Who and What is Graceunlimited?
Take a journey through Graceunlimited ministry and life...

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The name: Graceunlimited

The name Graceunlimited came to mind at the time I desired to begin uploading sermons to the internet for a wider audience. I was reluctant to promote my own name, so I thought of a good ministry name to go under. I love the theme of grace in the Gospel. Also, considering what Paul said of God's unlimited patience toward him (1 Timothy 1:16), I realised that graceunlimited was a name I could love and promote. I am an ordinary Christian, saved by extraordinary grace; graceunlimited!

What are you doing?

The Lord has granted me the privilege of fruitful Christian ministry in different areas

1. In the Zusterstroom Valley where I live
2. In Pretoria at Grace Fellowship Church
3. In Pretoria City at Living Hope Church
4. Internet Ministry
5. Ministry in Other Places

1. The Zusterstroom Valley Where I Live
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I live in a very beautiful valley in a farming community on the border between Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces, South Africa. I have lived here with my family wife, Charleen, and two children, since 1998. Over the years, my father and I have been granted the privilege of ministering to the people who live in this valley in various ways.

Shortly after we arrived here, we began a Wednesday evening service at the request of the owners of a resort in the valley. When those owners moved away, we were invited to another gathering, and were eventually given the privilege of leading it. That gathering continued for a number of years and has changed shape and form to become what is a thriving midweek community.

We continue to meet every Wednesday evening for expositional preaching of the Word, and the privilege of service remains extended. Many of the sermons I have uploaded to Sermonaudio were preached at this midweek service.

2. Pretoria at Grace Fellowship Church
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In 2005, after my home church, Birchpark Assembly of Christian Believers closed its doors, I served at Benoni Bible Church for 15 months while they were between pastors. The believers at Benoni Bible Church has shown me outstanding kindness since they appointed Daniel Warren as their new pastor after my time there was completed.

My family and I then joined Grace Fellowship in Pretoria under Dr. Joel James. There we served with joyful abandon in different ministries. We have thoroughly enjoyed the caring, serious environment at Grace Fellowship and have grown immensely as believers.

It was at Grace Fellowship where we met and formed strong relationships with Dr. Wayne Mack and his son Dr. Joshua Mack. We have been enriched under their wise teaching and life-examples. Dr. Wayne Mack was even kind enough to write a foreword to my book Unending Hope for the Exhausted Addict.

Charleen and I currently serve at Grace Fellowship doing Biblical Counselling by appointment in the week. The Lord has truly blessed this ministry and we have seen His hand transforming the lives of many who were ruined by sin and its consequences.

Grace Fellowship is world renowned for its Annual Shepherd's Conference. Joel, and the elders are serious about inviting extremely gifted, experienced and qualified teachers to bless those who attend this conference with outstanding teaching and fellowship.

Grace Fellowship also hosts the Grace School of Ministry which is a unique phenomenon on the African Continent, and even as far as Europe. Students have travelled from as far afield as Germany to be taught at Grace School of Ministry. At this school, Dr. Wayne Mack has been teaching his Master's Degree Curriculum in Biblical Counselling. His course is absolutely brilliant.

3. Pretoria City at Living Hope Church
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During our time at Grace Fellowship, Dr. Joshua Mack was called to begin a Mercy Ministry from within the church. Josh longed to see an orphanage established on the property joined to the church grounds. Unfortunately, with extended beaurocratic difficulties, the orphanage never materialised. The Lord has however blessed Josh with a remarkable ability to become involved in the lives of other people and to develop strong, personal relationships with them. This is a gifting that he has worked hard to grow.

As he saw the need around him in the city of Pretoria, South Africa, he began to engage in simple conversation with people who would normally be overlooked by society. He began to bring his new friends to Grace Fellowship. At first it was wonderful, but very soon, his car became too small, and they began to fill two cars. Then others in the church began to help to transport all of these new people to the meetings.

Before long it became evident that a new church was very feasable in the inner city area of Pretoria known as Sunnyside. The instant I heard that Grace Fellowship was considering sending Josh out as a missionary to plant a new church in Sunnyside, I was excited to be involved with him.

Over a period of a year, we began to ease the new group into the idea of a brand new church. A number of enthusiastic volunteers from Grace Fellowship joined us in the new venture. By the grace of God, Living Hope Church was born.

We began very humbly, moving from home to home, then meeting under a tree in a back yard. The Lord graciously provided a large tent for us to meet in over the next few months, and then He granted us the use of a small hall just before the Winter of 2010 (June, July, August, in South Africa).

I continue to enjoy the privilege of serving on the leadership team at Living Hope Church, alongside my dear respected brothers, Josh Mack, Pieter Swart and Frank DeWet. I am kindly granted the opportunity to share in preaching, teaching, counselling, and small group responsibilities.

Living Hope Church is a remarkable evidence of the gracious work of God. It is a truly multiracial, multicultural, evangelical body of believers, working toward purity and unity. It is well worth visiting.

Living Hope Church, as Pastor Josh is continually saying, is not an event, but a community. What a privilege to share in this wonderful work of God.

4. Internet Ministry

This website has been a personal project for a number of years. I began it with the intention of extending the ministry opportunities the Lord has given me beyond the initial audience. I have done this by becoming a member of SermonAudio, and uploading my sermons and those of Dr. Wayne Mack and Josh Mack. I intend in the future to upload the sermons of others with whom I labour in the Gospel.

This internet ministry has surprised and encouraged me. By the third year, over 25 000 sermons had been downloaded and close to 1 000 000 blogs read. It is a constant joy to know that the Lord has been pleased to extend a small ministry beyond our small area of activity.

Moreover, I have been pleased, not only that the message of the Gospel is spreading by this means, but spreading to the most unusual places. I have had many people download sermons in English, from China, Saudi Arabia, India, Iraq and other such places where the Gospel is ordinarily not permitted freedom of access. May the Lord grant it that this blessing may continue.

5. Ministry in Other Places

The Lord has granted me the additional privilege of service in places outside of my regular areas of service. I have been invited to a wide variety of different places to speak on different issues. Some of these opportunities have been wonderful, others have been disturbing, while others have been quite humerous. Allow me to indulge in a funny event that took place.

I was invited to speak at a prestigious event in an equally prestigious venue alongside two well known doctors. As each of these doctors got up to speak in his turn, the "chairman" introduced them in lavish tones, evoking a round of applause for each. Then it was my turn at the end.

The "chairman" stood up and introduced me in the following way, "Well, now we have..."
The silence stretched longer and longer as the man scratched nervously for the paper on which he had written my name. I had been invited by someone else who had met me at a previous function in another place. When he couldn't find the paper, he looked up and spoke over the embarrased auditorium, "I'm sure he will tell us who he is!" and he gestured toward me to come up and speak.

That was a great introduction. It was in line with what a well-known evangelist once said, "Isn't it wonderful that there are people in this world who don't know who we are, but they know who Jesus Christ is!"

Have you had any theological training?

I have written my personal testimony in my blogs to the glory of God and for your encouragement. After reading that story, you will understand that I never performed well at school. The result was that I was not permitted university entrance. All of my studies had to be completed the hard way, without formal credit. Below is a summary of my personal studies.

1. Life Enrichment Ministries

My wife and I spent a year studying Systematic Theology under Andrew George at Life Enrichment Ministries in Roodepoort, North West of Johannesburg, South Africa. The course was presented with a view to preparation for Biblical Counselling Studies.

2. The Bible Institute at Kalk Bay

Having developed an eager desire to understand more, I enrolled at the Bible Institute of Kalk bay for their Diploma in Christian ministries. The material in this curriculum is the same as the material in their Bachelor's program, but the student doesn't earn a degree.

3. Christ Seminary

My desire was to be involved in Biblical Counselling. Half-way through my Diploma at the Bible Institute at Kalk Bay, they removed their counselling curriculum from their Diploma course. After searching for a NANC certified counsellor in South Africa, I found Dr. Tim Cantrell on the internet. He was kind enough to allow me to join his Biblical Counselling classes as a student at Christ Seminary for the year 2003. I enjoyed it thoroughly and began to enjoy a fruitful Biblical Counselling ministry from that year, by God's grace.

4. Grace School of Ministry

As a member of Grace Fellowship, I was naturally very excited when Dr. Wayne Mack relocated to South Africa to begin his Master's Degree Biblical Counsellor training at the Grace School of Ministry. I submitted my application and was accepted. I studied harder and longer for this course than I had ever studied for anything else in my life. The Spirit of God worked in my heart to change me over the two years I laboured over the material. By God's grace, I completed the curriculum and continue to delight in what I have learned.

I was also granted the kind privilege of attending Dr. Jerry Wragg's leadership course at Grace School of Ministry in 2010. It was absolutely brilliant. How grateful I am that it was recorded for DVD!

5. Ongoing Study

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I count it a privilege and obligation to continue reading, studying and pouring out what I have learned. If eternal life, as the Lord Jesus said in John 17, is to know God, we have the privilege to begin that eternal activity right now!

What experience have you had?

In the early 1980's my older brother became enslaved to drugs for 12 years. After we as a family saw his life radically changed by God at His Mansion, we began work on a similar facility in South Africa. The whole project lasted 16 years. For 7 of those years I was the live-in manager of the Christian Residential Care Facility we had established. I eventually resigned, effecting the termination of the project, in the face of a continuing failure to find suitable staff.

I continue to teach in different venues on addictions from a Biblical Counselling perspective. I wrote the book, Unending Hope for the Exhausted Addict, which is a one-on-one appeal from my heart to that of the addict.

I worked as a paramedic on the road for a number of years out of the busiest ambulance station in the Southern Hemisphere. While working there, I discovered I had a degenerative bone disease: osteoporosis. I discovered this by crushing two vertebrae in my thoracic spine. The result was medical boarding. I have lived on a pension since 1997.

This "tragedy" changed my life for the better. Through this permanent injury, the Lord granted my a ten year period of theological study where I spent between 8 and 10 hours per day studying Scripture, theology and Biblical counselling.

During that time I was granted the privilege of sharing in the preaching ministry at our church, Birchpark Assembly of Christian Believers, under the mentorship of the elders for seven years.

Since then, the Lord has been pleased to grant me many invitations to preach in many different places without me ever soliciting those opportunities. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. I am also grateful for the opportunity to sit under the ministry of other gifted men.

The Lord has also granted me the privilege of service in the following areas:

1. Child and Youth Ministry
2. Playing the guitar and singing for more worship opportunities than I can count
3. Writing and performing Christian songs
4. Preaching and singing in prisons
5. Street preaching and evangelism
6. Teaching systematic theology
7. Christian discipleship
There are other areas that don't come to mind at present

Zusterstroom Valley slide show

If you would like to support Graceunlimited:

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Account Number: 9090102435
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