A touching testimony
Oom Piet and tannie Millie de Beer shared a touching testimony:
It is now exactly 47 years ago that Millie and I took the huge step by faith to obey God’s calling to join Campus Crusade for Christ South Africa (CCC) fulltime.
CCC came to this country in 1972, and under the leadership of John and Mary Jean Tempelhof, they had made an incredible impact in our, and many other people’s spiritual lives with the practical methods to help lead people to Christ and to help them grow in their relationship with Christ.
They conducted regular training courses at the Helpmekaar High School for boys in Johannesburg.
At this training they concentrated on the “HOW TO’S” of your relationship
with God, and your every day walk with Him, like for instance:
- How to be sure you are a Christian – based on what the Word of God says
- How to experience God’s love and forgiveness – and to deal with your sin
- How to be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit moment by moment
- How to walk in the Spirit
- How to witness in the spirit, and
- How to love by faith.
These principles were life-changing to us and as we slowly learned to apply them in our personal lives, we shared them with others. We really saw so many people’s lives change right in front of our eyes.
As a businessman I got involved with many outreaches, like Businessmen’s breakfasts, Executive seminars and the follow up Bible studies.
As we saw and experienced the impact it had on people’s lives, I started to develop a heart desire to join CCC full- time, but Millie wanted confirmation from God’s Word first.
God confirmed it with this wonderful verse in Haggai 1:3-8:
‘Then the LORD sent this message through the prophet Haggai: ‘Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the LORD’.
Immediately we knew this was confirmation from the Lord, for “Temple” was written in capital letters, we saw “Temple” as referring to people, and CCC was all about building in the lives of people – living Temples.
So at the end of 1976, we took this plunge by faith and with God’s blessing and calling we did it.
It was a very challenging decision, for I was a successful marketing agent and earned a good and above average salary.
The decision was not easy because we had 4 teenage children and my salary dropped with almost 50%.
Campus Crusade for Christ International train all fulltime staff to develop their own salary by challenging people to become co-workers with them, by praying for them regularly and contributing to their monthly salary.
We learned that the Bible says, ‘The one that does the work, and the one that makes it possible for him to do it, has the same reward’ and we started to impart this to our new supporters who became our ministry partners.
This was a very difficult faith step for us, for now we had to learn to trust God for every cent that came in, and to rely on His promises alone. There was no more monthly salary from a company to rely on. We had to develop it personally.
We thought we trusted God, but we never had to depend on Him so completely. We had to learn to rely completely on His promises, and are so grateful to say, He never disappointed us, He always provided, just as He promised, and was never late.
God never said, ‘the fields are ripe unto harvest, but the money is few’, no He said: ‘And He said unto them, the harvest indeed is abundant – there is much ripe grain, but the workers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.”
There were many difficult faith challenges and tests, but it was wonderful to learn that we could again and again just depend on the promises in God’s Word, especially the following one:
‘Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!’ – Heb. 13:5 (Amplified Bible).
We are so extremely thankful for everyone one who so faithfully supported us through the years and who had a great ministry in our lives through prayer, financial support and friendship.
There are so many of our supporters who have passed on to be with the Lord, but praise God we will see them again.
We are now 86 and 84 years old and by the grace of God we are both still healthy as we hold on to Ps.91 ‘He will satisfy us with long life, and show us His salvation’.
We are very grateful to God for this blessings and trust that we will still be able to carry on until we go be with Him.
1 thought on “A touching testimony”
Oom Piet en Tannie Millie, julle is vir so baie van ons as “ jonger” personeel ‘n wonderlike voorbeeld. Voorwaar ‘n aansporing om op die Groot Voorsiener te vertrou. Dankie dat jul openhartig deel.