Print

A special day in South Africa

    From the time that I awakened on Friday, August 19, 2011, I looked forward with eager anticipation to arriving in Ficksburg (a beautiful small town in eastern Free State nestled along the Lesotho border). There was time to check in at the Woodpecker Guest House and have a quiet moment to place Prayer Seminar #5 before the Lord for His anointing because it is a very special seminar. It is Seminar #1,500. Little did I know when the first prayer seminar was conducted at Madison Baptist Church, Madison, New Jersey in September 1980 that it would spread worldwide and that my interest would shift from being an educator to being a teacher to the nations. Little did I know that there would be three decades plus of saying “turn in your workbooks to page …” and then guiding and directing learning (my favorite definition of the word “teaching.” Little did I know that I would travel almost two and one-half million miles and arrive at a small town in beautiful eastern South Africa and begin Seminar #1,500.
    As I waited for Leslie and Simon, the JGHM-Southern Africa Branch team, I became a little impatient, eager to see my seminar students. When they arrived at the Guest House, they reported that we must wait for someone from the Black township to come for us to lead us to the venue and the seminar. I was a little impatient knowing that we were going to be late in starting. Upon walking into the meeting place, my heart rejoiced because it was packed out with people ready for the seminar.
    Very soon, Seminar #1,500 (Part One) started. I quickly began to establish that God, from the beginning, prayer has been God’s way to get His work done. God has not changed that truth. God is able and willing to work in our lives, but we must ask. He is waiting for His children to ask. He is waiting for His church to ask. The flow was excellent. Leslie interpreted into Soetho, the language of the people. When we read together, we read in English and there was harmony in reading; the sound was surely precious in the ears of God. There was no doubt that the Holy Spirit was present bringing the Word alive word by word, phrase by phrase. One could see this on the faces and in the voices of the people. The day indeed was a special day in South Africa and a special day in the history of J. Gordon Henry Ministries.
    Seminar #1,500 (Part Two) will begin at 3 p.m. since, for the past few years, Saturday has been reserved for funerals. Due to the Aids epidemic that has swept southern Africa, the death rate has been enormous. In urging his people to return on Saturday, the pastor declared that revival had come to his congregation and that he was strongly convinced that God had sent a messenger at the right time with the right message. God grant that his conclusion be true and that a spiritual awakening has started for South Africa.