Vosloorus Branch

OLFC VOSLOORUS

Contact Us

Pastor: Apostle GJ and Mrs Skosana

Address: 1064 Corner Dube and Mabuya Street

Contact: +27 11 906 1069

History

Oasis of Life Family Church Vosloorus was established in 1990, Pastored by Pastor Sibeko and Cawin. I must say it took a lot of challenging work and God’s grace for the Church to get where the Church is today.

They started with only seven members at Ndhlelanhle Primary School and it is so exciting to have one of those members, Mr and Mrs Mazula relating this 30 years exciting journey in the Lord.

“Even though we were only seven members I used to put many chairs and prayed over the empty chairs, calling people to come in different areas” says Mr Mazula.

On Sundays, they would meet at the school as normal and have their Sunday fellowship. They walked that journey with Pastor Vincent Mokhethi, who later left the Church and communicated to the Head Office of Oasis in Daveyton where they then organised a farewell party.

He was the succeeded by the late Pastor Mduduzi Mnomiya. At his arrival Pastor Mnomiya had a favour of god and the people’s favour and Church grew in numbers to a point where the classroom they were fellow-shipping in was full. Whilst they were contemplating at the growth of the congregants, the Principal of the Ndlelanhle Primary School where they were fellow-shipping told them that their time was over at the School and at that time the government had issued out a memo to all schools which declared that ‘Churches were not allowed to operate in the Schools’

They then went and looked for a place at Abinari Primary School which was not a long stay because of the memo from the Government. Now at this stage the Church had to move again to the nearby tennis court, this was a great adventure because people were now coming in numbers and the Church was gradually growing. Some of the saints that were at the tennis court are still part of the Church even to date.

Everything was now shaping up, the rapid growth and stability in the Church, it really felt as if the dark days are over. Unfortunately to their disappointment the late Pastor Mnomiya announced his resignation. He did not leave alone but left with some of the congregants and this left the Church broken and divided. To us this was a period of such sadness as well had to face the pain of waiting for another Pastor.

Then in 1996 Pastor G Skosana together with his wife and Mrs. Phefile were sent to comfort the church and bring hope. They really succeeded in restoring hope and strengthening the Church. The members of the church gave him a warm welcome although financially the Church was struggling.

After time when things were stabilizing we received a note from the municipality for the reconstruction (renovations) of the tennis court. Luckily the Church managed to find another place of refuge at Nguni Hall, we were only granted a period of six weeks for the hall and lo leave afterwards, but by the grace of god we got an extension to stay longer.

And then there we moved to the old age home in Bosothong but unfortunately the old people in the old age home complained about the noise the Church was making. Again, we had to make another move but this time we struggled to find a suitable venue for our services. I remember there was a Sunday when we had to go and fellowship at Katlehong.

The following Sunday the Church decided to hold its fellowship meeting at Mr Nhlapo’s home in Mailula. The arrangement lasted for only two weeks and then the Church moved back to tennis court.

At the right time the Church managed to secure their first land, which is our current location. The current site used to be a Police Station, it was later turned into a dumping place which made the neighbors very unhappy. The previous owner of the sight had intended to turn the site into a hardware. The site was at some stage used as a School for the disabled.

Eventually the site was bought from Mrs Tshedi and a tent was erected wow call it a place which used to hold captive the criminals turning into a place where they were liberated in Christ. In fact, it has never been a smooth sailing till this day the Church press towards the mark of the upward call.

Regardless of all the challenges the favor of God has always been upon the church and one thing certain, this was the Church that loved and cared for Gods people. Since its inception there’s been a lot of growth in the Church (i.e. growth of both the members of the Church and physical growth of the building).

There would be times when they had to always look for a place to worship to an extent that the Church had even fellowship at the Civic Centre. Sadly, in some occasions the Church would hold their meetings without chairs because the people who committed to borrow chairs to the Church would refuse to lend them chairs.

There was one instance (Sunday) when the chairs had to be borrowed from Nguni Hall. Imagine the distance from Nguni Hall to the tennis court, but all the compromise was done in the name of ‘Faith’ and just to make sure that nothing stops the service (i.e. the service would not held back by the lack of resources)

The Church also initiated projects like ‘The Crab Tree’ with the purpose of aiding the members of the Church and some members of the community to have a place where they could work and receive an income. The streaming of the Church to the community brought massive changes to the lives of the congregants, God showing his faithfulness throughout the ages.

The testimony that stands to date is that, no matter how difficult things may seem even in the darkest hour one thing certain is that, ‘’the journey continues, and life progresses amidst the dark hour’’. The Church was birthed through tears, hard labour and challenges but it is still standing, praise God. The Church had grown from seven members to the current number of congregants which is almost 600 people, loving and caring for God’s people throughout.