Great Limpopo Dream
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There are a number of reasons that have brought me to the conclusion
that Jesus Christ really is the Way and the Life and the Truth. After
almost 50 years of reading, questioning my own beliefs and all the
doubts, which a highly sceptical world could throw at me, this
conviction is as strong as ever. In fact, where it has started as
something inherited from my parents and then becoming a profoundly
experiential reality it has now also become something which is strongly
founded intellectually and almost scientifically proven. Here are my
reasons:
Reason 1: The tremendous and wonderfully positive change in my life since Jesus Christ became an experiential reality.
“This poor man cried to the Lord - and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles” (Ps 34 v 7).
As a youngster my life was in chaos. Twice I physically ran away.
First, I took the road from school hostel in matric and then again from
University. Once in desperation I shot myself in the shoulder with a
rifle and later I suffered acute depression. So in the beginning of the
Year 1980 I said to God, in whom I believed because of a Christian home
rather than any personal experience, that my life was worse that any
non-Christian, whom I may have known. This was the start of a very
honest communication with Him. A month later I told the Lord I have
tried everything in life to be happy but nothing has succeeded. I will
try one more thing as a last desperate measure: I will try to find my
joy in Him rather than in everything else. At a Christian camp a
reverend talked about the Holy Spirit and I suddenly realised I do not
feel as miserable as normal. That evening a friend and me confessed our
worst secret sins to each other – and suddenly an indescribable
joy and peace came over us. For a week this joy and peace was so
intense that I could scarcely sleep at night. For two months I lived in
pure spiritual ecstasy and my whole life changed forever. Whereas the
best I had formerly had was a life of low-keyed misery –
according to the well known author HG Wells the normal state of his
life and most people he knew – I now had access to a source of
amazing peace and joy. And I became able to succeed in life despite all
its challenges. But this joy and ability to do good only followed me as
long as I stay focussed on Jesus and doing His will as explained in the
Bible.
The question I want to ask all unbelievers is: Where do this joy, peace
and ability came from? And why does it only stay with me if I am
focussed to seek and serve God? Please try the same desperate measure I
have taken – it works!
Reason 2: God’s
wonderful care experienced by me and many other Christians in every
serious difficulty I have
encountered.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble” (Ps 46 v 1)
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Ps 34 v 19).
Since becoming a Christian I had my fair share of trouble - some of it
very serious indeed - but what I found is that everything will work to
the good for those that love Him (Rom 8 v 28) and that He will save me
on each occasion. It does not matter how bad and even desperate it may
look at the time. There was at least 28 times (I wrote them down) where
I felt I was exposed to a serious crisis, which threatens my life and
my mission in it such as:
When I was hijacked by a group of murderers and managed to escape unharmed when they wanted to kidnap me;
Once in my first marriage it was on the verge of final separation and
divorce. It was so bad that I told the Lord that if He was willing and
able to solve this mess I never would be able to doubt Him again.
Within one year of that desperate prayer people were jealous of our
good marriage.
When my beautiful young wife died with my unborn son, and I was able to
cry for joy on their funeral because of the wonderful peace and love of
the Holy Spirit;
On one occasion 80% of staff was retrenched at my work but I was spared
despite the fact that I was a white man in a black managed parastatal;
Where I had to rewrite my whole Master’s thesis within one month or lose my degree, and finished it with a commendation;
Or when my wife and daughter suffered from chronic diseases, and both were wonderfully healed;
When I was within a second of losing my life in a car accident and yet walked away unscathed from the scene.
And in all these things God has taken me through to be stronger and wiser afterwards.
Reason 3: The great things God has given me
Yes, where before God has changed my life it was in a sort of low-keyed
miserable chaos He has now given me incredible gifts. The most precious
one is that He has given me a new life in Jesus Christ so that I have
great confidence that I will actually see Eternal Life in the Kingdom
of God.
There is a long list of really great things He has done for me. There is more than 30 and it is growing every year:
Where I was unable to successfully pass my First Year at University I now have three degrees behind my name.
I prayed for a second wife with an interest in nature conservation,
whom I will find beautiful. I got one who is officially recognised as
the first female manager of a public conservation area in South Africa.
She last year obtained her Honors Degree in conservation with
Distinction. After more than 15 years I love her so much and still find
her completely irresistible. Where on earth do you get a woman who has
a strong personality, do all the maintenance around the house, all our
financial and other administration, never waste my money, clean the
floors and the dishes and has the body of a model at 46? Whatever she
does she does well. And best of all she still loves me too.
I said to God that I want to live without debt. I have no debt and with
enough money to buy a new vehicle cash and to send my children to
university despite being the sole breadwinner and dependent on a salary.
I was an economist on a dead end in my career when I told Him that I
would like to work on ten tourism projects around the Limpopo. This is
exactly what I am doing now and the challenge is I have too many of
these incredibly beautiful projects. God has given me the tremendous
priviledge to live my dream.
I dearly wanted to go and see the great natural wonders of Tanzania
where my father grew up but could not because of the bad relationship
between Apartheid South Africa and Tanzania. Then in 1996 I was able to
go there on a wonderful tour with 27 family members including my
father, who could still speak Swahili, the year before he passed away.
I was able to take along my wife and paid only a fraction of the cost.
Speaking of a dream come true this was one that lived in me for decades.
I expressed the wish to work for the Africa Institute of South Africa
and do research on Africa for which I have such a passion. For two and
a half years I was able to do exactly that, studying a range of these
fascinating countries.
Then I wanted to practice my academic knowledge of Africa and became
employed in one of the best development corporations in South Africa,
where I learnt more in nine years than in all my years of study. Here I
became the strategic planner designing and facilitating a strategy
which created more jobs than people coming onto the labour market in
the second poorest homeland of South Africa. This still ranks as the
most remarkable miracle I have experienced in my life. It is here where
I have learnt that the huge underemployment and poverty experienced in
great parts of South Africa and Africa is utterly
unnecessary.
There are many others gifts such as several international tours, two
children who regularly have been at the top of their standards
academically and then the greatest of all: the privilege to convince a
number of people to accept Jesus as their personal Saviour. The list is
actually endless and there are so many things to be thankful for. The
list for 2007 alone is starting to make impressive reading including:
A new job with the Limpopo Tourism Parks Board where I can realise my
passion and dreams for eco-tourism development and conservation.
Breakthroughs including signed Memorandum of Understandings and two
draft Master Plans on at least three major eco-tourism projects, which
I have proposed as much as ten years ago, to create three really
magnificent nature reserves of 20 000 ha plus. Each already
incorporate an impressive diversity of big game animals including all
five members of the Big Five, a major hot spring resort or golf estate,
a significant cultural feature such as a museum, cultural village, a
full scale replica of the Great Zimbabwean ruins and ancient rock art;
some magnificent landscapes such as water falls, gorges, baobab trees,
perennial rivers, mountain escarpments etc.
Enough money to pay for my son’s university degree, my
wife’s Master Degree, the upgrading of my house and a new
vehicle. My normal salary would never have been able to cope.
I have been praying for five years for a SUV vehicle. I got the exact
model I wanted, paid in cash, but God improved the specifications by
adding special suspension for a softer and higher ride, a long range
fuel tank, 4x4 capabilities and an upgraded sound system.
In principle approval for a R6.9 million project application from the European Union.
My son and daughter averages about 90 per cent in their school studies.
My son was recognised as the top scholar at his school in matric.
Who am I to have been blessed so greatly while billions of people are suffering from poverty, war, divorce and disease?
Reason 4: The mighty works of the great men and women of God
One of the greatest experiences of my life was to hear and see the mighty works of the children of God.
I had the wonderful experience to see the work of the amazing prophet
TB Joshua of Nigeria. Through my own eyes I saw blind people healed,
lame people walk, the most terrible diseases healed and demon possessed
people delivered. Whenever, the atheistic world come with its arguments
and reasonings I only have to think back on my experiences there and
know they simply does not hold water.
On television screen I saw how a completely, utterly dead baby came to
live again. I saw the testimony of an American missionary in South
America, which very credibly told us how up to 100 people were raised
from the dead through their utterly committed missionary work.
Or the live testimony of the former Afghan professor on International
Law Amir Khan saved dramatically from the Muslim faith. This man coming
from an extremely wealthy family, was given four days to live from
blood cancer by the best doctors, prayed to Jesus for help until
2’o’clock in the morning and was wonderfully healed. When
he told his father he became a Christian he was given five minutes to
get out of the house. He became a preacher and ended up in front of a
firing squad – who became blinded. “After only 20 minutes
of prayer” their sight was restored and he was released.
Or the testimony of the German missionary in South Africa, Erlo Stegan,
which I heard on the radio and read in a book when ten blind people
whose sight were restored on their way to a morning service at
Kwasisabantu.
The live testimonies of Christian martyrs such as Wurmbrand and Popov
who, tortured cruelly for their faith, testify to the victory and the
reality of an inner man able to found utter peace under the most
intense persecution in Christ Jesus.
Or the many people whose testimonies I have heard or read who have seen
Jesus, Heaven and Hell. They all correlate and together they form a
formidable body of evidence that demand a proper verdict from those who
say they do not believe.
The miracles of Jesus Christ occur today in a very similar way than in
His days on earth. Actually it seems to become quite common to the
extent that it requires a very hardened critic to sweep their evidence
from the table. It is an amazing world which regularly splashes the
most foul deeds on their front pages but never give prominence to
credible testimonies of people healed from terminal diseases (they do
give a lot of prominence when people that have been healed becomes sick
again) or several people in South Africa alone who have experienced
being raised from the death and who have seen Jesus. I am aware of at
least two people who have testimonies of being raised from the death
– one living near Giyani and one who is associated with the
Kwasisabantu mission station. I personally talked to three people who
have seen Jesus in person.
Reason 5: The Church of Jesus Christ through 2 000 years.
In these days it is very acceptable and even popular to be extremely
critical of the Church of Jesus Christ. For a journalist it is possibly
the fastest way to become the talk of the country if they make
disparaging remarks on God or His children. If you listen to its
critics the Church was responsible for most of the problems over the
last 2 000 years.
But which other institution could compete with the church when it picks
up the pieces of so many broken people. Just think of all the
alcoholics, criminals and drug addicts who have had a restart in life.
I am just one of millions who in desperation have found a home in the
Church. In my own town the church is giving food, shelter and a warm
welcome to many needy people. When slavery was abolished and the
history of human kind changed to become welfare orientated in the early
19th Century it were the Christians who were the drivers ending the
misery of millions. When natural and man-made disasters struck the
Church is almost always there to assist people back on their feet.
For a solid 2 000 years the Church has been going; continually
reinventing and reforming itself to be more in line with the dictates
of that amazing book the Bible. Although there have been setbacks in
places ranging from Turkey and Europe, which once were strongholds of
the Church, it is still growing strongly in places as diverse as
Southern Africa, South Korea, South America and North America and China
with its estimated 50 million Christians. Severe persecution in Soviet
Russia, China, North Korea, numerous Muslim countries have resulted in
as many as a million Christians being martyred every year for much of
the 20th century, according to Open Doors the organisation dedicated to
the support of the persecuted Church. Sceptics, influential Western
intelligentsia and powerful imperial governments from Imperial Rome,
Soviet Union, China and modern radical Islamic republics have actively
tried to destroy the Church But still more people have come to
Christ over the last decades than in any part of history. In South
Africa an opinion survey less than 10 years into the New South Africa
have found the Church to be a more respected institution (80 per cent)
than Government (55%), the reigning political party or any other
institution surveyed despite the overwhelming legitimacy and
international respect of then President Mandela and the ANC Government.
And wherever the church was strong and returning to its fundamental
roots it brought life, freedom and prosperity. It is for solid reasons
that the modern Western Civilisation with its stupendous technological
and economic achievements is often called the Judea-Christian
civilisation. All competing ideologies, which have threatened to
overwhelm it, have all fallen by the waysides and had to be replaced
with new challengers. Just think how strong the heathen Roman Empire
was in the time of the apostles, the surge of Islam in the 7th and 14th
century, Confucian China or more recently how strong Nazi Germany, the
Soviet Union and international communism seemed as recently as the
1970s or even pagan Japan in the 1980s. Some of the most successful
societies in history have had a strong Christian foundation or
influence. Christianity is not limited to any race, country, continent
or culture but started in the Middle East, moved first to Asia Minor
(modern Turkey) and North Africa before transforming Europe first in
the south and later in the north and east. From here it spread to North
and South America, Southern, Eastern and Western Africa and later to
East Asia where it recently became very strong in South Korea, certain
parts of China, the Phillipines and Indonesia. It is also very strong
in numerous remote islands across the oceans of the world. In global
cities, towns and remote villages the church is active and having an
impact.
Over 2 000 years have seen powerful kingdoms, empires and
ideologies come and go but the Church is as strong and vigorous as
ever. At the time of writing it is almost Christmas in the Year of our
Lord, 2007, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ the Founder of the
Church across the globe. It is not 2007 years of the Common Era –
that era was not the beginning of anything common to mankind but the
person and the body of Jesus Christ.
Reason Six: The Bible as the Word of God.
In the Year 2007, as in every year, thousands of things happened in the
publication industry. But the one thing constant for centuries: the
Bible remains the all time best seller despite being forbidden and
restricted by government action from millions of people to this day.
Not bad for an almost 1700 year old book of which all of it was written
within 70 years after the death of its main personality almost 2000
years ago. Is it not strange that a book, which instruct its readers to
love even their enemies and obey even non-Christian governments, struck
so much fear in so many governments. Nowhere, is there as much
restriction or controversy around the Koran or any other religious
book.
Some critics such as the secular Jew and renowned author Leon Uris
state that Christianity had an obscure, vague and confusing start. But
if you read the gospels, Book of Acts and the letters of the first
apostles it is quite clear how a frightened bunch of disciples hiding
behind closed doors turned around within a period of two months to
boldly take on the spiritual and state authorities of their day. The
words and deeds of Jesus Christ and his followers have been witnessed
by thousands of people in the capital of the Jewish kingdom, which was
a constituent component of the Roman Empire – one of the major
world empires in the whole of human history. Jesus was killed in a very
public way by a co-operative effort of the Jewish spiritual authorities
and the top officials of the Roman state. Peter’s first
sermon was heard by thousands of people and was so convincing that
three thousand people became Christians. Within one generation the
Gospel penetrated the length and breadth of the whole mighty and vast
Roman Empire and beyond despite ruthless and widespread persecution by
the state and the Jewish spiritual authorities. Millions were killed
for their faith over the centuries, but it did not deter them or their
message.
And the reason for their dramatic turnaround, according to the
apostles, were that about 500 of Jesus followers (as stated in
Corinthians – the oldest book in the New Testament) saw the
resurrected Jesus with their own eyes. When it was written most of
these first eye witnesses were still alive. This testimony plus the
words and deeds of Jesus and the powerful work of the Holy Spirit were
the three components which enable them to found the most successful
religion and believed in by some two billion people throughout the six
continents and seven seas found in the world today. They simply could
not stay quiet about the amazing things they saw and experienced.
And over the centuries the Word of God maintains its tremendous
credibility because its prophecies became true. Jesus said that His
Gospel will be preached to the ends of the earth (Acts 1v8). This was
an incredible statement at the time when he had a few hundred followers
from one tiny little country. It has been fulfilled to the letter. From
the northern tip of Siberia or Norway in the Artic Circle to the
researchers living in Antartica you will find the believers today. From
the giant countries of today such as America, China and India to the
smallest and most remote islands the Gospel is preached, read and
believed. And this was prophesied in the days before television, radio,
motor vehicles, telephones or aeroplanes.
Jesus prophesied the destruction and rehabilitation of Israel. The
first happened forty years after His resurrection and the other about
1 900 years later. Nothing like that has ever happened in human
history. He prophesied it and it happened.
For hundreds of years scientists believed the stories in the Bible of
Babylon and Niniveh to be only myths and legends until they were
confronted with archaeological evidence of cities having defensive
walls of ten storeys high.
For two hundred years it seems as if science was finding more and more
evidence contradicting the creation story of the Bible until they were
confronted by a Big Bang being caused by an Ancient Source of Energy
started with on Ancient Atom. A mighty and wonderfully precisely
controlled explosion was undertaken to make the magnificence of life
possible in its amazing beauty, order and diversity possible on tiny
Planet Earth. That sounds very much like “God created all things
from things unseen” (Hebrews). That God created the
Universe has become a respectable hypothesis once again.
Millions of people across the globe will testify that they have
read the Bible, and that the 2 000 year old book (or collection of
66 books by numerous authors) has spoken to them in no uncertain terms.
Personally my experience is that it becomes boring when you read it
rarely and more interesting and alive when you read it often. Read it
for 40 days for at least 20 minutes per day and you will experience a
strange hunger for more and an amazing peace. Please try it at least
once in your life, it works. It normally takes some time before its
works its magic because our heads and hearts are normally full of
rubbish that first must be cleared up.
Reason Seven: The beauty, complexity, order and precise design of the Universe
As a tourism project manager and strategic planner I have the
priviledge of travelling extensively to many beautiful places in the
Limpopo Province of South Africa and beyond. And our Planet is
amazingly and consistently beautiful especially where it has not been
spoiled by human pollution and badly planned development. The pleasure
of the beauty of nature is sometimes so magnificent that it can become
an almost painfully intense experience. Not only is the Universe
spectacularly massive, complex, orderly and incredibly precise. It is
incredibly beautiful. It seems to be designed not only by the greatest
Engineer but the greatest Artist. As Dr Henri Brandt, internationally
renowned surgeon has said: There are more than one thousand surgical
procedures designed for the human hand but not one which can improve on
the original design. Self-proclaimed atheists and the generally godless
wish us to believe that this truly awesome Universe with its beautiful
flowers, trees, wildlife and billions of stars are the result of a
series of random accidents. The Big Bang and our Universe - an
accident? What an unbelievable miraculous Accident! I think they are
men and women of tremendous faith – or perhaps tremendous and
committed foolishness? Maybe the truth is that there is nobody as blind
as those who do not want to see.
Reason Eight: The most beautiful people on earth.
Christians have been called many nasty names such as hypocrites,
weaklings and bigots and that the Church is responsible for such
enormities such as some of the Crusades and the Inquisition. The truth
is that I have found such people in the Church and some such tendencies
in my own heart but that simply is not the general character of the
Church or its people. And is the Church still the Church if they simply
do not obey the main commandments of their Founder to sincerely and
humbly love your neighbour and even your enemy? By far the most
beautiful, friendly, caring and humble people that I have met in life
were Christians. Christian missionaries as a career category are simply
the most friendly, loving and service orientated people without greed
that I have come across. They make excellent friends as I have found
living in Giyani where quite a number of them worked in the 1990s.
Then there was old Nana (Elizabeth Bester), our servant of my childhood
home, and Asnath the tea lady at my previous work. Nana was an
alcoholic and spirit drinker who was warned by the doctor she will die
within a year if she does not stop her drinking. In her desperation she
turned to Christ and replaced her addiction with the joy of the Holy
Spirit. In all my life I have not met a more colourful person, a
greater lover of children or a greater entertainer than old Nana. She
was fat, made the grossest facial expressions and spoiled us and our
children into the ground. She could not read nor write but was one of
the greatest people I have ever met. She passed away in the ripe old
age of 80 and spend her last days encouraging and enlivening the old
age home at Vredenburg. Asnath got the lowest salary of all 200 odd
people at LimDev, tought me virtually all 20 words I can speak in Pedi,
was always friendly and willing to be of service and did more to made
me feel welcome than any of the other staff. During lunch time I saw
her regularly reading her old Bible. Or Jack, the gardener, who always
sang his songs while he worked, brought me a plant to upgrade my
office, was followed by all the stray cast in the neighbourhood and
greeted me every day with obviously sincere friendship and a huge
welcome. These people will sparkle in heaven as stars, when all the
rich and mighty will have turned to dust.
Reason Nine: The testimony of my parents and grandparents through ten generations.
When my father, who was a successful business man, community leader,
father, husband and sports man, turned 70; I asked him what was
the most important things life has teached him. He turned around and
said two things: You can trust God, and do not destroy the capital you
have. When my mother turned 75 I asked her the same thing. She said to
love, trust and obey God is the most important thing. When my
grandmother was in her 80s and confined to her eventual death bed she
told me: All other things in life will be taken away from you but your
faith in God. It is the one thing which will not be taken away. Jacque
Malan, the founder of the Malan family in South Africa gave up his
family estate in France to his brother because of his Protestant faith.
He came to South Africa with nothing as a single man without even a
wife. He eventually married the widow of his best friend and today has
left more descendants than all the Malans who have stayed in France.
His is a legacy of Christian faith unbroken for ten generations and a
legacy of strong and closely-knit families, successful farmers,
professionals, statesmen, community leaders, ministers of religion,
business people, authors and
artists.
Reason Ten: The combined testimony of the above nine reasons.
Each of these reasons has convinced me of my childhood faith in God and
Jesus Christ. Together I believe they should make a pretty convincing
case for even the hardest sceptic. Follow up these arguments, test them
and come back to me if you found me right or wrong.
In fact, I dare anybody to take the Bible, go to some isolated and/or
beautiful spot for a week, read it, bow humbly on your knees and pray
to God to reveal Himself to you. Frankly, I believe even a weekend of
searching will found you a changed person. Please come back and tell me
if I have spoken the untruth.
For those who are depressed and/or are suicidal: take a piece of paper,
write down all the reasons which make you depressed. Then evaluate your
feelings as a percentage from perfect to hopeless. Then write in big
and bold letters STOP. Then write down what the Bible says about your
situation and then do something – even small – about it.
Also evaluate your feelings after you have done this exercise. If there
is not a marked improvement please let me now that I am a liar. I shot
myself, suffered from depression and physically ran away from my home
and my troubles – then God saved and give me a beautiful and
challenging life.
Find your joy in God and He will make you a joyful person. You may even experience the fullness of His inheritance.
May God bless you greatly.
Du Toit Malan
December 2007
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The
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