CRADGRAAFF NPC, a faith-based organization inaugurate and opened two complete church buildings on Sunday, 14 December. The buildings in Asherville, Narsingstraat and Kroonvale, Du Plessisstraat.
The church buildings were done by local builders. The funding of the buildings was sponsored by the congregant’s churches from the communities, the Grace Tabernacle Ministries church from pastor Gregory Reid, Hilltop Ministries church from King Williams’ Town lead by Pastor Dr. Edward de Hahn, the River of Life Congregation from Namibia lead by Apostle Frederick Joseph.
CradGraaff NPC (Non Profit Company), are the main drivers of the project, under the leadership of Elder Dr. Daantjie Japhta(chairperson), Pastor Gregory Reid(Secretary), Pastor Edward de Hahn (Treasurer). The visionary of the project was Pastor Dr. de Hahn who had the buy in of Elder Daantjie Japhta and Pastor Gregory Reid.
The sponsors were from local community, the district and provincial as well as national communities and organizations. It was hard work as different functions were used to fundraise. The last function was the Heroes Event Awards at the Botanics Sports club where the vision of CradGraaf was to finalize the buildings of the Apostolic Faith Mission’s churches in Cradock and Graaff-Reinet. Other forms of functions were pledges, Bazaars, Braais and Bingo plays organized by the leadership of the two churches in Graaff-Reinet.
More than R3million monies were accrued in three years to build the three churches one in Cradock and two in Graaff-Reinet, the AFM Community Centre in Kroonvale and the AFM River of Life community Centre in Asherville.
The building of the churches project started in September 2023. The last two church buildings were inaugurated and the opening was blessed by the Apostle Frederick Joseph from the River of Life Congregation in Namibia. Apostle Joseph was once pastoring the Kroonvale congregation from 1970 – 1983 before moving to Namibia.
The message at the River of Life Community Centre was from Ezekiel 37. According Ezekiel, he said the qualities of a River is to flow and accommodate different ideas and how to reach other people with gospel.
At the Kroonvale church his message was about serving saying that” We must serve each other. David was a better servant than he was a king, so we need to serve each other”
The event brought together a diverse cross-section of society across the country. Starting from Friday, 12 December with Meet and Greet, on Saturday evening with Songs evening with Jordan Dwellers (Gqebhera) at the Alex Laing hall. The organizer on behalf of CradGraaf Elder Dr. Daantjie Japhta (Chairperson) wants to thank everyone who participated and also made a donation towards the building of the churches.
