This Land Rover was a miracle from God, a series III, short wheel base, the perfect vehicle the Lord provided. Praise His name!
To understand the miracle better, some background on the faith journey. My first means of transport within the mission field the Lord provided was my two feet and legs the Lord created me with. It was robust transport that could conquer various terrains and the best part it cost very little to travel, just some food, water and a bid of effort! The only drawback was that it took some time to travel, meaning that you could not always do or reach the place you wanted too. I believe however this was part of the Lord”s plan to help me move into the mission slowly in order to build me in the process.
After about some time, the Lord blessed me with a bicycle, a silver back mountain bike. For me this was a huge blessing, and I felt that through the bicycle the Lord wanted to take the mission to the next level. I managed with the help of a friend to build a trailer for the bicycle, so that I could carry various articles used for taking the gospel to the people.
Then during a visit to Pretoria, using a taxi, the Lord surprised me with a gift, a Mercedes 300 D. I cannot even try to explain how blessed and loved I felt, the Lord was with me. With this Mercedes we, the pastors and I, really took off, moving to different places preaching the gospel, showing the Jesus film. Then I heard the Lord telling me to go to Mozambique, I knew one thing, that the Mercedes will not be able to take me there. For the area was remote with no tar roads, only sand.
I contemplated, selling the Mercedes to get a more suitable vehicle, 4×4 of some kind, but since the Mercedes was a gift from God, I felt compelled to asked the person who gave it to me if I could sell it in order to buy a “Land Rover”. So with the blessing to sell the vehicle I could start the process of seeking a new vehicle.
Once again I must stress that the Lord is more in control than we sometimes think. There was a possibility of buying a series III Land Rover for only R15 000.00. My brother-in-law, that were more like my brother, came up with a plan. He wanted to buy the Mercedes, so he said he would pay a deposit of R15 000.00 and then R2000.00 per month. For me that was a blessing from the Lord for the R2000.00 would provide petrol money to move around.
Someone gave me a ride to go and collect the Land Rover, the drive back was an experience of overflowing joy. The Land Rover was not a fast driving car, traveling at 90 km/h but with so much joy that it seemed effortless. Back home, the real work started, to paint the Land Rover and write all the scriptures on it. Looking at the photo you can see that it was an exceptional work of art done by my sister.
With the Land Rover there was no doubt as to what I believed and served to encourage me to walk by faith and not by sight.
The first time I went over the border to Mozambique the border control officer was confused with regard to the colour of the vehicle. Together we decided multi colour is the answer! While traveling to and fro from Mozambique I never experienced any problems with the Land Rover, only once I had to replace the tyres and the Lord provided ample provision.
The Lord then called me to go to Malawi and I decided to go to British 4×4 to ask them what would they suggest to take on the journey to Malawi. Their answer “nothing”, confirmed that the Lord blessed me with the right vehicle. In my traveling to Malawi I only once had a welch plug that rusted through resulting in a water leak.We prayed and the Lord showed the scripture of the 2 denatios belonging to Ceasar…the R2 coin fitted perfectly into the welsh plug and we sealed it with Pratley steel putty.
The Land Rover was also our very special wedding vehicle, what a blessing!
Now, the Lord is once more using a Land Rover to rekindle the fire for missions. This time around we first need to fix it, before it can be used. For us it is a message that even in ourselvs there is still need for some restoration work before we can be released. However to understand this message from the Lord we need to understand how we got the Land Rover.
During the time the Lord kept us from the mission field due to personal responsibilities the Lord gave us a Ford Courier bakkie, that was perfect for the time and our circumstances. As the Lord released us for the missions, we considered selling the bakkie, but during a visit to Marloth Park we decided to leave the bakkie with a friend. This friend and his wife has often been instrumental in our journey of faith in the mission field. On our return to Marloth in preparation for the missions, it transpired that our friend needed a bakkie and had a Land Rover but due to time constrains he could not fix it. The Lord laid it on my heart to ask him if he would be willing to swop the bakkie for the Land Rover, he agreed and became once again instrumental in rekindling the fire for missions in us.
So the journey of restoration starts!