“His Story” in Wessie van der Westhuizen
It was brilliant chatting to Wessie – Project Manager of Operation Trumpet Call (OTC) and getting to know his story. I just missed his wife Somien who had left New Creation Church to pick up their children from school. I really look forward to meeting her. This is what Wessie had to say:
"I was busy doing National Service for 2 years when I gave my life to the Lord and subsequent to this felt God call me into full time ministry. I was 19 at the time and then pursued Theological studies in Pretoria for a few years It was during this time that I met my wife Somien, and we got married in 1988. We then went into full time ministry at the Hatfield Christian Church in Pretoria. We were privileged to be involved in this for 17 years, during which we were also leading a course in theological studies for 1st year students and being involved in Pastoral care in one of the city’s congregational areas. In 2006 God lead us to resign from full time eldership at Hatfield Christian Church towards pursuing His call on us for working more directly into the nations. We then joined New Covenant Ministries International (NCMI) and started attending Urban Life Church in Midrand. After a period of about nine months, we were invited unto eldership at that church until we finally moved to Zimbabwe at the end of 2009.
Our involvement in Zimbabwe started in July 2007, when God put it on my heart to do something about the extreme food shortages that were being experienced in the nation. I approached my eldership team and received their blessing to respond to this urge from the Lord. The first person I managed to get in touch with was a man called Dumi Ndlovu, a church leader from a church in Bulawayo. I asked him how we could be of help and he subsequently gave me a list of food items. We then collected food from our local church and made our first trip to Zimbabwe in August 2007. The initial decision was that we would continue doing this for at least 3 months and then settle on what the way forward would be. Soon other churches in South Africa joined in and national funds were made available in order for food to be purchased in bulk. As a church we were then approached and asked whether we could administrate this effort which by now had grown into a mass effort of getting food across the border We were thoroughly blessed when an International Christian Organization that is involved in supporting Christians worldwide called; Barnabas Fund heard about what we were doing and started supporting these efforts through funding the crisis in Zimbabwe for the past 3 years. We did realize thought that this was never going to be long-term solution and was therefore constantly asking God for the way forward
Meeting Scott Marques and Brian Oldreive in January 2008 was for that reason a God-ordained meeting. This enabled me to get involved in Foundations for Farming after attending a Champs Conference. The attempt was then made to turn the normal food runs into training events re FfF. It was during this time that we felt that God was speaking to us about getting involved in the country on a more permanent basis. After speaking to apostolic leaders both in South Africa and Zimbabwe, the release came and subsequent to that, the opportunity arose with Operation Trumpet Call to relocate to Zimbabwe and join the local team in this regard. We feel that God has lead us as a family to come and serve what the wider part of the Body is currently doing. There seems to also be a strong call on many more South Africans and other worldwide Christians to join in with the current focus of rebuilding Zimbabwe."
Wessie speaking to the OTC farmers gathered at New Creation Church
Thank you so much Wessie
By Molly Manhanga
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