I dunno about you
guys, but I am always keen to look back and just see where things started – it
just makes me so much more amped about the outcome and in this instance the
outcome will be each and every day for the rest of my life!! Woohoo :-)
Misty Edwards sings a
song called Favourite One on her ‘Always on His Mind’ album...today is one of
those days that I am affirmed (just once again) that I am His favourite...ha ha
and so are you!!
So, some of Ryan’s
HIS-story 101:
I grew up in the NG
Kerk (kerk = church), I could just have written NG Church, but that would be
the same inexcusable mistake as asking for a cup of red-bush tea...no!!
I am not proudly
Afrikaans nor am I proudly English, just in the same way that someone whom is
mute is not proudly...uhm...silent!! But then you may say it’s about a culture
and not the actual language...well the bible literally only allows me to boast
in my knowledge of Christ. So I will boast in my Kingdom culture and the
language of heaven is love!! Boom
Ooi...back on track
here...so I was chillin in NG till I was approx 10 years old. At that stage I
was being educated at Dale Junior – a very English (language) school and so my
Afrikaans was diminishing at a rapid pace. Friends of mine, their dad was a
pastor at a really happening church in King William’s Town and so I decided to
go check it out...yay...and so I started attending the Friday night youth and
Sunday services!!
Now I am gonna try my
utmost best to unfold all the crazy happenings and how things came together!!
First things
first...a WARNING from a more mature member of my family...no names or titles
mentioned. But this specific person, let’s call her granny, warned me many
years ago - after her attending a Hatfield (Pretoria) service – against the
‘happy clappies’!!
I mean, being in
traditional/orthodox/yada-yada-what-will-man-think church being told when to
stand, sit, kneel etc. being exposed to okes just busting out lifting an arm,
then both...then kinda co-ordinating your legs to move and throw in some mild
hopping...which become jumping, clapping, laughter...smiling...it’s just too
much.
Its like ‘video
killed the radio star’ all over again!! We had something that worked, it was
plain and simple...I happen to enjoy my suit and tie, thank you very much. Then
all of a sudden people come to church barefoot wearing all sorts of colourful
clothing...and start expressing themselves. Did you not receive the memo that
all emotions were supposed to be left at the door...now you are causing my mind
to stumble and all sorts of creative thoughts are flying at me!! Bummer...
So, what does
Hatfield and clapping have to do with the price of eggs...read on:
Firstly, let me say –
I am humbly appreciative of my upbringing in the NG Kerk, if I were to start
dissing ministries then I would implore you to leave my blog asap. I am a man
that still fervently desires to preach and even when God starts using me in
that I know that even I won’t always get it right and so I look up to men of
God – great men of God...okes who at the end of this blog I will mention and
honour, men whom have played a roll in my life to date, cool so we sorted...no
hating allowed...just love!!
Two weeks ago (Sat,
19 May 2012) I had the great honour and privilege of visiting Mark and Vanessa
Manley’s home. Mark is a great man of God whom I had just met that evening and
we started talking about all sorts of things churchy. A long way down the
conversation I dropped the fact that I was born and raised in King William’s
Town and Mark asked me which church I attended. I replied the Good News
Christian Church!!
Wow, then Mark told
me how him and his wife were involved with the youth there at one stage –
having up to 300 youths!! I couldn’t believe what he was telling me...apart
from the 300...we were in the same church back then, kief!!
He informed me about
the involvement of Ivan Vorster in the planting of the church. Ivan is a
significant name to me as he was involved in planting and leading Harvest
Christian Church, my home church.
Ivan was from
Hatfield Christian Church in Pretoria – they are a massive congregation with a
bible college etc. we also have them to thank for a man such as Greg Timms who
used to be a pastor at Harvest till 2008/2009 until they emigrated to the USA.
The pastor of Good
News at the time I came around at the age of 10 was Roy Buck. Roy and his wife
Elise had twin boys – Jonothan and David whom were friends of mine and we were
in the same grade.
I remember those
Sunday mornings at church so vividly. It must have been around 1995, deliverance
happened almost every Sunday. I was new to all this stuff bru, watching with
bright eyes as congregants would hit the floor hissing and going crazy, the
pastors would jump in and after a while all the commotion was over. Our praise
and worship times were insane...laps around the church is all I can remember.
Almost every Sunday just running around that church...having fun praising
Jesus!! Awesome...I was in the middle of a revival and I didn’t even know what
that meant but hey, I was present!!
My mom would drop me
off at church, stay a little while and then have to leave to attend her church.
Poor dear, every time she walked out on a Sunday morning she would be followed
by keen ushers offering council to her exit...I love Christians...not wanting
anyone to miss out.
After some time
though as my mom would leave she would notice people still arriving for
church...this was quite confusing as the church where we came from was strictly
only one hour long and you dare not arrive late – agreed, this is good
stewardship...but my mom got wind of this and slowly but surely starting
migrating towards the charismatic’s...for almost no other reason but that you
could arrive late and nobody would even notice...remember, we were all too busy
doing laps around the church and going off like mad men!! Unfortunately for
me...this meant arriving a tad late and missing out on half my holy exercise
routine :-)
Funny fact is that
till this day, my mom still attends a charismatic church but in East London
(Abbotsford Christian Centre) – our new home city – and still, come 9am (church
starting time) we are still battling to leave home!! Ha ha...note to any pastors
out there wanting some church branding tips – advertise that you can arrive
late and nobody will ‘skeef’ you out. As for me and my household (one day)...we
will arrive on time!!
Your local church
most surely has a prayer time before the service...GO...get stuck in and get
involved. Most young people in the church today complain that they never get to
hang with the pastors and see them as way up holy beings...get over yourself
and go to where they are...in the pre-service prayer meetings!! You may tune me
and say that’s not the best place to network...well you might be surprised,
just check it out!!
Fast forward...last
night (Sun, 03 June 2012) my pastor was preaching up a good storm, Pastor John
Scholtz (I love this man to bits) and somewhere in the sermon he whipped out a
prophetic word given over Harvest on 01 January 1990 by a another pastor...Roy
Buck...wow, I got goosebumps and heavy emotional thinking hectic, how things
are just so inter-connected!! The word was insane. In fact we still refer to
that word quite often at Harvest, not as a whole but rather the image of us
being a ship...yoh!!
So ja...thats kinda
all the content I had lined up.
The connection for me
is quite simple and God ordained – granny (not her real identity remember)
warned me against the happy clappy Hatfield like folks...today I find myself in
one very happy and oh-so clappy church planted out of Hatfield...oops, sorry :-)
Secondly...could it
be that my God was preparing my heart long before the actual date of my salvation
for what I am walking in now!! Yes!! Men like Roy Buck and Ivan Vorster (whom I
have never met) were so pinnacle in planting seeds in the ground work that they
were doing and I was busy being planted into that ground...thirteen years later
I came to know Jesus in Harvest, in a home so similar to my very first charismatic
experience. I sit back and wonder - wow Lord, I am about 3 years older than
most of my friends...why, and He answers like this – because I am alive at the
exact time that he ordained me to be!!
Thank you Jesus!!
Just one last man’s
name that I want to mention is Pastor Marius Gradwell (Abbotsford Christian
Church) – never in my life before have I sat under the teaching of such a true,
humble and genuine guy. You are always well prepared and you overflow with God’s
wisdom.
I am the man I am
today because of great men of God!! Because I never came as a surprise to God
but He formed me in His perfect timing and from the get go, He has been setting
me up...setting me up for glory!!
Amen!!
Love Ryan
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