With Or Without God You Choose

By Luvuyo Ngece

This book is the true life story and testament of the author, Luvuyo Clearance Ngece. It follows his very personal life journey, detailing his experiences – both the physical and the spiritual. Through his mistakes made and wrong choices without God, the book clearly shows how the wrong decisions we make today can affect our tomorrow. The author shares his suffering and shame of addiction and through his story one can see how far an addiction can go to rule one’s life. The author’s life turns around when he begins to make decisions and choices with God, and his story thus gives clarity for those who have doubts about the existence of the almighty God.
The reason for writing this book is to alert people to the dangers of living their lives without God and to give them an idea of how their lives can change for the better if they choose to live their lives with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luvuyo Ngece
• Release date: Jan 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9780620732475

Book preview

With or Without God

You Choose

With or Without God

You Choose

Luvuyo Ngece

Copyright © 2016 Luvuyo Ngece

First edition 2016

Published by Luvuyo Ngece Publishing at Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Author using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Printed and bound by Novus Print Solutions

Edited by Bronwen Bickerton for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

Contents

The Start of My Journey

The First Touch of God

When R2 for Bread Was a Treasure

My First Job in Joburg

A Sign From God

Transformation – Being Born Again

My First Conversation With God

More of God and His Miracles

Falling Back Into My Old Ways

Beginning to Look Like a Christian

Another Sign

God’s Love Tabernacle

A House of Christ

Nandipha

Marriage

Serving God in The Department of Correctional Services

Falling Back Into Sin

Getting Into Debt

Depression and Rehabilitation

20% With God, 80% Without God

The Evil Spirit

Blaming My Marriage

Amanda Again

My World Changes

1.

The Start of My Journey

My name is Luvuyo Clearance Ngece. I was born on the 19th November 1979 in Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape.

In a moment of reflection during the year 2015, I realised I should share my life with the people who might be interested, by writing it in a book.

I am the fourth child in a family of five. My mother was a single parent who did her best to provide for us. In 1996 I underwent traditional circumcision, which is a rite of passage in my culture. Life became an adventure after being declared a man – I was excited to take control of life and seize the adventure it would be. At this age I already had a part-time job at OK Bazaars. I was a learner in Standard 8 at a village outside my town, at a school named Ndlovukazi Senior Secondary School. I was renting a room in the village with my four friends, Zolani, Simphiwe, Cardo and Jabulani.

My friends and I were scrambling money together to survive at this village. Zolani and I had part-time jobs at Shoprite, Jabulani was a shoemaker and he had a stand in town with his brother while Cardo and Simphiwe received allowances from their parents each month. We were willing and able to make ends meet in this village. As teenage boys staying alone in a village we had all the freedom we could have dreamt of. We got up to all sorts of mischief – drinking alcohol, smoking dagga and chasing skirts as often as we could – the raging passion of a teenager that is like consuming flames, even making one think the woman you have will be the only one ever.

At this age I had a girlfriend from Cape Town who would occasionally come back to visit in Queenstown over school holidays. I didn’t have any issue when it came to doing what I wanted because Amanda was far away and I was still young anyway. In 1998 I passed my matric and, sadly, some of my housemates did not make it. In September of my matric year, Zolani and I were chased out of school for misconduct and were only allowed to come back during exam time. In that time we were helped by my sister who was a maths teacher and we attended other subjects in her friend’s places. In November of that same year we had a matric dance. Zolani and I had no option but to go to Mr Pillay who owned a clothing shop; we produced our little payslips from Shoprite and we convinced him to let us take new things for our matric dance. Zolani was five years older than me so he was the one who came up with this brilliant idea. By the end of 1998 I had two shopping accounts; at Pillay’s and Patrick Daniels.

Remember now at this age I didn’t know anything about God and being born again. I didn’t know about Christian life and most of the churches then were traditional churches and they didn’t emphasise much about being born again. I can still remember though I was at a very young age when I had an idea that God does exist. The reason I’m saying that is because one day I was sitting outside my grandmother’s house and leaning against the wall. The window above me was open so when I stood up, I hit my head against the corner of the window. What an insult flew out of my mouth, with me saying, "UmnqundwakhoThixo," meaning ‘your arsehole God’! I am saying this because seemingly I did believe God exists, if this weren’t so then why would I insult someone who I didn’t believe exists?

In the early days of 1999 I went to Port Elizabeth (PE) to the Technikon, even though I hadn’t applied the previous year – I tried to force my way in. I paid for the late registration. My father had agreed to pay my fees that time round as I couldn’t pay them myself like I had in high school. Unfortunately I wasn’t accepted for architecture straight away because of their point system, so I was advised to do a bridging course in the meantime. I was ready to take on the course but was forced to return home because my father wasn’t fulfilling any of his promises. I had no money for food, no money for the tuition fees and no money for the student residence.

I only stayed in PE for a few weeks and then I returned to Queenstown. At that time it was the beginning of March 1999; Zolani was about to go to Cape Town to his parents and look for a job. I decided to travel with Zolani to Cape Town so I could also look for a job; he agreed and so did my mother. We were these puffed-up young men who had visions of prosperity and having everything we wanted in life. So when the day came we packed up and headed straight for Cape Town. When we arrived in Cape Town we were warmly welcomed by Zolani’s parents and we were spoilt like kids. Can you imagine us returning home after a long day of job-seeking and being welcomed with hot plates of food and having a bed made for us at night? Just imagine how long it had been since we had been treated like this, it was wonderful. This wasn’t going to last long though because Zolani had to go back to Queenstown at the end of March to write his supplementary exams. One thing I wasn’t going to do was stay with Zolani’s parents in his absence, so I had to come up with an exit strategy before I could even get a job. Why? Because that’s just who I am, I have never liked receiving without giving something in return.

So Zolani went back to Queenstown and I was left with his parents, waking up early to look for a job and only returning late to eat and sleep. This didn’t really work for me so I made up some story that got me out of Zolani’s parents’ care. I told them I was going for job training in Salt River and we had been asked to stay within the premises during the training. They bought my lies and allowed me to go where I asked to go. The truth was I had met a friend whose name was Langley, he was coloured and renting in Mitchell’s Plain. I met him during my job-seeking and he was working for a security company called All Guard Security Services. Soon after I too got a job at All Guard Security Services, so life was improving because I was going to pay my own rent. This company was a bit disorganised because I received an old torn uniform but I didn’t care because I told myself, I will get paid at the end of the month. After having stayed with Langley for a week, he told me he was resigning from work and going to a place I do not now recall. This meant I had to leave Langley’s place and find my own place because I was not the one to who they had offered a place to stay. I went to my boss at All Guard Security Services and explained my situation to him. The company offered me shelter in an old building that used to be a First National Bank and was no longer in use.

So that is how life became, from Zolani’s home which was a two-roomed shack to Langley’s single room and then I was living in a bank. Yes, that is what it was; I lived in a bank – me with my bag behind the counter at FNB at midnight. This might sound funny but these were my first steps in getting to know God – my Creator and the Creator of the whole universe. Yes, on that first night alone in the bank with no electricity, in the darkness of the night I was so afraid I sought for some defence. Don’t get me wrong, I had a real fear and I needed a real defence. So that night I knelt down and started to pray the way my mother had taught me. It was a great experience for me because after the prayer I was not afraid as before. In reality I didn’t have a choice but to just believe God was there with me because if I hadn’t, then I would have been afraid and lost my mind. I am sure you know what too much fear can do to a person.

I worked for this company for a few weeks and I will never forget the day I was posted in a soccer and rugby field in Athlone for a night shift. I was there with a revolver with three bullets in it and I heard people making noise who were coming towards the stadium, which was unfenced. I went to the toilets nearby and while I was there, they started shooting a number of shots and there were cars roughly ridden within the field. What could I do with my three bullets in such a situation, knowing Athlone was a gangsters’ paradise? Yes I did nothing but hide in the toilet, hoping no one would come nearby. That day taught me I should not relax but should keep looking for another job. So when I knocked off duty the next day, I started to look for another job regardless of how drowsy I was.

It was at this stage I heard of a company called Gray Security Services and it was busy recruiting. I went to Gray, not in uniform but in my private clothes, and I was surprised by the way they were recruiting. They told us to stand on the grass and one woman stood in front of us on a chair and she started to point at us one by one, but to my surprise she was only pointing out Coloureds. Now because of my complexion I was also called out. I can still remember the invigilator walking up and down between us as we were busy with the aptitude test they gave us. I was the only Xhosa guy in the class and I remember him asking me in shock, What’s your surname?

Ngece sir, I answered.

Are you Xhosa?

Yes sir!

Mmmm, he said. Yes I was in that class because God had seen