In 1999 Salisbury Baptist Church (SBC) began a partnership with Diazville Baptist Church in South Africa and during July and August of 2000 SBC’s Minister, Rev. David Rogers, made a Sabbatical visit to South Africa including a visit to Diazville.
Diazville is a poor coloured suburb of Saldanha. In 2000 Diazville Baptist Church, the only church of any sort in the suburb, was meeting in the garage of one of its members (lovingly transformed). There was an urgent need for alternative accommodation and ultimately a purpose-built church. With great vision and sacrifice the Diazville church purchased a piece of land from the municipality and in August 2000 a “turning of the sod” ceremony took place.
Although 2001 and 2002 were very slow on the building front during those years the church made the momentous decision to have its own Pastor. After a long search Charles van der Westhuizen accepted a call to the church and was inducted as Pastor in March 2003. Under his ministry the church has been meeting in a local school, the congregation has grown to over 60 and there have been a number of conversions and baptisms. The official opening of Diazville Baptist Church’s new building took place on December 21st 2003 with one of our members, Angela Siderfin, in attendance.
In August 2007 a group from SBC visited Diazville for a week. We were made extremely welcome and excellent meals were prepared for us at the church. During the visit it was clear that whilst the church building structure was reasonably complete, much was still to be done in completion of the internal fittings, and indeed making the surroundings more presentable. It was very encouraging to see the dedication of the church leaders, the beautiful singing, and their Biblical knowledge. Not least Pastor Charles’ willingness to travel from his home in Cape Town at least once a week to minister to the people of Diazville.
We at SBC have been paying a significant part of Charles’ salary and expenses using legacy funds which have now run out. (in 2009). Some of the funds have also gone towards the completion of the baptistery where quite a few baptisms took place in 2008. It was hoped that the church would be more independent over time, however, in a poor South African community, many of the members have very little for themselves, let alone being able to support their church financially.
The 2007 Team are looking at ways to fund raise for Diazville and are hoping that a group will visit Diazville again in 2011.
Click here to view more photographs on our Gallery |
