Glimpses of God's Mysterious Ways

By Ashley Cloete

In this brief overview of the spiritual history of South Africa, the author highlights how, no matter what restrictions or hindrances our own failings and weaknesses, or those of others, place, or have placed on situations intended to bring about God’s purposes he nevertheless works his ‘bright designs and works his sovereign will’. (Ephesians 1:11, Romans 8:28). In fact, all too often, difficulties, losses, frustrations and unbearable pain are given to us to grow us to a new level in our spiritual life or to prepare us for something better.
This principle is illustrated through numerous accounts of how adversities, difficulties, and sufferings in the lives of the missionaries and the church have led to yet greater progress of God's kingdom and his purposes throughout the history of South Africa, giving us great hope for a good future, in spite of all appearances to the contrary.
For those believers who wonder if their lives have made or will make any contribution to God’s kingdom purposes, this book will provide strong encouragement to keep believing and trusting in the God of the impossible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ashley Cloete
• Release date: Sep 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9780639729831

Ashley Cloete

Ashley Cloete was born and raised in Cape Town, but lived in Germany and Holland for many years. He served as a teacher while studying extramurally at the University College of the Western Cape in the suburb Bellville. At this time he also served on the executive of the national youth union of the Moravian Church.A bursary facilitated by the church sent him to Germany in January 1969, where he met his wife Rosemarie while studying Greek and Biblical Hebrew. After completing theological studies at the Moravian Seminaries in Cape Town and Bad Boll (Western Germany), he served as a pastor in West Berlin and Utrecht (Netherlands), with residence in nearby Zeist.Because of apartheid-related legislation, his marriage led to exile from South Africa. During this period he contended via correspondence with the government of that time to enable a return to the country with his family of seven. A sampleof this correspondence is included in What God Joined Together.After returning to South Africa in January 1992, the family became involved with prayer and evangelism movements. The blessings and positive impacts in Germany and Holland during exile, inspired the vision of such work in his home country of South Africa. Since 2003 the family has been focusing on compassionate outreach to refugees and other foreigners. This ultimately led to the founding of the organization Friends from Abroad, a low-key umbrella organsiation in which mission agencies and a few churches have been networking since 2006.Already as a teenager, during the apartheid era in South Africa , Ashley had been impressed with need for a visual local expression of the unity of followers of Jesus according to the prayer of Jesus that his followers may be one (John 17:21-23). This vision became part and parcel of the inspiration to start an evangelistic agency Stichting Goed Nieuws Karavaan in the Dutch town of Zeist in 1983 with believers from different denominations. (He felt that it was the rightful responsibility of committed Christians to face the challenge of racial reconciliation in South Africa.)Later, together with Messianic Jewish and Muslim-background followers of Jesus a low profile organisation Isaac Ishmael Ministries was established in 2010. The need for successors as leaders of Friends from Abroad gave rise to the start of a new organisation in 2021, the Born Again Believers Network.Ashley and his wife have been blessed with five children and fourteen grandchildren.

Book preview

Glimpses of God’s Mysterious Ways

- through adversity and suffering

Ashley Cloete

©2022 Ashley Cloete

Glimpses of Mysterious Ways of God

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without the written permission of the copyright holder.

ISBN 9780639729831

Glimpses of Mysterious Ways of God is a self-publication.

Co-Publishers: Sela Books, Truth House Publishers, Born Again Believers Network

Cover Art: Truth House Publishing

Layout: Truth House Publishing

Born Again Believers Network

NPC Registration 202193291408

Account: Nedbank 1226866107

Born Again Believers Network 8 Innis Killen Road, Mowbray, South Africa.

Table Of Contents

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1. A Blow to Slavery from the Cape

Chapter 2. Swimming Against the Stream of Prejudice

Chapter 3. Pioneering Women at the Cape

Chapter 4. A Teacher of the Nations

Chapter 5. More Cape Church Expansion

Chapter 6. Practical Christianity at Work

Chapter 7. Cape Jewish-Christian Moves

Chapter 8. Redemptive Suffering Under Apartheid

Chapter 9. Support for Victims of the Pass Laws

Chapter 10. Student and Youth Impact

Chapter 11. Gangsterism: A Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone?

Chapter 12. Special Initiatives at the End of the 20th Century

Chapter 13. 21st Century Evidence of Spiritual Warfare

Chapter 14. Carried on Eagle's Wings

New Pointers for the 21st Century

Epilogue

Glossary

References

Jesus replied: You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. (John 13:7).

If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest.

Corrie ten Boom.

Main Abbreviations used in this book

ANC - African National Congress

APO - African People’s Organisation

CCM - Christian Concern for Muslims

CCFM - Cape Community FM (radio)

CSV - Christelike Studentevereniging

DEIC - Dutch East India Company

DRC - Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk)

Ds. – Dominee (equivalent of Reverend)

DTS - Discipleship Training School

LMS - London Missionary Society

OM - Operation Mobilization

PAGAD - People against Gangsterism and Drugs

SACC -South African Council of Churches

SAMS - South African Missionary Society

UDF - United Democratic Front

UNISA - University of South Africa

UCT - University of Cape Town

UWC - University of the Western Cape

V.O.C - Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagne = United East India Company

WCC - World Council of Churches

WEC -Worldwide Evangelization for Christ

YWAM - Youth with a Mission

Z.A. Gesticht - Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht (South African Foundation)

Preface

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8, 9)

In earlier years we used to enjoy singing:

I want God’s way to be my way

As I journey here below

For there is no other highway

That a child of God should go

Though the road be steep and rough

Where He leads me ‘tis enough

I want God’s way to be my way every day

Little did I know back then that this chorus would become like an anthem over my life. Time and time again, my wife and I were able to experience God’s clear leading in our lives – particularly on those occasions when the road was indeed ‘steep and rough’. One of the most rugged roads was undoubtedly the one that ultimately led to our wedding on 22 March 1975. A by-product of choosing to walk this road was an involuntary exile from my country of origin, forced upon me by the apartheid legislation that was in place in South Africa at that time.

I returned to Cape Town, the city of my birth, in January 1992, after living in Germany and Holland for many years. Born in Bo-Kaap in 1945, I was raised in District Six and Tiervlei (later the ‘Coloured’ section of this suburb was called Ravensmead.)

Regarding God's 'mysterious ways' in my own life, they were sometimes linked to deep pain in the lives of other people. I came to learn that adversity and suffering seem to be among God's prime instruments to bring about significant change in the lives of people and even in countries. My teenage hero’s leukaemia and ultimate passing away were for instance part of the run-up to my being called into ministry in 1968. Twelve years later a similar sequence, namely the same type of cancer and the death of my only sister resulted in a six-month stint in South Africa with my wife Rosemarie and our two eldest children – by special permission of the apartheid government. Those six months turned out to be quite special in terms of opposition to two pivotal apartheid laws that were scrapped four years later.

By January 1969 there had already been a significant correction to my own thinking with respect to the subtle indoctrination within South Africa’s racially segregated society. I had been perceiving that missionaries were 'White' as a rule. Seeing myself as a short-term missionary going to Germany, I was initially scheduled to be there for a year. That stint was ultimately extended to one of just under two years, during which time a romantic relationship ensued. I knew that this could result in my exile from South Africa due to an apartheid law. I loved my country quite intensely so that the possible marriage to a German young lady plunged me into quite a big dilemma. In some poor unsuccessful compromise, I tried to get Rosemarie reclassified as a 'Coloured' so that we could live together here in South Africa.

The Father dealt thoroughly with my racist prejudicial expectation that my future wife had to be a 'Coloured' South African. I was hoping to spare myself the destiny of an exile in this way. (In this book I put ‘Coloured’ consistently between inverted commas and with a capital C when I refer to the racial group. I refer to the other races as 'Black' and 'White' respectively, with a capital B and W, to denote that it is not normal colours that are being described. In a country as ours where racial classifications have caused a lot of damage, I am aware that the designation 'Coloured' has given offence to many people of the racial group into which I have been classified.)

We perceive it as quite significant that God used difficulties to move us forward in terms of ministry involvement. Thus, the problems I had encountered around the christening of babies became a significant catalyst for my resignation as Moravian pastor of Utrecht, but also for the founding of the Stichting Goed Nieuws Karavaan, a unique regional expression of followers of Jesus operating in unity in the Dutch town Zeist.

It has been quite a humbling experience to discern divine over-ruling in my life. I unwittingly made some grave mistakes that had tragic consequences and intense pain for some people. In His mercy God thankfully not only rectified those errors that I had to confess to, but He would all too often over-rule and even use them sovereignly to His glory.

How glad I am that the Father did not answer my prayer for a possibility to avoid the life of an exile. I had thought arrogantly and naively that I could contribute much better towards racial reconciliation inside South Africa, rather than if I would live abroad. In His divine over-ruling wisdom, my presence in Holland would not only be used in the ideological spiritual battle against apartheid, but also in a small way towards the dismantling of a wicked Communist regime in Romania.

Assignments for a post graduate course in missions at the Bible Institute of South Africa (BI) caused me to be ‘bitten’ by a bug – historical research. In due course this became my hobby. Many a manuscript resulted over the years. Having been raised in the Moravian tradition, having attended their schools, and having been trained and ordained as a minister of that denomination, there developed in me over the years a strong interest in general Church History, the history of the Moravian Church, as well as the history of Islam and Judaism.

Having been involved in missionary work with WEC (Worldwide Evangelization for Christ) International and in the prayer movement here at the Cape for many years, I have also been jotting down some personal experiences. Many of them have been included in the latter chapters of this book. It has been such a blessing to discern how these ‘mysterious ways of God’ were, as a rule, answers to prayer.

The bulk of the material in this book has been taken from unpublished manuscripts, notably Spiritual Dynamics at the Cape, Some Things wrought by Prayer and The Road to the Global Day of Prayer. These documents can be accessed at www.isaacandishmael.blogspot.com. Whereas I consciously omitted references to make the material more readable for the rank-and-file Christian in my recently published Revival Seeds Germinate Part 1, I do supply many of them this time, without however, claiming to have done this consistently. This is merely an attempt to bring material that has been on my blog for a long time more clearly into the public domain.

When many people around the world were still groaning under the effects of the Covid 19 virus, I took liberty to revisit an earlier version of this manuscript again before dropping it on my blog. With Parts 2 and 3 of Revival Seeds Germinate well advanced towards publication, I sensed a challenge to get this book published first, initially as an E-book.

I have basically selected glimpses of some mysterious divinely guided ways at the Cape until 2012. In the selection I would have liked to highlight more events elsewhere that also impacted the country. From my teenage years I still vividly remember the post Sharpeville turmoil that caused the World Council of Churches to bring Church leaders to Cottesloe at the end of that year. A special glimpse of divine mysterious ways occurred when the lies and deception of apartheid among Afrikaner colleagues at the time became the kairos moment for Rev Beyers Naudé. It was the trigger to start the Christian Institute. Thereafter the Church emerged as the authentic mouthpiece of the oppressed, notably via the Christian Institute with its Afrikaner leaders Rev Beyers Naudé and Theo Kotze. The Message to the People of South Africa at the inauguration of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in 1968 was also a turning point in Christian responses to apartheid. We have mentioned the Holy Spirit inspired Congress on Mission and Evangelism with Dr Billy Graham and its two spiritual children: in Nairobi (PACLA, 1976), and Pretoria (SACLA, 1979) that significantly opened dialogue among diverse groups.

The support of the SACC for conscientious objectors may be controversial in the view of some Christians. That it swung matters towards a peaceful solution of our racial issues has a divine element in it.

Civil war with massive devastation seemed nevertheless inevitable in the late 1980s. Rev. Michael Cassidy was one of the divine instruments among a few other Church leaders who not only laboured hard to prevent that, but, inter alia, initiated a big Church conference in Rustenburg of November 1990 that ushered in our democracy. Africa Enterprise played a pivotal role in organising a strategic prayer event on Kings Park Stadium in Durban which ushered in the miracle elections of 27 April 1994.

Details of these, and numerous other divine and mysterious ways of God would require an entire new and extensive publication so have not been included in this one.

At the time of writing, we have been experiencing quite a few more mysterious divine ways in recent months, notably in the wake of the Covid lockdown of 2020. I hope and pray that you may be blessed and challenged to read how God has been working in many mysterious ways, just as I have been in the course of the research and the collating of the material.

Ashley D.I. Cloete

Cape Town, Setptember 2022

Introduction

The British poet and hymnist William Cowper, who wrote the poem God Moves in Mysterious Ways, struggled throughout his life with depression, doubts, and fears. In this book I try to highlight different kinds of the mysterious divine moves that Cowper refers to: the afflictions and tribulations