My life BC (Before Crown) and AC (After Crown)

For the past 35 years, I have been a full-time artist practising an art
form whereby I burn pictures or images onto leather with a hot iron.

My art depicts African scenes, wild animals, characters and many other
themes. In the past I used to make a good living from my art, however
as time progressed and with the cost of living ever increasing as well
as having two children to raise and educate, my financial circumstances
deteriorated.

For about six years, I used to market my art in the USA at hunting
expo’s and private exhibitions. The income derived from this venture
used to see me through the usually quiet business periods of January to
March.

A few years ago, just as my venture was taking off, I encountered
problems with the department of immigration USA. After twelve
problem-free visits to the USA, I was informed that I would require a
work permit to continue my exhibitions. As a result of this, my
marketing campaign was abruptly ended. I was shattered, but eventually
got over the disappointment. The financial loss, however, had a serious
impact on my life in the following few years. I really started to
struggle.

The year 2006 was a particularly difficult year. I experienced set-back
upon set -back i.e. expensive unsuccessful exhibitions abroad,
disappointments and problems with my children and expensive breakdowns
with my vehicles. I reached a low point in my life financially as well
as physiologically. I became very depressed and felt like committing
suicide. I went for counselling, but it did not seem to help.

I was on my way to Canada, for exhibitions when I realized that in my
present frame of mind, the whole trip would be a failure. A few days
prior to my departure, I heard about a Crown Financial Ministries
seminar. As a last resort, I enrolled for the seminar, hoping to find
some much-needed answers.

I found the seminar very good and insightful. The first thing Jan
Strydom taught us was the principle that “Everything belongs to the
Lord - the world, my business and everything surrounding us”. I also
learnt other things such as to be more generous and to faithfully give
a tenth of my income to God’s work.

That evening I prayed and said to God: “The manner in which I am acting
and conducting this business, I am heading for a disaster, bankruptcy
and suicide. I hand over my business to You, God. From now on, I am
working for You, for Your business. I shall work as hard, honestly and
according to Biblical principles as I can. I trust in You to send
customers up my driveway to buy my art, so that I do not constantly
have to worry how to pay my monthly accounts. I trust You implicitly to
make Your business work.”

As of that moment, it felt as if a mountain was lifted off my
shoulders. I started smiling again and looked forward to my trip to
Canada. In Canada, I gave testimony about what happened to me and that
they were actually purchasing the Lord’s art works and not mine. I also
carried on with my unique missionary work, by living and spreading the
message Jesus’ love. My trip to Canada was a huge financial and
spiritual success. The Lord opened new doors for me and I met wonderful
Christian friends who helped and supported me.

Subsequently my life is going well. The Lord takes care of His
business. I do not experience month-end anxiety and stress anymore. I
trust and believe that the Lord will provide. The Lord has proven
Himself over and over!!

Hendrik Vrey
March 2008

What a challenge to give a brief report on what happened after I was introduced to Crown. Firstly, I knew God as a distant God, but after attending the Small Group Study, the distance between me and God is shrinking. Secondly, I noticed the need to translate the Small Group student manual into my mother tongue, Oshikwanyama, one of the seven/eight dialects in the Oshiwambo speaking community in the northern part of Namibia.

I decided to lead a small group in English. One lady, who does not understand English, insisted on attending the group. Luckily I was translating it on the computer and all the other seven members of the group happened to speak Oshiwambo (a different dialect of the same base language.) I decided to make a print out of the 8-week part that I finished translating and add the last 9th & 10th week along the journey.

In the first two weeks of our study programme, it turned out that the lady who is doing it in the Oshiwambo version had a wider understanding and could articulate the concept very well. While the others were reading Your Money Counts she read all the scriptures in the book in her Oshindonga Bible. Now, the other group members would like to have the Oshiwambo version, which is currently completed but not edited. The pressure is mounting to have it edited and also to complete the translation of “Your Money Counts”. - Lusia N Hamumokola

Praise God for faithful workers!

Testimony from the Kaulinge family in Namibia:

Dear brothers and sister in Christ Jesus,

Our testimony as to how God has changed our lives through Crown Financial Ministries;

We are blood washed sons and daughters of the King;

When we were introduced to Crown Financial Ministries we were sceptical about the family small group biblical financial principles study. Due to a lack of knowledge we always separated “money” from the Word of God, We didn’t know that Jesus spoke so much about it until the Holy Spirit through the study taught us otherwise.

We were in financial trouble at the start of the study. The Holy Spirit made us realize that we were servants to the lenders and that we must get out of debt. The study taught us to set goals to pay off our debts. By prayer, faithfulness and commitment towards the study we managed to pay off all our small debts. After paying those off, we performed “credit card surgery” (took a pair of scissors and cut the credit cards into pieces). We have vowed never to get caught up in them again, praise the Lord! Since getting rid of them we are now free to GIVE more with joyful hearts.

We continue to trust the Lord to pay off our larger debt (our house).

Hellon, Cynthia, Shekupe and John-Isaac Kaulinge

Dear brothers and sister in Christ Jesus, our testimony as to how God has changed our lives through Crown Financial Ministries. When we were introduced to Crown Financial Ministries we were skeptical about the family small group biblical financial principles study. Due to a lack of knowledge we always separated “money” from the Word of God, We didn’t know that Jesus spoke so much about it until the Holy Spirit through the study taught us otherwise. We were in financial trouble at the start of the study. The Holy Spirit made us realize that we were servants to the lenders and that we must get out of debt. The study taught us to set goals to pay off our debts. By prayer, faithfulness and commitment towards the study we managed to pay off all our small debts. After paying those off we performed “credit card surgery” (took a pair of scissors and cut the credit cards into pieces) we have vowed never to get caught up in them again, praise the Lord! Since getting rid of them we are now free to GIVE more with joyful hearts. We continue to trust the Lord to pay off our larger debt (our house).

There are currently 2 full time paid staff member and 52 part time volunteers in Namibia.