Our Journey

When I think back on how it all started and how I progressed through life I realize one thing – it is really impossible to predict the future! One might have plans or an idea for your future, but it’s not totally in your hands! 

When Jesus saved me, it felt as if I stood on a high mountain top. There was always some sort of mountain in my life, but this mountain was the highest of them all. 

So much joy! My heart was bursting to let it all out.  I wanted to share this with everyone, and I wanted everyone to know what I had come to know – to know God, to be saved!  

The Bible, which I believe is inspired by God, taught me immensely deep spiritual lessons. I got to know God through His Word. To me the Word of God, the Bible, became so much more than a normal book – this book is alive and is talking to me! Never before had I experienced this. 

I believe when one starts out on this journey with God, He will eventually work it in your heart to be more involved and to be of service to Him. This also became a pressing issue for me. Days went by, later weeks and then months. 

Then, one day out of the blue, I received this scripture: “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:5) 

Together with my Brothers in Christ, I would go out and talk to people, many so hungry for more. Through the grace of God alone, several of them got saved! 

Then, after some years, I met a young man who asked me about my faith. He said to me that he never heard me swear and that I am different. I looked at him in amazement, thinking to myself that I just have a normal life. Well, to me it was my way of life! I thought back to the years before I got saved, how different it was. I remember a teacher who believed in Jesus and how strange it was to me. Well, I said to the young man. I was saved by Jesus in the year 2000. I gave him my testimony. He listened attentively for almost an hour to how Jesus saved me. He didn’t interrupt me once. 

Then he asked me how I knew Jesus actually exists? How do I know for sure that God is the creator of everything? ‘”Well”, I said, “Through experiencing a meeting with the Holy Spirit and I read it in the Bible.” “So you want to tell me you believe everything in the Bible to be true?”, he asked. “Oh, yes”, I replied. “I believe the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.” 

The young man cried. “I cannot believe in Jesus then if that is where you get your facts from. I believe the Bible was written over many times by ordinary human beings. They could’ve written something down out of their own viewpoint. Also…how did the stories come into the Bible? The Earth already exists for millions of years. Long before man walked the Earth, the universe existed. So how will man know how the world and the universe was created? Your Bible is also in conflict with itself.”  He just carried on and on – quoting, for example, amongst others, where God said “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) on the first day, but according to the Bible, the sun was only created on the fourth day. “What about the flood? Is there enough water in the world to cover the entire earth? Your Bible also states that Adam and Eve were the first humans and that they lived about 6000 years ago. What about the fossils of which some of them date back more than 60 000 years?

How can you Christians claim that the world and everything in it was only created 6000 years ago, when science proofs this wrong? How can I believe when, in the face of science and logic, the Bible seemed to be wrong? The Bible experts in any case claim the Bible only came into existence about 600 years before Christ. I think most of the content in the Bible was written by men who hallucinated or who wrote stories to entertain there fellow humans. There is no proof to confirm the stories in the Bible, especially the early stories in the Bible!” 

Wow! I did not have any answers for this young man, who clearly had thought about these things and had clearly read up on the topics. I thought after so many years working for God I knew the Bible. I felt embarrassed and really uncomfortable, realizing that I was not equipped to answer these questions! 

Thinking of Hosea 4:6 saying “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, I wanted the answers. If I knew these, I’d be able to help people better!  

This was the start of a new journey for me. Of all the information available out there, how was I to discern what was correct? Through books, DVD’s and more I started my research. However, some paths ended in a cul-de-sac, some in sticky mud, some in a desert and some, so to speak, in the ocean. I was never entirely happy with the answers I got. 

One day I came across the work of a dear brother in Christ. The articles were, however, really complicated and frustrating! If only I could understand the content better! I prayed and took a deep breath. With a dictionary in the one hand, Google in the other and a difficult article in front of me, I struggled through it. Fascinating – the parts I could understand! It felt like discovering a hidden treasure and I immediately wondered why it was not out there for everyone to benefit from.  Here were finally some answers that could be helpful for everyone.  

I jumped on a plane and three hours later I was in the author’s living room. “My dear friend, maybe if we could make DVD’s about your work, it would be easier for poor normal blokes like me to understand, don’t you think?” He agreed, but although we were both so enthusiastic, nothing we tried for the next seven years succeeded. I finally lost hope and closed the door on what we had named the Alpha & Omega project.  

Several months later, some beloved brothers invited me to their prayer nights. With these close brothers, mugs of hot coffee and an atmosphere filled with laughter, I finally felt like I had come home. Often, we would pray through the hour for lost souls. Tears ran deep for God’s plan for man.  

One day, as we were sitting together, it was as if there was a knock on our “cabin’s door”. We looked at each other and quietly sat there for a while – would we open it? The door opened. In the doorway stood Alpha & Omega. At first I was confused, then amazed.  And deep in my heart I was shouting… Oh, isn’t this the road I’ve been on for seven years, seven years!  

Through prayers by our small group of brothers a plan came together: we wanted to equip Christians to answer the difficult questions, in this way, enable them to lead more of the lost to the Shepherd and Saviour of our souls. It is not necessary for anyone to be lost due to a lack of knowledge!  

Who opened the door? We believe it was God himself. There’s a new journey waiting… 

CoreIdeas was born!