Carlynne Kotzè, Director of Charis Bible College-South Africa.
Seven years ago, after spending three decades as a physiotherapist in South Africa, Carlynne Kotzè sensed the Lord prompting her to make a significant change in her life.
She had been attending a bible school on a part-time basis, and had recently finished the program. Carlynne came to realize that the path
God wanted her to take required her to move to another country.
This was not something she had ever considered before,but Carlynne
knew that God had given her Isaiah 45:1-3 on which to stand - that instilled in her the confidence to follow God’s lead—more than eight
thousand miles to the United Kingdom (UK).
“God kept His side of the promise and kept the double doors open,and
took every obstacle out of my way. I got a stunning job and a place to stay with lovely Christian people,” Carlynne recalls.
Carlynne applied for a one-year work permit in the UK, but was blessed with a five year permit instead. She was thankful for the favor of God surrounding her; however she still did not know the reason for the significant move in her life.
Three months after her relocation to the UK, Carlynne missed South Africa and felt very alone. One day, as she walked through a local supermarket, she overheard some people speaking in her home language of Afrikaans. Following their introductions, her new friends handed her a set of Andrew's teaching tapes; a series called You've Already Got It! “That was the first time [after listening to the tapes] that I knew why God brought me to the UK, away from my religious family, [it was] to learn the truth of the Gospel message,” explained Carlynne. Carlynne leads class at CBC-SA in Heidelberg. She attended Andrew's Gospel Truth Seminars in Walsall and London, England, and felt she should enroll in Charis Bible College (CBC).
Carlynne wasn’t interested in moving any further outside her comfort zone, so instead of attending class on campus, she settled for taking correspondence courses. The DVD courses ended up being difficult for her because the cares of life seemed to leave little time for study. God however, in His faithfulness, kept the doors wide open and made the crooked paths straight, and Carlynne soon ended up moving to Walsall to attend CBC. “It was a scary time in the natural, but an awesome time in the supernatural. I found work immediately, with work times that suited me while attending CBC-Walsall in the mornings," Carlynne said.
After four years in the Midlands of the UK, Carlynne was ready to go anywhere God wanted her to go. During her second year at CBC she had the opportunity to be a part of a mission trip to Heidelberg, South Africa and she was overjoyed. Although Carlynne still missed South Africa, she had not spent time dwelling on her feelings. While ministering on the trip however, she became acutely aware of just how much she had missed her people. Leaving at the end of the mission trip was difficult, but the Lord encouraged Carlynne with another passage of scripture, Jeremiah 15:19-21. "They will come to me and I will have to wait for them," she said. Relying on verse nineteen she put her complete trust in her Savior, and said good-bye to South Africa for the second time. Ten months later, Carlynne met with CBC-Walsall staff. During the meeting leadership expressed to her that they believed she was being called to go back to South Africa. Carlynne was thrilled.
Today Carlynne serves as the Director of CBC-South Africa in Heidelberg. The school has eleven full-time students and thirty-two registered correspondence students. Inquiries continue to increase, and Carlynne says that God has promised to bring people from afar to attend the school. She enjoys watching her students grow in boldness and love, and seeing the fruit of their labor in Christ. The students have had opportunities to travel around the Western Cape ministering to the townspeople in the Heidelberg area, and they have seen some individuals healed. Students have also begun to lead Discipleship Evangelism groups in their local church.
Although her journey has not always been easy, the Lord has made Carlynne's paths straight. Regarding her new career as Director of CBC-South Africa, Carlynne had this to say, “There is no comparison between the life of faith and grace I now live, and my previous life as a physiotherapist. My focus then was on myself and self performance, but now my focus is only on God and what Jesus accomplished for me on the cross. There are still times that I feel scared and inadequate and have to remind myself that no one was qualified when God called them. He will also qualify me, focusing on Him alone will do the job.”
HARM SCHWARTING
For 25 years I was on an emotional rollercoaster. In March 1989 the
party stopped dead. I was at the crossroads of my life with no
destination and no identity. I was totally lost. Through a friend I got
reborn, became interested in mission work in Mozambique and
Lesotho, but dissatisfaction and frustration set in again, Big time.
There had to be more to Christian life than what I was taught. I left
and disillusionment kept following me in whatever I tried. My body
was present but my spirit longed for something else.
I did not know what.
For 10 years I did not attend church, but held onto my bible. In July
2009 I was invited to come along to a Gospel Truth Seminar by
Andrew Wommack here in Heidelberg (Cape) Somehow I knew that
he had what I was looking for. I listened for 7 months afterward non
stop to his teachings. Consequently something inside me changed. No preacher, teacher or evangelist could keep my attention for 2 – 3 hours at a stretch. I soaked it all up like a dry sponge. I could not get enough of this guy’s teachings. Charis Bible College opened and someone paid my fees for the first year. I had no excuse not to go.
A week before college started on my way back from Riversdale about midday, I was thinking / dreaming about Andrew and his ministry. I saw in a vision of how he stepped off a cowboy movie set with John Wayne in the main part. These cowboys never seem to miss. “Wham Bang – lights out” That is how I saw Andrew. Granted he didn’t shoot with bullets but he sure knowshow to shoot straight with words, from the hip, dead centre each time. “I like your style buster” “Lord, how does he do it?” I asked “Just practice won’t achieve this, like the cowboys do in the movies!” With this everything around me turned strangely dim and black, unreal.
The car was driving on autopilot. Suddenly I saw two hands appear in the sky above and out of each, a beam of strong light, shining at an angle down to earth. Where they crossed, just above the road ahead I saw Andrew, but he acted like a mirror. The light he received from above, he reflected on the road ahead of me, clear to see. No missing the road again, this time. With that the vision faded and the car was still on autopilot. Slowly I returned to normal and took over the control. I do not know who drove the car for about 10km, but I was still in the left lane, quite safe.
I know that Charis Bible College was meant for me. I had found what I was looking for. I attend classes daily with the other students and I am glad to say, I am enjoying every minute of it and I have no intention of leaving.
JUNAID ESAU
My father was muslim and my mother turned back to Christianity
after they divorced.
I was happy switching between the two when it suited me. At the age
of 6, my grade two teacher (who was muslim) put my mom and I on
the spot and told my mom that I’ve got to be one or the other.
My mom asked me what I wanted to be and I chose Christianity.
At the age of 9 my mother and I got born-again and received the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. My heart was not rooted in the Word of
God and I pursued worldly things. Until one day I heard a man preach
on a train in Cape Town. He invited me to his church where I got to
know God much, much better than before and I started to speak in
tongues.
I left for the the UK and that’s when I met Ian and Maria, partners of Andrew Wommack Ministries. They gave me some CD’s to listen to. “You’ve already got it” was the first set. The truths Andrew spoke in such an easy to understand way, changed my thinking and outlook on Christianity completely. A year later, back in South Africa, the cares of this world began to choke the Word of God that I had received. I soon became bogged down in a dead-works based philosophy, working fervently in the local church but drifting further and further away from a healthy and liberated relationship with God.
I got married but I despaired at my life, at my self-righteousness and at my fruitless existence. I checked out Andrew’s web pages and saw that I could download his teachings free of charge. My wife and I started to listen to them day and night. As we applied the truths to our lives, we became liberated and began to be fruitful again. We became so rooted in the Word again through Andrew’s teachings, that even when our first son Benjamin was born a still born baby we would not despair and did not accept that that situation was final.
God’s Word said that He has given us everything that pertains unto life and godliness in Christ. As a result we saw our son raised from the dead and completely healed of damaged brain-cells that would have, as the doctor so nicely put it, left him retarded.
I am now attending my 1st year at Charis Bible College in Heidelberg, Western Cape following God’s will for my life and I’ve learnt more about Jesus and who I am in Him in just 6 months that I could’ve learnt in a lifetime of hard knocks. I’ve had questions answered that I’ve been struggling with for years and loads more answered that I didn’t even know to ask.
Testimonies PAGE 1 / PAGE 2
