This is the hall where divine services are now being held, a view from outside during "Operation Cleanup"

"Operation cleanup"

Onverwacht congregation's members in front of their new church building after the divine service with Apostle Wilson

Onverwacht is situated 10 km northeast from Cullinan, in a rural corner of Gauteng. The Onverwacht community was started in the middle sixties as an informal settlement for so-called coloured people working in the diamond mines at Cullinan and on the farms in the surrounding area. Today, Onverwacht has become a diverse, cosmopolitan community, with four main spoken languages, namely English, Afrikaans, Northern Sotho and Zulu.

Onverwacht has only been declared a formal suburb as recently as 1996 and infrastructure is currently still being put into place. Socio-economic problems, unemployment and HIV Aids are rife and present great difficulties with which the growing community has to cope – our members are not unaffected by this.

Background: New Apostolic Church in Onverwacht
A New Apostolic congregation is in existence for more than twenty years at Onverwacht and now forms part of the Pretoria East District. The congregation is served by a priest (as rector) and four deacons. The priest and one deacon reside in Eersterust, located 53 km away. Divine services were initially conducted in the home of sister Mitchell, where after a classroom in a local primary school was made use of.

It was in 1997 that the church was notified to vacate the classroom, but an alternative venue was supplied in a classroom in the old school building. The circumstances at the new venue were far from desirable. For example, no ablution facilities or running water was present. Although the congregation grew to a membership of approximately 70 members, only a half attended divine services periodically.

Current Situation and Proposed Development
In December 2002, one of our members who serve on the local community forum dealing with housing, informed the church that the venue was going to be demolished to make way for a community centre. An alternative venue had to be found, and the “clinic hall” was deemed suitable for this purpose.

The hall, that can accommodate up to 170 people, was almost in a state of complete disrepair; windows were broken, ceilings damaged, the main door was unlocked and broken, toilets were not fully functional, and the garden had not been tended to for a long time. Nevertheless, permission was given to negotiate for the use of the premises. A win-win situation was proposed where the church members would repair the hall and outside premises without making any structural changes to the building. The members also committed themselves to the upkeep of the garden; all of this in exchange for use of the hall on Sunday mornings, and Wednesday and Thursday evenings. This proposal was accepted and the rector of Onverwacht was appointed as caretaker of the building. The church can also make use of the hall at no charge.

At the moment, the congregation has to share the building with the community clinic and library. This will only be a temporary arrangement, however, since the clinic and library will move to the new community centre. Eventually, the church will be the only occupant of the hall. But as a result of these changes, the attendance has increased, as well as the willingness of members to participate generally. On 23 March 2003, the congregation was visited by Apostle Wilson, and during the divine service, 15 souls could be sealed.

In the past, due to the isolation of the Onverwacht area, attendance of audio-visual transmission services in Pretoria, and participation in district activities generally proved to be a problem financially. This situation has improved slightly since the congregation recently installed a satellite dish on their own initiative. This modern technology was utilized for the first time during Pentecost 2003, when the divine service on 8 June, which was conducted by our Chief Apostle in Dortmund, Germany, could be transmitted to the delight of those present.

More people are moving into the Onverwacht area and the potential for growth is enormous. Notwithstanding, the congregation is faced with some challenges. Firstly, a language barrier exists since approximately two-thirds of the members are Northern Sotho or Zulu speaking. Secondly, although a second hand organ had been acquired, no competent organist is as yet available. Thirdly, help is needed with other aspects of congregational activities, such as the orchestra, choir and the teaching of Sunday school. In addition, there are no street names and numbers, which make the administrative task of tracing and transferring members near impossible.

Onverwacht congregation has been adopted by Silverton and Menlo Park congregations, and while some assistance has been granted, more will have to be done to cater for the need that exists.