Emmanual Church - Leader's Seminar

Emmanuel Church in Windhoek, Namibia, is a congregation who have a heart for missions. Recently, they organised a Leaders’ Seminar at the Arebbush Travel Lodge, outside Windhoek.

Ron Gardiner, the missions’ pastor at Emmanuel, hosted the weekend. I, Johan, was invited to represent AFMIN at the Seminar.

Ron Gardiner and his wife.

I presented the topic, Biblical Worldview and Ron shared some incredible information regarding culture and religion throughout the world. As one listens to this, it is evident that there is still a vast work needed so as to reach the nations for Jesus Christ with the Gospel of the Kingdom..

Many contacts and new friends were made at this Seminar and I was blessed to bump into an old childhood friend Nico Horn and his wife Elsa, whom I had not seen for many years.
AFMIN will hold its first On10 School in Namibia during May 2011.

Johan Cronje and Nico Horn

More pictures can be viewed in the slideshow in the right-hand side coloum, or click on slideshow to go to album.

Namibian Trip - filled with Blessings

Our most recent trip to meet with church leaders in Namibia, was a wonderful success. Two young adults from our fellowship group in Cape Town, Johan and Ilanie, (whom we fondly call our “sons”) accompanied us on this trip. From the start we knew that this will be a fourteen day trip.

Our first stop was to visit Johan and Berdine de Klerk on the farm “Arbeid” in the the “Klein-Karas” area near Grünao. We introduced them to you, about two years ago, on this Blog. Although they are sheep farmers, they are been used mightily by the Lord in the ministry to the local farmers, especially through Berdine’s work among the women of Namibia. We spent a night at their farm and enjoyed fellowshipping with them while encourageing them regarding the Kingdom of God, the Son-ship Spirit and other relevant subjects.

WINDHOEK

We then spent 2 days in Windhoek. Margaret Mwale welcomed us once again, and introduced us to various pastors and church leaders who showed great interest in the work of AFMIN. Pastor Ron Gardiner from Emmanuel Church in Windhoek was instrumental in scheduling a three day break-away to be held in Okahandja during 2-4 September 2010. This will be a time of training and ministering for all church leaders. We are hoping to follow up this visit with an official Afmin school during the next two years.

Swakopmund was our next port of call, where we met with Pastor Martin van Niekerk and members of the AFM leadership in Namibia.

We visited Ilene Howard, a friend of ours in Henties Bay and spent a few days enjoying her hospitality. Our son JP and his wife Genevieve had joined us in Windhoek and we were blessed to be able to spend a few days enjoying their company. After an enjoyable time fishing and sight-seeing in and around the ERONGO region we started our journey back to the RSA.

Jean-Pierre and Genevieve Cronje

On our return trip to the de Klerk’s farm, we had two amazing experiences. The first was when we stopped at a bridge to stretch our leg and take photos at a steel railway bridge, spanning over the Asab river in the HARDAP region. Our attention was drawn to 2 small pools of water in a dry river bed. The next thing we knew, a wall of water came gushing down this normally dry river bed. It was a sight to see, as all this water filled the dry dessert river bed from bank to bank and rushed under the bridges. The Lord spoke to our hearts through this experience, which left us standing amazed and in awe. It was not surprising to be told that Asab in the Nama language means “NEW”. For Alta, myslef and all our sons it announced a time of new beginnings. This is our KAIROS, a season with an opportunity.

Water gushing down the dry river bed.

Our second experience was when we drove into a thunderstorm about 60 km from the de Klerk’s farm. The downpour was so heavy that within 10 minutes we were surrounded by streams of water. There in the centre of a semi-desert farm we found ourselves in a situation where water once again covered the dry and thirsty land.

Our small pools of water in the dry-land have changed into streams of rushing rivers.


This rainbow which followed the storm, was a wonderful reminder of God's promise to fulfilled His Word on our lives.

Windhoek April 2010.

Our plan is to visit Namibia during April 2010. We are looking forward to meeting with church leaders to discuss the way forward and the needs of the church in Namibia. We will post more details nearer to the time. Any church leaders wishing to meet with us, may contact me directly. Please see our contact details for email address or telephone numbers.