I was born and raised in a town on the East Rand that owes its existence to the mining industry in which my maternal grandfather was employed, while he was involved in open air preaching and church planting.
The godly influences of Christian parents and grandparents, exposed me to the gospel, but bestowed no right to become a child of God. The diligence of faithful Sunday School teachers was also instrumental in showing me my own heart, and my need of a saviour. I resisted the gospel until I was in my early teens when the conviction of sin and the claims of Jesus were vividly pressed upon me by a visiting preacher at a children’s mission. It was then that I was impelled to confess my sin, and turn to Christ, who came into the world to save sinners.
My early experience of being a disciple was characterised by a theology of works, but gradually I came to understand the liberating doctrines of grace unmeasured, by which I had been called out of darkness and brought into the light of the kingdom of the Beloved Son and by which I have been kept for over fifty years.
My wife Barbara shares a passion for good Christian literature, and a love of hiking in the Cape mountains. Our son Matthew is married to Christine and we are blessed to have three grandchildren.
We committed ourselves to membership of Goodwood Baptist in 2003, and I have served on the eldership since February 2011.