I grew up in a Christian home and my father was an elder in the Dutch Reformed Church, giving me exposure to God’s Word from an early age. Catechism laid a thorough Biblical foundation and I grew up with a strong awareness of God the Holy Spirit’s convicting work. However, hypocrisy in the church and a series of unfortunate events found me angry with God and rejecting His overtures as a teenager and young adult. At the age of 24 God finally caught up with me and finding myself in South Africa after leaving Zimbabwe in 1982, I became a committed Christian while I was a student at the gold mines. It was here that I was introduced to intercessory prayer, strong biblical teaching, and developed a love for both.
The burden for lost souls grew so strong that I left my employment and joined Youth With a Mission in Namibia. Initially going for 6 months, I ended up in YWAM for 11 1/2 years. Through a process of discipleship and being taught in the School of the Spirit, the Lord developed me to the place in ministry I am today.
Starting with a strong evangelistic ministry all over Namibia, I began to realize that my fruit in evangelism was falling to the ground. One of the ‘life words’ that God has given me is the word ‘evaluate’. I began questioning my methodology and strategy and found I lacked laying biblical foundations in the lives of new believers so through a process of searching and mentorship, God began to reveal His disciple making blue print to me from the scriptures. I added Bible study to my evangelism and saw the fruit of this, but found nominal churches rejecting the Spirit filled converts. I again began to ask questions and the Lord led me to see Paul’s method of church planting and leadership development. In the interim, I met my wife Jeni of 24 years, being students together at Youth With A Mission, had 2 children, Jessica and Shaun. My wife and I have grown together in this process of church planting and leadership development to where we are now in ministry.
In September 2002 God led Dr Phil Largent and I to join hands in reaching out in Southern and Eastern Africa, with the specific focus on church planting, training, and leadership development. Thus IMD Africa was birthed. IMD Africa is a facilitating ministry where we come alongside existing ministries. We find faithful men and help them to disciple churches, and develop leaders through an ongoing training programme from 5-7 years, depending on our partnership agreement.
