My Vision:
To go where God calls me, to be used as he sees fit and to serve him with all that I am. This is the essence behind what I am doing. I believe that I have been called into missions in Africa, making use of my skills and training in construction to further the Kingdom of God on earth. The last six years of training and experience has been an equipping period vital for me to fulfil God’s purpose for my life.
Confirmation after Confirmation
Towards the end of 2010 I started looking around for where to go and really prayed hard about where God wanted to send me. I had a number of possibilities lined up, but dropped an email to Mercy Ships asking them if they had any construction opportunities with them. Human resources promptly responded with "No. This is a Hospital ship." A couple days later they then emailed me again and said that actually a grant for improvement of public hospital services had just been approved and they needed somebody to oversee the process. The director overseeing this just so happened to be in Durban for a few more days, please could I see him for an interview before he left the country. This was great as on my first job I was working with services and on my second job an entire new hospital. What better experience?
I was praying about this one day and the scripture 1 Peter 1:6 popped into my mind. This was the first time this had happened to me. I looked it up: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
To you this may seem unconnected, however to me it was confirmation that the training and work was a necessary preparation for this work.
A few months later I had to give notice to my company in order to free myself up for Mercy Ship Training and service, but nobody could tell me if they actually had a place for me as the grant mentioned above had been put on hold and HR was not sure where to slot me in the mean time. Again I was praying about whether this was right and again a scripture popped into my head: Isaiah 42:1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations." What awesome confirmation. I resigned and a couple weeks after this Mercy Ships slotted me in as a maintenance coordinator.
On the day after my resignation I read Psalms 1:1 "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers." That day at work a number of people asked me: "How will I live? How will I support a family? How will I be able to enjoy the finer things of life?"
God is Good and he will provide .
Mat 6:31-33 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
A Calling of a Life Time
I grew up in a Christian family in Kloof which is a suburb of Durban, South Africa. I attended the local schools and was very involved at a church called St. Agnes. From a young age I loved the outdoors, thriving on adventure and exploration of the unknown.
I was about 11 or 12 when Tash Constant, who was the St. Agnes Youth leader, did a presentation on a short term mission to Russia. She said that all you needed to do in order to be used on mission work was to say "Here I am Lord, Send Me!" That evening I earnestly prayed to be used be God in mission. It would take more than 12 years to come to fruition.
At a careers evening in 2003 I was shown a photo of a Christian Pilots landing strip cut into thick tropical jungle down the side of a mountain. I realised then that that is where I want to be. Not necessarily cutting airstrips, but at the extreme cutting edge serving God in missions in Africa.
After matriculating I took a gap year where I travelled Europe. While there I seriously and deeply questioned my faith, my belief system and what life was all about. I returned with my faith much strengthened and a clear understanding that if I live life without serving my purpose for God, then it is a massive waste and I may as well not live it at all.
I enrolled to do a BSc in Property Development at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. During my second year of university I was asking God why I was there and not out in the mission field. The Lord gave me a picture of a Carpenters hammer and said that without his tools a carpenter can not do what he needs to do. I graduated from UKZN, was granted a bursary from Grinaker-LTA and then completed a post graduate honours degree in Construction Management at the University of Cape Town.
Once I returned to South Africa I enrolled at the University of KZN for my undergraduate BSc in Property Development. I graduated in 2008 with several academic awards and was awarded a bursary from Grinaker-LTA for my final year of studies. I transferred to the University of Cape Town where I graduated with a BSc (honours) in Construction Management.
I started work with Grinaker-LTA on a R750 million, 40 000m² shopping centre. I was placed as the service co- ordinator initially for half and then the full project. On completion of this project I was transferred to Lesotho where I was promoted and was placed as a Site Manager over a portion of a R540 million state of the art hospital.
