I have been asked to write a short article about our church based in Walkerville, Gauteng, so here goes. We are situated on the R82 (Old Johannesburg Road) roughly halfway between Johannesburg and Vereeniging. We are a small church of approximately thirty members of all races (approximately 60% black, white and Indian) and the officers of the church consist of three elders, one deacon, one Sunday school superintendent, three Sunday school teachers and two church coordinators.
The church was planted in 1991 by Pastor Ed Crain and his wife Joan, and I took over the pastorate in February last year. The church is still in the house that Ed and Joan purchased and restructured in the 1990s. The chapel itself is approximately the size of two double garages and has seating for seventy people. The church also owns a stand adjacent to the church, and we have had plans passed for a new church building; however, the funds are not sufficient as yet to allow us to begin building.
At present we have a Sunday school of approximately 25 children ranging in ages from 3–18. We have a Wendy hut for the pre-primary children; the 6–8-year-olds meet upstairs in what doubles as our dining room; the 8–12-year-olds meet in the chapel; and the high school children meet in my office.
We are trying to become more involved in the community. One such event was a Christmas play that the children performed. They performed for the church and we also took them to a frail care centre, an old people’s home and a children’s orphanage. At the orphanage we also took chips, cool drink, watermelon (which doubled up for many as their face wash for the day!) and small gifts for many who would not otherwise have seen the spirit of Christmas. Unfortunately, I cannot express in words the joy that all those concerned felt in seeing these young children from abused, abandoned and aids-ravaged homes eating, drinking, laughing and enjoying themselves with our children.
Unfortunately, since Christmas, many of our children have been unable to attend our Sunday school and service due to a lack of transportation within our church. However, we do run a Friday night youth fellowship for the high school students. Mary and I pick up the girls and the boys walk to the church. This is not an ideal situation and in the winter with the early nights it can be problematic for safety reasons.
We also cater for two Bible study groups per week—one on a Wednesday morning specialising in doctrinal studies, and the other on a Sunday evening specialising in a book of the Bible. On Sunday evenings we meet at 5:00 pm to enable the study to finish before it becomes too dark as many in the area (mainly women) have to walk to and from the church.
As part of an ongoing arrangement, we have a food box in the church by which the congregation can donate for those in the church whom are less fortunate, and we also collect clothes, toys, blankets for a local children’s home.
We have recently introduced a library book and audio tape loan system at the church. This was introduced as the price of Christian books is beyond the means of most of our congregation. We have had donations from many people in our area and at present our library stands at 70+ books and 20+ audio tapes. However, we would like to expand this facility to our congregation, especially the children. Therefore, I would like to ask for your help; if you have any good solid Christian books you no longer require we would greatly appreciate your donating them to us. Children’s books, and, if possible, any Christian books in the black languages would also be appreciated.
I would also like to seek your assistance for an overhead projector; if you have one you are no longer using and you could donate it to us it would be greatly appreciated; if you have one you would like to sell for a reasonable price, then please contact me.
Our vision for the future (God willing) is to erect our church building on the adjacent land, obtain a vehicle for transportation and become more involved in the community with evangelism.
Please pray for us in our work here for the Lord. God bless you all.
Yours in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
Steve Whitaker
About the pastor
The Lord called me to study his Word in 2000, which I did by correspondence in 2001. As I was still working at this time, I was able during this year to seek God’s purpose for my life and to clear all my debts (car, house) and save for the fulltime studies which lay ahead. In 2002 I began fulltime studies at the Bible Institute Eastern Cape (BIEC) in Port Elizabeth. We were able to save during my last year at work for my first year studies at BIEC, but after that Mary and I were totally in the hands of the Lord. The Lord did not let us down.
In the second semester of the first year I, along with two other students, received a bursary which paid for our studies for all three years. In the second and third years at BIEC we had very little finances, but again the Lord provided through people. My parents helped us, one person donated petrol for us, I was told to go to a certain petrol station and fill up twice per month. Some people would bring us food; some bought me books; I even had one donated from a lady in Australia. We would also be given envelopes with money in, usually when we were down to our last few rands.
In my final year at college, our principal (Vernon Light) informed me of a church looking for a pastor in Walkerville, as he knew the retiring pastor (Ed Crain). I contacted Ed, and in December of 2004 Mary and I came to Walkerville for the interview and a call was extended to me to come to Grace, which we accepted, and moved here in February 2005.