Personal motivation
I was 18 years old,
and felt emptiness, hopelessness, and fear. The army truck was moving at high
speed and I calculated that if I jumped I would be instantly
killed when I hit the ground and my awful pain would be gone. My father, the
sole breadwinner in our family, had died two months earlier, and the future looked
dark. Crouching forwards, and holding onto the end my rifle with both hands for
balance, and with my head bowed between my arms I silently cried out from the
depths of my heart “Oh God, help me!”
The next instant emptiness changed to joy and fear to peace, and I felt the comforting warmth of God’s love. Then I had a vision - I saw myself supervising the construction of a small dam in a deep-rural area. The construction workers were from the nearby village and I could see that this dam was to provide their village with water so that they could grow crops successfully and no longer experience extreme poverty and hunger. At the end of the day’s work, I saw myself standing on the banks of the stream with a bible in my hands, speaking to them, while the construction crew were relaxing on the embankment, listening intently.
Taking this as a calling on my life, I wrote to my mother and told her that I wanted to be a civil engineer! She applied to The University of the Witwatersrand and I was given a full scholarship from my father's previous employer with no pay-back requirements!
With my university years behind me I attended a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) discipleship training camp. At a prayer meeting an elderly lady came to me with Isaiah 43:18,19: “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Again I sensed this was a glimpse into the future, and made a note in my bible. But somehow I did not see the connection between “rivers in the desert” and the army vision – only realizing much later that a dam is able to tame raging flood waters into a steady year round “river” to support crop irrigation.
A few weeks later, I felt led by God to spend a year as a full time student at the ‘Theological College of South Africa’, an equipping arm of the church movement I was connected to. Subsequently this opened the door for many preaching opportunities and accelerated my involvement at a leadership level in our local church. But once again I did not see the significance of this in preparing me to share God’s love with the dam construction workers in terms of the vision.
Also during that year I met my future wife, Alison, who attended the same church and was deeply committed to the Lord. Within two years we were married, and in subsequent years were blessed with three fine children, Anne, John, and Ruth.
With university and bible college behind me I embarked on my professional career, working first for a firm of consulting engineers, then for a company that manufactured concrete masonry products and paving blocks, and then for a company specializing in prestressed concrete products such as concrete sleepers and poles. I became familiar with several aspects of civil engineering and concrete technology, such as reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, concrete masonry & paving. Furthermore, in working in factory environments I was exposed in some depth to some of the other engineering disciplines such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and in the course of time designed and supervised the construction of a number of fully automated plants. During this period I was a factory manager, national production executive, and technical executive. I became fully conversant with the various managerial and financial systems used in well organised companies.
By this time the army vision was nothing more than a forgotten memory, which seemed to have passed me by.
Then towards the end of 1999 two events occurred that were to change the course of my life. Firstly, I remembered the army vision - which I had all but forgotten. Secondly, the company lost a major order and had to downsize, offering retrenchment packages. After much prayer I took the severance package and walked away from a good position in a sound company to take a huge leap of faith into the unknown!
My first step was to pursue a new concept for dam designs in an attempt to arrive at a cost effective design - but no fruit came of this. Then in May 2000 I set about completing a PhD thesis that had been lying dormant for several years. This took much longer than expected, so that I only returned to the activities of Dams for Africa in February 2002.
Step of Faith: Leaving my former employer and launching out into this project was for me like getting up and walking through an “open door” (Rev 3:8) which God had opened. However, accomplishing the goals of Dams for Africa has been far from
easy. I have gone through many 'valley experiences'. In 2004 the company came within a hair's breadth of insovlency - working to help struggling communities sometimes means working at low prices, and at other times there is a shortage of donors for the many worthy projects.
Providentially consulting work started coming in from late 2004 onwards - first in the line of evaluating a number of collapsed irrigation schemes in Limpopo, and more recently in evaluating various construction materials in Gauteng - see 'Materials Investigations' for some examples. Some investigations relating to abrasion resistance of concrete pavers (see 'Abrasion resistance') also bring in much needed funds.
At the same time I realised that there was a need for protecting some of the equipment we were installing, e.g. borehole pumps, valves. This has led to the ongoing development of several 'anti-theft products', and hopefully the sales of these products will be on such a scale that it will sponsor the 'Water for communities' and 'Rainwater harvesting' projects also presented in this web site.
Needless to say there have been many divine interventions (too numerous to mention here) that have kept the company and its vision alive.
The story of the little boy who presented his five loaves and two fish to Jesus seems appropriate here. It was such a pathetic gesture in the face of 5000 hungry men. But that was the act of faith that Jesus was looking for, and it opened the way for
him to perform the miracle. God is able to take our small talents and abilities, and enhance and multiply them as only He can, to accomplish something that is very meaningful and significant.
Jesus said 'I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink ....' (Mt 25.40). He also said 'Go and make disciples of the nations' (Mt 28.19). These two passages have been central to our thinking at Dams for Africa, since the ultimate goal of building water-projects in remote places is to empower people both materially and spiritually.
So when doing contracting work at remote sites I look for opportunities to share God's love with the construction workers, mostly during the lunch breaks, and in the evenings (see above pictures). Sometimes this has been beside a stream – and at such times I am reminded how faithful God is in bringing about his purposes in our lives. Having spoken to them, I invite them to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour – who died on a cross to save us from our sins and give us eternal life, be our Friend, to live in us and to comfort us on our journey in this life.
If you are reading this, and you have never invited Jesus into your life, then allow me to extend the same invitation to you. I invite you to say this simple life changing prayer:
Father God, I thank you that Jesus your Son came to this world to die for my sins. I am sorry for my sins and for all the suffering and pain that Jesus had to endure on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. I now ask you Jesus to come into my life. At this very moment I ask you to come into me and live in me. I receive you into my life now by faith. Thank you Lord. Thank you that you give the gift of everlasting life to all those that trust in you for their eternal destiny. Henceforth teach me your ways of righteousness, truth and love, for you have called me to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind, and, to love my fellow man as much as I love myself (Math 22 : 37-40). Thank you God, Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer, I would encourage you to start fellowshipping at a church where people sincerely love God. Then get a bible and begin by reading the New Testament. Start praying (talking) to God – tell him about everything - as your Father He is vitally interested in all your concerns. Finally, begin to trust God to open up opportunities to tell others about Jesus, your saviour and God, who died to give all who believe in Him abundant life and eternal life.
The next instant emptiness changed to joy and fear to peace, and I felt the comforting warmth of God’s love. Then I had a vision - I saw myself supervising the construction of a small dam in a deep-rural area. The construction workers were from the nearby village and I could see that this dam was to provide their village with water so that they could grow crops successfully and no longer experience extreme poverty and hunger. At the end of the day’s work, I saw myself standing on the banks of the stream with a bible in my hands, speaking to them, while the construction crew were relaxing on the embankment, listening intently.
Taking this as a calling on my life, I wrote to my mother and told her that I wanted to be a civil engineer! She applied to The University of the Witwatersrand and I was given a full scholarship from my father's previous employer with no pay-back requirements!
With my university years behind me I attended a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) discipleship training camp. At a prayer meeting an elderly lady came to me with Isaiah 43:18,19: “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Again I sensed this was a glimpse into the future, and made a note in my bible. But somehow I did not see the connection between “rivers in the desert” and the army vision – only realizing much later that a dam is able to tame raging flood waters into a steady year round “river” to support crop irrigation.
A few weeks later, I felt led by God to spend a year as a full time student at the ‘Theological College of South Africa’, an equipping arm of the church movement I was connected to. Subsequently this opened the door for many preaching opportunities and accelerated my involvement at a leadership level in our local church. But once again I did not see the significance of this in preparing me to share God’s love with the dam construction workers in terms of the vision.
Also during that year I met my future wife, Alison, who attended the same church and was deeply committed to the Lord. Within two years we were married, and in subsequent years were blessed with three fine children, Anne, John, and Ruth.
With university and bible college behind me I embarked on my professional career, working first for a firm of consulting engineers, then for a company that manufactured concrete masonry products and paving blocks, and then for a company specializing in prestressed concrete products such as concrete sleepers and poles. I became familiar with several aspects of civil engineering and concrete technology, such as reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, concrete masonry & paving. Furthermore, in working in factory environments I was exposed in some depth to some of the other engineering disciplines such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and in the course of time designed and supervised the construction of a number of fully automated plants. During this period I was a factory manager, national production executive, and technical executive. I became fully conversant with the various managerial and financial systems used in well organised companies.
By this time the army vision was nothing more than a forgotten memory, which seemed to have passed me by.
Then towards the end of 1999 two events occurred that were to change the course of my life. Firstly, I remembered the army vision - which I had all but forgotten. Secondly, the company lost a major order and had to downsize, offering retrenchment packages. After much prayer I took the severance package and walked away from a good position in a sound company to take a huge leap of faith into the unknown!
My first step was to pursue a new concept for dam designs in an attempt to arrive at a cost effective design - but no fruit came of this. Then in May 2000 I set about completing a PhD thesis that had been lying dormant for several years. This took much longer than expected, so that I only returned to the activities of Dams for Africa in February 2002.
Step of Faith: Leaving my former employer and launching out into this project was for me like getting up and walking through an “open door” (Rev 3:8) which God had opened. However, accomplishing the goals of Dams for Africa has been far from
easy. I have gone through many 'valley experiences'. In 2004 the company came within a hair's breadth of insovlency - working to help struggling communities sometimes means working at low prices, and at other times there is a shortage of donors for the many worthy projects.
Providentially consulting work started coming in from late 2004 onwards - first in the line of evaluating a number of collapsed irrigation schemes in Limpopo, and more recently in evaluating various construction materials in Gauteng - see 'Materials Investigations' for some examples. Some investigations relating to abrasion resistance of concrete pavers (see 'Abrasion resistance') also bring in much needed funds.
At the same time I realised that there was a need for protecting some of the equipment we were installing, e.g. borehole pumps, valves. This has led to the ongoing development of several 'anti-theft products', and hopefully the sales of these products will be on such a scale that it will sponsor the 'Water for communities' and 'Rainwater harvesting' projects also presented in this web site.
Needless to say there have been many divine interventions (too numerous to mention here) that have kept the company and its vision alive.
The story of the little boy who presented his five loaves and two fish to Jesus seems appropriate here. It was such a pathetic gesture in the face of 5000 hungry men. But that was the act of faith that Jesus was looking for, and it opened the way for
him to perform the miracle. God is able to take our small talents and abilities, and enhance and multiply them as only He can, to accomplish something that is very meaningful and significant.
Jesus said 'I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink ....' (Mt 25.40). He also said 'Go and make disciples of the nations' (Mt 28.19). These two passages have been central to our thinking at Dams for Africa, since the ultimate goal of building water-projects in remote places is to empower people both materially and spiritually.
So when doing contracting work at remote sites I look for opportunities to share God's love with the construction workers, mostly during the lunch breaks, and in the evenings (see above pictures). Sometimes this has been beside a stream – and at such times I am reminded how faithful God is in bringing about his purposes in our lives. Having spoken to them, I invite them to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour – who died on a cross to save us from our sins and give us eternal life, be our Friend, to live in us and to comfort us on our journey in this life.
If you are reading this, and you have never invited Jesus into your life, then allow me to extend the same invitation to you. I invite you to say this simple life changing prayer:
Father God, I thank you that Jesus your Son came to this world to die for my sins. I am sorry for my sins and for all the suffering and pain that Jesus had to endure on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. I now ask you Jesus to come into my life. At this very moment I ask you to come into me and live in me. I receive you into my life now by faith. Thank you Lord. Thank you that you give the gift of everlasting life to all those that trust in you for their eternal destiny. Henceforth teach me your ways of righteousness, truth and love, for you have called me to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind, and, to love my fellow man as much as I love myself (Math 22 : 37-40). Thank you God, Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer, I would encourage you to start fellowshipping at a church where people sincerely love God. Then get a bible and begin by reading the New Testament. Start praying (talking) to God – tell him about everything - as your Father He is vitally interested in all your concerns. Finally, begin to trust God to open up opportunities to tell others about Jesus, your saviour and God, who died to give all who believe in Him abundant life and eternal life.