Our Stories...

Dr Meyer J. van Rensburg

Place of Salvation: Rhema Bible Church, Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, Sourth Afric
Date of Salvation: 10/07/1982

My Story

MY TESTIMONY

DR. MEYER JANSE VAN RENSBURG

I was born in Upington, in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, virtually on the border of what is now know as Namibia In fact, it is on the banks of the Orange River, but in the middle of the red sand dunes of the Kalahari desert. As a baby I contracted diphtheria, which was a very dangerous sickness then. It was treated by injection of a serum that would either kill or cure. When Doctor Cohen came to our house he told my mother that he had already injected the two other babies who had the disease in Upington and, sadly, they both had died. My mother immediately took me in the room next door, where she prayed and dedicated my life to the Lord. Then she returned and told the doctor that he can now inject me for she knew I would live. And I did!

My father read the Bible to us seven children every night after supper and asked questions, so I went to a kind of Bible School even before I went to school. We prayed together as a family and we were brought up as Christians. During my primary school years I felt an urge to become a preacher, but the bright lights of the entertainment world beckoned, and I joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation. I eventually ended up being a music recording engineer and lived as a man of the world, Christianity forgotten and discarded to follow other directions, among them Zen Buddhism and studying Erich von Daniken's theories about God being a spaceman!

In 1974, while I was working at a commercial recording studio, a Christian band, The Living Sound, from Oral Roberts University, booked my studio. Up to this time, God had sent many people and messages my way to lead me to salvation, but I would not listen. Even though I did not want to work with these 'holy rollers' (as I called them), the young people, all in their teens and early twenties, really impressed me with their professional musicianship as well as the way they conducted themselves the whole time in the studio. It was the first time I met people who lived their lives as if Jesus was standing right next to them and it made me love the music so much that I took a copy home. The music was amazing: up tempo, modern Christian songs. One song especially was my favourite: 'It Won't Be Long, written by Andrae Crouch and performed with so much sincerity that I played this music for ten years in my house while I was unsaved.

'If I can find a church where they play this kind of music', I told my brother, who was already saved, 'I will join it!' In the meantime, I carried on with my life of debauchery. I got married, had two children, got divorced and married again.

In 1982, my eldest daughter from my second marriage was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disease that damages the kidneys and makes them dysfunctional. My daughter started gathering fluid in her body instead of discarding it and had to go into hospital to be put on steroids. The doctors could do nothing to cure the condition: the best they could do was monitor her and keep feeding her steroids, which was actually poison, because it stunts her growing, gives her brittle bones and overtaxes some of the organs in her body. However, one of my friends attended Rhema, which was run by an old body building friend of mine, Ray McCauley, and as soon as we could my wife, Lorraine, and I took Kelly to Rhema to be prayed for.

Lo and behold, when I entered the door that morning (we had to go an hour early to get a seat and the place was packed to the rafters!), the band was performing the same music I had recorded ten years before. Immediately I was interested, and, at the end of the service, when Ray made an altar call, both my hand and Lorraine's went up. We went forward, gave our lives to Jesus, and then took Kelly to Ray to be prayed for. Did she get healed immediately? No, it was a process, but today Kelly and her husband, Peter, live in New Zealand and she has had a perfect baby girl with no further complications.

Did I feel goose bumps when I gave my live to the Lord? Did I see Him? No, but I decided to follow Jesus and has ever since. I have seen many miracles, both at Rhema and in my private life: legs growing under my hands, hurt and torn muscles healed instantaneously, demons driven out of people, and so on, but the greatest miracle was the miracle inside of me: I wanted, desired and yearned after following the Lord and doing His will.

I went to Rhema Bible School during 1985/6 and started teaching at Siloam Bible School on the East Rand, while I was still in second year. The next year I was made Dean of the Bible School and I took up a correspondence course from Christian International in Florida, USA. After getting four degrees from them, including a doctorate( all the time still working as a music engineer during the day and teaching God's Word at night), I was called to England by the Lord and appointed as Senior Lecturer at the then Anchor Bible Training Centre, now Carmel Bible College.

The miracle in all of this is that I, first of all, did not like the sound of my own voice and, secondly, had the fear of man: the worst thing you could have asked me to do before I was born again, would have been to do public speaking, yet the Lord took me and put me in front of a class of Bible school students, in front churches full of believers, and behind a microphone at Radio Pulpit, where I was a presenter for about 15 years. I did three hours live on the air every Friday morning and interviewed most of the Christian sportsmen in South Africa at the time. Trevor Goddard and Peter Pollock, two of my cricket heroes, became my personal friends, as well as Hansie Cronje and his brother, Frans. I spoke to and worked with world famous athletes: Carl Hooper, the West Indian captain and I prayed together: Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock, Jaco van der Westhuizen, Jason Robinson, Nick Farr-Jones, Joost van der Westhuizen, and many other sports stars were guests on my programme. I also met and worked with many world famous personalities in the entertainment field, such as Glen Campbell, Cliff Richard, Johnny Mathis, Pam Thum, Elton John, Jack Jones, Liberace, James Last, and others, too many to mention.

While working as a recording engineer, I started writing lyrics for songs and ended up writing hits that went to the top of the hit parade in South Africa! This led to writing poetry and I have had an anthology of poems published, but these days I write Christian books and have had quite a few published: 'Brother to Brother: A Handbook for the Study of Covenants' was praised as one of the best books on the subject by Dr. Wilf Kent, and 'A Dwelling Place for God: A Handbook for the Study of the Tabernacle', as well as 'God & sons: Images of Christ in Genesis, Volumes I &II' and 'The Wellspring of God', are all selling well at the moment.

All this was done in spite of me, not because of me! God allowed His Spirit to lead me to do things for him, and it is an absolute delight for me to do it. I have found heaven!

Now, if He can do all of this with a shy little boy who was born in the South African version of the 'outback', why can't He do it with you? My friend, give your life to Him to today and you can find heaven on earth too!

Grace & peace to you

from

the Lord?s

Meyer

Dr. Meyer J. van Rensburg

(B.Th.; M.C.C.; M.Div.; D.Min.)