I visited a fairly large church called Glenridge Church in Durban whose congregation number over 2000 members, two weeks ago. It was the churches of Durban monthly get together. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Durban, it situated on the Indian Ocean and is well known for its warm sub-tropical weather and beautiful sandy beaches. It is a city that has a population of about 3.5 million people and its claim to fame is that it is the busiest port in Africa and also has the largest concentration of Indians outside of India. The guest speaker was a prophet, Julian Adams born and bred in Cape Town but now based in England.
The church building was packed too capacity, my guess was that there was seating for about 2500. There was an air of expectancy in the building, Gods glory was there.
We started off by being led in prayer by a lady who was born in in Iraq but with a refined in English accent. The prayer was for the Christians who were being persecuted in Iraq. Prophet Julian then ascended to the pulpit, a dark haired, short rotund looking chap with a lisp. Despite his speech impediment words rolled off his tongue easily and with confidence as he began to share what he felt God was going to do in the meeting. Ten minutes into the preaching and he stopped and said: “Ten people have just had their ears pop open, please can those people lift their hands”. Hands were raised and he began to count them:” Eight, nine, ten ”. He carried on preaching and then stopped again and said: “God is restoring the eye sight of 3 people, can you please lift your hands”. I think I remember 4 lifting their hands. He continued preaching and then asked if there was anyone called Jayden, it was a first for me I hadn’t heard of the name “Jayden” before, but lo and behold, Jayden made his way to the front. Julian began to prophecy over him and spoke of how God was going to use him. He then called out a street number and name, a lady stepped forward and he began to prophecy over her too. He called out a Craig & Karen but no one responded to that, at which he declared that he was not scared to make mistakes.
He then called out the last four digits of a telephone number to which a lady responded. His message was awesome and the place was charged with the presence of God as he began to call the sick up for prayer. He laid hands on me too and was accurate regarding what he prayed over me.
Testimony
Subsequently I visited the church again to hear of various testimonies of what God had done in peoples lives. One testimony was by a Zulu man who started off by introducing his wife with great honour, referring to her as his “Queen”. I thought I like his style. He spoke in his thick strong Zulu voice but with great articulation. He had lost his job in these times of austerity and was battling to get work. He decided he would volunteer his skills to a company who would pay him only enough for transport to and from work. Months went by as he faithfully went to work and diligently carried on his work believing God to create a position for him. It got to a place of despair where he cried out to God and said: “Lord, You are the creator of the universe, please create a position for me.” Eventually he was called into the office of one of the directors who said “I can see you are a good Christian man and you have faithfully and diligently worked here without a salary, we would like to give you a permanent position”.
Thinking he had ended his testimony everyone clapped, but the most touching was yet to come. What touched me was not so much the developments that had transpired in this gentleman’s life, but rather the substance that was within him. He told of a story how they had been married for 15 years but had not been able to have children. They bought a house and the day they moved in, the neighbour’s son, a 5 year old called Thabo came to visit them. He connected with the 5 year old in such a strong way that Thabo would visit daily and began calling him “dad” because he didn’t have a father. Recently Thabo’s mother died and he was left orphaned. They immediately adopted Thabo, now he has a father and mother and they have a son. The tears ran down my eyes as I realised God’s loving hand at work uniting them in their deepest needs, this is God's amazing love.
Below: Pic of Durban Beach Front
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