Almost three weeks before our wedding day, Laura, my wife, and I were approached by the leaders in Joshua Generation Church (JoshGen) and asked to consider planting a church in Khayelitsha, soon after our wedding. All we had on our minds, at that stage, was the great anticipation of our honeymoon and our blessed married life. Church planting was the last thing on our minds! Though we knew in God that at some point we were going to be involved in church planting, we never dreamed it would be this soon.
God gave me a dream in which I saw myself and Laura being asked to go to a certain area and plant a church with urgency.
When we were first asked if we would consider planting, Laura felt in her heart that it was too soon for us to plant a church, as we were not even married yet and needed time to build a strong foundation for our marriage. However, God spoke to her and reminded her of her call in God to serve Him, and that God’s timing was perfect. Eventually we came to the conclusion that we were going to accept God’s call and embark on the plant once we were married, as we were so convinced that God had brought us together for the purposes of His Kingdom. A week before the leaders approached us, God gave me a dream in which I saw myself and Laura being asked to go to a certain area and plant a church with urgency. Hence, we did not struggle with making the decision. We were convinced it was God-initiated, and the timing was perfect, we felt God had been waiting for us to get married. Together as a team we felt protected, unified, strong and courageous enough, in Him, to embark on a church plant.
As for me, I always knew God wanted me to plant a church. In 2015, before I was an elder in JoshGen, I submitted a dream I had in my heart to plant a church in Zimbabwe, and the leaders felt it wasn’t yet time for me to plant – thank God for our leaders; I am so glad that I took their wise counsel. In 2016, I received a prophetic word about ministry and going into full-time ministry, and in the same year, a deaconess in the Dunoon congregation had a prophetic dream, in which she saw me being given my own vehicle (representing ministry) and driving with many people in it. In 2017, I received another prophetic word specifically stating that I would soon plant a church and start discipling people in the ways of God. I also had several prophetic dreams about church planting.
Laura…received a prophecy that God was going to accelerate her walk with Him for the purposes of His Kingdom.
Even Laura, just after receiving Jesus Christ as her Lord in 2012, received a prophecy that God was going to accelerate her walk with Him for the purposes of His Kingdom. She also received numerous prophetic words about her working with African people and working alongside her husband.
One thing we have learned in this short period of working on the ground since October 2018 in Khayelitsha, is that church planting is a wild, adventurous ride that requires an immediate response to God’s call. All we did was say, “Yes, Lord!” and immediately availed ourselves to His plan of church planting, and we have been rewarded with an overwhelming response from the community. Their hearts are open, and we have been blessed to see salvations, recommitments and two baptisms so far. It has been so rewarding to witness God stretching out His hand to touch His people and deliver souls from the kingdom of darkness into His Kingdom of light.
Our hearts want to see His Kingdom established first, our comfort second. We even felt God calling us to take a step of faith further, and Laura, who has been working full-time in the corporate world, has resigned from her well-paying job that would have made our lives comfortable, to join me full-time in this Khayelitsha plant.
Andrew’s prophetic word…has been echoing in our hearts ever since: ‘Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow’.
You might be left asking, ‘Why Khayelitsha?’ And the answer boils down to Andrew’s prophetic word from the beginning of year that has been echoing in our hearts ever since: ‘Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow’.
We were asked, and we said yes!
