Glenn's Testimony

Early Life and Family

I was born into a Jewish family in 1960 in the Florence Nightingale hospital in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. I was almost not born, but the God I never knew said this little boy must be born and I have a plan and a purpose for him to meet me and share my love with all the world. My precious mom was pregnant with me approximately 5 months before they got married and their parents were disgusted -- this brought shame and guilt to my parents. They were in two minds to have me aborted or not. Thank God I'm here to tell the graceful story. With four precious sisters that followed me into this world, that makes 5 kids.

I remember my dear dad telling my family that our mom is mad and she is not allowed to give love to me, Glenn her eldest child and only son. So I remember sucking my thumb, wetting my bed, having nightmares very often, being disciplined by my dad with a belt on average 3 times a week, being scared to cross the passage to go to the toilet, going to school without bathing many times, being called a "bloody Jew" all the years until now, at school, in the streets -- no lunch for school, very hungry, boxing the bullies of the school often, seeing strife, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, rage, stubbornness.

I could not concentrate at school. I found myself looking for attention. I was absent minded. Acting like Charlie Chaplin in front of the class behind the teacher's back until I was caught and thrown out. I failed standard 3 and standard 6 and was pushed into standard 8. I was so frustrated, confused, anxious. Somehow I knew inside of me I'm not going to give up. I knew I had to just keep on keeping on.

Prayer at Age 10 and the Orphanage

At age 10 I remember praying to God to please save me and my family from all the torment and chaos at home. I thought God never answered my prayer as my 4 sisters and I were taken by the Jewish welfare to court where the magistrate said the 5 kids will go to Arcadia Jewish orphanage in Parktown Johannesburg and our dear mom will go to Krugersdorp sanatorium.

This was actually God answering my prayer by putting the kids in a normal orphanage where we got love, were not scared to go bathing, out of the confusion into a normal Jewish religious life. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, lunch box for school, cheder -- learning Hebrew, preparing for my Jewish bar mitzvah, learning about kosher food, Sabbath, and all the Jewish feasts and festivals throughout the year.

While learning Hebrew and learning my bar mitzvah portion from the Jewish Bible, the Torah, 5 books of Moses. Bar mitzvah is for Jewish boys at age 13 and bat mitzvah is for Jewish girls at age 12. I never understood anything I was learning in Hebrew. They said just learn the Hebrew for now. I remember crying many evenings when the rabbi said "one more time, one more time before we finish for the day."

After Bar Mitzvah

Even though I was this confused, anxious little Jewish boy who was told at my bar mitzvah "now you are a man and you are accountable young man" -- to God, school and my whole life -- after seeing a confused, angry, stubborn, messed up household, I had no idea how to keep up the act of being an accountable Jewish boy-man at 13 years of age. After my bar mitzvah I was taken back to Arcadia Jewish orphanage because I was naughty. My sisters stayed on at home with my mom and dad. My mom and dad never got back together.

I remember my teenage years were made up of drinking, smoking, fighting people who called me a "bloody Jew," running away from Arcadia and home most of the time. I spent time with naughty friends on the streets.

Army Service

I remember choosing to go to the SA army at age 16 with my dear friend Shani Krebs instead of continuing at school, which to me was a waste of time as I never really learned anything. Army places were Middleburg TVL, Potchefstroom, Pretoria, Windhoek, Oshivello, and the South West African border. 25 months in total. Now I was an even more confused young man after going through so much in the army. However, I'm grateful for the discipline, submission, and obedience which I did learn.

Work and Business

After finishing the army I felt like I was alone in this big beautiful but crazy world. All I thought of was to find work, a place to stay, and prove to the world and my family I can be successful. My late dad always told me to leave God in the sky and that we must use our brains, positive thinking.

So with God in the sky I remember searching for jobs and working with all my strength. I sold crockery and cutlery sets, jewellery, gold and diamonds, hamburgers, shwarmas. I worked at OK Bazaars as receiving manager. After working for others for approximately 9 years, I found myself starting 7 businesses: a bodybuilding gym, a motivation-leadership-management courses business, a catering business, 2 fast food outlets, assistant development director of SMI (Success Motivation International), and my late dad's gym equipment manufacturing business.

The most special privilege besides all my experiences was having 2 precious daughters from 2 different moms -- Ashanti and Kyla-Kim.

God's Visitation and Salvation (Age 29)

Then suddenly I had a visitation from God where he revealed himself to me and with his incredible irresistible love he started drawing me to himself. This was my most privileged time of my life. After all the businesses, bad headaches, back pain, skin disease, broken relationships -- I found myself very heavy laden and burdened. I was really tired. I had everything material but there was a void, an emptiness in me that I couldn't fill.

Suddenly at age 29, God sent a Christian lady to share God's salvation through repentance and faith in my Jewish Messiah Jesus' precious blood. Then a month later I landed up in Texas, Dallas, USA where I was buying a motivation distributorship business to help change the attitudes of South Africans. God had other plans for me -- He was about to touch and transform my heart, not my attitude. It had to start in the heart, not in the mind.

After 3 days in the 4-day convention in Dallas, suddenly in the evening God put me with a lady who started to share God's salvation with me and told me that God has come to save you and answer your prayer you prayed at age 10. The next day was the final day -- approximately 100 South African people and maybe 2000 other people from 65 nations were in the big hall. After going into a vision for a few hours, suddenly everyone stood up and my neighbour tapped me on the shoulder. As I stood up, it was like I was standing at attention, ears listening to a song called "Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing, Hosanna in the highest."

With tears slowly running down my cheeks, a warm feeling in my body, with goose bumps from my feet to my head, with 3 questions in my mind: 1. Who is this Jesus? 2. From Jerusalem? 3. And he is a Jew? I never cried before. Tigers don't cry. Now I found myself in God's holy presence.

Returning to South Africa and Finding Answers

I never understood what was happening but when I got back to SA I never rested until I got answers to those 3 questions in my heart. I went to some rabbis and they told me not to talk about Jesus. I respected them but could not stop searching. The next night I had a dream to go to Leo and Janet Nedermeyer. When I knocked on his front door he opened it and said "Welcome home son. I've been praying for you for many years to find salvation in Messiah Yeshua, Jesus."

For 2 months we had Bible study at his home. I found myself going to Rhema Church in Randburg. The preacher Ray Macaulay said "if you were to die in the next 30 seconds and had no idea where you would end up, heaven or hell, you need to come forward and give your life to Jesus so you can have assurance of everlasting life." That was my miracle when I went to the front for prayer. Within 3 months I was in full-time Rhema evening school Bible school 1990 to 1992.

I went to my parents, girlfriend, friends, enemies, and outstanding debts to say sorry, please forgive me, and to make right. Some forgave me, some thought I was silly, some released me from lease agreements and debts and said "we are happy you are getting your life in order and you have found your peace, your salvation."

Healing and Sanctification

Suddenly I read in the Bible "by Jesus' stripes I'm healed." So I laid hands on my headaches, skin disease, back pain, and everything was healed, gone, no more. With all these miracles happening I had to learn to become faithful and holy with my body, my eyes, my thoughts, my money, with my government, family, enemies. This is called sanctification which has taken God a long time to purify and refine me.

I've been through a terrible divorce after 18 months as a born-again Messianic Jew-Christian where I had to deal with guilt and failure. I had 7 and a half years of learning to be married to God as my husband and learn to live, move, and have my being in the Holy Spirit and not the flesh. God was so patient with me all the years.

Ministry to Muslims and All People

After being invited to go with evangelism outreaches for many years, I started seeing precious Muslims approach me and ask "How does a Jew believe in Jesus?" This question added to my passion to include sharing God's salvation and amazing love not only with inmates in prison, the poor in the squatter camps, but also the precious Muslims.

So I started reading the Quran alongside my Bible, and then studying what Free Masons, Jehovah's Witnesses, ZCC, Hari Krishna, Buddhism, Hinduism, 7th Day Adventists, Mormons, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Anglicans, Muslims, and all the other religions teach. When I read John 17, it says that Jesus wants us to love one another and become one in Jesus' word, in Jesus' teachings, in the Holy Spirit, and all people will know there is a loving holy God.

God's Goodness in Recent Years

• I've seen God's grace in my marriage to my precious wife Amore for over 11 years. Without God's grace I would not be able to be a humble man of God, especially after the difficult past from childhood until 29 years of age.
• I've seen God reconciling my 2 daughters, Kyla-Kim and Ashanti, to one another and to me and my wife, after very difficult unforgiveness and confusion. Only God can do this.
• I've seen God's love reconcile both moms of our 2 precious daughters to them and to me and my wife.
• I've seen God restore and reconcile our 2 sons Jac and Reinart to their mom and me after challenging times.
• I've seen God provide all my needs every single day, every single month for over 27 years since I surrendered to Jesus. He has never left me nor forsaken me, even in my dark days.
• I've seen God bless me and my wife with great insight, love, and passion to share the good news of salvation through Jesus with precious Muslims and precious Jews.

Prayer for Unity

My prayer is that all of us from all our different Christian denominations and all other religions will all repent and get born again and put away our man-made laws and traditions which are not in the holy word of God, and grow in grace and get into unity with God the Father, Messiah Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. One new people in Christ Jesus.

"Children obeying their parents. Parents not provoking their kids so they become weary of following God. Servants submitting to their leaders. The boss can be won over to God by the servant's good behaviour. Submit to the law of the land. Love my enemies, bless those who curse me. Pray for those who spitefully use and abuse me."

Quran and Biblical Parallels

The Quran tells us to treat our parents well, take care of the orphans, not to gossip, not to spend unwisely, not to love this world. To be prepared for heaven. To look forward to the 2nd coming of Jesus. To not let the devil deceive us. To be a close family. To pray often. To pay tithes. To love enemies, to help the poor. To trust Jesus. To fast, to be humble, to be kind, to be self-controlled, to be patient.

The Quran only tells us and encourages us to obey the God of the Bible and tells us a little about the stories in the Bible. But the Bible must be studied daily to get the full story. (Quran 5:68, 16:61)

Abraham's Family: Ishmael and Isaac

After living as a sinful, lost and blind young Jewish boy and suddenly meeting Messiah Jesus, I have spent the last 27 years studying the Holy Bible and Quran so I can share these beautiful words of God with Jews, Muslims, and the whole world so people can come to know the one and only true Messiah Jesus.

The promise of God to Ishmael: "I will make Ishmael a great nation with 12 princes." The children of Ishmael: Nebajoth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah.

God makes his only holy covenant with Isaac -- the covenant of true peace and assurance of eternal life and forgiveness through Messiah Jesus. Ishmael and Isaac buried Father Abraham together. So can we bury the past family quarrels, strife, confusion, and bitterness. We have the solution of peace and reconciliation through trusting Jesus to love and forgive one another.

Prayer of Repentance