City Of Refuge Baptist Church
Grace Baptist Church is a brand new Baptist Church in the planting, in the western suburb of Albertsville, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. The plans are for the church to start services in September 2011.
There is a lot of work to be done on the building itself, as the building has not been used as a church for more than ten years. Previous occupants used the building as a house, and built walls inside the building to create rooms. The building itself is solid but much of it is in a bad way. And so it will take at least a month for the building to be brought to a place where it will be fit for starting meetings.
Read brother Clay's testimony below of how the Lord moved him to start this new work.
As most of you are aware that we are busy with the church plant in Albertville but many are not aware of how this opportunity has come about, so if you would suffer me the time I will share with you how I know that not only is there a God, but that He is my God!
I attend Grace Baptist Church in Portview and I fill the office of the church evangelist, a strange title if you consider that everyone in the church should be fulfilling that role, anyway in January of 2011 I was not certain if the Lord wanted me to stay on at Grace, go and assist somewhere else or start a new work, these are difficult times in a Christians life as doing exactly what the Lord wants is not always spelt out very clearly in the onset.
In January I was told of a church building in Albertville that may be available so I began to investigate, it turned out that a family was living in the building for the past 7 years and that for the past 4 years were not paying any rent, in fact they were supposed to fix the building in lieu of rent payable. This however never materialized and the building had become dilapidated. I managed to get hold of the owner who bought the building from a bank repossession many years before in order to turn it into a house. The Lord however had other plans and not only kept the building but kept the zoning of it as a place of worship.
I engaged with the owner, Sharon Mans, and she told me she wanted to sell the building for R950 000-00 and that I could rent it at first till I was able to buy it. Sharon had however not seen the building in some time and said that she would speak to the tenant and get back to me. I then enquired of the Lord and asked His opinion by setting out “the fleece” of “if she gets back to me then I’ll know it is your will Lord” She never!
So I waited on the Lord and continued to serve as best as I could at Grace, this year to date serving there has been the highlight of my walk with all that has taken place!
In June I had planned a trip to my beloved brother and friend David Peacock who had preached a revival at Grace in February, this never happened and I must confess I was rather disappointed, BUT HE HAD BETTER PLANS FOR ME, AMEN!!!!!!
Sharon contacted me in that time and offered the building to me again, this time at a reduced price of R800 000-00 and a reduced rent option of R 3000-00 per month hence the photos and the works that has begun.
This work is done under the banner of Grace Baptist Church with the joy of knowing that the Lord is giving us a chance to start new and try to do it right! (God help us)
Herein lies my joy in the Lord, up until February this year I had been preaching at least once a month at Victory Independent Baptist Church in Klerksdorp pastored by Paul Mann a dearly beloved brother and friend, I was in my element as I consider the preaching of God’s Word to be the highest calling any man can have. However in February the Lord put my faith to the test, He told me to sit down and keep my mouth shut and throw my full weight behind my now pastor Paul Craig and too date I have only preached 5 messages and to my surprise I have been content with it. As the church evangelist I will now be preaching most of the services at the new church meaning that the Lord has increased my “quota” to at least three preaching engagements a month, PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
Psalms 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
To date the Lord has provided almost R 20 000-00 In cash to the work required as well as about R 10 000-00 in fencing and stone, it must be noted that the vast majority of this comes from unsaved people! Inside the church the bottom half of the walls were built with face bricks and have now been painted, this looks terrible to say the least and cleaning them is not an option. These painted face bricks also run up the bell tower as can be seen in the photos. I want to cover these in slate tiles as it will look great but I was hoping to get the tiles cheap as I work near many of the slate mines and as a fellow miner I reckoned I could get them for a good price, once I called around I realized that I could get them at cost price which sounds great except it would still have cost about R 6000-00 which I do not have, then I was offered offcuts and rejects for a very low price and all I had to do was sort through the heaps, needless to say I was excited and went to the mine last Thursday the 25th of August, when I arrived I realized it was a daunting task to sift through and find suitable slate to use feeling a bit dejected I headed back to work.
While driving through Zeerust I saw a truck transporting the same type of chairs that we had got prices on for the church, we wanted 100 chairs but decided to start off with 50 chairs that would have cost R 60-00 per chair. I stopped the driver and asked if he worked for the company that made the chairs to which he replied yes and gave me company contacts, AFRI CHAIRS, there were three names on the document and I asked the Lord which one to call, the middle one was the choice a man named Johan.
I told him I was from the church and that we were starting a new work and asked if he sold to the public, he asked what colour chair we wanted to which I replied the cheapest. He wanted to know how many so in fear that he would be put off by only 50 chairs I told him the full amount in hope we would get it for a good price, the price turned out to be a blessing, he said he had a good deal for me, come and load them and they are yours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You may be saying PRAISE THE LORD now, so am I, however at that point I could not get a word out, the Lord yanked my chain and the tears flowed and I found myself speechless, after a while I told him I did not know what to say to which he replied “thank you” I said “may the Lord bless you for this” to which he replied “He already does”
I know many have had their doubts if thing is of the Lord, all I can say is that if you still doubt best you put it into the bottom of the sea with all your other sins!!!
THERE IS A GOD!
I marvel as to who the Lord is using to start this work (Jdg 7:2 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.) And I thank Him too!
The only thing that saddens me is how little of His people seem to want a “piece of the action” none the less I know He will have His way.
Pray for us please, we need it; I need it to carry me onwards and please pray for the following:
- Finances to pay for the rest of the work
- R 800 000-00 to buy the building
- Tiles
- Carpets
- A pulpit
- A piano (someone has pledged one)
- Pew Bibles
- Hymn books
If you would like to call me to find out about the work and more importantly about the type of work that will be started feel free to do so on +27 79 697 4168. I am sure you will be encouraged in the Lord if you do so.
Yours in Christ
Brother Clay