Blessing (Lehlohonolo) Motale, 33, is completing his electrical engineering degree with renewed enthusiasm because he has discovered his God-given purpose in life: to provide solar electricity to poor communities.
He discovered his life’s mission while at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) in Redding, California where he studied for two years after a short Facebook exchange with Bethel Church Senior Pastor Bill Johnson.
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Motale, who will complete his degree at the Vaal University of Technology, Secunda, next June, said in an interview today that his life-changing adventure began in 2011 when he was discussing the miracles in the Book of Acts with a colleague at Sasol, where he worked part time as an electrical artisan. He was studying Acts while preparing a message to preach at his church. His friend gave him the book, ‘When Heaven Invades Earth’ by Bill Johnson. He was inspired by the book and sent Johnson a Facebook message thanking him for writing it. Johnson replied to him and told him about the BSSM and suggested that he consider studying there.
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“It was not easy deciding to go to Bethel,” said Motale. He grew up in a squatter camp in Evaton during a time of violent protest against apartheid. His parents separated when he was two and he was brought up by his grandparents. Family life was rough because of his grandfather’s problem with alcohol. At school he realised that his best hope of escaping poverty was to study maths and science. By 2011 he was finishing his university studies, he had bought a house and a car and was looking forward to a career as an engineer.
But Johnson’s Facebook reply challenged him. “I just knew this was the Lord,” he said.
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In a video testimony filmed at Bethel he talks about that time of decision. “I remembered the encounter I had when I was 15 and the Lord said ‘Will you give me your whole life?’ and I said ‘Yes’. And at that time I made the commitment again and said ‘Lord I am selling everything to go and learn about your Kingdom and you’ll see to me when I am done.”
Scholarship
At the end of his first year at Bethel, Motale was awarded a scholarship to continue with his second year. At the end of the second year he was awarded the top student award.
He said his life was “totally transformed” by the BSSM experience.
“I knew that no matter what the Lord tells me to do, I can achieve it as long as I stay connected to Him as a son,” he says in his video testimony.
He said the extent of his mental transformation became evident on a mission trip in Cape Town when he met people who came from a similar background to his and he saw how they did not believe they were capable of overcoming the challenges they faced.
“Physcially I still look tiny but spiritually I feel I am armed and dangerous and ready to dispel the forces of darkness because of what I have received here [at BSSM] and when I go back home I am going to start an electrical company and install solar systems to generate electricity for the people in shanty towns. I am going to help people who don’t have electricity to have electricity and to help them improve their life conditions.
“I feel I came here as a boy but I am going home as a grown man who knows his purpose in life. and for the first time in my life I feel such a sense of fulfillment that I know what I was born to do and I am going to be doing that,” he says in the video.
He told me today that he knows what it is like to study without electricity and he knows that he can make a big difference by providing solar power in areas where Eskom does not have the capacity to supply electricity.
He said since returning to South Africa he has slotted back well into his university studies. He will also start working part-time at Sasol again. And he and a friend are in the process of securing funding of R8m through the National Empowerment Fund for a solar-powered poultry project which will fund a NGO that they will establish to install solar power in RDP houses.
“We are on earth to make a difference, whether we preach or teach or are in business. We [Christians] are the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. We are here to transform the world with the wisdom of God. It is all about tapping into the resources of the Kingdom of Heaven. God has the solutions, we just have to find them and go after them practically,” he said.
View Motale’s testimony video:
