Visit to Citrusdal Harvester
How do you get 75 people together in a school hall to study the bible in a little country town like Citrusdal? How do you get 75 people together in a school hall to study the bible in a little country town like Citrusdal? You labour patiently for 8 or 9 years! It was tremendous to see the enthusiasm from people seated in high school desks set for exams (brings back memories of the years we were in Milnerton High during exams and had to stack the desks before and set them out after our meetings!). Everyone had pen and paper and bibles and whenever I referred to a scripture they looked it up.A miracle also happened when the body prayed en semble for those who were sick or needed healing. A young man came up to Jan and I afterwards and said, 'My eye is better now!' We did not know what was wrong with his eye. Apparently a wire had broken loose at work and slashed the cornea of his eye wide open. Prescribed tranquilizers were not sufficient to keep the pain away for more than an half an hour. When a believer laid hands on him the Lord touched him and performed the miracle. He can see perfectly with the eye and all the pain is gone!I spoke on Spirit, Soul and Body and demonstrated it through relating the miracle of Jesus walking on water: the disciples in the boat only went as far as their physical senses allowed them; Peter actually started reasoning and felt emotion when he stepped over the edge of the boat to go to Jesus, but began sinking when he sank bank into the physical realm by observing the waves; but Jesus operated in the Spirit after praying most of the night to his heavenly Father and moved with great speed to break the force of gravity to get to his disciples who were lost in the storm. When you operate in the flesh you see Jesus as a ghost! When you operate in the soul realm you loose confidence when the circumstances are overwhelming; but when you move in the spirit you walk on the very thing that wants to pull you down!Apostle Jan and Chantal Oosthuizen have done an excellent job after Jaco (who changed his name to Riaan) and Wuanita helped to pioneer the work in Citrusdal. Nola and I went to plant the church about 9 years ago now. Just before we left that night Hilton sitting on my lap at lunch accidentally stabbed me in the eye with a fork – I thought of cancelling the meeting but eventually worked through the pain and fear of loosing my eye (there were three holes in my eye ball!) bought a black eye patch and went to plant the church. When I took up the first offering I told them I was long John Silver!That night a little boy that I prayed for was the first one to step up and volunteer to become a member of the church: 'This uncle prayed for me and all the warts on my knees fell off! I want to be in his church!' Then some others followed suit – and many of them are still there today.Jan and Chantal had no choice but to go when they were sent to Citrusdal. I remember telling them: 'I'm not asking you; I'm sending you!' It took a while to settle in. But God supernaturally undertook for them for furniture which they had given up when they stepped out in faith to be on staff at Harvester Reformational Church in Cape Town. A lady that moved over to America offered her furniture to 'someone who needs it'. Her list and Chantal's list of needs matched perfectly! Snap! God's timing is perfect.Jan has helped me a lot with the compilation of my book and to draw up the constitution of Harvester and the Household of Faith. He is the Administrator of the House in the Household of Faith. Chantal assists him in everything. We hope to soon have our own website for the Household of Faith.Well, go and visit Citrusdal sometime and spend some time in the area. It is a wonderful place and the people are so warm and friendly and the oranges are the best in the Cape!The slogan of the High School is 'mik hoog!' which translated means 'aim high'. Well, we can't aim much higher than to aim at the high call of God in Christ Jesus!Jan and I will go to Gauteng this weekend to visit Armstrong in his new church in Witfield and to meet other pastors. We will also be ministering in Pastor Jannie Venter's church in Springs. Jannie used to sing in my men's quartet many moons ago when my parents pastored the Casseldale Apostolic Faith Mission Church which is now called Lofoord where Pastor Stoffel Duvenage is pastoring.Pray for this weekend if you can and afterwards that the apostolic reformation will become a present reality in many lives. Let us aim high for God!