About new

Hi there. I am Gerard and my wife is Alida. She married me because she thought it was a better option than being a missionary in China. Personally I think she was scared to study medicine and Mandarin (she wanted to become a medical doctor to ease entry into Mao’s country).

 

When I courted her, she wanted to know if I was a Christian. I just laughed at the thought. After 44 years of marriage, I am Alida’s only convert! Today we function as a team and I can testify she is a blessing. I think God is brilliant in giving a man a helpmeet. Otherwise, how would I know where to find my clothes that she packed away?

 

As you can see in the photo, we began life as two messed up youths, but today we can testify that God kept us together and changed our lives completely. When the kids left home, we had an abattoir and butchery on the farm. It was going well, but God had other plans. Two men we knew died of heart attacks. I calculated that my chances of dying were 100%. Was I prepared to meet God? It felt to me as if the Holy Spirit urged me to get out of the business and concentrate on the Bible. We left and began a twelve year journey of studying the Bible and seeking God’s Kingdom.

 

In the meantime we lost most of our capital to a friendly ‘fifth son’ (we have four married children and eleven grandchildren). Despite that, which we regarded as an attempt by the devil to get us back to business (and away from the Bible), the Holy Spirit helped us to persevere. We also exchanged the farm for our son’s plot. He is farming, and we are nearer six of the grandchildren. For us it was a momentous, life changing exchange. We are blessed. God helps us to understand His Word. Our reward is to enjoy our youngest daughter’s four kids (between 10 months and 5 years old), and our son’s two children.

 

Not only do we study the Bible, but also its ‘alter ego’ evolution. We came to the conclusion that the Bible is a very precise investment brochure that guarantees those who persevere a tremendous inheritance after death. God’s enemy, the devil, has various strategies up his sleeve to trip up people regarding God’s plan for man. This is what our blog is about: the grace and mercy of God who can change ordinary people’s lives and prepare them for the life to come.