the Afrikaner version, the Pinkster Protestantse Kerk (PPK), was regarded as a stronghold of apartheid practice in the 1960s and 1970s in the northern suburbs of the City. No one would have suspected that one of the most radical changes of Cape society would emanate from this denomination. Pastor Walter Snyman, better known as Walti Snyman, pioneered this when he moved with a number of believers into the premises of the Lantern, a former cinema in Parow. Walti Snyman had already caused something of a stir by marrying Irish background Colleen. She started learning Afrikaans in Bloemfontein, where the couple had met. Yet, when they left the denomination to start a new non-denominational fellowship, this was not an earthquake. But there was a significant ripple effect. As a part of their new emphasis, Ps. Snyman started using English, instead of Afrikaans, in his teaching and preaching. Barry Isaacs With Campus Crusade While attending the Johannesburg Bible Institute from 1971-3, a team of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) shared there. Ever since he came to the Lord, Barry Isaacs had a passion for evangelisation, mentoring Lorenzo Davids, a young UWC student, who came to the Lord in one of his church services in Bellville South where Barry served subsequently. The CCC evangelistic exploits among 'Blacks' on the other hand were on the other hand often opposed with hate-filled animosity. Apartheid had instilled in many young 'Blacks' a negativity to the gospel. 'Go and tell that story to the 'Whites!' was a typical response. On their return to the Cape, Barry's first pastorate was the Evangelical Bible Church branch in Bellville South, that slotted in with the City Mission in due course. After their experiences with Campus Crusade in the Johannesburg area, both Barry and his wife Rita reacted positively when they were challenged to serve full-time on Cape tertiary campuses. A Campus Changed On his return to South Africa in 1976, Dr Allan Boesak increased his political activities through the church, notably on the campus of UWC. As student chaplain at UWC, Peninsula Technical College and Bellville Training College for Teachers, he can be accredited for shifting many a student's mind-set. His sermons at UWC were usually preached before a packed auditorium. His appeal quickly spread beyond the 2.8 million 'Coloured' people to both 'Black' and 'White' opponents of apartheid. Initially intended to conduct Dutch Reformed Sunday evening services, the chapel hour soon was packed out with students from many other denominations. The vibe of racial negativity by many a student resentment and hate of 'Whites' was common. This would be replaced in the time of the struggle at UWC by what could be termed as ecumenical services, notably after the start of the United Democratic Front of which Dr Boesak was the founding leader. The articulate orator challenged atheist and agnostics on the campus. Religion became a welcome neighbour and partner in the liberation struggle. New Charismatic Churches Established What happened in far-away Pretoria in the wake of the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) of 1979 impacted the whole country. In due course many new charismatic churches were established and men with unusually anointed ministries appeared on the scene. Pastor Neville McDonald and his wife Wendy led a church plant that would become one of the first Cape mega churches, the Good Hope Christian Centre of Ottery. The Hippy Revival of the early 1970s resonated on two Cape university campuses that were more known for political upheavals and protests than for anything spiritual at that time. Traditional Racial and Language Prejudices Challenged The new fellowship in Parow led by Pastor Walti Snyman had been an Afrikaner congregation, but understood that the church had to be there for all people. He challenged the traditional racial and language prejudices of the early 1980s. Pastor Snyman was obviously sensitive to the post-Soweto (1976) situation, where Afrikaans was seen as the language of the oppressor in many a community. Pastor Snyman was obviously sensitive to the post-Soweto situation The fellowship linked up with a national move of the Holy Spirit through other charismatic Pentecostal preachers. All over the country fellowships were established which called themselves ‘Christian Centre’. In 1982 the Parow church became known as the Lighthouse Christian Centre. It would become one of the first mega churches country-wide, even forging another one in due course, namely His People Ministries. Spiritual Renewal at UWC and UCT During a quiet time moment in January 1980 at the outset of his studies at UWC, Lorenzo Davids made a spiritual commitment, deciding to speak to at least one person about the Lord every day. He found fertile soil in the wake of the Hippy Revival that had been impacting young people at this time. He would lead many students to the Lord. Soon hostel students, led by Dean Carelse, decided to have services on Sunday afternoon. Dean came to the Lord as a young lad from Muslim background after his father had become a Christian. From other students Dean Carelse had heard about the non-racial fellowship that had started at the former Lantern cinema. Lorenzo Davids and Dean Carelse were among the leaders at UWC at this time. The dynamic Lorenzo, who also possesses great administrative skills, impacted the UWC via Campus Crusade, where many students became followers of Jesus. The Sunday afternoon UWC hostel services would be emulated in the late 1980s in the Robert Leslie Building and later in the Baxter Theatre where Paul Daniel would take the fellowship that got known as His People to even greater heights, notably after Mike Cerff, Michael and Julia Swain had joined the fray. At UCT the spirituality seems to have remained fairly low. Students who were vocal and in the public eye were those who opposed apartheid, rightly so of course. The big difference was Dr Allan Boesak, who changed the interest in spiritual matters on the UWC. Paul and Jenny Daniel would be divine instruments to bring about significant change at UCT from 1988. Outreach work from the Lighthouse Christian Centre could build on what God had started to do on the campus of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and notably what had transpired in the hostel. The Lighthouse soon had a flourishing student ministry, both at UCT and at UWC. Colleen Snyman introduced Dean Carelse, the UWC leader, and Paul Daniel to each other. Seminal Spadework at UCT Julia Struben, who later married Michael Swain, studied at UCT. She was there from 1981- 1984. She wrote about that time: '… a handful of students met every week to pray through the night on a Friday for God to move on the campus. We also held prayer walks, vigils etc.' Julia was passionate about prayer. The group of students around Julia set out as visionaries with a motto 'Change the campus, change the world.' At that stage UCT was completely unreached and spiritually barren, with only a small percentage of students claiming to be Christians. In July 1981, Paul Daniel, a young final year Rhodes University (Grahamstown) student, was dramatically converted in answer to the prayers of his grandmother. Paul married Jenny, after he had left Rhodes University. In obedience to a divine call, Paul and Jenny sold their house. They moved to Milnerton in the Cape thereafter. Intense spiritual warfare ensued from their house as a church. The group would become a forerunner of much needed multi-racial expression of the body of Christ in Cape Town. Paul Daniel had been discipled and impacted significantly by Henry Wolmarans in Welkom (Free State) when he sensed a calling to come and minister in Cape Town. Paul and his wife Jenny started the first service of His People in their home in Milnerton, Cape Town with just the three of them - Paul, Jenny and Ian, who was in a university residence of UCT called College House. Ian soon invited Robin Gibson, an Actuarial Science student in the same residence. Robin subsequently led his class mate Gareth Stead, a back-slidden Methodist, to the Lord. In Milnerton about half of the fellowship of 1988 were UCT students. After a year of pioneering the home church and evangelising students at UCT, Paul and Jenny Daniel were invited to bring their ministry under the covering of the Lighthouse Christian Centre. Paul Daniel became an Associate Pastor of Walti Snyman, initially working with the young adults and pioneering a group called Acts 29. The Start of His People Ministries The ministry grew gradually at UCT under the powerful, intense and committed ministry of Paul Daniel. In the mornings students would go to the Lighthouse Christian Centre for the Sunday service in Parow. The first His People church service, as it became known, was soon held at UCT in 1989 in the Robert Leslie building for afternoon services that were attended by people from all walks of life. In due course there were also services every Sunday evening. The majority of those who attended were from UCT. They started bringing friends and family members from the nearby communities. Every Friday evening a prayer meeting started 10 p.m., going into the early hours of Saturday. A sense of expectation evolved that new souls would be reached at the Sunday services, which always ended with an altar call. Early on Paul established a strong and anointed Word-based Bible School at UCT. Paul Daniel poured himself into this, forming the bedrock of a fast growing church. 11. Gangsterism: a Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone? Over the decades gangsterism proved a hard nut to crack, notably in the Cape townships. Cape Town has its own special version of gangsters who were changed by the power of the Gospel. Down the years, ministry to gangster and drug addicted people belonged to the most difficult but also the most fruitful parts. Many of those who became followers of Jesus all too often got back slidden. But quite a few of them became powerful ministers of the Word, still serving in that capacity after many years. Because James Valentine had been a gangster, his conversion in 1957 created quite a stir, and consequently triggered also a lot of interest. Soon he was a celebrated preacher on the Grand Parade. Subsequently he became a dynamic leader of the Assemblies of God Church. One of the most well-known from this category is Pastor Eddie Edson, a previous pastor of the Shekinah Tabernacle congregation in Mitchell's Plain. He had been involved in Woodstock gangster activities in the 1970s before he got converted. Pastor Eddie Edson became a leader of the prayer movement at the Cape in the 1990s. Strong Impact of an Abandoned Baby In his testimony Evangelist Shadrach Maloka would often refer to the redemptive side of his past, surviving as an abandoned baby who later got involved in gangster activities. Shadrach Maloka was born on 27 December 1929 in the small village of Ficksburg in the Free State. His father rejected him before he was born. Less than three months after his birth, his mother dumped him into a pit toilet. God used his compassionate grandmother, however, to salvage the baby which would surely have died. She, then, gave him a Sotho name Mohanoe, which means the rejected one. In his teens Mohanoe ran away from the village where he was a shepherd-boy, coming to Johannesburg for a better life. He, however, became a tsotsi in Johannesburg. On his birthday, the 27th December 1947, he and his fellow gangsters went to a Gospel tent, which was pitched by the Dorothea Mission. It had been announced that a movie would be shown. With the intention of disrupting the meeting, they sat right at the front. There they started smoking dagga (cannabis, weed). In that tent campaign the story of the crucifixion of Jesus gripped him. This turned his life around. In a massive switch, Shadrach Maloka became an evangelist with the Dorothea Mission and later a leading pastor in the Evangelical Brethren Church, with various evangelists serving under him. God used him powerfully, not only in South Africa and neighbouring countries like Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland and Mozambique, but even in the USA but also in Europe. His preaching in our small church in Zeist, (Holland) would be the run-up to a compassionate international ministry with clothing parcels that started with serving the families of the struggling families of evangelists that worked under him. Via a YWAM missionary couple that left for Cameroon, a donated car was filled with clothing for believers in rural villages of West Africa. Banana cartons with clothing were sent to the Communist stronghold of Romania's Nikolai Ceauscescu. This blessed harshly persecuted believers there when they discovered in this practical way that they were not forgotten by Christians in the West. All this was the indirect result of the ministry that evolved from the one initiated by Shadrach Maloka. It was quite special in the apartheid era that 'White' Afrikaners would come and listen to him in my home suburb Tiervlei (now called Ravensmead). How special it was to meet him there after our return to South Africa in 1992! The great evangelist died on 29 August 1996. Community Disruption leads to Missions BABS (Build a Better Society) was a local community organisation of Kewtown, a gangster-ridden Cape Township. In 1982, the gangs of Kewtown killed seven people in 3 months. After approaching other organisations without success, BABS asked the local Docks Mission Church to do something about the situation. A coffee bar was started specially for the gangsters, led by Rodney Thorne and Freddy Kammies. Every Sunday evening between 60 – 80 of them attended. Many of the gang leaders were challenged to put down the weapons and guns. Soon the crime rate came down. As a denomination the local Docks Mission faithfully prayed for the ministry which continued for quite a long time. The ministry sowed seed for missions. Eugene Johnson was the first missionary sent out by Docks Mission in 1978 on one of the Operation Mobilisation (OM) ships already in 1978. He was followed by Peter Ward, Freddy Kammies, Theo Dennis and his wife Norma, as well as Peter Tarantal from the same denomination. In Need of Prayer Backing Another clear confirmation to serve among Muslims transpired when we were able to rent a house in the suburb Tamboerskloof, almost a stone’s throw from Bo-Kaap, the cradle of Islam in South Africa. Soon after our move to Tamboerskloof Rosemarie and I decided to do prayer walking in the adjacent Bo-Kaap, asking the Lord to lead us to those people in whose hearts the Holy Spirit had already have done preparatory work. We sensed very soon that we needed more prayer backing when we happened to be there one Friday at the Islamic prayer time. As a family we had started to attend the city branch of the denomination that became known as the Jubilee Church/ Dave and Herma Adams, the local leaders of the fellowship at the Cape Town High School, had a vision to reach out to the Muslims. Friday Lunchtime Prayer Meetings More 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 in 73 Wale Street. We hoped to reverse the effect of apartheid on Bo-Kaap, praying that the suburb would become more than merely the nominally Christian residential area it had been in earlier days in spiritual terms. Two regular attendees of the city Vineyard Church fellowship were Achmed Kariem, a Muslim background believer and Elizabeth Robertson, who had a special love for the Jews. At the prayer meetings Liz and Achmed were regulars from the beginning. Our prayer meetings thus had an Isaac-Israel component because these two believers love both Jews and Muslims, just like us. We had as our ultimate goal to plant at least one home church in the prime Islamic stronghold of South Africa. Both Liz and Achmed were special examples of God's mysterious ways. Liz had been confronted with a very difficult choice when she was about to convert to Judaism, in preparation for her marriage to an Israeli national. The marriage was cancelled so to speak on the last moment when she refused to recant her faith in Jesus. The unexpected choice of Elizabeth Robertson made quite an impact on Cape Jewry. Achmed Kariem had fled South Africa in the wake of his anti‑apartheid activities with a hatred for Christianity. In his fairly accurate assessment, apartheid had been the cause for his family to be moved out of Mowbray to the desolate Bonteheuwel. This ultimately resulted in him fleeing the country. In England he became addicted to drugs. There he was miraculously set free from drug abuse through faith in Jesus. The need of a centre for the rehabilitation of drug addicts in Cape Town was invigorated in my heart when I heard his testimony. On his return to the Cape in 1984 after the death of his father, Achmed had to face ostracism of the family and the Islamic community when he stuck to his guns as one of only very few Muslim background followers of Jesus. He would become God's instrument in many a way in subsequent years, an encouragement and challenge to various missionaries. At one of the prayer meetings in Bo-Kaap, Achmed suggested that we start a lunchtime prayer meeting on Fridays, it is at the same time that Muslims attend their mosque services. Such prayer events started in September 1992 in the Shepherd’s Watch, a small church hall at 98 Shortmarket Street. The weekly Friday lunch hour prayer meeting, mooted by Achmed Kariem, became the catalyst for many evangelistic initiatives. Gangster Violence Challenged the Church Bless the Nations conferences influenced the Church at the Cape quite significantly. Bruce van Eeden, a pastor from Mitchell's Plain who was powerfully touched by God in 1990, started Great Commission Conferences in ‘Coloured’ residential areas. After ministering at one of these conferences in 1992, Rosemarie and I started to assist with children’s ministry at the Newfields Clinic near the township of Hanover Park. There Bruce van Eeden was the pastor at an Evangelical Bible Church congregation. Law enforcement agents could not handle the criminality At this time, I participated in the establishment of Operation Hanover Park. The stimulus for the latter operation was given by Everett Crowe, a police officer, who approached the local churches in a last-ditch effort to secure peace in the Hanover Park township that seemed to be ruled by gangsters. The law enforcement agents could not handle the criminality in the area any more. Hanover Park: an Example to the Nation? Preparations for the start of a missionary prayer meeting progressed well in the City Mission congregation of the township Hanover Park in the second quarter of 1992. Once per month their weekly prayer meetings received a missionary focus. Norman Barnes, a Muslim background believer and a former gangster drug addict, was the leader of the prayer group. It was thus quite easy to share with them the burden of praying for Muslims, for gangsters and drug addicts. Rival gangs competed in football matches A few months later Hanover Park experienced the power of prayer in a special way. The Operation Hanover Park initiative, with prayer by believers from different church backgrounds as its main component, included a ministry directed specially at gangsters. Instead of shooting at each other, rival gangs competed in football matches. Jesus-centred children’s clubs were formed in an effort to tackle the problem of gangsterism at the root, an attempt to break the cycle of youngsters growing up into a life of vice. A children’s club at the Alpha Centre ran for a few years in the early 1990s. Some seed did germinate there that would bring fruit many years later, notably via Shehaam Achmat, the mother of children who attended that children’s club. The Saturday afternoon missionary prayer meeting fused into the monthly prayer event of Operation Hanover Park towards the end of 1992. The vision to pray for missionaries called from their residential area was gladly taken on board. The idea was completely new to the praying believers, but the Lord soon started answering the prayers. Within three months, the area had changed significantly. An elderly resident who had been in the township for many years, testified that Christmas 1992 was the most peaceful he had experienced there. The Lansdowne/Hanover Park/Manenberg area ‘exported’ quite a few missionaries subsequently. From this area there were within a few years more or less as many missionaries somewhere in the world as from the rest of the Cape Peninsula put together over a limited period. Dean Ramjoomia, a Muslim background believer who grew up in a gangster-related environment, started serving among the gangsters as an evangelist on behalf of the local churches. A tract that he wrote and designed, made quite an impact. Believers of diverse church backgrounds who came together to pray once a month on a Saturday afternoon in different buildings was the mainstay of this Operation. Dean Ramjoomia, a Muslim background believer who grew up in a gangster-related environment, was eager to serve among the gangsters as the local evangelist on behalf of the churches. A tract that he wrote and designed, made quite an impact. Blomvlei Baptist Church offered the Ramjoomia family accommodation on the church premises and a few other churches pledged financial contributions. Things looked quite promising. Furthermore, it seemed as if our vision - to get local churches networking in missions and evangelism - was coming to fruition. At least, this was how it appeared! At the same time, this would also give an example to believers in other parts of the Cape Peninsula and possibly elsewhere as well. This was a model to combat criminality and violence – through united prayer and action! Operation Hanover Park was on the verge of achieving an early version of community transformation at the beginning of 1993 when a leadership tussle stifled the promising movement. Gang-related crime spiralled once again. Hanover Park could have become an example to the rest of the country to show what can be done if local believers stand together in prayer perseveringly. Here is a lesson to be learned: God’s mysterious ways need our cooperation. A Flight Stewardess Becomes the Catalyst for Mission to India and Pakistan Pastor Bruce van Eeden had always wanted to see South Africans involved in missionary work. The Lord laid India and China on his heart. When one of his daughters found employment as a stewardess with South African Airways, he saw that as his chance to get involved more intensely. Now he could fly cheaply, albeit only on a standby basis. In 1995 he started a Mitchell’s Plain-based movement called Ten Forty Outreach, which concentrated on sending out short-term workers to India. For three months a year Pastor van Eeden would go and minister in India, partnering with Indian believers and taking with him volunteers from South Africa. God used Pastor van Eeden to challenge and equip Indian evangelists to take the Gospel to the unreached tribes of their country. In due course 300 simple churches in India and 100 in Pakistan came into being through his low-key ministry. Church Response to Gang-Related Activities The question was: How long would the churches sit idly by and endure the senseless killings and crime? The occasional pious talk, calling for an end to the violence, was not good enough. Fortunately there were some exceptions to the rule. The prayerful Pastor Alfred West was a brave 'White' evangelist. He was mightily used by God to stem the tide of gangsterism, notably in the township of Bonteheuwel in the 1980s. In his open-air campaigns he confronted the shebeen owners (illegal alcohol peddlers, operating from their homes) and dagga (cannabis) smokers. A special spin-off of his work was a missionary prayer fellowship, to which various missionaries came from time to time. This resulted in quite a few members of Pastor West’s fellowship getting trained in Muslim Evangelism and becoming involved in regular weekly outreach. One of his protégées was Percy Jeptha, a former gangster, who later became a pastor. Peter Barnes, a young man from the fellowship, went on to plant mission-minded churches in the Transkei. He also spread a vision to send missionaries to other African countries. Gangsters from Islamic background became followers of Jesus In recent years various gangsters from Islamic background became followers of Jesus. Dicky Lewis, who became a missionary with AEF (Africa Evangelical Fellowship) in 1995, grew up among many of the gang leaders. Through his involvement in community structures, Lewis won the trust of many a gangster and drug lord. City Mission made an attempt to make inroads into gangsterism and drug abuse with the appointment of Pastor Eric Hofmeyer, a former gang leader at their Burns Road premises. From that base he was involved with SCAZ, a sports ministry, addressing many youngsters in schools. Eric Hofmeyer was mentored by Ds. Cassie Carstens, the chaplain of the World Cup winning Springbok Rugby team of 1995. Ds. Carstens also pioneered a movement The World Needs a Father in which another former gangster, Sollie Staggie, would play a prominent role after his release on parole in 2015. A Crisis Following the First PAGAD Moves In 1995/6 conditions in the township of Manenberg were almost unbearable for the local people - completely out of control. Father Chris Clohessy, the local Roman Catholic priest, had earned the trust of many people of the township. He moved fearlessly in gangster territory. PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) was initiated by a group of Muslims in 1996 and joined by Father Chris Clohessy. However, in the ensuing inter-faith venture, Muslims were soon dominating proceedings. Prominent figures like Farouk Jaffer and Imam Achmat Cassiem were reported to have performed a palace coup. Cassiem was the leader of Qibla, subtly changing the anti-drug, anti-crime movement into an organization that sought to usher in Islamic rule in the Western Cape by any means. PAGAD radicals saw this move as part of the plan to implement the October 1995 decision in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the aim to islamize the continent by AD2000. PAGAD became known publicly on 4 August 1996. That happened when an influential 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 impact the problem areas of the Cape townships. The danger of a Lebanon-type scenario was very real – virtually everybody at the Cape feared that the gangsters might hit back with a vengeance. A meeting for church leaders and missionaries was organized at the Scripture Union buildings in Rondebosch, followed by a wave of prayer by evangelical Christians. However, when the crisis subsided, pastors simply resumed building their own ‘kingdoms’. Cops Thrown Into the Mix Sometimes God has to take people ‘by the scruff of the neck’ to bring them into obedient submission, just as he once did with Jonah. This happened to Michael Share, who was challenged to leave his work in the police force to start Cops for Christ at the turn of the millennium. A cop was stranded in a shack with bullets flying past him After being involved in a raid, Michael Share was stranded in a shack with bullets flying past him. He experienced supernatural protection. Not a single bullet hit him. This was to him a wake-up call. Through the ministry of Cops for Christ Michael Share called on policemen throughout South Africa to bring spiritual life and encouragement into police stations, when anarchy was threatening once again. Around 2002 Michael Share challenged Danie Nortje, a Cape policeman, to assist him in getting Cops for Christ off the ground in the Western Cape. God had to move Nortje supernaturally after initial disobedience. After a boat accident off the coast of Camps Bay, during which he had to be rescued, he was admitted to Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital. At this time Danie Nortje sensed the renewed calling to get involved with Cops for Christ. Fanie Scanlen was already a Superintendent at the Central Police Station in Buitenkant Street in the Mother City when he was stabbed seven times, narrowly escaping death. This became a turning point in his life. Moves at an Islamic Night of Power The showing of the film The Siege, which was regarded as highly blasphemous in respect of Islam – and that was happening during Ramadan – brought matters to a head once again! On 8 January 1999 Mr Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, was scheduled to hand out medals to countrymen who helped in the democratization of this country at a ceremony at the historical Castle of Cape Town. This occasion was the fusing of the various factions of the defence force. The timing was however unfortunate, appearing like an opportunity for putting fire to a powder keg. A new Muslim extremist splinter group calling themselves Muslims against Global Oppression (MAGO) took the opportunity to steal the limelight from the high British dignitary with a violent, illegal demonstration. They wanted to protest against British assistance in the bombing of Iraq. With Muslims visible and audible, the violent incident reflected badly on Islamic adherents. Yusuf Jacobs, a young Muslim and one of the protesters, was shot in the head by police. When he appeared to be dying in Groote Schuur Hospital, the scene was set for ‘Jihad’. PAGAD promptly called for a holy war should he die. A tense situation followed when this happened on 12 January 1999. At Jacobs' funeral the next day a PAGAD leader threatened to make the country ungovernable. In the charged atmosphere he used unfortunate words that could have had dire consequences. Fortunately he retracted these words. That he did apologize (or was forced to?), was basically immaterial. The ‘Holy War’ became more than words the very day after the funeral. A leading police detective who had investigated the PAGAD related activities, Bennie Lategan, was killed on 14 January 1999. The whole country was alarmed. The ‘War in Cape Town’ became an issue for prayer countrywide. Christians were invited by Herald Ministries to get together for prayer on the evening of 15 January, the Muslim Night of Power. (This is celebrated annually in remembrance of the first Qur’anic revelations.) A mini-crisis developed when the pre-recorded testimony via the CCFM radio station of Majied Pophlonker, an Indian convert from Islam, was due to coincide with the Islamic Night of Power. The Muslim background follower of Jesus was understandably uptight. Parts of Pobhlonker’s testimony about the persecution he had to endure, could thankfully be deleted from the recording just before the transmission. Amidst the volatile atmosphere it could have enraged Muslims terribly had the story been aired of how his family almost assassinated him. The powerful testimony was nevertheless bound to impact Cape Islam, coming only a day after another female convert from Islam had given part of her story on the ‘Life Issues’ radio programme of CCFM. A Famous Cape Drug Lord Hospitalised Ayesha Hunter was a Muslim background believer from Mitchell's Plain who had been miraculously healed after being sent home from Groote Schuur Hospital with terminal cancer when we got into contact with her. (Ayesha went to be with the Lord in 2021). Our radio ministry via Cape Community FM (CCFM) from 1998 brought us anew in close touch with gangsterism. Ayesha Hunter, one of our radio presenters, was leading a compassionate outreach to the children of the Hard Livings gangster syndicate, in close liaison with the wife of Glen Khan, a secret believer at that time and a gang leader. In 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 cruelty. Much of the mayhem was ascribed to PAGAD. Ordinary citizens became fearful, numerous lives were lost. As chaos ruled the streets, Christians started to pray more earnestly once again. A drug lord made a public confession of faith In March and April 1999 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. Eddie Edson, a pastor from a poor community in Mitchell's Plain and a former gangster, had first-hand experience of conditions as he was living in the heart of the troubled areas. He gathered pastors to pray every month. Intentionally, many believers turned to God in prayer with new fervour and determination, attempting to access the powers of heaven for the transformation of South Africa and all of Africa. A Drug Lord Shot and Killed On Resurrection Sunday 1999 Ayesha Hunter phoned to inform us that Glen Khan, a drug lord and gang leader, had been shot and killed. The Mitchell's Plain man, whose wife had been a secret Christian believer for some months, was assassinated only a few days after he had committed his life to Jesus as his Lord. The next morning Rosemarie and I rushed to Mitchell's 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 had to occur within twenty-four hours! The young widow, still a secret follower of Jesus, insisted that her husband 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 upon to give a tribute at the funeral service, it caused quite a stir because the media had possibly been tipped off that the changed drug lord would be present, having come from his hide-out. 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 address system. The funeral audience included a significant contingent of Hard Living gangsters. Rashied Staggie, who had been avidly reading the Bible in the preceding weeks, challenged those gangster followers present. He cited from Scripture that the Lord was the only 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 not long before that, the message could hardly miss the mark. Renewed Interest in the Lives of Gangsters The Glen Khan assassination of Easter 1999 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, and started a programme of special care for gangsters who wanted to change their life-styles. The attempt to assassinate Rashied Staggie ultimately marginalized PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs), the criminal extremist group which had tried to eliminate him. Two-and-a-half years later Al Qaeda, a similar group based in the Middle East, became a household name worldwide through the twin tower disaster in New York on September 11, 2001. This incident highlighted the violent roots of Islam in an unprecedented manner. The gang war spawned a significant increase in evangelistic ministry, notably at Pollsmoor prison. After operating from Tygerberg Radio, the sister Afrikaans station of CCFM in its early days, the Pentecostal Pastor Christopher Horn started working with gangsters who had turned to Christ. He subsequently became the main chaplain in the police force for the Western Cape. The headquarters of the Hard Livings gang became a church A Series of Mysterious Ways The life of Shamiela January néé Philander can be summarized as a series of divine mysterious ways. Humanly speaking, she would have had little chance to even survive in the gangster environment of Woodlands in Mitchell's Plain where she experienced abuse and rejection on the trot. Ayesha Hunter had become one of our co-workers when Ayesha brought the drug addicted teenager Shamiela to us whose husband was abusing her terribly. We had no hesitation to take Shamiela into our spacious house as the next new believer from Muslim background, whom Ayesha Hunter had led to the Lord. Shamiela felt very uncomfortable when Muslim ladies like those members of Rosemarie's craft or jogging club from Bo-Kaap – every single one of them was a Muslim - came to our home. On the spur of the moment we gave her a new name, Sharon. Shamiela, alias Sharon, was not very long with us when her husband pleaded to have her back. She was not mature enough to discern the trap and we were too inexperienced to advise against it. We did not want to keep her against her will. The time with us was however long enough to give Shamiela a new dignity. Rosemarie taught her to make three dimensional cards, a skill that she had learnt in Holland on our 1998 home assignment. Shamiela testifies that this achievement changed her life where she had seen herself previously as worthless. Shamiela January had been one of the first Muslim background believers that we took into our home, after abuse by her husband, a gang leader. We also attempted to disciple him for a short period, linking him up with Pastor Eric Hofmeyer, but he returned to his previous lifestyle and they were divorced. Subsequently we took Shamiela into our Discipling House. After a few trial and error attempts with her in following the Lord, we had liberty to release her into service with the Salvation Army in the township Manenberg. Transformation of a Crime-Ridden Township Manenberg was the township that depicted a change in the religious climate in 1999 more than any other. An off-sales liquor distribution centre, the Green Dolphin, changed hands dramatically when it became a church. The name Green Pastures was suggested by a resident. Even more dramatic was the turn-about of Die Hok, the former national headquarters of the Hard Livings gang that also became a church. The spiritual revolution in the notorious township received countrywide prominence through the television programme Crux on Sunday, 25 July 1999. Manenberg gang leaders hit back by forcibly recruiting young boys into their gangs. In April 2000 Manenberg was still making negative news headlines with the killing of innocent children in gang crossfire. Pastor Eddie Edson spearheaded the Manenberg outreach from Mitchell's Plain. Much prayer was still needed if the crime and violence was to be stopped. Pastor Edson discerned that Manenberg was a key township in the spiritual warfare in the Peninsula. He not only requested the venue for the monthly pastors and pastors' wives prayer meeting for July 2000 to be relocated to Die Hok, but he was also the driving force to get a 10,000-seater tent campaign into that township. When he made Pastor Henry Wood responsible for the new fellowship at ‘Die Hok, it proved to be quite strategic. Pastor Wood impressively followed up the converts of the campaign. On 10 February 2001 a national television station, E-TV, reported this success story in their news bulletin. In the report the local police spoke of how the former crime-ridden township had become relatively quiet. Die Hok and Green Pastures, along with other churches from Manenberg, played a prominent role in significantly reducing the area’s crime level in the years hereafter. The township got a personal touch when Shamiela went to minister there with the Salvation Army and our son Samuel did part of the practical outreach of his YWAM-related Discipleship Training School at that venue. A Former Inmate Became a Prison Chaplain A former prisoner at Pollsmoor Prison, Jonathan Clayton, developed a special concern for prisoners. His conversion was the fruit of the prayers of his family and friends, including his future wife Jenny Adams, an Africa Evangelical Fellowship missionary. Clayton attended the Cape Town Baptist Seminary after his release, and, while he was still a theological student, started to minister in Pollsmoor Prison on Saturday mornings. Members of the Strandfontein Baptist Church, the home congregation of his wife, assisted him. In 1999 Clayton became a prison chaplain. Further Developments Gang wars erupted again from time to time. That this sort of thing often recurred during Ramadan – also in the Middle East - brought urgency to the necessity of praying that the violent nature of the Medinan Surah’s of the Qur’an may be finally properly discerned. During Ramadan 2013 intensive gang-related violence flared up once again. Peace was restored in Manenberg, but a gang war threatened to flare up in Belhar in October 2013. Ivan Walldeck, a former gang leader, had come to faith in the Lord in 1992 in the course of the Operation Hanover Park ministry, and proceeded to become a pastor. In mid-2013 Ps. Walldeck was shot in the course of his attempts at mediation in gang-related violence. He got into more positive prominence when he employed Rashied Staggie after the former gang leader needed a job. This was a parole condition in September 2013. The positive move turned pear-shaped however. Rashied returned to vice once again, without links to Christian-related activity. Former Gangsters in Divine Service Many of those gangsters who became followers of Jesus all too often backslid. But quite a few of them became powerful ministers of the Word, still serving in that capacity after many years. Eric Hofmeyer, who went on record saying already in the 1990s that he had been a disaster who became a pastor, is now serving the Master. Pastor Eric Hofmeyer ultimately became an important leader in sports ministry and in the discipling at Pollsmoor in prison. One of the inspirational stories is his discipling of Sollie Staggie, the younger brother of the rather notorious twins Rashaad and Rashied. Eric Hofmeyer, once one of the top officers in the Hard Living gang, became the regional co-ordinating youth pastor of the Baptist Church and pastor of Battswood Baptist Church in Wynberg subsequently. He has been discipling many a gangster in the prisons and elsewhere while continuing serving with the movement The World Needs a Father. Sollie became a community worker with the Evangelical Mission Church in Newfields, where he serves especially among learners of three high schools. (Sollie, who led the failed attempt to kill Eric Hofmeyer after he had left the gang, finished not only his matric in prison, but he also did studies in Engineering and Theology there.) Chronologically well into the new millennium, and after her marriage to Deon January, and some training with All Nations International, Shamiela would lead fruitful ministry in a prison in Porterville, a one and a half hour drive on Sundays for a season. Transport constraints brought an end to that service but she continued to serve female drug addicts in Manenberg where she was divinely used to lead a few ladies to the Lord, networking with different missionaries. A special aftermath of God's mysterious ways would transpire when Solomon Staggie, one of the inmates in Voorberg Prison to whom she ministered there, was released on parole in 2015. Sollie not only joined Pastor Eric Hofmeyer in the ministry of the World Needs a Father, but he continued to go and minister at Voorberg sacrificially, without possessing a vehicle of his own. Because of the dangerous life in Manenberg where gang wars would break out quite often, plus our occasional need for house parents, we invited Shamiela and her family a few times to consider staying with us or to come and serve at Moriah Discipling House. In their faithful dutiful commitment to family and ministry in Manenberg, Shamiela and Deon however only sensed a calling in mid-2020, joining our team full-time at the end of that year. In 2020 Shamiela became a pillar of strength as one of the leaders of the Born Again Believers Network (BABN) and Isaac Ishmael Ministries. 12. Special Initiatives at the End of the 20th Century In this chapter we go back in history to highlight the special contribution of a few individuals towards the end of the 20th Century that changed lives significantly. In many a case these individuals had to overcome the opposition of well-meaning Christians. My choice in this chapter is very random, with preference given to those people whom I got to know personally. A Power Encounter in Green Point Ds. Davie Pypers had hardly started with his new ministry in Long Street, when a challenge came from Mr Ahmed Deedat - at that time still a fairly unknown Indian Muslim imam - to publicly debate the death of Jesus on the Cross. Pypers felt very inadequate for this challenge. Ds. Davie Pypers prepared himself with prayer and fasting Ds. Davie Pypers prepared himself with prayer and fasting in a tent on the mountains at Bains Kloof for the event, scheduled for Sunday, 13 August 1961 at the Green Point Track. (The Hex River mountain range has the most interior early Muslim shrine of the Western Cape at Bain's Kloof.) A Memorable Day Because of good publicity in Cape newspapers, 30 000 people of all races jammed into the sports stadium. The venue quivered with excitement like at a rugby match. Deedat asked for a proof that Jesus died on the cross at the Green Point Track. When a 'White' woman from the audience, Mrs. Withuhn, was instantly healed in the name of Jesus – confirmed by physicians present that had been called up to certify the miracle – many Muslims were deeply moved. The young dominee rose to the challenge by immediately stating that Jesus is alive and that He could there and then do the very things He was doing when He walked the earth. Dr David du Plessis reported about the event in his autobiography: ‘Taking a deep breath, he (Pypers) spoke loud and clear, “Is there anybody in this audience that, according to medical judgement, is completely incurable? Remember, it must be incurable...’ Of course, the stadium was abuzz by now. And then several men came along, carrying Mrs Withuhn, a 'White' Christian lady, with braces all over her body. She was completely paralysed. Then Pypers went ahead, asking whether there were any doctors present who could examine her and vouch for her condition. ‘Several doctors came forward, including her own physician, and they concurred in pronouncing her affliction incurable.’ Pypers simply walked to her and without any ado prayed for her briefly and proclaimed: ‘In the name of Jesus, be healed!’ Immediately she dropped her crutches and began to move. The Green Point event, thus, resulted in a victory for the Cross, after the miraculous healing of Mrs Withuhn in the name of the resurrected Lord. Many Muslims were deeply moved. A Vagrant Becomes a Pastor Pastor Willie Martheze, a qualified welder from Mitchell's Plain, was still a so-called bergie, a vagrant, when he was initially ministered to. Jesus found me first! Humorously he would recollect how he had been such a good-for-nothing alcoholic that his own mother sent the police and the gangsters after him. ‘But Jesus found me first’, he proclaimed. Willie Martheze was radically delivered from his addiction after attending an evangelistic service on the Grand Parade in February 1974, where the Scottish missionary Pastor Gay was preaching. Soon hereafter, Pastor Gay found a job for Martheze at the Arthur’s Seat Hotel in Sea Point. In follow-up Willie Martheze attended an evening course at the Bethel Bible School in Crawford. Obedient to God’s voice after seeing a very destitute vagrant, Martheze followed a call to work with homeless people, with the intention of ministering healing to them. One of the aims was to empower the homeless, to enable them to return to the homes they had left. In the spiritual realm it was significant that Pastor Martheze was allowed to use facilities at the former Preparatory School in Upper Ashley Street, one of the few buildings that remained intact from the old District Six. Pastor Martheze and his wife were blessed to see quite a few homeless people changed dramatically. Some of them returned to their families. A Gale Catapults an Evangelist Into Prominence The destruction by a gale of a gigantic tent in the mid-1980s in which the German-born evangelist Reinhardt Bonnke was about to hold an evangelistic campaign in the Cape Township of Valhalla Park, created much interest for the event. The organisers were forced to conduct the campaign in the open. Thousands attended who would never have fitted into the gigantic tent. Instead of the planned 15 nights, four extra nightly services were added amid clear skies in mid-June which is known to be part of the Cape rainy season. There was an unprecedented networking of Cape township churches The networking of township churches in the run-up to this campaign was unprecedented, with a corresponding response at the altar calls. Many Muslims gave an indication that they wanted to become followers of Jesus. However, lack of proper follow-up by the churches prevented a massive spiritual turn-around at the Cape in this regard. This deficiency, combined with a brutal apartheid clampdown at the time, drove many nominal Christians to Islam. To become a Muslim was regarded as part of the struggle. Marriage swelled the numbers of Cape Muslims when the Christian partner converted to Islam, staying Muslim even after divorce. An interesting sequel of the Valhalla Park campaign was that Reinhardt Bonnke became a household name throughout the African continent and beyond. A ‘Mysterious Way’ lesson here? Impact On Cape Islam The conversion of Majied Pophlonker in 1982 was quite significant. He was different to other Muslims believers who got 'saved' but who did not follow through. He was eager and hungry to learn more about his new faith, even attending the evening Bible school that had been started by Pat Kelly, a British missionary linked to the Cape Town City Mission. This was followed by part time studies at the Bible Institute of South Africa. (Subsequently, he also graduated with a Master's Degree from Global Faith Bible University.) In due course, the conversion story of Majied became well known in Christian circles. He could grippingly and dramatically share his testimony, doing it in many a church. Majied was also quite active in evangelism, notably as a preacher on the commuter trains to and from his work. The seed of the Gospel campaign in the Cape Flats suburb of Retreat would germinate in a special way ten years later. At the beginning of 1992, Majied was one of the first Muslim background believers whom we got to know. Majied Pophlonker along to share his testimony in many a church. His testimony was also the decisive nudge for the writing of Op Soek na Waarheid, a booklet with true stories of Cape Muslims who had become followers of Jesus. The booklet was planned to be published at a seminar with Ds. Davie Pypers in 1995 in the Indian residential suburb of Rylands. Its translation got the title Search for Truth and subsequently Search for Truth 2 was published in 2004. It would have a low-key, yet significant impact upon Cape Muslims. The writing of the booklet set off a chain reaction as we discovered the big need of the discipling of new converts from Islam. This would coincide with my research, to ultimately make this a focus of our ministry. In 1999 we started more intentionally to pray for funds for a discipling house. This became a reality in 2000. Moriah Discipling House would prove to be very strategic, remaining the only facility of its kind in the country to this day. Strategic Contacts After our arrival in Cape Town in January 1992 we were accommodated at the Cape Evangelical Bible Institute, allowed to be there till the students would arrive for the new academic year. The few weeks there were quite strategic in terms of contacts. Thus we met Alan de Cerff and his American wife Jennifer, who operated at UCT under the flag of Campus Crusade. In turn, we got to know other people and the De Cerff couple who took us to the Community Bible Fellowship in Crawford. On the last Sunday of January we shared our housing predicament with the latter fellowship. They promised to pray for us in their all-night event the coming Friday. In Dire Straits Finding suitable accommodation to rent that was more or less affordable was almost like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Whenever the home owners heard that we have five children, they were not interested any more. Thus we soon made a point of mentioning this fact right at the outset whenever we enquired. That spared us unnecessary waste of time, petrol and further disappointments. Sleeping On the Street? On the 30th of January the wife of a prospective landlord not very far from the German school took for granted that her husband would agree to have us because he was a German-speaking Swiss. The timing seemed to be perfect, because it was almost the end of the month and we could move in straight away. We were already praising the Lord at the table at suppertime, when the phone rang once again. This time it was the husband. He had just heard from his wife that we have five children; this was a major problem to him. They would not rent their house to us. When I returned to the supper table with the shattering news, all of us were devastated. Little Tabitha vented her fears spontaneously as she cried uncontrollably: ‘Will we now have to sleep on the street?’ How thankful Rosemarie and I were when her brother Rafael attempted to console her: ‘No, the Lord will see to it that we need not go and sleep on the street.’ I had a big lump in my throat at the child-like and yet also mature faith into which our children had started to grow. Rosemarie had of course similar emotions. As a family we had been experiencing so many special answers to prayer. And we did not even share with the children the financial challenges we had been experiencing! Something Happening in the Heavenlies On Friday the 31st of January 1992 we packed all our belongings together, without knowing where we were going the next day. On Sunday the arrival of Bible School students was expected. We were now clinging to our last hope. Shirley Charlton, our WEC missionary colleague, was going to ask her landlord whether we could move into her two-bedroom flat in Diep River temporarily. She would then go to a friend. When we phoned Shirley the Saturday morning, this last hope was all but dashed … We were not aware how many people were praying for us. Of one group we knew. They were Christians from the Community Bible Church in Crawford that we had attended the previous Sunday. They said that they would pray right through the night from Friday to Saturday, and also for us! In the heavenlies something had obviously been happening, because in the suburb of Kenilworth – a few kilometres from Crawford - a Greek lady could not sleep. Ireni Stephanis never had problems with sleeplessness, not even when her husband died, but that night she constantly had to think about the family from Holland about which she had heard from Shirley Charlton. Ireni was curious whether the family of seven had found accommodation in the meantime. After hearing of our predicament, Ireni offered to share her big house. Her daughter had just married and left the home. Ireni’s two adult sons were overseas. They would not be around for some time. When we learnt this story from Shirley Charlton, we stood there in awe! We could only marvel at the timely intervention of the Lord! It looked to be the most practical thing to sleep at the Bible School for the last time on Saturday. Even in this little detail we could see the hand of the Lord. At this time we also met someone who offered to assist us with the clearance of our container, once it would land in the Cape Town Docks. A Home of Our Own? In 1993 the arch enemy seemed to be giving us one battering after the other, but the Lord encouraged us. In the second quarter of the year we felt that Rosemarie should visit her ailing mother, who had contracted a stroke in 1989 and was bed ridden thereafter, to relieve her sister Waltraud at least for a few weeks. (When we had lived in Holland, we would go to Germany in the school holidays to give Waltraud a break.) But how could we finance such a trip from South Africa? Just as Rosemarie and I started praying together about the matter one morning, the telephone rang. It was Waltraud from Germany. She and her husband had been thinking about funding a trip for Rosemarie to come over. That would be much cheaper than trying to get the bed-ridden mother into a professional facility for two weeks so that they could get a break. While Rosemarie was in Germany, money became available that her late father had earmarked as a bequest for his grandchildren for their education. About this time we received a letter from the German landlady of the home in Tamboerskloof that we were renting. She wanted to sell the house, but she was giving us the first option. That was another nudge to consider seriously buying a house of our own. With money that would be coming from Germany soon as a bequest from Rosemarie's late father, we were in the fortunate position to consider buying a suitable house. I was rather sceptical when Rosemarie shared that the Lord had given her a vision of a house with a beautiful view in the City Bowl. I was absolutely sure that there would be no suitable house in the price range that we could afford. On Rosemarie’s insistence we went to an estate agent to indicate our interest in buying something in the area. With Bo-Kaap and Hanover Park as the main areas of our activity, we were looking at possibilities to purchase a house geographically somewhere between these localities, such as in the centrally situated suburb Pinelands. Our New Home The first few houses in the City Bowl that we viewed vindicated my scepticism. But then one day the estate agency phoned to inform us that a run-down house in Vredehoek, a suburb on the slopes of Table Mountain, was for sale. The re-possessed building was offered to the estate agent by the bank on condition that the potential buyer had to make an offer within two weeks. The mansion we entered at 25 Bradwell Road in the City Bowl suburb Vredehoek had broken windows plus a filthy stinking carpet in the living room that dogs had infested with fleas. But then Rosemarie saw the beautiful view the Lord had given her. A Traumatic Sequence of Events While these thoughts milled through our heads, a traumatic sequence of events shook us to the core of our existence. 'Black' townships like Khayelitsha were no-go areas for anyone who was not 'Black' in the period of transition to a democratic government. Our friend Melvin Maxegwana from the City Mission of the township, where I had preached in the mean-time, had to flee from the area. The local civic organization had concocted allegations against him. As a pastor with contact to other races, he was accused of linking up with 'Whites' - regarded as a cardinal sin by some 'Blacks' in those days. Whereas the violence and turmoil on the East Rand, in Natal or even that of Khayelitsha was still on the periphery of our lives, the weekend starting with the second Friday of September 1993 had us reeling. Just after nine o'clock I had to fetch a few old prayer warriors for the monthly WEC meeting at our house. I discovered to my horror that our VW-bus had been stolen. On the same Friday on which we discovered that our vehicle was stolen, a new ‘convert’ came to our one o’clock prayer meeting. Purportedly he was a drug addict who had just been ‘saved’. Thirty hours later we found out that he was a conman. In between, this fake convert had fooled us terribly. His demonic demeanour squashed our vision to work or challenge others towards the establishment of a Christian drug rehabilitation centre in Cape Town almost completely. It also brought our fledgling first male MBB cell group to a sudden halt. The events of the weekend highlighted the temptation to return to Europe. Rosemarie and I were really tempted to run away from it all when phone calls from Holland and Germany hinted that we should return 'home', before the retributive revolution would break out in South Africa the next year before or after the elections. The Lord did not give us peace to leave the Mother City, however. In fact, that same weekend we were confronted by the challenge to buy a house that had been repossessed. While our emotions were in complete turmoil, we had to make a decision. The Lord used Rainer Gülsow, a family friend and a German builder, to help us make up our minds. His expertise was to us the ‘Gideon’s fleece', the test whether we should buy the run-down house. In his view the property was a very special bargain. Almost 30 years later we are still living in the Vredehoek home that we actually bought. A sequence of special circumstances made the purchase possible, including an inheritance from Rosemarie’s late father. Jesus Marches at the Cape The Western Cape Missions Commission, to which our WEC colleague Shirley Charlton took me soon after my return to the Cape in January 1992, proved very valuable in terms of contacts. One of the events organised in 1993 with some link to the Western Cape Missions Commission was a workshop with John Robb of World Vision. I used the list of participants at this event to organize Jesus Marches the following year. All around the world Jesus Marches were planned for Saturday, 24 June 1994. In a letter from a friend and missionary colleague, Chris Scott from Sheffield (England), he wrote about their preparations for a Jesus March in their city. My inquiries in our part of the world dropped the co-ordination of the whole effort in the Western Cape into my lap. I soon became involved in the co-ordination of about 20 prayer marches in different parts of the Cape Peninsula. In the run-up to the Jesus Marches the vision came up in my heart to get a prayer network going throughout the Cape Peninsula to achieve a breakthrough among the Cape Muslims. I was so terribly aware that concerted prayer was needed. A few prayer groups got going. I had high expectations that the Jesus Marches would result in a network of prayer across the Peninsula. However, the initial interest that our second attempt, which an updated audio-visual had stimulated in various areas, petered out. As part of my own research, I ought to have discerned that the Islamic shrines around the city were keeping the city in spiritual bondage. I shared this in meetings prior to the Jesus Marches. Possibly for the first time Cape Christians started to pray concertedly against the effect of the occult power of the Kramats, the Islamic shrines on the heights of the Peninsula. Spin-Offs of the Jesus Marches Two of the prayer groups that started had interesting consequences for the role players. Sally Kirkwood led a prayer group for the Cape Muslims at her home in Plumstead from the mid-1990s. Later she came to the fore with a more prominent role among Cape intercessors. The 1994 Jesus Marches led to contact with Trefor Morris, who was closely linked to Radio Fish Hoek. Occasionally he joined us at the Friday lunchtime prayer at the Shepherd’s Watch at 98 Shortmarket Street in the Mother City. This was the beginning of a close link to the radio station, which became well-known peninsula-wide when it was renamed Cape Community FM (CCFM). The link to the countrywide prayer movement was formed in October 1994 via Jan Hanekom of the Hofmeyr Centre in Stellenbosch. Local Christians joined Bennie Mostert, the leader of Network of United Prayer in Southern Africa (NUPSA) for prayer at the Kramat (shrine) of Shaykh Yusuf in Macassar. Bennie Mostert, a Namibian Dutch Reformed minister, had been challenged to become a missionary to South Africa. The connection to the countrywide movement was strengthened when Gerda Leithgöb, the leader of Herald Ministries, was invited as the guest speaker next to Ds. Davie Pypers for a prayer seminar in Rylands Estate in January 1995, which focused on Islam. A Retreat Leads to Global Prayer Advance Trevor Pearce attended a Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) retreat in the USA. It was at this conference that he was gripped in his heart and mind when he heard the miraculous story of God at work in the city of Cali, Columbia. Reports of changed lives and community transformation resonated so deeply in Trevor's heart that he felt broken, thinking of his home country. Was it possible that South Africa could ever experience this kind of transformation? He sat and listened intently to every word, not wanting to miss any detail of the incredible story. He could not wait to return home. Flying back 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). Once at the Cape, 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 a 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. A Link to Community Transformation Pastor Eddie Edson of the Shekinah Full Gospel Tabernacle of Mitchell's 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 joined one of these prayer meetings with copies of the transformation video. The transformation video’s first screening to a big audience in Cape Town took place at the Lighthouse Christian Centre in Parow on 15 October 1999. Already in the short term this showing brought about substantial change in some churches. A Successful Businessman Impacted Just over a year prior to all this, on 20 February 1998, Graham Power, a successful business-man, had re-committed his life to the Lord. Graham Power attended an Alpha Course at their church and saw the Transformation video in March 2000. There and then he felt a stirring deep after seeing this documentary video, wondering 'if it was possible in Columbia, why not Cape Town?' As a member of the board of Directors of the Western Province Rugby Football Union, Graham Power, was impregnated with a strong desire to bring a prayer event to the Newlands Rugby Stadium. The story of the Mafia-style drug lords who exercised such a dominating presence in Cali (Columbia) reminded him of Cape Town. Ultimately Graham became God’s special instrument to bring a prayer event into being on 21 March 2001 on the Newlands Rugby Stadium that would have transforming ramifications in the new millennium. 13. 21st Century Evidence of Spiritual Warfare The Lord gave me a ‘second wind’ after the removal of my Prostate Gland during a successful surgical operation in December 2003. A Brush with Death Leads to Writing Challenge We also discerned some of the pieces in the mosaic, the puzzle of our chequered lives that were fitting so perfectly into each other. Rosemarie challenged me with regard to my chaotic research and writing activity. I had many unfinished manuscripts on my computer. 'What would happen if something happens to you? All that work would be in vain'. That was wise counsel. The testimonies of a few Cape Muslims had been on my computer already for about two years. Some of them we had printed as tracts. The result of Rosemarie’s prodding was that Search for Truth 2 could be printed within a matter of weeks. Over subsequent decades the booklet would find its way into many a home. We were blessed to serve a new Muslim background believer in our discipling house subsequently who had been impacted by a black and white photo copy of one of the tracts. Run-Up to a Continental Prayer Convocation As part of a prayer convocation for the African continent at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) from December 1-5, 2003, it was fitting that a prelude to the gathering 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 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 more than 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 to 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 island. Impact of a Film Multiplied Through Opposition 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 diverse individuals only gave more publicity to the controversial film. The perception in predominantly Muslim nations that the film was anti-semitic led to a vast viewership, to the extent that some Middle-Eastern governments promoted it and shut down other screenings to make way for The Passion film! God mysteriously but powerfully used the film to get the story of the Cross into nearly all the Muslim world! 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 twelve 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, after the movie, many Muslims 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. Subsequently thousands have been turning to faith in Jesus Christ in Southern Asia and the Middle East through dreams, visions and various other evangelistic agencies. A Prayer Venue at the Civic Centre In due course Die Losie, a former freemason lodge at the police station, 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, an intercessor, had been a transport engineer working with the City Council. He was challenged to to concentrate on prayer for the City. He was around that time invited to work with the Deputy Mayor of the metropolis.) When all the groups had arrived at the police station, they were taken to Die Losie. Wim Ferreira was deeply touched at this occasion. He promptly requested a room for prayer in the metropolitan Civic Centre where he had started to work. This was another divinely orchestrated move. A few months further on, a regular Friday prayer time was functioning in the ACDP 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 day long prayer meeting 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 towards 24/7 prayer in the CBD of the metropolis was laid. The prayer room at the Civic Centre is still used, and was used as the foundation stone to the start of a World Prayer Tower in 2019. A Special Evangelistic Tool The DVD More than Dreams tells the true stories of five Muslims who came to faith in Jesus Christ. The DVD uses their original languages, with English subtitles. Copies of the DVD found their way into many a home as we disseminated them. Translations in Arabic and French became available in 2010. One of the highlights of our Soccer World Cup outreach was the day Algeria played in Cape Town. During the day we distributed many DVDs to the Algerian fans - who were quite conspicuous in their green and white attire. What made this outreach so special was that our 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. She wondered whether this was the same one about which Algerians had been raving! Bibles to North Korea? Another evangelistic attempt during the Soccer World Cup targeted the North Koreans who also played in Cape Town. The hostess of our church home ministry group, Amanda Nkhosi, held a top position in the Cape tourism industry. She had access to people who organised the accommodation of the various teams. Through Amanda we found out where the North Koreans were staying. At that time, we had a (South) Korean language student living with us. She had come to faith in the Lord here in Cape Town through the loving outreach of a Chinese-background short term missionary colleague from the US. The student was attending a Korean congregation where she was involved in ministry to children. We procured Korean Bibles through that fellowship. After a number of phone calls, we succeeded in getting the Bibles to the hotel in the suburb Newlands where the North Koreans were lodging. At the end of their stay we fetched the remainder of the Bibles. Using our Open Doors contacts, these Bibles were couriered to North Korea, an extremely closed communist country in respect of the Gospel. Is it too outrageous to hope that we might still hear some day how one or more of these Bibles impacted North Koreans? , such as via someone whom we came to serve at the Cape? This economic refugee had started off as a boy in Western Africa as a run-away street child many years ago. Now he is getting ready to serve in the Orient with his family. This was yet another one of those mysterious ways of God that we have been blessed to witness. 14. Carried on Eagle's Wings During the last two decades we experienced quite a few times how we were carried on Eagle's Wings, the theme of our wedding sermon. At the turn of the new millennium we were very much in the forefront of the spiritual battle at the Cape, notably with the start of our Discipling house for Muslim background believers in 2001. But that meant that we experienced the mysterious divine ways as well We took in too many people at the facility, all of them with heavy baggage, in the first few months of its existence. I suffered a personal setback when I reacted impulsively to a manipulative phone call from one of the residents. This 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 having very little sleep, I resumed with my work rather carelessly on Friday, March 15, 2002. This sparked 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. There seemed to have been some negative spiritual forces involved. Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer After my stress-related temporary loss of memory in March 2002, a medical check-up was overdue at the end of September 2003. This led to a period that seemed to usher in the last lap of my 'race' on earth. After seeing Dr Woolf at the nearby Medi Clinic for the blood pressure check-up - without having any complaint - he suggested a PSA blood test because of my age. Detecting a reading slightly above normal Dr Woolf, hereafter referred me to an urologist, Dr Aldera, who did a biopsy on 7 October 2003 – just to make sure! I was so confident that the result of the biopsy would be negative because I had no physical discomfort up to that point in time. Both specialists pointed out that the PSA count was only minimally above normal. There could have been other causes for the abnormal count, for example infection. When a phone call came from the hospital on Thursday 9 October 2003, I was caught off-guard. I was told that I had contracted Prostate Gland cancer! I will not die but live Without any ado Dr Aldera, the urologist, gave me the result of the biopsy: I had contracted prostate gland cancer in an early stage. Through an extra-ordinary set of circumstances, another one of those mysterious ways, the Lord however prepared me for the diagnosis. He had encouraged me with Psalm 117:18 the previous day: I will not die but live and proclaim what the LORD has done. I came to see Psalm 117:18.as an encouragement to ‘proclaim the works of the Lord’, as another translation puts it.. I had many unfinished manuscripts on my computer. 'What would happen if something happens to you? All that work would be in vain'. The result of Rosemarie’s prodding was that Search for Truth 2 could be printed within a matter of weeks. A Name Change Effort of a Mountain Peak During the course of historical research I had discovered that Duivenkop had been an earlier name of Devil’s Peak. Around the turn of the millennium I got to know Murray Bridgman, a Cape Christian advocate. He had previously also researched the history of Devil’s Peak, even in more detail. Is it mere wishful thinking to expect that it will be ultimately given the name Dove’s Peak? Murray Bridgman, who approached Ps. Barry Isaacs and me in 2009 in an effort to affect the name change to Dove’s Peak, saw quite early the similarity to the corrupt rule of Willem Adriaan van der Stel and the farm Vergelegen, whom he acquired with unjust means. It is probably much more than mere co-incidence that Jacob Zuma became State President at that time. A few years later President Zuma abused tax payers' money to build the Nkandla estate. In due course, it was decided to disseminate the notion by word of mouth. The name change of Devil’s Peak was still high on our prayer agenda by the end of 2011. Noting that racial prejudice, discrimination of all sorts, unwitting demonic activity through 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. Spiritual warfare at Rhodes Memorial seemed to be a proverbial ‘Bulls Eye’. Our battle had as target the corruption that was associated with the administration of President Jacob Zuma. More than one of the main Cape evangelical role players experienced the one or other form of attack at the beginning of 2012. A Significant Backlash A Transformation Africa mountain peak name change event soon thereafter had been set for Saturday 4 February 2012 at Rhodes Memorial. I would have been one of the speakers. It was touch and go or I was eliminated by a heart attack on the night of 30/31 January. Three 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, Beverley Stratis, a good friend and a faithful intercessor, received a vision while she was praying. She saw a dark cloud and a life-threatening vibe of death surrounding me in this vision. That was the cue for her to engage in intense intercession for me. About two week*s 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 who was having this severe pain. She had to pray for this person. This circumstance highlighted Isaiah 53 to me in a special way: the Lamb to be slaughtered carried our iniquities and ailment on the Cross of Calvary. Initially it was suspected that I had contracted a ‘slight heart attack’. (The GP who sent me to hospital for an EKG, had been very perplexed that I had been driving there by myself, with the low pulse that I had.) 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. Any one of the two occurrences could have caused death. At Vincent Palotti Hospital the nurses were very surprised that I had no need for tablets for pain in the chest region. Picture of the Angiogram The Gospel message became clear to me as never before, namely how Jesus could bear our sins, ailment and pain vicariously, in our stead. Three stents were inserted. Another Lease of Life After a few days of Covid-related isolation, I tried to resume my morning jog around the block on the 6th of June 2022, but a pain on the right side around my midriff caused me to abort the jog soon. Application of arnica reduced the pain, leaving me with the impression that my pain was muscle-related. I felt quite sick and still weak in the afternoon, when our daughter Tabitha came to us with our two Capetonian grandchildren for their weekly visit. We took my ailment as the Covid backlash that many people were complaining about. The next day we took the Canadian couple lodging with us to go to see the Living Hope compound in Capri. I rather reticently agreed to go along, with Rosemarie driving. There we were in the sun all the time. After a few minutes, I felt dizzy. A very low blood pressure was the culprit of my subsequent collapse. The next morning I was in the kitchen collating my chronic medication when Rosemarie noticed that I was dizzy once again and about to collapse yet again. That was the cue for her to get me to the nearby Medi Clinic. At that institution a first faulty reading of 19 of my blood sugar caused some alarm. My reply to the examining doctor that my mother had been a diabetic might have strengthened the suspicion that this had been the trigger of my low blood pressure, where I had been taking medication for high blood pressure. I pointed to the erratic stabbing pain in my right side that was coming and going. Because I could not report symptoms like vomiting or a high body temperature, there was no pointer to a problem with my appendix. After a phone call with Dr Smedema, the cardiologist at the Blaauwberg Netcare Hospital to whom I had been going annually since my heart attack of 2012, the female emergency doctor of Medi Clinic was happy to report that he was willing to create a space for me to come and see him two days later, on Friday afternoon. That I was sent home without even an antibiotic given, was however a mistake. My condition deteriorated so that a fever developed which we could thankfully contain with a paracetamol tablet and I was able to sleep fairly well. At the examination with Dr Smedema on Friday 10 June, he suspected that my appendix could be the problem. To get a second opinion, he called a colleague, Dr Wimpie Odendaal. The latter confirmed the earlier suspicion of an infected appendix, setting the machinery in motion for an operation the same evening. However, there were medical indications that led Dr Odendaal to order a CT scan before operating. This was significant because an operation could have been quite hazardous. The scan showed that there was a mass which had to be drained first. The appendix had burst at some point. The divine Eagle's wings had been carrying me once again. I felt very much overawed by the events of that week! I was given another lease of life, and yet again on 7 September when I survived a car accident when I drove into an oncoming vehicle, driven by an unlicensed person, that turned right at an intersection! I thank God that my reflexes are still pretty sharp at 76 years old. If that had not been the case, the utility vehicle would have crashed into me on the side. I would have been either killed or very seriously injured. Only a few days earlier I was challenged from scripture to let my light shine and not bury it under a bushel. This is to me a challenge and an encouragement to do more in respect of marketing my manuscripts. To God be the glory any way. Now that we are almost at the end of the current Shemitah year, it will be very interesting to see if the pattern of the last 3 cycles is repeated - will there be some kind of financial crisis on September 25th this year? In light of the situation in the world, there is a strong likelihood that if GOD is behind the pattern, then this year may see a very dramatic event hit the financial markets in less than 3 weeks from now. The Russian war against Ukraine, the chaos in the American and Israeli political scene, the energy crisis in Europe, and the Iranian nuclear negotiations, all make for a very unstable situation in our World, and a severe shake of the financial system could have catastrophic consequences for much of the World. Chapter 15 New Pointers of the 21st Century God opened the eyes of Anneke Rabe, an Afrikaner housewife from the small rural town of Mkhondo, South Africa, to the injustices and evil of apartheid. In the town formerly called Piet Retief with its emotive connotations to a public holiday now called Reconciliation Dav. (The Voortrekker leader whose name (and death) was linked to history that triggered resentment and hatred between Zulus and Afrikaners.) A Strategic Impact of Ordinary Housewives God raised a few Mkhondo women in 1999 to come together once a week to pray for the Christians of their town, country and continent to fulfil the prayer that Jesus prayed just before He was crucified, John 17: 20 -21: 'I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.' This little band of praying housewives now call themselves the Esther Group. Interceding on behalf of the nation and continent, they yearn for the Almighty to answer to the plea of our Lord in John 17, to extend grace and to truly make all believers one in Him. Most of these ladies are ordinary housewives from very different backgrounds and cultures. God brought a deep reconciliation and friendship amongst the 'Black' and 'White' ladies, a unique group that came together in the town. God used the Esther Group of Mkhondo in profound ways, such as in 2003 when the 'White' pastors of their town repented to the 'Black' pastors for the sin and pain caused by apartheid. (A two minute video was made when the Esther Group celebrated 20 years of praying together, https://youtu.be/1J5mO77_dU8) Run-Up to Genadendal 2022 Anneke Rabe is the link of the Esther group to SACLI (South African Christian Leadership Initiative) that was formed in 2013 to amplify the voices of Christian leaders from all sectors of society, aiming to be a prophetic voice in the nation. SACLI Reconcile created platforms and staged different initiatives to move this process forward. One of the most significant events organised was in June 2016, 40 years after the Soweto riots in which many of the youth, some as young as 12 died. This day of repentance took place at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto. (The leaders of most 'White' Afrikaans churches and 'White' defence force veterans went to Soweto that day, walking where the schoolchildren walked in 1976, repenting for the injustice of forcing 'Black' schoolchildren to be educated in Afrikaans. Forgiveness was also extended there in the Orlando Stadium. Also present were the leaders of almost all denominations in SA and the World Council of Churches to witness this historic occasion.) SACLI Reconcile set out to become a 10 year journey of moving from racism to reconciliation, knowing that in order for God’s healing to flow over the nation, believers need to look at the past and take responsibility to repent and make restitution as far as possible for the wrongs committed by the Church. One such injustice is the maltreatment of Georg Schmidt, that we recorded in chapter 1. Pilgrimage of Grace SACLI Reconcile initiated a Pilgrimage of Grace from 23 – 25 September 2022. The intended focus of the pilgrimage was Repentance, Reconciliation, Restitution and Prayer. This started at the Groote Kerk, the Mother congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Town on 23 September 2022. The focus at a public event in Genadendal on Heritage Day, 24 September, aimed to express repentance of three injustices: 1. NG Church not allowing George Schmidt to continue with his work of evangelising and baptising the Khoi people. 2. The way clergy treated and still sometimes treat lay people. 3. The way women have been and are sometimes still treated and overlooked in the Church and in God’s mission. During this pilgrimage, two women from Genadendal whose lives made a great impact for the Gospel, will be remembered and acknowledged. The first one is the evangelist Vehettge Tikkuie, about whom you could have read in chapter 2. She kept the newly planted church at Genadendal alive for close to 50 years. Vehettge and others like her were generally seen as less than human by Europeans, so the mission work started by the Moravians affirmed not only their humanity but also affirmed that God can work in and through them! This was as revolutionary an act of reconciliation as the apostle Paul affirming that the Gentiles can also enter the kingdom. The second lady is llse Naudé, another Moravian woman, who grew up and socialised with townsfolk in Genadendal as a child and during her youth. She significantly influenced and supported her husband, the renowned Dr Beyers Naudé, during the apartheid era. A Role for the Purged Church Home churches led by teams of young people and older folk who have been taught in obedience-based training, obedience to the Holy Spirit – in contrast to the traditional knowledge based training – have started to make a difference in the lives of many people. The question is what the role of the Church – the united body of Christ - could be in the future. Adaptation to the secular society of our age seems to be the sure way to fade further into irrelevancy. In a society of brokenness there are so many people who carry a heavy burden. Scars caused by abortion, alcoholism and drug abuse combine to form an immense challenge that the Church has to face. By contrast, the much less expedient and inconvenient road of the Cross – swimming against the stream in self-denial, in sacrificial obedience to divine commands - could contribute to transformation. An anomaly is that confession of guilt, a ‘tool’ that had such a good track record down the centuries, has hardly been used. The question is of course who could speak on behalf of Christianity at large. Who could confess with some measure of authority the guilt against Israel and the Jews, e.g. their side-lining by Emperor Constantine? Some new gestures or expressions of regret or actions in restitution for the horrors and abuse of the Crusades might just become an aid for Jews and Muslims to open up to the Man who was innocently crucified and in whose name these atrocities were conducted! What could ignite the big revival that so many of us have been longing for? In my humble opinion a united repentant Church as a new distinctive community that reflects the values of the kingdom of God, might provide that spark. A body is needed that is an agent of healing and a place of belonging. Nothing else will suffice. Ian Cowley refers so aptly to a new voice within the possible future role of the Church at large in his book The Transformation Principle: '... a model of Christian discipleship that calls women and men everywhere to change their way of thinking and lay down their lives in following Jesus... those who serve the poor and care for the lost and broken-hearted people of our consumerist and self-indulgent age.' Epilogue Nationally our country would have been in a very dire situation if the dark forces at work remained unchecked. A groundswell of prayer evolved in the wake of the Covid pandemic and this has been sustained over almost two and a half years. This definitely prevented a situation where the country could have been become a victim of anarchy and chaos. It is nothing short of a miracle, a reason to be reminded of a few other miracles of recent decades. In recent years and months racial conflict brought South Africa close the the brink of the precipice more than once again. The divine intervention in the rural town of Senekal on 16 October 2019 when members of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the farmer supporting Afriforum were expected to square off and spark major conflict became widely known. A high local temperature and donations of bottles of water by a group of intercessors that came from Gauteng combined to prevent the threatening race clash. The loving response of from all parts of the country in response to the demonic racially incited looting in Kwazulu Natal that started on 9 July 2021 to effect the release of ex-President Jacob Zuma from prison, became even known internationally. Racial conflagration was expected once again but the compassionate country-wide response, an answer to prayers of millions around the world, countered that. For months load shedding threatened to thrust the country into anarchy from May 2022. In many a Cape township the simmering gang and gender violence never seemed to end. The other side of the coin was that God was definitely also at work in answer to the prayer of faithful intercessors. In the Southern suburbs of the Mother City a powerful unity developed, led by local pastors in the Retreat area and throughout the country intercessory prayer groups persevered. God is sovereign. Even though no powerful intercessor is known like William Seymour or Evan Roberts, to whom are attributed as human agencies to usher in the Azusa Street and Welsh revivals, both of whom are known to have prayed for many hours every days, believers throughout the country clutch in faith to the hope that a proper revival would also deal the issues a massive blow! It would be completely in line with His nature to turn around even the present desperate situation in our country. s s s P.S. I also drafted the following by the way, but found it rather bizarre: This would be the equivalent of an agent standing at a precipice that our country resembles. Alternatively, the Church might find itself in due course with a tragic role at the bottom of the cliff, trying to remove the corpses to prevent further havoc. I was wondering on the other hand whether the indifferent Church does not need some shock treatment. Glossary Afrikaners: 'Whites' of primarily Dutch descent, whose home language is Afrikaans. Apartheid:A formal system of racial segregation, forcefully implemented by the National Party after it came to power in 1948, it entrenched 'White' domination in virtually all sectors of South African life. Bo-Kaap:The geographical area of the Cape Town City Bowl, which borders the lower slopes of Signal Hill. It is sometimes also erroneous referred to by parts of the area, viz the Malay Quarter or Schotse Kloof. Ds.: The abbreviation of dominee, the pastor of an Afrikaans-speaking Reformed congregation. It is derived from dominus, which means. master; sir; a title of respect formerly applied to a knight or clergyman, and sometimes to the lord of a manor. Heimat – German for fatherland. Kramats: The graves of Islamic saints of the faith evolved into shrines. Khoi and San: The indigenous first nation people groups of Southern Africa. The former people group were also called Hottentots and the latter group Bushmen): Ubuntu: a Nguni Bantu term depicting humanity towards others, the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.