The Moriah Discipling House Story (7 November 2025)

The Moriah Discipling House Story Content Introduction Chapter 1. The Need of a Discipling House Chapter 2. Prayer As A Prime Tool Chapter 3. Ministry in a Gangster Environment Chapter 4. Impact of Jesus Marches at the Cape Chapter 5. Diverse Revival Rumblings Chapter 6. Drug Lords in the News Chapter 7. A New Season of Spiritual Combat Chapter 8. The Stranger at our Gates Chapter 9. A Facility for All Nations Chapter 10. A New Season With South Africans Introduction History has some tendency to repeat itself. Akin to the nudge in December 2013 at the death of our revered former President Nelson Mandela, to get our love story printed as What God Joined Together, the passing on of a former house mother of the Moriah Discipling House in the Cape suburb of Mowbray on 7 May, 2024 gave me the encouragement to attempt writing another (auto)biographical account. Another history repeating trigger occurred via two minor strokes on 27 February, 2024 and 14 May, 2024. (The diagnose of prostate cancer in October 2003 was the nudge from my wife Rosemarie to bring some finality to some of the manuscripts that I already had on my computer at the time.) That nudge resulted in the publication of Search for Truth 2 a few months later. The testimonies of Muslim background followers of Jesus had been on my computer already for a long time, along with many other unfinished manuscripts. The passing on of Denise Crowe was the one of a series of deaths of folk with which Rosemarie and I had a more than casual relationship. This had started soon after our return from overseas at the end of August 2023, the passing of Jutty Bredekamp, my best friend at the time, right up to June 2024. The name Moriah has a special golden thread, going back to my childhood, after our move to Tiervlei (later called Ravensmead at the end of 1954. With no Moravian congregation as yet, we attended the Moria Sendingkerk on Sunday morning. That is also the fellowship from which I had the greatest evangelical impact as a teenager when Ds. Piet Bester was my mentor. Moriah is the place in the Bible where the archfather Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac, replying that God would provide in the supply of a lamb. The first verses of Genesis 22 was a scripture portion that I used in many a sermon or teaching down the years. God as the provider was also the backdrop of the Jireh cards that Rosemarie and other co-workers made at the workshop in our Discipling House in Mowbray to give a few Muslim background ladies and refugees a small income while sharing the gospel with them covertly but lovingly, notably by praying for their needs. Another chain reaction of 'co-incidences', which I prefer to see as divine appointments, takes us back to the very first weeks at the Cape in January 1992. At the Cape Evangelical Bible Institute (CEBI) in Surrey Estate, I was woken up on the first morning by the roar of 7 minarets within a radius of one kilometer. I was back in the Mother City for a permanent return, after more than 18 years abroad. Apart from a compromise with the leadership of the mission agency Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ (WEC) International in a sort of recruitment role for missionaries for me, Rosemarie and I were still not clear what the focus of our outreach or service involvement would be. Rosemarie would concentrate on getting our five children settled in the new country. At that time we still considered serving street children. (When Rosemarie was not yet ready to come and serve in South Africa, we considered going to minister among street children in Brazil.) The roar of the minaret calls shot loving outreach to Muslims into focus Involvement With Drug Rehabilitation? Almost from the word go we got in touch with a big problem of the Cape communities - drug addiction. On the first Sunday after moving to Kenilworth, we attended the Living Hope Baptist Church with Ireni Stephanis, where we were accommodated as a family in answer to the prayers of saints. A couple there told us about their daughter who was addicted to drugs and who subsequently became a Muslim. We were immediately reminded of the successful Betel outreach of our mission agency to drug addicts in Spain, seeing this as a loving avenue of service to the Muslim community. This was yet another nudge that we should get involved in compassionate outreach to that part of the Cape population. The problem of drug addiction in the Cape Muslim society was highlighted again and again. We were thus confronted with the need of a centre for rehabilitation where people could be set free through a personal faith in Jesus. (Our mission agency WEC had significant success in Spain. Many former addicts started out from there as missionaries to other countries. This had became our model for the drug addicts of Cape Town.) We were yearning to share the vision with Capetonian Christians. The initial response was, however, general indifference. More nudges would follow in quick succession in the first months, notably introduction to Muslim background believers (MBBs), co-workers and missionaries who were linked in some way to the loving outreach to Cape Muslims. After hearing Majied Pophlonker’s moving story, seed was sown into my heart to write down the testimonies of converts from Islam. Op Soek na Waarheid, my first printed publication in 1995, became Search for Truth in translation. The need to disciple new believers was a direct result when we heard from one of the converts how she had come to faith at the evangelistic campaign of Reinhardt Bonnke in Valhalla Park in 1984 in the massive tent as one of hundreds with koefia's (fezzes) and scarves. This would become a main focus of our ministry in ensuing years. In February 1992, soon after our move to Tamboerskloof, we gotto know two believers at the church that gathered at the Cape Town High School. Elizabeth Robertson had close links to the Jews of Sea Point and Achmed Kariem was one of only a few known Muslim background believer in the Western Cape. The Isaac Ishmael combination of the first weeks, both Jews and Muslims, got blurred as the focus of our ministry shifted to service among Muslims and the supporting of believers who came from that background. Friendship with Elizabeth Robertson and Renéé Marx, who continued attending our prayer meetings in Bo-Kaap faithfully, retained a link to the Jewish side of things. (Two other Messianic Jews attended occasionally). A string of other 'co-incidences' confirmed that we should get involved with Muslims in Bo-Kaap and assist with Operation Hanover Park. Ministry to Foreigners Looking back over more than hree decades of ministry at the Cape, another 'Samaritan' (outsider) group was the foreigners who came to the Cape after 1994. The Muslim French speakers from West Africa soon came into our radar, to be followed by Uighur Muslims from China at the beginning of the new millennium. We used English teaching to these foreigners as a loving service to them, a vehicle to demonstrate the love of Christ to open them up for the Gospel. A major link to our discipling house takes us to our sending congregation in Holland. From there a container with furniture and appliances was sent in AD 2000. What a battle it became to get that container out of the harbour. Some element of spiritual warfare has to be suspected when this happened again in 2016 with a second container. This caused quite a lot of mental strain and even disunity within our Friends from Abroad (FFA) team. In quest of limiting the accommodation at the Discipling House to the preference for persecuted MBBs who have to be discipled, FFA merged with Born Again Believers Network (BABN) that was started. The clear intention was to have a good representation of believers from other faiths in the leadership of BABN. Regarding technicalities, I endeavour to write Bible verses in italics. In line with my other publications, I write ‘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. Chapter 1 The Need of a Discipling House The Western Cape Missions Commission, to which our WEC International colleague Shirley Charlton took me soon after our return to the Cape in January 1992, proved very valuable in terms of contacts. Here I met Jan Hanekom and Bruce van Eeden among other strategic people. The pastors Martin Heuvel and Bruce van Eeden were instrumental in bringing the missions vision to many ‘Coloured’ churches in the early 1990s. Pastor Heuvel was God’s instrument to nudge me into getting more involved with Muslim background believers. (The 1992 occasion was the distribution of invitations to a pending visit of the internationally well-known Patrick Johnstone, the author of Operation World. Together with Allain and Nicole Ravelo-Hoërson, a few Muslim background believers (MBBs) were soon congregating once a month at the Ravelo-Hoërson home in Southfield). Prayer Walking In Bo-Kaap Soon after our move to Tamboerskloof at the end of January 1992, Rosemarie and I decided to do prayer walking in the adjacent Bo-Kaap, asking the Lord to lead us to those people where the Holy Spirit had already done preparatory work. But we felt very soon that we should not be alone in this venture as we sensed a spiritual darkness hovering over the area, notably on a Friday after the athaan called Muslim adherents to prayer. The streets were empty as men gathered in the mosques and women were expected to stay indoors and pray. We discerned that we needed more prayer backing of other Christians if we wanted to make any impact in this Muslim stronghold. Cape Town Baptist Church was not confirmed at this time as a possible local spiritual home for us. As a family we were initially led to the city branch of the Vineyard Church, as the Jubilee Church was called.1 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. There was surely some divine element to be led to this fellowship, one of those divine mysterious ways. Two members of the city Vineyard Church fellowship were Achmed Kariem, a Muslim background believer and Elizabeth Robertson, who had a special love for the Jews. The friendship to these two would turn out to be very strategic. In Achmed Kariem and Elizabeth Robertson we had two believers in our church at the time with strong links to Islam and Judaism. Fortnightly prayer by a few believers in our Tamboerskloof townhouse at 24 Brunswick Road led to Isaac Ishmael prayer, for the respective strongholds in Bo-Kaap and Sea Point, As a direct result of our prayer walking in Bo-Kaap and our visit to the Bo-Kaap museum, regular prayer meetings in the home of the Abrahams family at 73 Wale Street, Bo-Kaap were resumed. Achmed and Liz joined us for prayer meetings in Wale Street. We had as an ultimate goal the planting of a simple church in the most extreme Islamic stronghold of the Cape Peninsula. In 1992 it was regarded as quite a daunting challenge and it still is. We yearned to be part again of a congregation that has the unity of the Body of Christ as a priority, where mutual close fellowship on more than only one day of the week is a reality along with at least some evangelical outreach. This had been partially realized during our time in Zeist, Holland, where we had real fellowship with local believers from different denominational backgrounds as we ministered together with the Goed Nieuws Karavaan initiative from 1982-1991. (As yet, the vision did not come to fruition at the Cape as yet, albeit that we have not dropped this dream completely, still praying that it might come to pass in District Six, the suburb where I spent the first nine years of my life.) Quite soon we also had separate meetings with converts at our home on Sunday afternoons once a month, initially in Tamboerskloof and later in Vredehoek. Salama Temmers, Esme Orrie and Alec Patel were among the strong personalities of those early years that I got to know by word of mouth. Friday Lunchtime Prayer Meetings Regular prayer meetings in the home of the Abrahams family at 73 Wale Street in Bo-Kaap were resumed in September 1992. At one of these meetings, Achmed Kariem suggested a lunchtime prayer meeting on Fridays, 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 near Heritage Square. When the building was sold a few years later, the weekly event switched to the Koffiekamer at 108 Bree Street (The venue was used by Straatwerk for their ministry over the week-ends to the homeless, street children, and to certain night clubs.) In addition to prayers for a spiritual breakthrough in the area, a foundation and/or catalyst for many evangelistic initiatives was laid at the Friday lunch hour prayer meetings. Here and there a prayer group started and petered out again. Two prayer groups operated in Plumstead and Muizenberg for a few years apiece. The leaders of the respective prayer groups, Sally Kirkwood and Gill Knaggs, later got involved with the Cape prayer movement. The only prayer group that continued functioning over many years was the one in the Abrahams' home in Bo-Kaap's Wale Street. At one of the Wale Street prayer meetings, our new friend Achmed Kariem suggested a lunchtime prayer meeting on Fridays, 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 near Heritage Square. When the building was sold a few years later, the weekly event switched to the Koffiekamer at 108 Bree Street (The venue was used by Straatwerk for their ministry over the week-ends to the homeless, street children, and to certain night clubs.) In addition to prayers for a spiritual breakthrough in the area, a foundation and/or catalyst for many evangelistic initiatives was laid during those Friday lunch hour prayer meetings. A blessed ministry to cancer patients at Groote Schuur Hospital and a substantial impact via the Christian radio station CCFM were two very influential results. The lunchtime prayer also had some international emulation when WEC International colleagues read about it. The Friday lunch hour prayer meetings persevered in the Koffiekamer of Straatwerk until July 2007, when it was relocated to our Discipling House in Mowbray and moved to Tuesday mornings, the weekly event that became the spiritual engine of Friends from Abroad and its successor Born Again Believers' Network. Chapter 2 Prayer As A Prime Tool After our move to Tamboerskloof as a family at the end of January 1992 plus a few other pointers to it, we sensed that we had to focus however on Muslim Evangelism. The first fellowship we visited as a possible local spiritual home was the Orange Street Baptist Church as it was commonly known at the time. We had been receiving glowing reports of the fellowship that had been at the cutting edge of evangelism for decades, ever since the famous Charles Spurgeon had played some role in its founding in the 19th century. After our expereience in Holland with the Stichting Goed Nieuws Karavaan where prayer had been our prime tool, we knew that this could make all the difference in our ministry at the Cape. Intensified Prayer in a Muslim Stronghold We heard how people prayed at that church while believers linked to Life Challenge were doing door to door outreach in geographical adjacent or nearby suburbs like Bo-Kaap, Woodstock and Walmer Estate. These three suburbs had all become Muslim strongholds, partly because of apartheid legislation. District Six had been almost destroyed by it. Hendrina van der Merwe, a committed City Bowl Afrikaner prayer warrior, was one of the intercessors that we gladly welcomed to join us when we specially started praying for Bo-Kaap (and Sea Point). In the case of Woodstock, gangsterism, drug abuse and prostitution chased Christians out of the residential area which had unprecedentedly displayed racial and religious tolerance. In mid-1993 the fellowship of believers from the Vineyard Church stopped gathering at the Cape Town High School. The Lord seemed to lead us to the Cape Town Baptist Church, using the 8-year-old daughter of one of the elders of the church. A young girl was troubled by the calls from the minarets The girl had been terribly troubled by the calls from the minarets in the nearby mosques. Her father, a Messianic Jew, suggested that she should start praying for the Muslims. Soon thereafter a group from the church arrived one Monday evening at our prayer meeting in Bo-Kaap. Just at that time we heard that Louis Pasques and his wife Heidi were interested in ministering to the Muslims. Louis was a student at the Baptist Seminary, and a leader of one of the three daughter congregations of the Cape Town Baptist Church. This eventually led us to join the fellowship. Joint Ventures What started as a friendship to a Muslim lady who was living in Tamboerskloof, who had been married to a Swiss doctor, developed into Rosemarie attending a ladies craft group in Bo-Kaap, all of them Muslims. Some of these ladies were prominent in the community such as the wife of the local doctor and Madressa teachers. In due course the Bo-Kaap Muslim ladies were jogging, swimming and walking with born-again Christian peers. Renate Isert, a missionary from SIM Life challenge, joined the group in due course. The contacts made to these ladies became the inspiration to start Jamiela Groups later. Under Renate's leadership, the idea subsequently went national and even to another African country. A promising venture in Hanover Park in 1992 - a combined effort of WEC International, a local church and students from two different Bible Schools as a part of Operation Hanover Park – ushered in ministry to children and teenagers at the Alpha Centre of Hanover Park. Gospel seed was sown into many a Muslim heart. Afrikaner ladies with links to SIM worked alongside the Dutch Reformed Church of Rylands in the outreach to children. One of them, Marika Pretorius, was also working together with other missionaries in this ministry in Hanover Park and Salt River before she left for Germany to work among Kurdish children. When the Doulos, a ship of Operation Mobilisation (OM) was in the Dry Docks of Cape Town for a lengthy period in 1993, a few of the OM short term workers were also involved in the evangelistic outreach at Hanover Park and other areas. An Extra-Ordinary Weekend Camp The preparation for a weekend camp with juveniles from Hanover Park developed into a major strain on our nerves. Two days before the camp was scheduled to start, I was the only one of the leaders left with reasonable health. Cheryl Moskos, our Hanover Park co-worker, was down with a heavy flu that more or less ruled her out and Rosemarie was out of contention due to a slipped disk. We approached Nasra Stemmet, a Muslim background believer (MBB) from Woodstock, to assist. She had started attending our Friday prayer meeting after she got in touch with us through an American pastor in the Dutch capital Amsterdam. But Nasra had very limited prior practical driving experience, after she had passed the test for her driver’s license. God confirmed clearly that we should proceed with this camp, so that we had no hesitation to suspect that Rosemarie's condition was yet another onslaught from the arch enemy. The Wednesday evening Rosemarie stayed at home because of the slipped disc. It was just as well, because now she was at home to take a crucial phone call from our SIM missionary colleague Horst Pietzsch. He had been approached by Anthony Duncan, a young missionary from Frontline Fellowship who wanted to get involved with local mission work before his next stint to more dangerous operational areas. That phone call swung things around. We decided to go ahead with the camp. At that stage cancellation seemed to be the only logical conclusion. God used a chiro practitioner to whom we went the next day. Rosemarie was back in action even before the weekend. To God be the glory! What a blessing the camp became to those children, the majority of whom had hardly been out of the township Hanover Park where they were born and bred. Death is Nothing Special to Some People! All the more the shock was great when the news reached us a few weeks later that Anthony Duncan was killed in a motorbike accident on his way from Angola. We were surprised how little reaction the youths showed when we broke the news to them. We realized that death had become so normal to the children and young people from Hanover Park, nothing special at all. Very sadly, gun killings and other forms of unnatural causes of life termination belong to their everyday life. My presence at a meeting of the Alpha Centre, the venue of our weekly children’s clubs, led to our being approached by Shehaam Achmat, the mother of a few regulars of our children’s club. Their youngest child had just been declared terminally ill because of an unknown virus. This got the ball rolling for many sessions of counselling and prayer when Rosemarie and I visited her. At one of these visits she shared a very special dream she had of a man with a long stick walking on grass that was very green. When I turned my Bible to Psalm 23, she got so excited!! 'That's exactly what I saw in my dream!' she exclaimed. She was like a ripe apple, ready to be picked. She was the first Cape Muslim we were blessed to lead to the Lord and to disciple. The latter was a major challenge of course. Shehaam Achmat and Nasra Stemmet were the first two MBBs I would baptise. This happened on 22 March 1995, our wedding anniversary in a Mitchell's Plain church. In later years, Shehaam Achmat would have many links to the run-up to the start of Moriah Discpling House. She was one of the MBB ladies at a workshop there in the early years of the institution and she played a pivotal role in the conversion of Lameez Ras, who became a temporary housemother from 2019. She is one of the ladies coming to Moriah every fortnight for Bible Study. Taking Back What Satan Had Stolen? The indifference of the churches to evangelistic outreach has always been a problem all around the Peninsula. The situation in Woodstock and Salt River had no good record in this regard. The two crime- infested suburbs, made up of people of lesser means, had become predominantly Islamic within a few years in the early 1990s. March 1994, Pastor Graham Gernetsky, the senior pastor of the Cape Town Baptist Church, organized a missions week with theological students from the Cape Town Baptist Theological Seminary. I was asked to teach at this week-long event. Reverend Gernetsky reacted positively to my suggestion to engage in prayer warfare with the students not only in Bo-Kaap, but also in Woodstock. This would be tantamount to an attempt to take back what satan had stolen through drug abuse, prostitution and gangsterism. During a prayer walk by the students - which formed part of the missions week - a local Woodstock resident mentioned Pastor William Tait and his fellowship. This led to contact with the local Assemblies of God congregation there. When Pastor Tait started his ministry in 1989, that suburb was becoming completely Islamic, albeit not for a reason that made Muslims proud. Christians were leaving Woodstock as gangsterism and prostitution took the area by storm. By 1990 it had become the drug hub of the metropolis. By 1990 Woodstock had become the drug hub of the metropolis The 1994 missions week was also the start of closer co-operation between the Assemblies of God fellowship2 and the small local Baptist Church. I had been preaching occasionally at the Baptist fellowship, which had no pastor at that time. The Face of Woodstock Changed Towards the end of the decade, the notorious suburb slowly changed its religious complexion. The centre of drug-peddling and prostitution moved to more lucrative areas. Pastor Tait and his church were ably assisted by the small local Baptist Church under the inspiring and pioneering sickly new minister, Pastor Edgar Davids. Sadly, Davids died in March 1998 after his body rejected a transplanted kidney. The two buildings where these churches met, visibly demonstrated the need for change in the area. Both structures had become quite dilapidated by 1995. The Baptist Church bought the ruin of the old Aberdeen Street Dutch Reformed Church, and soon they started to restore it with financial and practical aid from North Carolina believers in the USA. Almost before our eyes we could see God starting to use these two fellowships of Woodstock - to gradually change the face of the suburb. The restored churches, respectively in Clyde and Aberdeen Streets, that once had been the shame of local Christianity, now stood there as a visible testimony to God’s renewal power in that suburb. We prayed that something similar would happen in the spiritual realm. Involvement in Walmer Estate and Salt River Our involvement in the adjacent suburbs of Walmer Estate and Salt River started with prayer walking. In the latter instance it became the prelude to a children’s club that we began with Marika Pretorius after our return from ‘home assignment’ in Europe in 1995. (Marika had been used by God to introduce us to families in Bo-Kaap, and as a link to the Alpha Centre in Hanover Park, where we also conducted a children’s club from 1993 to 1995). She did further spadework work with a holiday club in Salt River in the Burns Road Community Centre. When Pastor Eric Hofmeyer, a former gangster, moved to this venue on behalf of the Cape Town City Mission at the beginning of 1998, a new low-key evangelistic thrust started. At some stage Marika brought along her roommate and co-worker from their Dutch Reformed congregation in Panorama, Jenny van den Berg. When Marika left for Germany to work among Turkish people, Jenny became our valued co-worker in Salt River. In due course she would also become one of the regular lecturers at the annual Muslim Evangelism course at the Bible Institute of South Africa that we started in 1996 under the umbrella of Christian Concern for Muslims (CCM). After we had handed the children’s work in Salt River to Eric Hofmeyer, Jenny van den Berg pioneered a similar ministry in Woodstock, based at the local Baptist Church, where she ministered until 2009. Can an angel bring a false message? Lessons Learned in Spiritual Warfare My teaching at the missions week with the seminary students ‘backfired’. It became one big lesson in spiritual warfare. We included early prayer times with the students, starting at 5 a.m. One morning Rosemarie shared what she had ‘discovered’ in Galatians 1:8,9 – that even an angel could bring a false message if that would deviate from the original Gospel revealed in Scripture. This amplified to us the origins of the Qur’an. We had learned that Muhammad later believed – after thinking initially that it was God himself - that an angel brought to him the Surah (chapter) starting with the words that man was made out of clotted blood. (Muslims believe that these revelations were brought to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel.) We realized that Muslims have been deceived unwittingly. This nudged me into an in-depth study of the Angel Gabriel in the Bible, the Qur’an, the Talmud and the Ahadith. (Islamic traditions of Muhammad’s words and deeds are regarded as equal in authority to the Qur’an). The consistent omission of the Cross in the Qur’an could not be coincidence I furthermore discovered how deceptive the arch-enemy was, that he had indeed been masquerading as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and that the consistent omission in the Qur’an of everything alluding to the Cross could not be coincidence. The latter discovery came about as I prepared myself for teaching Muslim background believers.3 The increasing number of expatriates in Cape Town came into focus as future missionaries to their own people. 'Black' People Seen as Future Missionaries Two of the student participants at the mission week were Kalolo Mulenga and Orlando Suarez, respectively from Zambia and Mozambique. The seed had already been sown in my heart to see African 'Black' people as future missionaries during an orientation visit to the Ivory Coast in 1990, where we had hoped to go as a WEC missionary family. Now the increasing number of expatriates in Cape Town came into focus as future missionaries to their own people, just like the Samaritan woman of John 4 in the ‘New Testament’. Orlando Suarez would become one of the first of those foreign Africans to return to their home country, albeit that in his case it was not completely voluntarily. The lessons in cross-cultural outreach that the Master Teacher passed on to us through chapter 4 from John’s Gospel, would guide us during the next few years. I not only used the conversation of our Lord Jesus with a woman from another culture as a prime example for the outreach to Cape Muslims, but we were now concentrating our work on the local converts from Islam. We noticed how much more effectively they were reaching out to their own people.4 Advocacy for the Persecuted Church The Dutch missionary Anne van der Bijl (better known under his pseudonym Brother Andrew), the founder of Open Doors, followed soon by Rev Richard Wurmbrand after his release from the notorious Romanian custody the Communist rule, pioneered advocacy on behalf of the Persecuted Church in the late 1960s. Rev Wurmbrand and his wife led the agency Voice of the Martyrs from the US. In due course, Islam took over in numbers of the persecution of Christians. Open Doors has been operating in South Africa since May 1971. In the early 1990s the focus shifted from the Communist to the Muslim World. Mike Burnard headed the ministry for many years. Mike Burnard started Incontext Ministries in February 2010. Tess Seymore, his assistant relocated to Cape Town in 2012, joining the Friends from Abroad team. Prof Dr Christof Sauer came to Cape Town at the beginning of the millennium, joining the SIM Life Challenge team. He obtained his doctorate in missiology in 2002 at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. He was appointed as an extraordinary Associate Professor for Group Practical Theology and Missiology by Stellenbosch University for the period 2011-2014. From 1988 he researched "mission and martyrdom", publishing academic works on the topic. He also compiled a bibliography on suffering, persecution and martyrdom. He opened a Cape Town office of the International Journal for Religious Freedom. Together with Rev. Mirjam Scarborough, a congregational minister in Sea Point and originally a Swiss national, he shared in the conceptualization of the International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) in 2008 of which she became executive editor. She contracted cancer and went to be with the Lord in 2013. New Involvement With Somalians In mid-2007 students started a prayer room at the University of Cape Town (UCT). There the vision of a children's home grew among a group of UCT students including Sheralyn Thomas, the daughter of John and Avril Thomas, the pastoral couple of King of Kings Baptist Church. We were not very keen to minister to Somalians as such when Rosemarie had a recurring dream one morning which seemed to indicate that we should resume outreach to Somalians. Our previous experience with some of them in Mitchells Plain in 2004/5 ended on a rather disappointing note. By October 2007 we had been linked to Floyd McClung and the All Nations International team for a few months already. They had been doing intensive outreach in Masipumelele near to Fish Hoek. There a major clash between Somalians and indigenous 'Blacks' had resulted in 50 people killed in 2006. We learned that Sheralyn Thomas had been negotiating in the talks between Somalians and Xhosas the previous year. She furthermore told us about a believer from the East African country who had just been baptized in Bellville. I needed no encouragement to phone Dave Stemmet, the pastor of the Baptist Church there. I knew he had a heart for foreigners. It turned out that Ahmed, who subsequently changed his name, had been baptized at that church on October 7. We had started with 'international Bible Study', intended as foundational teaching for new believers from the nations. In this venture Sheralyn worked closely with Alan Profitt, who had been ministering with an imam from Ocean View for many years. A Second Somalian? Soon hereafter I received a phone call from Rev Mirjam Scarborough in Sea Point with regard to a second Somalian, who has been coming to faith in Christ from Islam. This sounded to me too good to be true. I had serious doubts whether this was genuine. After further checks and balances, we decided to let him sleep in my office. (Marthinus Steyn, a missionary colleague who was on leave of absence from our previous mission agency, was living with us for a few months, teaching English to foreigners from an internet facility.) We saw this co-incidence as a special divine gift because Marthinus speaks - next to a few Western languages - also Xhosa and Arabic.          The English of our new Somalian brother was still very poor. Thus it was special to have Marthinus available, who could communicate via Arabic. During the next few days we could not only convince ourselves that he was sincere, but we could also witness how his English improved and how he grew spiritually.             At the beginning of 2008 we had the special situation of discipling two Somalians simultaneously.  The eruption of xenophobia a few months later would lead to a situation whereafter the Cape was not regarded as safe.  However, we subsequently also ministered on a weekly basis at a refugee camp on the former Wingfield Military Air Base in Wynberg. Chapter 3. Ministry in a Gangster Environment A very effective ministry to Muslims at the Cape was the service in a gangster environment. From the base of the Gleemoor Docks Mission, Rodney Thorne and Freddie Kammies started the ministry of BABS (Build a Better Society) as a local community organisation of Kewtown, a gangster-ridden Cape Township. 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 young people attended, many of them gangsters. 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. Start of a Missions' Prayer Meeting Preparations for the start of a prayer meeting for missions in Hanover Park progressed well. The City Mission congregation of the township was prepared and willing to have one of their weekly prayer meetings changed to be used for praying for missionaries once a month. With Norman Barnes, a Muslim background believer and former drug addict as the leader, it was easy to share the burden of praying for the problematic groups from where he came. The vision to see missionaries going from their area was gladly taken on board. The idea was completely new to the intercessors, but the Lord soon started answering the prayers significantly. An Operation Gets Going in Hanover Park The Bless the Nations conferences influenced the Cape very deeply. Bruce van Eeden, a pastor from Mitchell's Plain who was powerfully touched in 1990, started Great Commission Conferences in ‘Coloured’ areas. After ministering at one of these conferences in 1992, Rosemarie and I became involved with children’s ministry at the Newfields Clinic near to the township Hanover Park where Van Eeden was pastoring an Evangelical Bible Church congregation. Law enforcement agents could not handle the criminality At this time I participated in the establishing of Operation Hanover Park. The stimulus for the latter operation was given by Everett Crowe, a police officer, who approached the churches in a last-ditch effort to secure peace in Hanover Park, because the law enforcement agents could not handle the criminality in the area any more. Operation Hanover Park was formed with Pastor Jonathan Matthews of the Blomvlei Baptist Church5 as the main driving force behind the initiative. The City Mission Saturday afternoon prayer meeting was the precursor to the monthly prayer meeting of Operation Hanover Park towards the end of 1992. Operation Hanover Park involved believers of diverse church backgrounds who prayed together. Dean Ramjoomia, a Muslim background believer, was eager to operate among the gangsters as the local missionary of the churches. Blomvlei Baptist Church offered the Ramjoomia family accommodation on the church premises and a few other churches pledged financial contributions. Things looked quite promising. It seemed as if the Hanover Park churches were finally getting out of their indifference with regard to community involvement. Our idea of solving the gangsterism problem in the long term, by starting Christian children’s clubs in different parts of the township, made many local believers excited. Furthermore, it looked as if our vision - to get local churches networking in missions and evangelism - was coming to fruition. At least, this was how it seemed! At the same time, this would also give an example to believers in other parts of the country to combat criminality and violence – through united prayer and action! That was however not to be. 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. A few years later Dean Ramjoomia graduated from the EBC Bible School in Strandfontein. At this time he and his wife became the first houseparents of Moriah Discipling House. After his tenure of service there, he implemented stalwart ministry among the poor and needy, notably in impoverished townships of Mitchell's Plain. Another ministry called Nehemia Call reached out to men who had been caught up in ictions. Dean's links to imams and leaders of the Muslim Judicial Council from the Christian side down the years, is unequalled. Conditions in Manenberg Almost Unbearable In 1995/6 living conditions in the township of Manenberg were almost unbearable for the local people, and things seemed completely out of control. Father Chris Clohessy, the local Roman Catholic priest, had earned the trust of many people there, moving fearlessly also in gangster territory. PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) was initiated by a group of Muslims in 1996 - striving to create a gangster-free and drug-free Society - and joined by Father Chris Clohessy. However, in the ensuing inter-faith venture, Muslims were dominating proceedings. PAGAD developed anti-government and Western sentiments, as the organisation believed that the South African government posed a threat to Islamic values. It also aims to create better political representation for South African Muslims. Prominent figures like Imam Achmat Cassiem were reported to have performed a palace coup. As the leader of Qibla, Achmat Cassiem subtly changed the anti-drug, anti-crime movement into an organization that sought to bring Islamic rule into the Western Cape by any means. PAGAD radicals saw this move merely as part of the plan to implement the October 1995 decision in the Libyan capital Tripoli, to attempt Islamising the African continent from the South. Rashaad Staggie was burnt alive in full view of television cameras PAGAD became known publicly on 4 August, 1996. That was the occasion when an influential gang leader and drug lord, Rashaad Staggie, was burnt alive in full view of television cameras. The crisis that followed the PAGAD eruption of August 1996 presented the churches with a challenge, an opportunity to touch the problem areas of the Cape townships. Moving Towards a Lebanon Scenario? A Lebanon-type civil war scenario became quite real. Many people at the Cape feared that the gangsters might hit back with a vengeance. A meeting for church leaders and missionaries was organised at the Scripture Union buildings in Rondebosch, followed by a wave of prayer by evangelical Christians. Christ-centred drug rehabilitation was also suggested. However, when the crisis subsided, pastors simply resumed building their own ‘kingdoms’. Spiritual strongholds became a focus of prayer drives. Pastor Edson from Mitchell's Plain and intercessors launched a convoy of vehicles from different churches from 1996 on the last Friday of each month. The prayer drive of July 1996 started at the strategic Gatesville mosque. (This was the same venue from where a fateful PAGAD car procession started out a week later. The latter procession left for Salt River on August 4th, the date of Rashaad Staggie’s public burning. The prayer drives only had a short lifespan. Another initiative of Pastor Edson, which lasted much longer, was the monthly pastors’ and pastors’ wives prayer meetings. Yet, it took years before the racial divide was bridged, and even then these prayer meetings still never really took off multi-racially. Nevertheless, they prepared the soil for the start of the spiritual transformation of the city. From Cairo to the World! Sandwiched between the two above-mentioned processions that left the Gatesville mosque, a church service in the Moravian Church of Elsies River in the northern suburbs, would have world-wide ramifications. An Egyptian academic who had to flee when he became a follower of Jesus, shared his testimony in that church at a combined youth service on Sunday evening, 28 July 1996. This event added a new dimension to the Cape Muslim ministry effort. The Egyptian’s printed testimony had just been published in South Africa under the pseudonym Mustapha with the title Against the Tides in the Middle East. Within a few days, the booklet which contained his story was in the hands of a Muslim leader. Maulana Sulaiman Petersen correctly suspected that the Egyptian had contact with local missionaries. Threateningly he enquired after him on Wednesday 31 July. (The Egyptian was doing the practical part of his Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Crossroads Discipleship Training School with us at this time.) The Egyptian was forced into hiding Reminiscent of the situation when Martin Luther was taken to the Wartburg castle for safety,6 The Egyptian was forced into hiding. The televised Staggie 'execution' by PAGAD as a part of the national news on 4 August reminded the Egyptian of Muslim radicals of the Middle East. He now started with significant research of jihad (holy war) in Arabic Islamic literature, finishing his manuscript in 2001 in Orlando (Florida, USA), where he had moved to in the meantime. The September 11 event of that year made the Egyptian's book on the topic a best-seller when it was published at the beginning of 2002. It came out under the title Islam And Terrorism. That book became a major factor in the exposure of the violent side of Islam. (Subsequently the book was translated into more than 50 languages). Arson Attempt on a Church A 10-week teaching course ‘Love your Muslim Neighbour,’ in which we worked closely with Renate Isert, a German missionary, emphasised prayer as integral to ‘spiritual warfare’. Just before the course was scheduled to begin, there was an arson attempt on the intended venue, the Uniting Reformed Church in Lansdowne, where Dr Henry Dwyer was one of the pastors. A Lebanon type scenario with Christians and Muslims fighting appeared even more ominous When Muslims offered to help with the repair of the damage, the suspicion was confirmed that satanists were not really behind the arson attack as had been suggested by a Cape Argus reporter. A Lebanon type scenario with Christians and Muslims fighting each other now appeared even more ominous. (We did not know at that time that Lansdowne was a major PAGAD stronghold). This was the reason for relocating the ‘Love your Muslim Neighbour’ course to the St James Church in Kenilworth from 3 September to 5 November 1996. We wanted to use it as a ‘Gideon’s fleece’ (compare Judges 6:36-40) - a test to make sure that we were in God’s will. That congregation had experienced a vicious attack in July 1993, which God used to get South Africans to pray as never before. For the Love your Muslim Neighbour’ course in Kenilworth I used my devotional teaching on John 4, the interaction of Jesus with the Samaritan woman - for the first time as a ten-part series.7 A Series of Divine Interventions In a series of divine interventions, our ministry touched the gangster scene in 1999. In the context of our hospital outreach, where we focused on the cancer ward of Groote Schuur Hospital, God healed Ayesha Hunter miraculously in 1997. She would subsequently become one of our presenters on CCFM radio while ministering to children linked to the Hard Living Gang that was led by the Staggie brothers. Ayesha, as one of our co-workers, shared her testimony at churches here and there. At one of these, Shamiela Philander came to faith. Ayesha took her under her wing. Subsequently she requested us to take Shamiela Philander into our home after the teenager had been terriby abused by her gangster husband. She was one of various women that we had been taking into our home within the space of a few months. Three of them were Muslim background believers, one of whom had two children. This was the immediate run-up to the urgency of having a facility to disciple new believers from another faith. 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 had been experiencing abuse and rejection on the trot. We were confronted with the drug scene in a very real way when Ayesha Hunter approached us with regard to a young woman whose life was threatened. Kevin,8 the husband of Shamiela, was a gangster who had been involved with many atrocities. Kevin had been abusing Shamiela almost in every way possible. She was a new Muslim background believer. Apparently Kevin had also committed his life to the Lord, but he was still abusing her. After praying about the matter, we had peace to take Shamiela into our home. Only later we fully comprehended the risk involved when Kevin shared that he was so angry that he wanted to kill me. The experience with Nadia had made us wary to jump into something that could bring us into serious trouble again. 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. This was a trigger for us to start praying for a separate facility where people like Shamiela/Sharon could be discipled. The Need of a Discipling House Amplified What a joy it was to see how the young woman grew rapidly in her new faith. I was moved intensely to hear Shamiela sharing the burden she had for the residential area where she grew up. In Woodlands, a part of Mitchell's Plain, drug addiction and gangsterism was a way of life. But Shamiela knew that she first had to become spiritually strong and mature. Soon we were counselling her together with Kevin. Far too soon we allowed them to live together again. The end result was final separation. It was little consolation that Kevin grew spiritually. I encouraged him to go to the police to confess his criminal deeds. He only wanted to do it in God’s time. Even though I had problems with this view, I did not even consider putting pressure on him. He had definitely stopped with his old life-style and that was something for which we were very thankful. Unfortunately that was not be permanent. We were however quite disappointed in the meantime, having to face the fact that Shamiela was the third failure with a Muslim background believer, into whose life we had invested quite a lot of time. We were thrown back on the grace of God. The need for a discipling house where we could have these new Christians nurtured for a longer period, was amplified once again. We had hardly recovered from this disappointment, when we were confronted with a similar case. Nazeema9 had been a Christian for quite a few years but she was still very immature. For years she had been abused by her husband Keith,10 more than once she was almost killed. In spite of a few interdicts against him, he refused to leave her alone. The police in Woodstock knew him well. He had worked there as a reservist before he was sacked. Nazeema told us about a recent instance when he shot her in her leg. A few policemen came to her aid, but they had to unleash a dog to get Keith under control. Soon after the first interview we had with her, she phoned us. Her ex-husband Keith had tried to choke her, when she succeeded to run away to a befriended family from where she phoned us. In the court case Keith succeeded in turning things around, because the police dog had bitten him. He walked away free as a bird. The actual buying of property for the discipling house was quite traumatic as we experienced one disappointment after the other. But we saw how God still had his hand when he turned the saga around. Chapter 4 Impact of Jesus Marches at the Cape All around the world Jesus Marches were planned for 24 June 1994. In a letter from our friend and missionary colleague Chris Scott from Sheffield (England), he wrote about their preparations for a Jesus March in their city. Inquiries on this side of the ocean dropped the co-ordination of the whole effort in the Western Cape into my lap. In the run-up to the Jesus Marches, in which I served as co-ordinator of prayer marches in different parts of the Cape Peninsula and the immediate ‘platteland’ (country side), 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 but 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 thought 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. Probably 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 In the mid 1990s Sally Kirkwood led a prayer group for the Cape Muslims at her home in Plumstead. Later she played a more prominent role among Cape intercessors. Another group was formed by Gill Knaggs in Muizenberg after she had attended our Friday prayer meeting. Soon God used Gill to get the YWAM base in Muizenberg more interested in outreach to Muslims. Concretely, an Egyptian connection was established, with YWAM, starting to network with the Coptic Church via links through Mike Burnard of Open Doors. My wife and I were asked to teach at a YWAM Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Muizenberg in 1996. This culminated in a close friendship with a former shaykh from Egypt, who had changed his name from an Islamic one when he became a follower of Jesus. Prayer Results After New Efforts The Lord used the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 60 as part of a devotional in a Friday lunch hour prayer meeting at the Shepherd’s Watch to call Gill Knaggs into the mission to the Muslim World. She attended the prayer meeting on a once-off basis, but this was enough to set her in motion, to pray about getting involved in full-time missionary work. Gill helped to start translating (from Afrikaans) and editing the testimony booklet as Search for Truth.11 For a number of years she also hosted a prayer group for Muslims at her home. When Cape Community FM (CCFM) started a radio programme aimed at Muslims in 1998, she was available to write the scripts - something she continued to do for many years. As a result of the 1994 Jesus Marches, some Cape churches got to learn more about the local missionary work of WEC International among Muslims. One of these churches was the Logos Christelike Kerk in Bellville. Not only did this church become a major distributor of the Ramadan Prayer Focus, but Freddy van Dyk, an elder of the church, who worked at the Cape Town City Council, also joined the Friday lunchtime prayer meeting at the Shepherd’s Watch. Start of New Facets of Ministry         At one of the first Friday lunch hour prayer meetings of early 1996 Freddie van Dyk, a believer from the Logos Baptiste Gemeente in Brackenfell, a regular at our Friday lunch hour prayer meeting, heard about our vision to get into the hospitals to visit people outside of the regular visiting hours. Freddie mentioned a training course in pastoral care. When we followed up this information, it resulted in Rosemarie attending such a course, along with other befriended ladies. Dr Henry Dwyer, who headed up the pastoral work at the hospitals in the Cape, was an old friend of mine from our connections in the VCS, the student Christian movement in the 1960s.          Rosemarie was quite impressed by the commitment and quality of the participants at the course. One of the ladies aired the bright idea of having a teaching course in Muslim Evangelism at the same venue in Lansdowne. However, we made a terrible mistake with the name we gave to the course, calling it ‘Sharing your faith with your Muslim neighbour’. That would have serious repercussions. Aftermath of Hospital Ministry The hospital ministry at the Groote Schuur Hospital from 1996, led by Rosemarie and June Lehmensich, had an interesting aftermath. She and June especially started visiting the cancer ward. A very special case occurred when we heard about a patient, Ayesha Hunter, who had undergone surgery. Rosemarie understood that she had more or less been sent home to die. This sort of situation was, of course, happening quite regularly from time to time in the cancer ward. What a very special surprise it was when we heard about her a few months later at one of our Friday lunch hour prayer meetings. After following this up, she subsequently became a valuable co-worker, notably as a radio presenter via CCFM on one of the programmes that we started in 1998. Maria van Maarseveen, a Dutch missionary WEC colleague, continued leading this ministry subsequently, faithfully and perseveringly supported by Nur Rajagugkguk, an Indonesian colleague. The latter continued with the ministry until January 2017 when she and her husband returned to Indonesia. Maria continued in a more subdued way with the ministry with Marena White, a committed co-worker from Pinelands, who supported her there until the Covid epidemic put a stop to the blessed ministry. Furthermore, Groote Schuur Hospital also put up impediments for the ministry after insensitivity of certain Christians during Covid. We honour her service although she was already in an advanced age. A Closer Link With Radio CCFM At the GCOWE (Global Conference on World Evangelisation) conference in Pretoria in July 1997, Avril Thomas, the directress of Radio CCFM (Cape Community FM), had been challenged to use the station more to reach out to Cape Muslims. She phoned me, offering airtime for a regular programme to this end. Up to that time we had only assisted with the giving of advice and teaching to the ‘prayer friends’ of the station who had to speak to those Muslims who phoned in at CCFM, formerly Radio Fish Hoek. After a gradual increase by CCFM of occasional programmes geared to address the Cape Muslim population, we felt challenged to start utilising the CCFM offer to use the medium on a regular basis. The Battle of the Airwaves Escalates In the meantime, Gill Knaggs, our co-worker from Muizenberg, offered her services to CCFM. Gill had previous experience in commercial scriptwriting. Soon she was ready to write the scripts for Ayesha Hunter and Salama Temmers, two followers of Jesus with an Islamic upbringing. At a meeting on 7 January, 1998, it was decided to start with a regular programme on CCFM, and use two converts as presenters. On the same day the Islamic radio station Voice of the Cape published their intention in the Cape Argus to use a convert from Christianity as one of their presenters. The precedent created space for CCFM radio to follow suit - with less fear of PAGAD reprisals for putting Muslim converts on the airwaves. The two Muslim background believers, Ayesha Hunter and Salama Temmers, soon started with a weekly programme, beginning with the theme the woman of two faces. Gradually many women, some of them Muslims, started responding with phone calls, giving evidence that the radio programmes were making an impact. Life Issues, the women’s programme on CCFM on a Thursday morning with Muslim background Christians, went from strength to strength. Chapter 5. Diverse Rumblings Shamiela, alias Sharon, was not living 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. Moriah was after all no prison where we wanted to keep people against their will. Shamiela Philander had been one of the first Muslim background believers that we took into our own 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 therafter they got divorced. The time with us was, however, long enough to give Shamiela a new dignity. Rosemarie taught her to make 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. She was not the only Muslim background believer that we took into. This highlighted the need for a facility for this purpose. 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. Traumatic Incidents The pattern of traumatic incidents happening during my absence from home continued when Rosemarie and I attended our WEC conference in Natal in October 1999. When we phoned our home we heard that our 21-year old son Danny had to counsel Nazeema (not her real name), the Muslim background believer whom we had taken into our home. She threatened to commit suicide. (We took care of Nazeema, after her ex-husband had shot her in her leg, whereafter she fled to friends in the neighbourhood.) The need for a discipling house for folk who had come to faith in Jesus from Muslim background was amplified! Shortly after our return from the conference in Natal, I received an invitation to attend an international conference on Muslim Evangelism in Nairobi as the South African delegate. All expenses were to be paid by TEAR FUND, a British development and charity agency. Knowing that travelling in Africa by air was very expensive at that time, this led to me travelling via Holland, as we hoped that we could perhaps get financial assistance there towards buying property that we could use for the discipling of new converts. A Strategic Detour My two days in Holland were special, pivotal in getting funds for our discipling house. I had high hopes when I left for Hilversum, that my interview with the Evangelische Omroep could nudge their Wilde Ganzen charity projects to assist us. 'With regret' they felt intimidated: they would have to fear Islamic reprisals if they would assist us. An evening was organised on short notice to speak to some of our friends. There I showed a picture of the house that we intended to buy for use as a discipling house, hoping at that stage to get a rent-free loan. The mother of Martie Dieperink, one of the believers who attended that event, died soon after my visit. Shortly after having heard of the need of a discipling house in Cape Town where new believers coming from another faith could be nurtured, she immediately offered to help us with a substantial amount as an interest-free loan, to be paid back over a period of five years. This set in motion the acquisition of a building that became an important asset of our ministry. The furniture from the house of her mother was part of the content of a container that was sent in 2001. (After three years, Martie declared that we need not pay back anything.) We called the ideally centrally located facility the Moriah Discipling House. 'Ouma', an old homeless lady from Wynberg to whom our Indonesian colleagues had been reaching out lovingly, was the first resident of the Moriah Discipling House. We made a serious mistake, however, getting the house full, without a good screening process for new residents. In due course, the main criterium for new residents would be believers who had been persecuted because of their faith. An Indian MBB In the run-up of the Jesus of 1994 I had come to know many pastors throughout the Peninsula, including a ministers' fraternal in Mitchells' Plain. Pastor Theo Roman was among these pastors. One of his congregants was Shubashni, an Indian lady, originally a Hindu, who had become a Muslim due to marriage, but who then got divorced. The mother of Shubashni's ex-husband retained the custody of their two children. After reading a photocopied tract that I had written, she became a follower of Jesus. (I got the testimonies of a few Muslim background believers that we had disseminated in the two Search for Truth booklets, also printed as tracts in different colours. Someone made black and white photocopies, one of which impacted Shubashni.) She landed at the church of Pastor Theo Roman that she started attending. When she came to Moriah, she was pregnant. We had no screening process in place at that time for people to enter our discipling facility. A touch too glibly who took her into our Mowbray house, where she turned out to be quite a handful. For the first time, Rosemarie and I experienced extreme manifestations as a result of deliverance from a demonic spirit. Her face and movements turned into that of a monkey. The Hindu background was obviously manifesting. Shubashni was not very long at Moriah, returning to Mitchell's Plain and marrying a Christian brother who cared for her with her two children from her first marriage and the baby. They were not married very long when she contracted cancer, dying quite soon thereafter. The First Houseparents Dean Ramjoomia attended the EBC Bible School in Strandfontein from AD2000. At the end of that year he and his wife became the first houseparents of Moriah Discipling House. Dean started weekly Bible studies, Susan taught the ladies some basic craft lessons. Dean sold the products at lunchtime on many a day, while doing outreach at different businesses in the CBD. At fortnightly prayers meetings on Sunday evenings Dean got a visitor to share. After visiting two other local Sunday morning gatherings, the believers settled into the Mowbray Baptist Church. During the stint of service as houseparents of the Ramjoomias, the residents visited various churches more or less once a month. They also experienced demonic attacks on several clients, praying for hours for one of the ladies who wanted to commit suicide. We made a serious mistake at this time, trying to have the house full at all times, without a good screening process for new residents. A period of intense spiritual conflict occurred from the end of 2001 after I had reacted inappropriately to a manipulative phone call from our discipling house. 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 transpired immediately after my attending the national WEC leaders' meeting, thus without proper rest and little sleep on the bus.) This ignited a stress-related loss of memory the next day.12 Temporary Loss of Memory Robert and Denise visited us in March 2002 prior to this engagement. On Saturday 16 March 2002, the Lord gave Robert a vision cum dream of me in hospital. He saw this as a nudge to pray for me. This happened more or less at the time when our colleague Maria van Maarseveen suggested at our home in Vredehoek that I should be taken to the hospital. (The one day hospitalization became in turn a run-up to divine intervention a year later when I was diagnosed with prostate gland cancer.) In his vision Robert said: 'Ashley, aren't you in Durban?' (I had in fact returned by bus from there the previous day, back in local activity. After a day in hospital and further medical treatment, I was cleared - with the instruction to return after a year. We realised that there were major spiritual forces involved. The Ramjoomia family had major challenges at this time with 3 children at school plus a daughter of Dean's first marriage also living with them. Susan took night employment as a nurse for an agency. This caused friction with the mission leadership. Other incidents brought severe strain so that it was a relief when the Ramjoomia's offered to leave at the end of June 2002. The FATHER miraculously intervened. They were able to purchase a house in Beacon Valley for which at the time they should not have been able to qualify for. Rumblings at the Moriah Discipling House Also for us, the remainder of 2002 was a very difficult time in the ministry at the discipling house. More than once we came close to resigning. It was a special blessing when, in October 2003, the relationship to the Ramjoomia's could be restored at the wedding of Shubashni, one of the former occupants.13 She had contracted cancer. A former Egyptian academic from the renowned Al Azhar University of Cairo, who had stayed with us for a few months, repeated an invitation for us to come to the USA and assist him with itinerant work. This seemed to us to be just the right medicine, to get away from the stressful situation for a while. The thought also occurred to me to try and promote two of my manuscripts in the USA for which there was no market in South Africa.14 The trip was planned in such a way that we would stop in Germany and Holland en route. But we had to cancel these plans. When our friends in Holland heard of the cancellation, they invited Rosemarie and me to come to Europe because they knew that we desperately needed a break. Tha visit to Europe turned out to be quite important for our ministry. While we were in Holland, Fenny Pos, our special friend and contact person there, taught Rosemarie how to make three-dimensional cards which they were selling in institutions for the elderly, as part of fund raising for missionary work. Back in South Africa, Rosemarie used the skill later to teach some unemployed Muslim background women who had experienced problems because of their new faith. Although the income was minimal, it made a big difference to families where there would have been no other income, and it provided regular fellowship for a few women to grow in their faith. This helped to strengthen the faith of those ladies from Islamic background, keeping them from returning to religious bondage. Houseparents of Our Discipling House in Quick Succession After the Rajagukguks' term as house parents, Maria van Maarseveen volunteered to serve in this capacity temporarily. She has a broken lady from Manenberg especially in memory who got restored there, who married and emigrated to Australia. A Rwandan lady was admitted during Maria's short term, which co-incided with her service as part of the Groote Schuur hospital outreach team. The team also included Nur Rajagukguk and Denise Crowe, both of whom became Moriah house mothers in due course. (The hospital ministry started in the mid-1996s as an outflow of the Jesus March of 1994.) As a factory worker in the textile industry, Denise joined the WEC International-related hospital outreach (This was one of many ministry spin-offs of the blessed Friday lunch time prayer meetings in the Shepherd's Watch in Shortmarket Street from September 1992.) Denise was a part of those co-workers trained by Sylvia Richards for the Hospital service. Whereas the other workers focused on the cancer patients, of whom many were Muslims, Denise was drawn to the children's ward. Together with Rita Schaeffers, Denise also did the course of Coma Care, linking up in a close friendship that included phone calls almost every day. This was also the case with June Lehmensich till the evening prior to the fatal heart attack of Denise in May 2024. What distinguished this choice servant of our master was the faithful support she gave to ladies from Muslim background that had come to faith in our Lord. She would not only gather them regularly in the Greenhaven Evangelical Bible Church for teaching and fellowship, but she would also go to their homes for one and one discipleship. In a blessed display of sacrificial generosity, these MBBs had liberty to share details of their practical needs, knowing that Denise would not blow her own trumpet among other believers. When the need for houseparents arose in mid-2002 after the departure of the siblings Dean Ramjoomia and his wife Susan, Denise and Robert Crowe volunteered to come and serve in this capacity. Among other residents, they were houseparents there to Shamiela Philander, who later married Deon January in Manenberg. The latter two would serve as houseparents themselves from December 2020. A Series of Divine 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 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. Via Ayesha Hunter our ministry had an unsollicited link to the drug scene. Glen Khan, a leader of the Hard Livings, supplied Ayesha with funds to run a ministry to kids. She was quite vocal about her decision to follow Christ. Through the late 1990s, twenty-two bombs exploded, killing and maiming hundreds of men, women and children who happened to be in the path of this nameless cruelty. Ordinary citizens became fearful, numerous lives were lost. As chaos ruled the streets, the Church continued to pray more earnestly once again. PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) was taken to be behind the terrorism. In a drive by shooting Ayesha was almost killed at that time. Glen Khan himself became a victim of PAGAD on Resurrection Sunday 1999. Chapter 6 Drug Lords in the News From the very early beginnings at the Cape in January 1992, there was a link to people addicted to drugs. Almost from the word go we got in touch with a big problem of the Cape communities - drug addiction. On the first Sunday after moving to Kenilworth, we attended the Living Hope Baptist Church with Ireni Stephanis. A couple there told us about their daughter who was addicted to drugs and who subsequently became a Muslim. This was yet another nudge that we should get involved in compassionate outreach to Cape Muslims. We attempted to get her admitted to the rehabilitation ministry of Straatwerk in Wynberg, but the racist structures were a big stumbling block. We were immediately reminded of the successful Betel outreach of our mission agency to drug addicts in Spain, seeing this as a loving avenue of service to the Muslim community. Many former addicts started out as missionaries to other countries. This became our model for the drug addicts of Cape Town. We were yearning to share the vision with Capetonian Christians. The problem of drug addiction in the Cape Muslim society was highlighted again and again. We were thus confronted with the need of a centre for rehabilitation where people could be set free through a personal faith in Jesus. When we started serving in Hanover Park in the middle of 1992, we linked up with Norman Barnes,a former gangster and Dean Ramjoomia who concentratedly ministered in that area as a part of the very blessed Operation Hanover Park. A Cape Drug Lord on the Front Page In March and April 1999 dramatic things happened in quick succession. Rashied Staggie, the twin brother of the executed gang leader, had become a famous Cape drug lord by this time. He was shot and hospitalised by PAGAD perpetrators. Staggie made the news headlines from his bed in the Louis Leipoldt Clinic in Bellville through his public confession of faith in Jesus Christ. After his discharge from hospital, he went to a secret hiding place in Kwazulu Natal. A Drug Lord Shot and Killed On Resurrection Sunday 1999 Ayesha Hunter, one of our co-workers, 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 would have happened 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 Glen Khan’s assassination was divinely used to bring many a church in the city together, not only for prayer. To some extent the Church was challenged to reach out to Muslims in love. Following Khan’s death, some churches showed renewed interest in the lives of gangsters. Pastor Eddie Edson saw the need to disciple them, starting a programme of special care for gangsters who wanted to change their life-styles. The gang war triggered a significant increase in evangelistic ministry, notably at Pollsmoor prison. In the wake of the assassination of Glen Khan and Rashied Staggie’s powerful testimony at the funeral, a trickle of Cape Muslims started turning to Christ. A direct result was the birth of the Cape Peace Initiative (CPI), where church leaders mediated between PAGAD and gang leaders. The contribution of Errol Naidoo, a young journalist and pastor at His People Ministries, was significant, as was that of Hindu background Ps. Richard Mitchell, his mentor, who had originally led Errol Naidoo to the Lord. PAGAD Marginalized Suddenly PAGAD felt themselves cornered. At a consultation in the Pinelands Civic Centre on 22 April 1999, God intervened powerfully. PAGAD was suddenly ready to speak to the government together with the church leaders - unarmed! This was an answer to the prayers of the warriors around the country,with Sally Kirkwood playing a pivotal role. Intercessors had been interceding for the proceedings. To all intents and purposes PAGAD was marginalized. In due course, the element of fear of possible Muslim reprisals was steadily eroded, even the fear of being ostracised by the Muslim Umma (community) if they would become followers of Jesus. In due course many MBBs could be found in 'Coloured' townships, notably in Mitchell's Plain and Manenberg. Steady inroads among gangsters and drug addicts continued nevertheless, even though many of the new converts did not persevere in their new faith. A Localised Gangster Impact The intense involvement of Muslims with illicit drug peddling had a long-standing connection to gangsterism. In 1992 a fairly successful response to the gangster violence transpired through Operation Hanover Park in a networking effort of local churches. All too often, the gang lords were Muslims and many a businessman with collar and tie was a co-religionist, who was plying the same trade. When the locally produced drug called ‘Tik’ (crystal methamphetamine) swept across the Cape Peninsula, causing great devastation among the youth, we attempted to revive Operation Hanover Park. (The drug had been virtually unknown as late as 2003.) This attempt was seriously impeded when it became known that certain pastors were on the payroll of drug lords. The link between township pastors and drug-related activity - along with back slidden drug addicts, would remain a weak point. This was hanging like a dark cloud over wonderful ministry and victories in the outreach to gangsters and other criminals in prisons. From the view of drug lords and gang leaders, this appeared to be more effective than the requirement of 'protection money' which the gang leaders used in the heyday of the PAGAD scare. Protection money, however, also drove more than one trader out of the vocation. Peace Deals Between Gangs The Cape Peace Initiative of the late 1990s possibly had the biggest impact of all gangster-related peace accords to date. It became the divine instrument that ultimately marginalised PAGAD (People against angsterism and Drugs). Simultaneously this period catapulted Rashied Staggie, a drug lord, into prominence. Rashied Staggie became however the proverbial ‘Achilles Heel’ of gangster conversions. He became quite an embarrassment to Church folk after he had been paraded publicly – possibly prematurely – as a sort of trophy at the big Newlands Stadium event of March 2001. So many gangsters, sadly, returned to their previous lifestyle of criminality after their getting parole or discharged from prison. Rashied Staggie also went into this league when he participated in the gang raping of a state witness. He was subsequently jailed again for many years. When he was finally set free from prison, he displayed no remorse, nor did he become positively involved with Christians. Pastor Ivan Waldeck, a former gang leader from Hanover Park, assisted him with employment, but there was sadly no clear evidence of him wanting to follow Jesus again. A gang-related assassination brought his life to an end in December 2019. Prison Ministry Snippets The challenge of all prison ministry remains the restorative sector. The need for half way houses is massive. There is a dire need for families that are willing to walk a road full of risks with ex-prisoners. In 2019 Marlon Petersen and his family moved into a half-way house for ex-convicts in the ministry linked closely with Message Trust. In 2022 they moved into a bigger facility with the same role in up-market Loevenstein, where more than one meeting in the run-up to the impactful Hope through Unity conferences took place. Incarnational Ministry Pastor Alastair Buchanan, an old stalwart and friend since our short stint at the beginnings of the Jubilee Church in the early 1990s, has been the pivot of Message Trust, with Anja Morkel as his very able assistant. The present leader is Tim ??, a British missionary. Down the years, the lives of many homeless and struggling people have been touched and changed through this blessed incarnational ministry. Message Trust gives convicted drug addicts and former gangsters a new chance in life at the Cape. When a water shortage threatened our city at the beginning of 2018, a fake whatsapp message – purported to have been sent by Ps Angus Buchan – triggered a lunchtime prayer meeting called by brother Swieg Nel at 1pm. With Ps Sunil Kumar as house father of Moriah, we got to know Anja Morkel and the Message Trust. Alastair Buchanan linked us up with the Eden team of Salt River, that would start an incarnational initiative there via Grant Gunston. In recent years Rosemarie and I did some teaching in Salt River and one evening the group also came to Mowbray. Networking via an Alpha Course in District Six was contemplated in 2024. Anja subsequently married MKululi Letsatsi, one of the colleagues of Message Trust, who has been involved with impactful service using soccer in Nyanga. (I linked up with the couple during the Genadendal Pilgrimage of September 2022.) The Community Hubs of Message Trust seek to empower youth to share their faith in their daily lives. We also facilitate opportunities at schools and through community outreaches, for young people to serve their community alongside our team. Former Gangsters in Divine Service Ministry to gangster and drug addicted people belonged to the most difficult, but also among the most fruitful. 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. Eric Hofmeyer, who became a believer with a gangster background, went on record saying already in the 1990s, that he 'had been a disaster who became a pastor, now serving the Master'. He would ultimately become an important leader in sports ministry and in the discipling of inmates at Pollsmoor Prison. One of the inspirational stories is Hofmeyer's discipling of Sollie Staggie, who had been raised as Suleiman, the brother of the well-known Rashied. Sollie would become a community worker with the Evangelical Mission Church in Newfields, where he served especially among learners of three high schools. (Sollie led a failed attempt to assassinate Eric Hofmeyer after he had left the gang. God turned the tables when Eddie was the divine instrument to lead Sollie to the Lord.) Shamiela January had been one of the first Muslim background believers that we took into our home, after being abused by her ex-husband, a gang leader. We also attempted to disciple her gangster husband for a short period, linking this ministry up with Pastor Eric Hofmeyer. However, her fist husband returned to his previous lifestyle. Soon thereafter the couple got divorced. After her marriage to Deon January and some training with All Nations International, Shamiela would lead fruitful ministry in Voorberg prison in Porterville, a one and a half hour drive on Sundays for a season. One of the inmates to whom she ministered there was Sollie Staggie, at the rear end of his 25 years in prison. Transport constraints brought an end to that service, but Shamiela continued to serve female drug addicts in Manenberg faithfully. There she has been divinely used to lead a few ladies to the Lord and disciple them thereafter. In December 2020 she and her husband starting serving as the house parents of Moriah Discipling House where she had been discipled two decades prior to that. Chapter 7. A New Season of Spiritual Combat The last quarter of 1999 turned out to be another season of spiritual combat. A pattern of traumatic incidents happening during my absence from home continued when Rosemarie and I attended our WEC International conference in Natal in October 1999. When we phoned our home, we heard that our 21-year old son Danny had to counsel a Muslim background believer whom we had taken into our home. She was threatening to commit suicide. Shamiela Philander was one of the first Muslim background believers that we took into our home, after being abused by her ex-husband, a gang leader. We also attempted to disciple her husband for a short period, linking up with Pastor Eric Hofmeyer. However, he returned to his previous lifestyle. Subsequently the couple got 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. This suburb has been ruled by gangsters for years. 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. One of the inmates to whom she ministered there was Sollie Staggie, at the rear end of his many years in prison. Transport constraints brought an end to that service, but Shamiela continued to serve female drug addicts in Manenberg faithfully. There she has been divinely used to lead a few ladies to the Lord and disciple them thereafter. In December 2020 she and her husband starting serving as the house parents of Moriah Discipling House where she had been discipled two decades ago. CPx Impact on Bo-Kaap Munyaradzi Hove was a lone participant from Zimbabwe at the 2008 CPx of All Nations International, whom I took under my wing. After Rosemarie and I had finished attending the teaching section of the Church Planting Experience (CPx) in the first term of 2008, we were appointed as leaders of a Bo-Kaap 'home church', along with two couples from Cameroon and Nigeria respectively, as well as Munyaradzi Hove from Zimbabwe. The five CPxers plus the son of the Nigerian couple lived at our Discipling House during this practical part of the course. Munya, along with Arsene, the Cameroonian colleague, as well as our Nigerian brother, also started a simple church in a flat in Pinelands. A few of them were Zimbabwean refugees who resided in a garage. When the owner of the garage gave notice to them to find other accommodation, we took a few of those young Zimbabweans into the Discipling House. Munya became the interim house parent. Valentine Chirume and Nicholas Matambo were among the believers who attended the simple church services, along with a few other residents in the area at the discipling house on Saturday afternoon. (During the xenophobic mob violence of that year we gave shelter to a few young Zimbabweans and one from Rwanda in our Discipling House. Munya became our temporary house father.) In due course, Munya became like a son to us. The following year the Bo-Kaap 'home church' of CPx was accommodated at our home, with Munya as the leader, when we only had our youngest two children still living with us in Vredehoek. Ministry at Youngsfield Military Base After the mob violence against African refugees, the government accommodated them in marquees at a few places, of which the Youngsfield Military base near Wynberg was one. Once a week we went there with our All Nations team that resided at Moriah to minister. Rosemarie and the ladies met a young Ruwandese who was stranded when the folk were relocated. We took Media initially into our home. Young Zimbabwean Servants Munya was a member of the small team that Rosemarie and I led for the outreach phase of the CPx. The outreach at Green Market Square would have significant ramifications when a little 'simple church' could be started there. One of the participants, Valentine Chrume, also hailed from Zimbabwe. Subsequently Valentine married an US national. At the memorial service of Floyd McClung they happened to be on home assignment. Valentine spoke on behalf of many Africans that had been impacted by the great man of God.) Munya personified the vision and philosophy of Friends from Abroad more than anybody else before or after him. After he returned to his home country, initially as a part of teams that he led, he and other All Nations young people led many people in Victoria Falls to faith in Christ. Thereafter, when he returned there permanently in 2010, he gathered the new disciples of our Lord in discipleship groups and simple churches. We were blessed to see also others impacted at the Cape who would return to their home countries or who went to other countries to share the Good News of Christ. Sustainability of simple churches remains a big challenge, but a small dent was definitely made via the spreading of the Gospel into areas that had been unreached or unevangelized. A Hindu Background Housefather For the first time after the mob xenophia-related accomodation of folk in 2008/9, we had liberty to invite an Indian pastor with his South African wife to come and be our houseparents. We heard about Ps Sunil Kumar, a Hindu background believer from India and his South African wife Aurelia. (It had been not difficult to find believers who needed temporary accommodation such as Swieg Nel, who had been residing with Hannes van der Merwe in Woodstock for a while. But we needed houseparents to disciple new believers.) Sunil, the first of his Hindu family in India to come to faith in Jesus as his Lord and Saviour, brought a new element to the institution and to our ministry. Sunil and his wife were stretched in the extreme when we admitted a new believer from Iran with her three year old son in Moriah. It soon turned out that Alaleh had come to us under false premises. Back in Table View they linked up with a fewllowship where she was discipled. After a few years she got in touch with us again and became a regular at our home church for MBBs from other countries, led by a brother from Algeria. The stay of an Eritrean family transpired in the middle of an interesting succession of nationalities. Previous Houseparents Theo Schumann and his wife Mignonne served in a temporary there at a time when the building got a facelift, succeeding Ps. Sunil Kumar, a Hindu background pastor and his wife Aurelia who were there for a year. Bill Steinbroek, an American pensioner, held the fort for a few months when the Covid Epidemic ran havoc around the world. Dennis and Denise Atkins, previously matron and principal of the Bethel Bible School in Craford, served the longest as houseparents, from March 2012– March 2015. During the first months of 2008 we were able to put the Discipling House at the disposal of All Nations while the premises were transferred. Two couples from Nigeria and Cameroon plus our 'son' Munyaradze (Munya) lived there as co-members of the first Cape Town CPx of All Nations International. Rosemarie and I were the outreach leaders of the first 'Bo-Kaap' team from All Nations. (The following year we had a team residing at our home with Munja as leader.) When a need arose for accomodating refugees during the mob zenophobia from Zimbabwe who had been living in a garage in Pinelands, we took them into our Mowbray house with Media, a lady from Rwanda in the adjacent flat. Media had been traumatized not only in her home country during the genocide of the previous decade, but also in the refugee camp of Youngsfield. (Refugees had been put in tents on the Youngsfield military base, where we also went to serve once per week.) When there was a vacancy as house parents at the end of 2008, we were thankful that our son Sammy and his wife Sheralyn volunteered to operate at Moriah after their marriage while they ministered pastorally to students at the Jubilee Church in Observatory. Alja and Markus Spronk, missionary colleagues from OM, served subsequently in that capacity. Before they moved into the annex accomodation at the premises, Marcus received funds from the Netherlands to perform significant renovations prior to their service there. Melissa Titus with her husband Miles with their first-born baby had a brief stint at a time when a lady with serious demonic possession stayed there, someone we ultimately asked to leave. Melissa, a spiritual power-house in divine service, would contract cancer a few years later, dying in 2023. Tess Seymore initially contacted me on behalf of Mike Burnard, the founder of Incontext Ministries and DiaLogos Ministries, to speak at conferences in Windhoek and Durban in 2011. In stead of doing this, the Lord opened the door for Rosemarie and me to attend a conference in Jerusalem. This ushered in more interaction with Jews living near to us and the construction of a prayer room at our home. Two years later, Tess joined our team as a valuable team member and assistant in matters of Moriah. Diverse Residents at the Beginning of the Millennium It would be almost impossible to mention all the residents whom we were able to serve in Mowbray after they had problems because they had become followers of Jesus. Some of them were there only for a few days after some emergency situation. The one or other hardly spoke English so that it was very challenging for the respective houseparents at that time. The very first resident was 'ouma', a Muslim homeless believer that Nim and Nur Rajagukguk had been ministering to when they resided in a flat near to Wynberg station in 2000/2001. Dean and Susan Ramjoomiah and their children had already moved into the former garage that had been converted into their living room. Within a few months the house was actually too full. We thought that we had to utilise all the available space, not considering properly that every unit brought with them baggage. For us as team it was quite a learning curve, with many a sociological issue to cope with. After we had brought 'ouma' to Huis Silwerjare where my own mother had spent the last few years of her life till June 2000. The Muslim family of 'Ouma' fetched her there, to be taken to a Muslim retirement facility. A family with a schoolgoing child for which pain-stakingly found a place in a nearby school, decided to return to Islam the very first time the went to visited family for the first Labarang after their stay in Moriah. From the first intake only a few stayed there more than a few months. Our initial plan had been to take in residents who had employment who could pay some rent, so that we could pay back the interest-free loan over three years. This turned out completely differently. After the first year, Martie Dieperink, our friend in the Netherlands, whose mother had died in 1999, waved the first payment. This also happened in the next two years so that the premises became the property of WEC International, without us having to pay anything. From our friends in the Netherlands we also received a container full of furniture and appliances that we could use not only at Moriah, but also clothing and artifacts with which we could bless many a MBB. The container itself went to Mitchell's Plain where it was converted for the ministry of Abdul and Zulpha Morris, converts who accommodated abused women and abandoned children. Chapter 8. The Stranger at our Gates Our Friday lunch hour prayer meeting became the start of yet another venture in 1996 after Daniel, a believer from Eerste River, a distant suburb in the north of our city, who had been a regular participant in the beginning of these prayer meetings in 1992, popped in again one day. He challenged us, referring to the many French-speaking Muslim street traders from West Africa, who had been moving into the city: ‘Have you ever considered doing something about bringing the Gospel to them?’ In the meantime Louis Pasques, who was raised in an Afrikaner environment, had become the senior pastor of the Cape Town Baptist Church in 1996. He had not only become a regular participant at the Friday prayer meeting in the Koffiekamer, but he also speaks French. A public confession was made on behalf of Afrikaners for the hurts meted out to people of colour When 'Blacks' started attending the fellowship increasingly and because of a brave sermon in which Louis made a confession on behalf of Afrikaners for the hurts meted out to people of colour during the apartheid era, a few ‘White’ people left the church. This triggered the gradual change of the complexion of people attending the church. Forerunners of Returnees In 1839, soon after the emancipation of slaves in the West Indies, Thomas Keith sensed God calling him to work his passage back to Africa to bring the Gospel to his own people. He was one of many former slaves from the Caribbean and America who brought the Gospel to the so-called 'dark' continent. Due to their contribution, West Africa increasingly 'lightened' in respect of the Gospel. In this way they effectively blocked the march of Islam from the North of the continent, notably in Liberia and Sierra Leone, working unwittingly in tandem with missionaries who pioneered in Sudan and East Africa. I had been impacted myself while in voluntary exile in Holland when a brother there challenged me to be more loving and compassionate toward the apartheid regime, after he had read my manuscript Honger na Geregtigheid. I also had a burning desire to return to my beloved country. When we returned to South Africa in 1992, I hoped that I could serve foreigners in a similar way as that in which I had been blessed in Europe. In due course the ministry to foreigners would become a major part of the service to hapless believers from this quarter. Outreach to Foreigners When we started to pray about the possible outreach to foreigners at our Friday lunch-hour meeting, God surely used these occasions to prepare Louis Pasques’s heart. When the destitute Congolese refugee teenager Surgildas (Gildas) Paka pitched up at the church, Louis and his wife Heidi sensed that God was challenging them to take special care of the youngster. One weekend Louis and Heidi had their parents over for a visit. They asked Alan Kay, an elder and the administrator of Cape Town Baptist Church, to provide accommodation to the destitute teenager. Gildas captivated Alan’s heart. This was the beginning of an extended and unusual adoption process. One thing led to the other until Alan Kay not only finally adopted Gildas, but he also got more and more involved in compassionate care of other refugees. Soon the Cape Town Baptist Church became a home to refugees from many African countries. Gildas and our son Rafael, became quite close friends. Allain Ravelo-Hoërson (T.E.A.M.) played a big part in establishing the ministry among Francophone Africans at the church, along with other missionaries who had been working in countries where French is the lingua franca. Allain ministered there faithfully from 1998 to August 2001, when he and his wife left to study in London. He was supported by Ruth Craill, an SIM missionary, who had ministered in West Africa. She played the piano and took care of providing meals after or before the services. Moreover, the weekly Bible studies held in the Ravelo-Hoërson home for several years, helped to strengthen that ministry. Many a homeless person was transformed by the power of the Gospel The Koffiekamer, once rejected as the venue for a 24-hour prayer watch, became a major channel of blessing when an Alpha Course was started there. A special role in the transformation of the city was accorded to it when many a homeless person was transformed by the power of the Gospel, and prayer meetings for the city started at that venue every last Wednesday of the month. This is where we had increased contact with Vlok and Lynne Esterhuyse. Vlok would become one of our stalwart intercessors at the Cape Town Central Police Station thereafter. A Positive Change Towards Refugees The attitude of 'Whites' in the Cape Town Baptist Church gradually changed positively towards refugees. Before long, quite a few refugee-background Africans started attending our churches services, especially when special ones in French were arranged monthly and later twice a month, as an effort to equip the Francophone believers for loving outreach to the Muslim French-speakers from our continent. The word spread quite well, so that in due course also other churches started opening their doors to refugees. The need for refugees to get employment was the spawn for the English language classes at the church to be revitalised. This inspired the offer of free English lessons to many of these refugees, ultimately leading to the resumption of English language classes at the church as an aid to help refugees find their way in the city. The simultaneous need for a discipling house for Muslim converts and a drug rehabilitation centre gave birth to the Dorcas Trust. I hoped that the city churches could take ownership of these ventures. (That turned out to be much easier said than done.) A Focused Ministry to Foreigners During 2003 it seemed as if the Lord was leading us more and more into a ministry to foreigners. One Sunday morning, while Jeff Holder, a US Southern Baptist based at Cape Town Baptist Church preached, Rosemarie received a vision of our Moriah Discipling House to be used for refugee-type sojourners. In our recruiting for a couple to become house parents of the facility, the Lord had to correct us however, because we originally thought that a Cape ‘Coloured’ couple would be ideal, since we perceived that they understood the culture of the Cape Muslims the best. At the end of 2002 we were praying fervently again that the Lord would give us more assistance for the general convert care. Unbeknown to us, Lynn Holder had been praying about how she could get involved. I approached the Life Church (formerly Atlantic Christian Assembly, ACA) as part of an effort to promote the hand-made 3D greeting cards, which the MBB ladies had been making. (The Lord had undertaken wonderfully so that we could pay these ladies, giving them some regular income, although we could hardly sell the cards.) By 2003 Anthony Liebenberg had become the senior pastor of the ACA. Pastor Liebenberg had good memories of the time when he was youth pastor of the ACA. Our son Danny had joined his cell group and he also played in the music group of their church on Sunday evenings. [The prophetic word spoken about Danny to be a link to other believers on the day we had our valedictory service in Holland in January 1992, had obviously already been partially fulfilled. The Lord wonderfully used him at the Deutsche Schule (German School) to bring new spiritual life to the Christian Union there, especially when a youngster, Chris Duwe, came to the Cape in 1996 during their Abitur (A-level) year.] Pastor Anthony Liebenberg and the congregation were rather hesitant to allow people from outside to come and promote any ministry during a slot in their church services. Pastor Liebenberg agreed however to advertise our material, especially the 3D cards - produced by the ex-Muslim ladies - on our behalf. Because of the good rapport we had with him and the link via our son, Pastor Liebenberg did it much better than I could have done. Anthony also spoke a prophetic word over us, that we would get assistance soon. This was fulfilled when Lynn Holder joined Rosemarie with the making of the 3D cards, to be followed by Rochelle Malachowski, a YWAM missionary from the USA, soon thereafter. Rochelle was introduced to us by Gill Wrench-Knaggs. A Tsunami of Opportunity? At this time Rosemarie and I were seriously praying about relocating. After almost 12 years at the Cape in the same ministry, we thought that we should have a change (words deleted) for the last stretch before possible retirement. With our youngest daughter about to finish her schooling at the end of 2004, we even considered relocating internationally. But no ‘doors’ opened with regard to a move overseas. We felt increasingly challenged to reach out to refugees and foreigners Instead, we felt increasingly challenged to reach out to refugees and foreigners who had been coming to Cape Town, for example by using English teaching even more as a compassionate vehicle. We prayed that the Lord would give us more clarity with regard to our future ministry by the end of 2003. In October of that year Rosemarie had a strange dream cum vision in which a newly married couple, clad in Middle Eastern garb, was ready to go as missionaries to the Middle East. Suddenly the scene changed. While the two of us were praying over the city from our dining room facing the Cape Town CBD, a massive tidal wave came from the sea, rolling over Bo-Kaap. The next moment the water engulfed us in her dream, but we were still holding each other by the hand. There was something threatening about the massive wave, but somehow we also experienced a sense of thrill in the dream. Rosemarie woke up, very conscious that God seemed to say something to us through this vision-like dream.15 What was God saying? Middle Eastern Muslims in the Convention Centre The day after Rosemarie’s dream we heard about a conference of Middle Eastern Muslim leaders in the newly built International Convention Centre of Cape Town. We decided on short notice to have our Friday prayer meeting there nearby, instead of in the regular venue, the Koffiekamer of Straatwerk in Bree Street. Lillian James, one of our friends, was on hand to arrange a place for the prayer meeting near to the Convention Centre. (Lillian James, who had been an occasional intercessor in our Bo-Kaap prayer meetings at the Abrahams' home, would become an important instrument to link us up with Leigh Telli and the Isaac Ishmael aspect of our reconcliation ministry to Jews and Muslims.) We decided on short notice to take our Friday prayer meeting there instead of having it in the regular venue, the Koffiekamer of Straatwerk. While I drove a few other participants back to the Koffiekamer in our Microbus, Rosemarie, Rochelle, Denise Crowe, one of our co-workers and Shamielah Philander, a Muslim background believer, went into the Convention Centre where they surprisingly had access to the interior of the building without any security check. They walked around, praying for the delegates to the conference and for the building. The same Friday afternoon Rosemarie and Rochelle Smetherham went to the nearby Waterfront where they literally walked into a group of ladies in Middle Eastern dress. The outgoing Rochelle had no qualms to start chatting to one of them. Having resided among Palestinians in Israel, she knows some Arabic. Soon they were swarmed by other women who were of course very surprised to be addressed in their home language by a ‘White’ lady with an American accent. A cordial exchange of words and email addresses followed. Rosemarie was reminded of her dream, sensing that God might be sending in a wave of people to Cape Town from Muslim countries. We understood that we should also get ready to send young missionaries to that area of the world when it opens itself up to the Gospel. Shortly hereafter we heard of various foreigners who had come to the Mother City, including a few Uyghur, a minority people group of China. Fast-forwarding another two decades, we can thankfully look back at the privilege the Father gave us to have become spiritual parents or catalysts to a few who would serve as missionaries in different countries. Start of Focused Ministry to Foreigners On the personal front it seemed as if the Lord was confirming a ministry to refugees and other foreigners. In November 2003 we baptized a Muslim background refugee from Rwanda. The Lord used Daniel Waris, a co-worker from Pakistan, quite prominently at this time. He led a few people from the group of refugees, as well as vagrants, to faith in our Lord during the last weeks of 2003. Shortly hereafter, the Lord also brought to our attention various groups of foreigners who had come to the Mother City, including a few from a Chinese minority group. The slow positive moves in a few 'White' churches was not mirrored in those of colour. In fact, the growing unemployment played havoc in this regard. Also committed Christians in the 'Coloured' and 'Black' communities remained negative towards the foreigners who 'take our jobs away.' This impacted our ministry when we took a Rwandan lady into our discipling house. The subsequent tension that arose from there would spiral. Ultimately our new WEC leaders in Durban more or less pushed us towards a choice between ministry to Cape Muslims and outreach to Muslims foreigners. At this time we were under attack from more than one side, ultimately leading to near burn out. Contact With Special Foreigners For Nursilen Rajagukguk, an Indonesian missionary colleague in our team who had previously served in Hong Kong, it was quite special to watch the video version of The Passion of the Christ in our home together with two Uyghur females from China. Nur had a special burden for the Uyghur, a Muslim tribe in the Northwest of the vast and populous country. For years she prayed for those people, without seeing any change. She would be the divine instrument to see a medical doctor from the Chinese mainland, a Uyghur person, coming to the Lord who married a student from Togo who would become a professor in Electrical Engineering at UCT subsequently. In a divine move Nur Rajagukguk met the couple in Cape Town in 2000(??). God had brought some of them to the Cape after the turn of the millennium. Within months we had contact with other Uyghur folk who had come to the Cape Town. (The increased interaction with the Peoples' Republic of China brought many nationals from that country to Cape Town. With the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing looming, many students came to learn English in our city.) The conversion and baptism of two Uyghur Chinese in the first quarter of 2005 were very special, the result of divine intervention. One of the two converts needed a second dream to convince her that Jesus was indeed the one to follow after . In the first dream her room was brightened up with a supernatural light early the next morning, which happened to be Christmas morning. Simultaneously she came under a strong conviction of sin. She knew that Jesus was there with her. His divinity was so natural that she prayed spontaneously: “Jesus, forgive me my sins!” She became confused hereafter, asking God to reveal to her which one was the one to follow. She had discerned that it could be either Jesus or Muhammad. The other Uyghur person, a male, had a similar dream of a person that radiated light, sensing a divine presence in his room. In due course, a group of Asians was meeting once a month on Sunday afternoon for Bible Study, sometimes at the Moriah House when Nim and Nur Rajagukguk were the house parents. A Sabbatical Was Offered to Us A serious crisis when we did not know the whereabouts of our daughter in Europe in mid-2006. She had written an email to our youngest daughter for her birthday on 25 April, but this was only discovered much later because she had changed her email address. A sabbatical was offered to us after we suffered from a condition near to burn-out. Counselling by Dave Peter, a YWAM leader, helped us very much to retain our sanity. The relief when our daughter phoned to inform us that she was pregnant, assisted significantly towards our healing. We could thankfully change our itinerary that enabled us to go to Spain for the birth of our first grandchild. We were blessed to see the Lord opening doors in networking with other missionaries after our return from Europe. It would ultimately lead to our starting Friends from Abroad in late 2006. The unresolved conflict with our leaders would, however, ultimately usher in our resignation from WEC International the following year. The Resumption of English Classes Rosemarie was reminded of her dream, sensing that God might be sending a wave of people to Cape Town from Muslim countries. We should get ready to send young missionaries to the Middle East when it opens up to the Gospel. (In the wake of the start of the Arab Spring, that started on 25 January 2010 in Egypt, this became more concrete and urgent than ever.) Many refugees have been empowered after having learned English Already since 1996 refugees from various African countries had been coming more and more into our focus. Many refugees have been empowered after having learned English at the Cape Town Baptist Church. Heidi Pasques, the wife of the pastor, had been heading up the proceedings. In this way it was easier for the refugees to secure employment. (Through internal problems at the church the classes were aborted at the end of 2001.) The Net Thrown Wider I had already felt myself challenged to attempt to get a City Bowl prayer watch started in the first half of 2004. The unity of the Body of Christ, believers in the crucified and risen Saviour, has always been very much on my heart. We believed that the prayer watch movement could be a decisive vehicle to make this more visible - to be used as a powerful means to take the city for God. Soon we were serving (Uyghur) Chinese and Somalians in loving ways. The latter group in Mitchell's Plain stretched our patience. We stopped teaching English to the Somalians after a few months in mid-2005 when it became apparent that they resented being taught by Christians. English teaching to foreigners in a small fellowship on the corner of Dorp and Loop Street on Saturday afternoons where Gary Coetzee was the pastor, turned into a double blessing. There we could not only help a few new sojourners in our city, but we also soon found a link to the nearby Boston House on that was situated at that time on the corner of Bree and Church Streets. We supplied learners from the ranks of refugees and Green Market Square traders for their TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) students. A Cameroonian was one of these students. With him we had on-going contact - one of those who became like additional sons and daughters at our Vredehoek after the start of a Discovery Bible Study Group. Ramifications of the Beadwork Ministry It became clear to us that the income for the ex-Muslim ladies, making the cards, was not lucrative. At this time, the teaching of English had come into sharper focus as a way of loving outreach to the refugees. Clara-Mathilde Chaulaya (called Tilly), a Swahili-speaker from Tanzania, along with her husband Thierry Doudou Kabeya, a French-speaker from Congo DRC, into whom we bumped at some church meeting, became one of those ladies in the workshop. She also assisted with the English teaching to the other refugee ladies and with translation. We were blessed to be able to add a second day for the workshop, to give the ladies a few rand more to put bread on the table of their families. On one of these days a simple meal was provided, during which one of the co-workers would lead the group in a devotional time. Here they had the opportunity to share practical and health needs, for which would be prayed. Tilli was on hand to translate the messages into Swahili. By the time she married Thierry Kabeya, who attended a Bible School. She was in serving in an immigration office. In due course she could work independently, assisting us with other foreigners. Rose, the wife of Ps. John Kadende, became a successor as translator into Swahili. The fairly close relationship to their Paran congregation in Salt River continued for a number of years, also after they relocated to other venues. He was researching the increase of yield on coffee in Africa in the course of his studies towards a Ph.D. at Stellenbosch University on Robusta (Uganda) and Arabica (Ethiopia) when extensive travelling was necessary to this end. Our Department of Home Affairs would, however, not grant him the required document. He was forced to abort his research and studies. In due course, a former judge of Rwanda, Violet Musabyimana, became the successor as translator into Swahili. In the wake of the genocide in their country, she had to flee with her family because of the tribally Hutu-Tutsi mixed marriage. She regularly came to Moriah House from September 2014 with not only special skills in beadwork, but also in sewing. After several years, she became a translator for these ladies from English to Swahili and vice versa. Chapter 9. A Facility for All Nations The vision of Rosemarie during a sermon of Jeff Holder at Cape Town Baptist in 2003, to see our Disicpling House used for foreigners, was clearly coming to fruition, not only with regard to residents, but also to houseparents. After Denise and Robert Crowe returned to their and home in Greenhaven, Maria van Maarseveen, our Dutch colleague held the fort there, to be followed by Nim and Nur Rajagukguk after a relative short period. At this time, we started using the flat at the back for accomodation, with the Indonesians staying in the main house. We were blessed to be able to assist a Uighur student with accommodation there. We had baptised together with another Chinese student from that tribe in 2004. When the Rajagukguks left for Indonesia on their first home assignment, we had various interim house sitters till the end of 2007 at nominal rent. By this time, Rosemarie and I had close connections to All Nations International, all set to join the first Captonian CPx. Ongoing Xenophobia Rosemarie and her assistants continued interacting with the refugee ladies at the beadwork workshop, where FFA helped many of them to provide some semblance of a livelihood. During our weekly city outreach, we ministered to many an African trader . There we were often reminded, quite tragically, of the ongoing xenophobia. What made us very sad was that this also happened at government institutions, notably at the Department of Home Affairs. The hassling and rudeness that people were experiencing at the refugee department, were blatantly xenophobic. Even we as stakeholders had to bear the brunt of the sheer rudeness and bad manners of officials. During 2012 we witnessed how our hard work of the past was being eroded. The government seemed determined to close the facilities for asylum seekers and refugees in Cape Town. When stakeholder colleagues took the government to court successfully, the government response was new hassling of the foreigners whom we tried to assist. After advocacy on their behalf, networking with other role players where possible, the closure date of the office was changed to three months and still later to six months. (The networking with Scalabrini, the Roman Catholic city social welfare facility, was especially valuable in this regard.) Then however, Home Affairs came with a new xenophobic measure. Those refugees who entered the country through other centres like Johannesburg or Durban, even though they had been in Cape Town for years, were required to go there every month for the extension of their permits. Many of them would hereafter rather risk illegality than going to such expense that they could ill afford. This only had the result that corruption could thrive even more. Through some persevering advocacy we could help a family that had been required to go to Durban every six months, to get their file brought to the Mother City. (In the case of a brother from Eritrea who had to do the same in 2019, having to go to Port Elizabeth repeatedly, it helped when I got his story published in Gateway News, albeit that I ultimately had to approach the office of the Minister.) A Special Spiritual Victory But there were also spiritual victories. One of them happened when a refugee lady from Burundi had collapsed at our bead workshop. (On two days a week Rosemarie and her volunteer helpers were running a small workshop at our discipling house to enable a few refugee ladies to put some food on the table of their families. A year prior to this occurrence the lady had been one of my English learners.) I took her to Somerset Hospital where she was admitted and treated for about a week. After her improvement and discharge she was taken to relatives to recuperate. When, however, some medical backlash occurred, a relative deemed it fit to involve a sangoma, a witchdoctor. Hereafter she became completely insane. She had to be taken to a mental clinic in Stikland in the extreme northern suburbs of the city. From the mental clinic she was transferred to the psychiatric ward at Tygerberg Hospital where she was soon regarded as terminal, expected to die soon. Family members started with preparations to take her body to Burundi for the funeral there. We discerned that we now had an extreme case of spiritual warfare. After a day of prayer and fasting, we took along Arsene Kamptoe, our All Nations colleague with us. There in in Tygerberg Hospital he led all of us in prayer for divine intervention in the name of Jesus. The terminal patient recovered dramatically as a trophy of God’s grace The Burundian not only recovered dramatically as a trophy of God’s grace, but she also returned to the workshop at Moriah a few weeks later. Xenophobic Mob Violence Spreads Like Wildfire With the 2008 winter approaching, the homeless people living near to the (former) Home Affairs premises on the Cape Town foreshore near to the International Convention Centre did not have adequate shelter. With a small team we served these people with sandwiches once a week. Lili Goldberg, a 16 year-old St Cyprian’s High School Jewish learner and her mother, brought bags full of clothes and shoes to the Home Affairs refugees on May 9, 2008. There the two volunteers who were linked to the Adonis Musati Project, were suddenly attacked by xenophobic South Africans. This Cape occurrence turned out to be yet another forerunner of countrywide xenophobic mob violence. Within a matter of days the mob violence had spread countrywide. On Wednesday 21 May, 2008 mayhem also broke out in the Western Cape. Greater carnage was possibly prevented because the police commissioner of the Province had beckoned all stakeholders and station commanders to the police Headquarters in Bishop Lavis Township the previous day, setting up contingency plans. Thousands of 'Black' foreigners were displaced In spite of determined efforts by the police, it took days until the situation calmed down. However, by that time thousands of 'Black' foreigners were displaced. Many of their shops were destroyed and looted by criminal elements and other poor folk who exploited the anarchic situation. We were very sad to hear and read of mob violence and xenophobic behaviour in Masiphumelele and Ocean View, where our All Nations colleagues had been serving. Philoxenia and Compassion Ushered in At this time our CPx colleague Timothy Dokyong from Nigeria, who lived in Masiphumelele, was inundated with phone calls from concerned colleagues. He felt quite safe there as South African 'Blacks' from the neighbourhood rallied around him, promising to protect him. Soon he joined a number of Malawian and Zimbabwians from Masiphumelele in the team house in the nearby 'White' suburb of Capri. There they engaged in intensive intercession for ‘Masi’ and all the people living there. Churches Respond With Compassion Was all this the forerunner of the revival for which believers have been waiting for years? This seemed very much the case when the Lord gave Rosemarie a picture at our home church in our Discipling House on Saturday evening, May 24, 2008. (Some of the congregants were refugees from African countries). She saw a big clay jar with a handle that was being filled with the tears of the refugees. Adjacent to the jar there was dry arid earth with many cracks. Thereafter a big hand poured out the content of the jar on the dry earth. The moisture coming from the jar – the many tears that had been flowing all over our country, including those of the refugees among us, filled the cracks. Grass started sprouting all around the area. Churches and mosques opened their doors to displaced Africans Within a matter of hours the vision became alive when reports came in of South Africans donating food, clothing and blankets. Churches and mosques were opening their doors to displaced Africans. The government dropped their resistance to accommodate the refugees in mass quarters temporarily. Many of the displaced folk were taken to the Youngsfield military camp in Wynberg, to mass beach camps erected at Blue Waters (near to Strandfontein), at Silwerstroom (near to Atlantis) and to a camp apiece at Soetwater (near to Cape Point) and Harmony Park. Big marquees were erected at these sites to deal with the emergency. Personally all this was very special to us. In 2006 and 2007, when many tears were wetting our pillows, the Lord had been comforting us with Isaiah 43:18 and 19. Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will sprout … I will even make … rivers in the desert. Impacting Asians The video version of The Passion of the Christ, plus English lessons to Chinese people who were coming to Cape Town in numbers of consequence, opened a new doot. It became the run-up to a very fruitful ministry to an hitherto unreached Asian people group. The conversion and baptism of two Uyghur Chinese in the first quarter of 2005 was very special, the result of divine intervention, but also a special answer to prayer for an Indonesian Christian who had been praying for many years for that tribe and now she found some of them in Cape Town. One of the two converts needed a second dream - after backsliding through a romantic contact to a Cape Muslim - to convince her that Jesus was indeed the one to follow. The other Uyghur had a similar dream of light and divine presence in his room. I had been teaching German to the young man at our home, when he also wanted to attend the group of young adults that was meeting in our home on Wednesday evenings for Bible Study. The group was led by Danny, our eldest son. In due course the German lessons became Bible Study after the young man had bought himself a Bible. After one of the sessions, I could see how the penny dropped when I explained to him how prophetic the last plague in Egypt was, when the Israelites had to apply the blood of the innocently slaughtered lambs to their door-posts; that this pointed to Jesus who would die centuries later as the Lamb of God. In 2005 our team received a special boost when Stephanie Lue, a Chinese background US American, joined us for a year. With her compassionate heart for Asians, Stephanie assisted a Korean female student with English. Soon enough this also included Bible Study until the Korean also came to know Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. Subsequently she joined a Cape Korean church where she later started teaching in the Sunday School. No Relocation In the meantime, Rosemarie and I had been praying regularly with Heidi Pasques, Hendrina van der Merwe and Beverley Stratis. On the last Sunday of 2003 we visited the Calvary Chapel service when we bumped into Heidi. (Demitri Nikiforos, the pioneering pastor there, had married Karen, the daughter of Graham and Dawn Gernetsky. The Gernetsky's had been the pastoral couple at the Cape Town Baptist Church. Demitri had also been the Sunday school teacher of our daughter Magdalena). Heidi hinted that she and Bev had special news for us. They could hardly wait to see us in the evening for our prayer time with them and Hendrina in Heidi's flat. This was to us the confirmation that we should not relocate There Bev and Heidi shared how the Lord had made it clear to them that Bo-Kaap was a strategic stronghold. We were rather surprised that the penny took so long to drop with them. After all, how often had I not been inviting the congregants directly and indirectly to come and join us in the prayers for Bo-Kaap. But we were nevertheless extremely blessed. This was to us the confirmation that we should not relocate, that we could remain in Cape Town! Hereafter the three of them, along with Trevor Peters, the tour guide of the Groote Kerk, became part of the core group for our monthly Signal Hill early morning prayer. A learner from Sudan had a vision of Bo-Kaap in his home country. His dedication and commitment in learning English was quite exceptional. I was rather sceptical when he was admitted to the Masters' programme of the local Technical University because of his poor language proficiency at that stage. He proved me totally wrong, by not only graduating from there in due course, but when he also proceeded to go on to doctoral studies in Durban. Very close to graduation, he sadly aborted his studies, caught up in an alternative life-style at the end of 2024. In due course, we started a small 'house' church with those who came from Muslim background. At some stage we also had a former Hindu from India in this fellowship. (He had been the first of his family to become a follower of Jesus.) An MBB from Algeria, who had been impacted at an Alpha Course, attended a Bible School on a part-time basis. In due course, we asked him to be the leader of the home church that we had normally at our home, but sometimes also at the discipling house and occasionally also elsewhere. Ministry Blessings What a special encouragement we experienced when our missionary colleagues, the Schumanns, got an appartment in Bo-Kaap! The timing was so special. They moved out of Moriah just at the moment when the new housemother of our Discipling House was due to move into the house where they had been holding the fort. We prayed that the family would be a lighthouse to the residential area, an Islamic stronghold. The new housemother, Lameez Ras, had been a Muslim background resident herself. We were thankful that we could assist in an emergency to accommodate Filmon and Sharon Tesfai, a couple from Eritrea with their toddler son our Discipling House. Sharon is a female doctor and her husband had been in prison four times because of his faith. It was so deeply moving to hear their story and how they were more or less forced to flee their country. (In fact, the couple probably merely survived because of the prayers of believers. Many South Africans could read their story after we had liberty to get it published in Gateway News. That seemed to have nudged the Minister of the Interior to get their asylum seeker extension to be changed to Cape Town (Otherwise they would have been required to get it done in Durban and Port Elizabeth respectively.) It has been a blessing to be networking with our OM missionary colleagues in this venture. Discovery Bible Study We used English as a vehicle to serve Muslims from other countries holistically. One of those we taught was Musa, atrader from Cameroon whom we subsequently invited for a meal. His home language is Hausa. This gave us a natural invitation to ask him to watch the DVD More than Dreams since Hausa is one of the original five languages of Muslims in the DVD. These Muslims saw Jesus in a dream. In this dream He appeared to them attired in a white robe. In the course of our outreaches in the city and at the Home Affairs Refugee office, we also blessed the people there with beverages. There we met a few foreigners who displayed openness to the Gospel. When we invited him to share a meal with us, we discovered that Hausa was his home language. This was the cue to watch one of the More than Dreams testimonies, a DVD with five stories of Muslims who had a dream of a man clad in a white robe. This evolved into a weekly Discovery Bible Study (DBS) with a few foreigners who were Muslims. The Country Brought to its Knees Satan may however have overstepped once again. The xenophobic mob violence brought the country to its knees. A call for prayer was issued, requesting all denominations and Christian organisations to pray on Sunday, 25 May, 2008 and in the weeks to follow, for the ethnic violence to stop. A suggestion was added to these prayers, intercession for the near-genocide situation in the neighbouring country of Zimbabwe. There was now a groundswell of goodwill towards displaced foreigners In the next few days we were elated to hear of compassionate action by Christians, churches and individuals, indicating that there was now a groundswell of goodwill towards the displaced foreigners all around the country. At a Consultation of Christian Churches planning meeting on 31 May 2008 in Parow, it was exciting to hear how various concerned pastors enquired how they could join in compassionate action on behalf of the displaced foreigners. Among those attending the meeting there was Anglican Catholic Bishop Alan Kenyon, who would play a special role in countering xenophobia in subsequent years. Stolen Goods Returned The township Masiphumelele was a big exception countrywide, not caught up in and affected by xenophobic mass hysteria. The spade work of Christian mediators and workers since August 2006, along with the prayers of believers in the All Nations International team house in Capri, was bearing fruit. When signs of trouble began there, many foreigners started leaving the township. Pastor Mzuvukile Nikelo, a physically small pastor, decided to tie a loudspeaker to his car. Driving up and down the streets he announced: ‘As leaders of the community we have made a clear decision. We are not attacking anyone... If you see people leaving, don’t make any bad remarks and don’t intimidate them. Let them go in peace.’ The situation in Masiphumelele became national news when stolen goods were returned to the owners. The Xhosa-speakers drafted a declaration, asking for forgiveness, inviting their fellow Africans to return to the township. A Couple for Moriah Discipling House On Wednesday 10 December 2008 our son Sammy and his fiancéé informed us that they have a sense of calling to work alongside our colleague and 'son' Munyaradzi Hove from Zimbabwe, to disciple those friends from abroad that we felt specially challenged to minister to. Our small FFA team continued with weekly prayer walks in Bo-Kaap next to the monthly ones at which Bertie de Jager was a regular participant. Our son Sammy and Sheralyn responded to the call for a couple, which we needed to minister as house parents at the Moriah Discipling House. We knew that they would be stretched, but we had liberty to challenge them in this way. They received some special wedding gifts, including a stove. The problem was however, that the flat at Moriah Discipling House where they would reside, had no special stove plug facility. This brought us in contact with Pastor Gary Adams of the Shiloh Sanctuary of Observatory, who is also an electrician by trade. Special Answers to Prayer On 31 March 2009 Rosemarie and her jewellery workshop colleagues were very elated when Adijah, one of the Muslim refugee women from Burundi and Rwanda declared rather formally on behalf of the group that they all believe that Jesus died for their sins and that He is the Son of God. We continue to pray that this discovery that has grown in them through the weekly spiritual nourishment during the workshop, may filter through to their families. When we heard about Christine, a Rwandese lady in a Shelter in Wynberg as a possible resident for our Discipling House, we were quite tense. Media, who witnessed many of her family killed, had previously been very paranoid about meeting any Rwandese. How would she react when she would hear that Christine is a Hutu? It was therefore to us tantamount to another miracle that she agreed. Both of them had lost family members in the genocidal civil war of their home country. And then we heard soon thereafter that a Zimbabwean believer, a female teacher, who had been impacted at one of our home churches, was getting ready to return to her home country. She had the vision to start a simple church if the Lord opened a door for her. This is exactly the philosophy of Friends from Abroad - to see people spiritually moved and equipped here at the Cape to go and bless their countries of origin. Chapter 10. A New Season With South Africans After the interlude with foreigners at the discipling house, also as houseparents, a new season started with our son Sam and his wife after their marriage in January, 2009, albeit that Media from Rwanda was still residing there. Hi There, Shaistha, Wardah, Zackier and Denise! I bumped into my longer version of the Moriah story where I have many question marks. I am trying to bring this to some completion soon. Could you please help me? Student Accommodation Ista, an Indian teenager from Durban, was impacted by a fellowship B.Com student at the University of the Western Cape in 2009. The life and testimony of a fervent believer from the township Eerste River came to a head when she read a book called The Power of the Blood. When Ista committed her life to Jesus in response, her father informed her that she could not stay at home anymore. While Ista's student colleague took her under her wing, the parents allowed Ista to lodge with them temporarily. Via a phone call to CCFM, the Christian radio station, to which we had been connected for many years, she got our contact details. After hearing her moving story, we first took her into our home, recognising soon that she was a serious candidate for our Discipling House. When Dennis and Denise Atkins came to Moriah, she was already there. In many ways Ista would be a great help in the ministry during the three years that she was there, assisting new MBBs who came into the discipling house. Tenure of Dennis and Denise Atkins After retiring from their service at the Bethel Bible School in Crawford as principal and matron respectively, Dennis and Denise Atkins started a ministry with drug addicts at their property in Betty's Bay, doing a Ten Steps programme over week-ends. When Denise's aged mother needed extra care, Denise and Dennis went to go and assist there in Kensington, while they continued doing the ministry in Betty's Bay. At this time they took into their home Linsey (spelling??), who had been in their Sunday School with her two siblings when they were serving at the Bible School in Crawford. Their father disappeared, leaving the mother with the children when she contracted cancer. On her deathbed in hospital the mother requested Denise and Dennis to care of the children. The drug addicted life-style led to them losing their home. Severian, Linsey's younger brother, had started using drugs by this time, ultimately landing on the streets. Matriculants and Graduates from Moriah When Dennis and Denise were already at Moriah, they asked whether Linsey and Severian could live with them. We did not inquire after their background, finding it not too bad that Zackier, the teenage son of Wardah Carelse had a peer and friend when all the other residents were female. Severian matriculated from Moriah in due course, following this up with training as a boiler maker. Subsequently he became a successful businessman. Linsey went to reside at the Young Women's Christian Association in Gardens, studying at Cornerstone Christian College. After graduating with an honours degree at the University of the Western Cape, Ista went to serve with Denise Atkins at a pre-school for refugee children that she and her husband Dennis started in Parow. (This was a follow through of the children's club that our daughter Tabitha had run with a German short termer from 2007 and the French congregation at the Soter Christelike Kerk of Ds Richard Verreyne.) Subsequently Ista went to India on a short term missionary stint to India. Putting her administrative and financial skills that she had acquired during her studies, she went to serve in a responsible position at the OM HQ in Pretoria. A Mother and Her Son on the Run Wardah had been running with her two sons from place to place, avoiding and avoiding her abusive husband. One son, drug addicted, landed up on the streets, and teenager Zakier was struggling at school. Wardah Carelse came to the Lord and heard about our ministry, attending the fellowship where Salama Temmers was pastoring a congregation in Strandfontein. (Salama was one of the first MBBs we served at the Cape. She subsequently became one of our co-workers, serving as a presenter on the CCFM radio programme Life Issues, alternating with Ayesha Hunter from 1998.) We had a big room available for Wardah and her son at Moriah. At this time Wardah was working at a clothing factory in Salt River (??). She was able to commute to and from Mowbray quite conveniently, much easier than from Mitchell’s Plain where they had been living before. With Dennis and Denise Atkins now as houseparents, the traumatised mother and son Zackier could settle down soon in the Discipling House programme, along with Ista and Lameez. After a few weeks, however, Wardah's ex-husband came to the clothing factory where she was working. He pulled her out of the car in which she was brought, assaulting her and breaking her arm in the process. Because of this, she had to stop working at the factory. Thankfully we had the ladies' beadwork workshop on two days a week where Wardah could at least earn a few cents for food on the table. It was no blessing in disguise that Jaydee, the daughter of Denis and Denise, was in Matric at the nearby Rhodes High School where we could enroll Zackier. She could assist in getting him on par with other learners in Maths. (In due course Dennis and Denise left for Betty's Bay, Jaydee went to UCT on a bursary, now on course to graduate with a Doctorate in Biochemistry??. ) She had assisted Zackier enough to enable him to become one of the best learners in Maths and Physics by the time of his own matric, so that a bursary for medical studies was even being talked about. That did not transpire, but he did become a lawyer in due course,. While she was at Moriah, Wardah was also able to complete a nursing course to carefor older people. In due course, she served as a carer for many a senior citizen. After leaving Moriah, Wardah became housemother to AIDS orphans in a house in Goodwood that operated under the auspices of the Anglican Church. Hethne Ministry From the Cape When Dr Ashok Kumar of Singapore came to South Africa in September 2017 with Sister Lyte from the Phillippines to challenge all of us to start reaching out in love to upper and middle class Hindus via the Hethne ministry, Ista was so much impacted that she was challenged to go and serve elsewhere as a missionary. When she joined SIM, the agency asked her to do at least one year of Bible school training. This she did in 2024 at the George Whitfield Bible School in Muizenberg. Sabbatical Snippets In the run-up to a three-month sabbatical in 2014, the bulk of which was spent in Europe, we heard about the conversion of male Muslims on a surprising scale at that time. Before our departure we had been involved in the discipling of a gang leader. His conversion, along with that of two other gang leaders, led to a substantial decrease of criminality in the Athlone area. Because email contact was very common by 2014, we were blessed with news snippets from the Cape, such as a prayer march in the Northern suburbs in which our colleagues Dennis and Denise Atkins, our Discipling House parents, were significantly involved. We also heard of an initiative at Pentecost, Durbanville for Jesus (D4J), where believers from different denominations came together for prayer. The few weeks we spent in Holland encouraged us to consider spending the middle months of every year there, to help support an outreach to the Moroccans living in that part of the country. Upon our return from overseas, our excitement was dampened when we heard that the presence of various Muslim background males, some of them new believers, had caused a crisis at our Discipling House. The need for a parallel institution, one for male Muslim background believers (MBBs), seemed to be urgent. Two of these new believers, one from the Ivory Coast and the other one from Sudan, were residing at our home. We also heard that our friends in Holland started making plans to send us a container in which they intended sending various artefacts, as they had done at the beginning of the millennium. Link With the Muslim Ministry at Bergsig DRC At this time Ista gave her testimony at the DRC Bergsig Church of Durbanville. We were very much blessed to hear later that Andre van der Westhuizen, a member of the DRC Bergsig Church in Durbanville took a keen interest. (That congregation had Eric Swanepoel as one of their pastors. He got closely linked with Incontext Ministries, since a visit of Dr Daniel Shayesteh from Iran to that church in 2012, subsequently serving there full-time.) Soon after our return from our three month sabbatical overseas in October 2014, Andre van der Westhuizen came to meet us with two other church members. Along with a few members of that congregation, Andre wanted to assist to bring a Discipling House for males into being. When Almo Bouwer, a member of that congregation, revealed that the Lord had challenged him to consider building something in District Six. The venture was also linked to the mountain peak name change operation that was still an ongoing prayer point. Our intention to try and purchase or build another building, turned out to be very premature. While we took it in our stride that the new MBBs came from the drug sub-culture, we knew that this would not be easy. It so happened that Ds. Johan Els, at whose church in Bellville West I had assisted with some lecturing in Muslim Evangelism in 2009 to students of his father, Professor Els, had also come to this congregation in the meantime, responsible inter alia for the Moslembediening (Muslim ministry). In due course, quite a close relationship developed to the DRC Bergsig Church and their Moslembediening. Almo and Andre were the core of the Moslembediening team that oversaw many renovations at Moriah. They experienced a divine miracle when they had more funds in their account after they finished the fairly extensive work done at Moriah as they had before they started out on the project. Start of the Hethne Ministry When a request came to us to have Dr Ashok Kumar come and share during our Tuesday morning prayer time at Moriah, we had no scruples. It had been quite special that he had been sharing also at the new venue of our First Century Vineyard Congregation two days prior to this. Subsequently the Hethne Ministry from the Cape was birthed as Ps Sunil was already in our facility and Ista returned to the Cape from Pretoria. A whatsapp group was formed, where we would pray once a month for the Hethne Ministry. Our brother Swieg Nel started a weekly prayer meeting in February 2018 at the Mowbray Baptist Church in response to a call for prayer to pray for rain when the city dams were drying up and water rationing had to be enforced. In due course the Hethne Ministry was part of the weekly prayer every last Wednesday of every month. When the Covid pandemic put paid to the physical prayer times, it continued via whatasapp calls, physically at the Mowbray Baptist Church and at Moriah occasionally. Among the regular prayers at this occasion, the Hindu background pastors Terence Phillips and Daya Moodley participated. When Ps Majied Pophlonker joined the Born Again Believers' Network with a vision to start ministry in Rylands Estate and Gatesville, it was natural that he would the ministry to the lost of those residential suburbs where people from Indian descent are in the majority. Assistance By a Student Soon thereafter, Lameez Ras moved into the premises. When she was fourteen years old, she was introduced to a drug commonly called “tik” in the 'Coloured' community, becoming addicted to it quite soon and dropping out of school. In answer to prayer in Jesus’ name, she was set free from drugs and also returned to school, followed by studies in Travel and Tourism. After graduating, she got a job with the company Club Travel, travelling to work by train. During the train ministry she listened to testimonies, worship and the preaching of the Word of God. Via partying, she got into a toxic relationship: “I felt emotionally destroyed. My life was a mess. I was broken and lonely; everything seemed to be falling apart.” Initially she did not know that Shehaam from Hanover Park, her boyfriend’s mom, was a secret follower of Jesus, until she slowly started sharing and testifying about what Jesus had done for her daughter in the midst of her family being Muslim. At this low point in her life a desire grew in her heart, and she received a gospel song from someone called The Power of Love. This song constantly reminded her of Jesus who spoke to her via different situations and people. died. Attending the funeral of one of her best friends she gave expression of the deep desire within her, although she did not fully understand the message yet. “As I left that funeral, I knew in my heart what I had to do. I had to take this next step of faith. I sent a text message to the mom of my boyfriend, asking her what I should do to accept Jesus in my life.” Soon thereafter, Shehaam brought Lameez to us one Sunday afternoon, 18 June 2012. At this occasion we did not make it easy for her, pointing to the possibility of persecution and ostracism if she would decide to become a follower of Jesus. She was, however, determined. After leading her to the Lord, Rosemarie met her one day in the week during her lunch-hour, teaching and discipling her. When Ramadan was at hand, Lameez approached us with the request to come and stay with us for a few weeks. As there was a room available at the Discipling House at that time, we had no hesitation to take her there. That would ultimately result in a three year during which she became an instrument to see one family member after the other impacted, included her younger sister who also came to the discipling house for a stint with her daughter. A Special Afro-Asian Rhabia was different to any other Muslim background believer. She was led to the Lord as the parent of a learner at Vredehoek Primary School by Pastor John Miller of the His People fellowship that met in their school hall on Sundays with an office in the building. He referred her to us to be secretly discipled thereafter. She was married to a Somalian, living in a small Bo-Kaap house, together with many other Somalians. Her marriage had been on the rocks to all intents and purposes when we met her, but we had to tread very carefully. In a cloak and dagger operation we were able to get Rhabia from there, taking her into our Discipling House subsequently. Some anxiety arose after her husband pitched up one day at the Vredehoek Primary School. One could not discount that he could try and take high-jack their daughter Ferroza. It was not unknown that Somalians did this when their wives with South African wives got into turbulant waters. The first few months at Moriah were quite tumultuous with Rahbia walking around in full Somalian regalia. When the beautiful woman appeared from behind the clothes the liberation started. But she was still haunted by demonic spirits, especially at night. One night we were called by other residents because she had manifested. When we arrived there, the kitchen was littered with glass – the result of some demonic explosion. The broken cutlery had not been touched by any human hand! We roped in Selby Shaw, a seasoned missionary who had been 'trained' in the occult in the Transkei, where she attended the Lifa Bible School at the Kholo Christian Mission Center in Idutwa, to assist us in the deliverance process. Because she had no refugee status as yet when she came to Moriah, this was quite a challenge. She managed to get employment at a gym in Rondebosch where she ultimately became the manager. The Stint of Peter and Tracy Brent Peter and Tracy Brent came into our ambits via Denise and Dennis Atkins. This coincided with a new outreach attempt to Somalians in Bellville, where we also networked with AIM (Gloria Cube), Neville Truter (SIM) and OM (Tanner Chadwick). They became the new houseparents In the meantime, Lameez had been impacting her younger sister Tasneem, who had a baby, Ashurah. When Tasneem also became a believer, we agreed to take her into Moriah as well. This became fairly complicated as the father of the baby could not accept that Tasneem not only became a follower of Jesus, but that she was also now living with Christians far from Mitchell's Plain. This neccessitated more security measures at the Discipling House. Peter and Tracy attended Meadowridge Baptist Church that was changing its name to Connect Church. There they spoke to Amanda Cochrane who subsequently came to assist the ladies at the beadwork workshop. During their stay they assisted as connectors to get Tasneem into a school for drop outs in Salt River. This enabled her to get some paper and subsequently to get employed. They also got Rabhia employed at a gym in Rondebosch where she ultimately became the manager. Amanda Cochrane, a former employee of Nedbank, would ultimately become the treasurer of Friends from Abroad and its successor Born Again Believers' Network. A former judge of Rwanda, Violet Musabyimana became the successor as translator into Swahili. The Covid pandemic put paid to that endeavour, however. We were very thankful that her sewing enterprise could be transferred to the Harbour of Hope in the city, a facility was started by our colleagues Theo and Mignonne Schumann in 2019. In February 2022, Violet heard that both kidneys were extremely damaged at stage 4, with a capacity of only 25%. The doctors said they couldn't reverse the damage because what she needed was dialysis or a kidney transplant. They couldn't help her because preference has to be given to South Africans. She wrote to the honour of God: “All the time, I informed my brothers and sisters from the FFA Ministry about the news from the hospital, and they didn't stop praying for me and comforting me... I'm always under the hand of our Mighty God. God reversed my kidney damage from stage 4 to stage 3 without taking any medicine, and we continue to wait for the best.” Whenever she had the chance, Violet would attend our Tuesday morning prayer times at Moriah. Co-Workers Become Patients Jannie Ferreira, the Cape leader of Campus Crusade, introduced Neil Conrad to us in 2022. Neil had been boarded at SANLAM, the big insurance company on medical grounds because of a serious heart ailment. (This company is the same one for which my father worked before his early retirement, likewise because of a heart condition triggered by the apartheid-related expropriation fo our property in 1970). Neil Conrad not only became a regular attendee at our weekly prayer meetings while he continued joining Jannie in the evangelical outreach to Arab speakers at the Cape Town International Airport. Neil attempted to revive the hospital ministry at Somerset Hospital and the blessed weekly praise and prayer events of yesteryear at Sanlam. This was not to be. On 8 February 2024 Neil went to be with the Lord. Medical Miracles Quite a few shocks occurred as reports came in of folk with terminal conditions, some of them fairly close to us. Violet Musabyimana, a former Hutu judge from Rwanda who is married to a Tutsi national, had to flee in the wake of the genocide in their country. She would become one of our stalwarts, a translator to the other Swahili-speaking women whom we were able to serve at the workshop at the Moria Discipling House. Violet would, however, become an example of many a medical miracle after divine intervention. The first time we saw God miraculously at work happened in 201? after ?? (the name), a young theological student, the youth leader at their Nazarene Church congregation, was brutally raped and murdered. The Tuesday hereafter, Violet broke down when she shared the tragedy with us at our weekly Moriah House prayer meeting. This was a miracle in itself, because this was the first time that she was able to cry after the terrible massacre in her home country. With one kidney already dead, she would land on death row because stage four was the verdict on her other kidney. Twice we would witness how she survived miraculously. Inbetween, we also saw her voice returning miraculouly, after six months during which she could only speak in a whisper. Her voice returned during a church service when she wanted to join in the worship. This happened again in ???, 2024 when she lost the use of her voice again, this time only for a few weeks. Chapter 11. Extreme Highs and Lows After substantial violence between two adults in our discipling house, with much of their physical fighting transpiring in front of their two children, the wife embraced the Christian faith in March 2018. (The family had been quite affluent at that point in time, owning many a shop. We initally understood that N. had to flee from her abusive husband, locked in a room during the day in 'punishment'. From there she fled when she got the chance, finding refuge at the home of Marilyn ??, a police captain in Mitchell's Plain. Special Answers to Prayer Only much later we got to hear the other side of the story. However, that N. had a vision cum dream when she was a teenager, of a man with holes in his hand and that she had been asked not to speak about the dream to anybody at that time. (Repetition of the dream in M. Plain?) She knew that she could not remain there for any length of time, of course. From there I collected her and brought to our home, where we tried to disicple her while her English was still very poor. We enrolled her for an English course. She also found employment with a Christian beautician. When she shared about her new-found faith, N. was completely cut off by her family. The husband went back to their home country soon thereafter, selling all their shops, as well as their car, he took their two children along. In the first months of 2019 we saw quite a few fluctuations at the Discipling House with various residents living there for short periods of time. We had Ps Sunil Kumar, a Hindu background Indian there with his South African wife Aurelia as houseparents when Alaleh, an Iranian new believer with her small two year old son Bozo, came into our care. Theo Schumann and his wife Mignonne with their daughter served in a caretaker role while we renovated the place with the substantial aid of the Bergsig DRC of Durbanville. Still in 2019, we had liberty to take care of a refugee family from Eritrea that had come to the Cape at the discipling house. We also took in Rania* while N. was still living with us, jealousy developed between the two, causing some bewilderment. (Rania had cleverly hidden from us that she had a problem with substance abuse, which is understandable, of course. We would not have taken her into our Discipling House if we had known it.) We could, however, get her into some ambulant programme of Living Hope in Kalk Bay and also some employment at U-Turn, a Christian agency with a great track record in this regard. We were blessed to see more miracles happening in answer to prayer with a believer a foreigner until she was able to return to their home country with the intention to collect the two children in the beginning of 2019. Her mother back home could not do this any more because of deteriorating health. N. was soon residing in our disciplng house with their two children. N. remained in telephonic contact with her husband Z., initially without us being aware of it. Ultimately we not only met him, but he also started attending the fortnightly home church meetings at our disicpling house. We baptised him in August 2019. In due course, the family was reunited, accomodated and discipled at our facility. N. kept her mother in the dark regarding the fact that the family was complete, because her mother back home could never accept Z., resenting him extremely. She received financial assistance, inter alia from her mother, to open a shop in Adderley street where Z. sold and repaired mobile phones. A major crisis arose when the mother found out that N. has her husband back with her. She promptly broke off the contact yet again. A special answer to prayer ensued when Theo and Mignonne Schumann, the Afrikaner couple with their daughter in our discipling facility, found affordable housing near to Bo-Kaap, where the focus of their ministry was. At that time, one of our former residents, Lameez Ras, came to pray in Vredehoek in the Isaiah 19 prayer room about her own future. In due course, she became our new housemother. With the Eritrean family still there, we were thankful that there was also a man in the house. We were able to get the children enrolled in a school in Tamboerskloof in the meantime. In due course we had liberty to invite Z., their father, to join his wife and children. Z. bought his car back. The news of him being together with his apostate wife and children was not taken well by their community. Soon enough he got two sinister warnings at his car. We all knew that his life was at great risk. After a third warning he would have had to expect an assassination. Just at this time the Covid lockdown transpired. The threat and cloud over his life was thus averted. Bill Steinbroek An American, a retired soldier, accepted our invitation to come and stay at the Discipling House when the term of Lameez Ras expired. Due to ill health and the Covid emergency difficulties to get a flight, the American brother served there only for a short period. The brother assisted Z. to buy artifacts to start a business from a shop of a Chinese businessman that he was asked to manage. N. started a little business as a beautician not far away. For a short period the family attended the Vineyard fellowship in Montague Gardens with us, without really finding their feet there. At our home church on Saturdays they were regulars, however. Gang warfare in Manenberg and a two burglaries at the Discipling House combined to bring Shamiela January and her husband to approach us. (We had previously requested them to pray about coming to serve as houseparents.) In due course, they joined us in December 2020 as our new houseparents. Through the assistance of Voice of the Martyrs,16 a Christian agency that assists persecuted followers of Jesus, a flat in the city could be rented for the family soon thereafter. (Via our networking with OM, we got to know Bongani Mhlango,17 who served in the outreach to Somalians in the northern suburbs of the city.) We introduced the family to the Jubilee congregation, a walking distance away from the appartment. With nobody there to keep up the contact, they hardly attended the fellowship thereafter. (Years later, in 2024, when they were back in our discipling house, Br Arend and Mareta took them along to the mother congregation in Observatory that became their spiritual home.) When there was space in the Discipling House, we took in two sisters after an approach by their mother in Somerset West. We had been satisfied that they needed discipling as Muslims. The screening was insufficient. We did not check whether they had been complete free from drug addiction. We decided to try with another young woman, who came to us via the Ark, whom we understood that she had been free for ?? She did not stay long in Moriah when she requested to go to her family. That was unofrtunately no success story as well. Liaising with Shamiela, our new housemother, Carol Knipe, a MBB with whom Rosemarie had been interacting and who had starting attending the Bible Studies with other ladies, was accepted as a resident of Moriah in June 2021. Because the two ex-patriate children had no background in the Afrikaans language, the housemothers had to step in here to assist. Also from outside we had different volunteers. The most interesting one in this regard was Lynn Ginsburg, a Jewish believer from a nearby retirement institution who grew up in the Free State town of Senekal. Because we had our fortnightly 'home church' as a rule at our home, she assisted with great dedication, albeit that she could not motivate the boy. Because he is quite intelligent, his marks in Afrikaans did improve significantly, which encouragement her of course as well. At the End of Our Tether Financial transactions of the ex-patriate family, of which we were not aware, would turn completely sour. On top of this, some interference by the family of Z. in back home compounded the matter to such an extent that he not only left the faith as a follower of Jesus, but he also forced his children to perform Islamic rituals. The differences between the couple increased to a point where open violence occurred. In June 2022 a divorce was pronounced in a Cape court after which Z. left to go and live elsewhere. This was the signal for N.'s affluent mother to come back into the picture, to the extent that she was even ready to assist N. and her children with the purchase of a small appartment. The mother came to visit her here in Cape Town with her husband, but N. did not inform us about it, let alone taking the trouble to introduce her to us, although we had been speaking to us from back home before with the younger brother translating. This behaviour was typical of N.s lack of transparency. N., in whose family there have been some psychiatric issues, could not handle the pressure of the added care for her own family. This brought us ultimately also to the end of our tether in October 2022. With Shamiela January, our housemother, we managed to shared the care for the children for two weeks during which N. was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Groote Schuur hospital. The Father brought a very special visit of our brother Filmon Tesfai from Eritrea to our Disicpling House, making our day. His wife Sharon, whose certificate as a medical doctor she had left in Eritrea when she fled with their baby, was ready to write examination in Pretoria six months prior to this, was told on the last moment, that she had to do this in Nairobi or Dubai. We were not aware the couple thereafter engaged in some online medical advice to Ethiopians and Eritreans all over the world. When he came there, Rosemarie and I were at an absolute low emotionally. To hear that she was actually getting regular remuneration because of the thousands that were listening to her advice, blessed us so much. It lifted our spirits tremendously! After her diagnosis with bipolar and given medication on discharge which brought the old N. back to a great extent made our life so much easier.. When the financial assistance by Voice of the Martyrs was about to expire in April 2023, we took the mother and her children back into our Discipling House. She resumed the contact with Z., after which they patched up their differences to such an extent that we had liberty to allow him to return to our Discipling House a few months later. That their country did not ratify the June 2022 divorce by the Cape court, was convenient in this regard. Remarriage was thus not imperative. Not quite surprisingly to us, the contact between N. and her mother as well as Z's contact with his family in back homebroke down once again when she heard that Z. is back with his wife and children family. The repayment of funds that her mother had given to help them to start their businesses and other transactions of which we were not aware, created a lot of attention. The mother had been given the impression that the assistance was a loan. She used this as a lever to threaten the family via ex-patriates in South Africa. Z. was working as a trader for an ex-patriate where he had not divulged that he had become a follower of Jesus. We respected his decision, trusting that there was some forward movement and honest. We had reason to believe that he was not attending mosque secretly as he had done while he was in our Disicpling House. Z.'s savings of the previous months, when he was alone, was sacrificially used as the first remittance of the 'loan' to the mother. More Turbulance The beginning of 2023 brought some more turbulance. We always knew that Deon January, the housefather of our Discipling House, yearned to return to the township Manenberg, where he grew up. When they got the key for a house of their own, we were quite happy with them. The transition to the projected final move of the January family at the end of September was, however, quite traumatic. (After stressful interaction, we agreed that they could serve till the end of the year.) We did what we could to make the closure as amicable as possible from our side. A six-week sojourn in Europe that included a week in Holland with all our children and grandchildren helped a lot to get Rosemarie and me back to some equilibrium. We were very thankful that we could be fully reconciled to Deon and Shamiela in June 2024 through the ministry of Altie and Hammie van Zyl, who are linked to the Wynstok congregation of Bellville. An 'Interim' Housemother We had contact with Carol Knipe for quite a time. We were somewhat hestitant initially to allow her residency as a MBB at Moriah because she had been a believer already for a long time. Convinced however, that she had never been properly discipled, we finally took the plunge, taking her into Moriah in June 2022. From the word 'go' Carol took special care of the gardening at our Discipling House. When Shamiela January was absent in 2023 quite often, we were thankful to have her around. The Legality of Foreigers at Moriah As we had no houseparents at this time, we took more time out to interact with the couple there personally. Their legality was a major concern. Many an appointment was made for Friday lunchtime, inter alia at the UCT Law Clinic. This was a clear sign for us that Z. was indeed not attending mosque secretly. But he was working on Sunday mornings and almost every day, so that fellowship with other believers was minimal. The fortnightly meetings at our home were the only ones which had some regularity. N. had applied for a volunteer visa because she did not like the frequent visits and the long waiting required as an asylum seeker at the Home Affairs Refugee office. Furthermore, she would also be able to visit their home country with a volunteer visa. Relocating to another country such as Canada or the US surfaced now as future possibilities but N's psychiatric hospitalisation of 2022 did not augur well in this regard. Z. was growing spiritually, 'overtaking' N. in due course. She seemed to have little appetite for spiritual matters. The couple was nevertheless getting ready to go to Canada as covert missionaries when things between them turned sour yet again. The influence of the family back home played some role in the background. Her mother had indicated that she was also considering relocating to Canada as well. Towards the end of 2023, behaviour of N. came to our attention which reminded very much to what had transpired in 2022. We were very thankful that Mareta du Preez, our new housemother who moved to Mowbray at this time with her husband Arend, is a trained nurse. It had surfaced that N. was not taking the tablets regularly. With our sister from Pakistan things were very difficult at this time. She plotted succesfully to send her husband away, using her children to this end. We kept close discipling contact with him, having him for a meal and fellowship once a week. It was very special at this time when he repented remorsefully. Another few months down the road, we were at wit's end with her once again, crying to God to intervene. A Young Man Admitted We had no liberty to reply in the affirmative when an enquiry for the admission of a young man into Moriah came to our attention, notably when he did not respond telephonically to phone calls. Some perseverance by the people who approached us and more prayer on our side brought me finally to meet him at Cavendish Square in Claremont during his lunch hour. At another meeting, this time together with Rosemarie, we were convinced that the young man was serious. His friendship with a born again Christian had led to him attending the Chrismas service at the Westridge Assembly of God Church. There he committed his life to the Lord. He became a secret believer that had to be discipled. He counted the cost. As Ramadan approached, he knew that he could not continue staying at home. At the screening occasion, together with our colleague Maria and the houseparents, we had no hesitation to welcome him as a new resident in February. As he had only three years of formal schooling before he was sent to a Qur'an school where the learning consisted of little more than a serious effort to make him and his fellow learn Hafiz: able to recite the Qur'an from memory. Preparing him for 'life after Moriah' turned into quite an issue. He had only three years of schooling and all technical colleges admitted only students who had a Grade 9 certificate. A special knipoogje van de Heer (eye twinkle of the Lord) was the prize for Afrikaans won by a foreign teenager at our Discipling House, who had been brought to South Africa five years ago with no knowledge of the language. Thanks to the input and assistance of Lynn Ginsburg, a Jewish resident of the Highlands House to the end of last year and Mareta du Preez, our new housemother. This year he got 95%, the best of all the Grade 8 learners in a reputable school. Bewilderment in the Ministry With a sister from Pakistan we have had a roller coaster experience that included many a high an quite a few lows, some very extreme. The story of our interaction with her and her family would easily fill a thick book. The first 8 months of 2024 were very difficult. She plotted succesfully to get her husband to leave, using her children to this end. We kept close discipling contact with him, having him at our home for a meal and fellowship once a week. At one of these occasions he repented remorsefully, changing drastically thereafter into a humble follower of Jesus. Another few months down the road, we were at wit's end with N. once again, crying to God to intervene as a charge against one of our leaders threatened to jeopardize our entire ministry. On Saturday 7 September 2024 she became not only rude to me but also thereafter to our housemother. She apologised to both of us for her disrespectful behaviour, but I was not convinced that she was remorseful. In a lengthy interaction, together with Rosemarie, we now looked for a possible way forward, ending with a resolve to try and make a new start. We continued to pray that God would bring her to remorseful repentance as he did with her ex-husband (Their divorce had been ratified in the meantime also in Pakistan.) This was one of a few things at this time, including the news that our granddaughter had been diagnosed with epilepsy, which kept us in the doldrums for weeks. With our dear brother in prison and a cloud hanging over our ministry, it reminded me so much of Joseph in the Bible. When the bail of our brother was approved, the cloud lifted somewhat. We continue praying that God might turn things around in a similar big way. He was ultimately vindicated as the witness of the alleged victim was riddles with contradictions. Isaac Ishmael Connections A special Isaac Ishmael moment transpired at our last meeting with Pastor Callie Liew, a Singaporian pastor, in 2019. She came here to lay the foundations for a World Prayer Tower, as one of a canopy to usher in the coming of our Lord. Cape Town was one of seven cities in the world where a 24/7 prayer facility was to be started. She travelled tirelessly over the following months until this was realised. The Global Network of Prayer facility in Observatory ultimately became a hub for the African continent by 2023. (Next to Cape Town, Sydney in Australia, Beunos Aires in Argentina, Anchorage in Alaska, Oslo in Norway and Petro?? in Siberia were the other cities in the Southern and Northern hemisphere next to Singapore/Israel more or less in the middle. At the occasion in the Biblical Gardens in Paarl that are linked to the David and Jonathan Foundation, I was asked to pray with Shamiela, Shoshann and Kyle as potential leaders. At the end of 2020 Shamiela and her husband became our houseparents at the discipling facility in Mowbray. Shoshanna, the daughter of our dear Isaac Ishmael siblings Karen and Baruch Maayan, would become a leader in their Joshua Generation congregation, helping to foster a love for Israel and the Jews of Sea Point, notably when Jeanie de Wet, the successor of the Simcha Ministries, led for decades by Cecilia Burger. Another Isaac Ishmael Injection Towards the tail end of the Covid pandemic we were allowed to congregate and pray in the open air with masks. We hereafter met in the De Waal Park with our regular Isaac Ishmael Kingdom folk that had become an Isaac Ishmael group to all intents and purposes, Cecilia Burger, Jeanie de Wet and Theo Schumann. Later we congregated in our yard at the back under the vine. Shamiela January and Shoshanna Phillips were among a few who attended occasionally. Another special Isaac Ishmael injection treanspired when Shamiela was overwhelmed by the guilt of Hagar, her spiritual ancestor as a Muslim. Tears were flowing freely as not only she confessed on behalf of Muslims towaards Shoshanna and another Jewish Messianic person whom Shoshanna had brought along. The Messianic Jewish females did the same as they sensed that Sarah's treatment of the slave had also not been loving, to state the least. A Special Isaac Ishmael Friendship A special friendship evolved between Shamiela and Shoshanna where the later would become a frequent visitor to the Disicpling House in Mowbray. In due course this would lead to new ventures there such as basic computer skills and driving lessons to township women. Shamiela procured ten redundant PCs from some company. With Shoshanna as their teacher, she and two other MBBs persevered to pass the learner driver test ultimately. Jeanie de Wet and Shoshanna became contacts not only to the Simcha Ministries events such as Pesach celebrations in Sea Point, but also to other Jewish related ones like Messianic Testimony. At the week-end of 14/15 May 2022 Shamiela and Shoshanna shared their testimonies at the Biblical Gardens of the David and Jonathan Foundation in Paarl on the Saturday.They also did this on Sunday afternoon where Majied Pohplonker, an Indian background MBB was the keynote speaker at the Isaac Ishmael event. Thereafter Majied was also invited to share at an evening service at Beth Ariel's venue in Vredehoek. Both Shamiela and Majied were present at the Yom Kippur service that year. A Special Link to Delft Muhammad April, an MBB from the township Delft walked on the promenade in Sea Point one Sunday afternoon with his family where members of the Josh Gen congregations were worshipping. There they interacted with Jeanie (and Shoshanna?) who brought the family into contact with us. In due course Muhammad became a regular at Moriah on our Tuesdays, notably after he went into full-time service, serving children and young people in Delft from their home. A close contact developed with the Wynstok Gemeente in Bellville, a congregation that has been closely linked to our ministry for many years. An Unique Isaac Ishmael Outreach Fruit During their outreach on the beach front, Jeanie met an East African Muslim lesbian, who soon shared her plight. She was very open to the Gospel, with the result that she was baptised in the sea before long. This compounded her problems cause she also wanted to cease her lifestyle. Subsequently Shoshanna and her husband took the new believer into their home. When the request was put into our lap, whether we could accommodate her at Moriah, there was space and she fitted the main criterium. A recurring problem with Africans, however, surfaced. She was illegal. At the Home Affairs Office the official was very helpful to get an asylum process going because of sexual orientation, but our new believer refused to use her former lifestyle to acquire that. The official then Jeanie found a way via other believers whereby the new believer could get some training at a Bible School in Zambia. Therafter she returned to her home country. We were not very happy to hear that she subsequently came back to this country illegally earlier this year. Where Are They Now Rochelle Smetherham has been a regular at Moriah House in many ways, every Tuesday and Wednesday assisting with the workshop for refugees. Already before that she had been praying with us on Fridays at lunchtime when we were still at the Koffiekamer below St Stephen's in Bree Street. She kept a close contact with Bo-Kaap folk for decades, with one family to this day. Her husband Douglas, an architect, assisted with preparation of the Isaiah prayer room. One of the highlights of our World Cup outreach was the day when Algeria played in Cape Town. On the day that their national team played here, we distributed many DVD copies to the Algerian fans who were quite conspicuous in their green and white attire. What made this outreach very special was that our missionary colleague Rochelle Smetherham, on a visit during 'home assignment', bumped into a Syrian national in Washington D.C. in 2012. The person reacted excitedly when she saw a copy of the More than Dreams DVD. The Syrian wondered whether this was the same DVD about which Algerians were raving! A special addition to our outreach team transpired when Louise Hindley, a believer from Claremont, joined us subsequently. (She had resigned from her good position at SANLAM, a big financial insurance institution after she sensed a calling from the Lord to serve him full-time.) She would be a valuable assistance to the ministry in Manenberg, linking up with Shamiela January there. Louise subsequently went to Kenya to serve among Somalians. When her mother in the US needed more attention in old age, Rochelle Smetherham and her husband Douglas Rochelle Smetherham relocated to New York. There she initiated outreach to many Muslims at the United Nations. Summary We are thankful for what could be achieved at the Moriah Discipling House. We are, however, also very conscious of our weaknesses and shortcomings. Thus we attempt not to admit anyone who is still abusing any substance because we don't have the capacity for this specialised ministry.) The Father keeps us humble because there have also been failures in the ministry. We are, nevertheless, very thankful that the Moriah Discipling House could accommodate more than one former Muslim who had been addicted to drugs and see them transformed through God's power and grace. (The one or other had been involved in gangsterism or had been in a close relationship with a gang.) In the year of our 25th anniversary we had to experience a few instances where we had to release people who have been staying at Moriah. We were left helpless to witness how these believers made choices with which we were very unhappy. We continue praying for them. We give God all the glory that as a team we could see so many lives impacted and changed at Moriah in answer to prayer. Soli Deo Gloria! Appendices 1. Publications In a Networking Effort In June 1992, Majied Pophlonker and Zane Abrahams, two Muslim-background believers and their families, visited our home. After hearing Majied’s moving story, seed was sown in my heart to write down the testimonies of converts from Islam. At one of the first discussions with Manfred Jung, a SIM missionary colleague, the idea was mooted to publish the testimonies as a networking effort. I enjoyed collating the testimonies from some of the Muslim-background believers (MBBs), sometimes making notes at meetings and once I took a tape recorder to a house. Eleven of the stories were finally selected. The result was Op soek na waarheid, in which a former Vasco High School classmate, Pastor Attie Kotze, assisted me with the proof reading. Elizabeth Robertson, one of our Bo-Kaap prayer meeting regulars, painted a beautiful cover for the booklet, a typical Bo-Kaap scene. The development of the publication of the booklet proceeded quite well during the first half of 1995, but we experienced serious demonic attacks in our family. These included the mysterious disappearance of the money in cyberspace - somewhere between Holland and Durban - that was earmarked for the printing of Op soek na waarheid. In the course of the research done for this project, I learnt how one of the converts came to faith at a big tent evangelistic event at Valhalla Park in 1984 under the ministry of Christ for All Nations, led by Reinhard Bonnke. Many Muslims respondedto the altar call, indicating that they want to follow Jesus. Few of them were however, properly followed up. We decided to concentrate on the discipling and nurturing of those MBBs whom we got to know, gathering them in our Tamboerskloof home once a month on a Sunday afternoon. (Now, over 40 years later, I have only met two more converts from that Valhalla Park event and another one from a Billy Graham meeting at the Athlone Stadium in 1973. Of course, there were more who landed in township churches) Attempts were made subsequently to improve on the follow-up, notably at Cape Town for Jesus stadium events, with little tangible results. (The Covid pandemic of 2020 obliterated the last semblance of networking among agencies and mission organisations that reached out to Muslims, albeit that the Born Again Believers (BABN) grew substantially in the wake of the divine survival of Shamiela January. Her recovery was a clear answer to prayer of many believers. The whatsapp messages of Shamiela BABN leader of Manenberg, writing while she was teetering for days on the threshold of death, brought not only a surge of new MBBs to the surface, but also a more general acceptance Muslims and diminishing fear among MBBs to divulge their status to all and sundry.) There was a great expectation that a Mighty Men event, organised by Tygerberg Radio, on 1 November 2025, for which the evangelist Angus Buchan, the main speaker, had solicited prayer from around the world, might bring a change to the situation on the Cape Flats. Many a township started resembling a war zone because of gang-related violence. Criteria for Acceptance Into the Moriah Discipling House The person who wants to be accepted as a resident of the Discipling House must fulfil the following requirements: 1. Be a convert from another faith, as a rule, with the proviso that we are open to make an exception if there is emergency accomodation available. 2. Is clearly in need of receiving good discipleship in a safe environment. 3. Understands that Born Again Believers Network does not take any financial responsibility for them during their stay with us. 4. Has a willingness to be discipled and will be expected to participate in the house's Bible studies and discipling programmes. 5. Does not abuse any substances or must be clean for 12 months. (Should there be any doubt a knowledgeable person will be consulted to determine that the person is fulfilling the above mentioned criteria and the person will be tested prior to admission.) N.B. 1. The full executive of the Born Again Believers Network decides on admission after a screening process by a few members and an interview with additional members. Any candidate has to know that accomodation is given on a temporary basis, with the proviso that the first three months are on probation. Ongoing mentoring and monitoring of the spiritual growth is a given.