Five men from East London set out from Signal Hill, Cape Town last Friday on a mission to wheel a heavy wooden cross nearly 2 000km across the country to Musina to bring hope, restoration and revival to South Africa.
I spoke to one of the men, seasoned street evangelist Anthony Minter, yesterday evening by which time they had reached Worcester, about 112km into their long journey — and had already seen a number of people, including a gangster, accept Jesus as Lord and ministered hope to a man who had been contemplating suicide.
Anthony, whose role is to ride his motorbike ahead of the walkers with his PA system close at hand for preaching opportunities — “like John the Baptist preparing the way” — emphasised that they are not on a strict schedule to reach their destination by a certain time but are following a Spirit-led approach like that of the apostle, Paul, on his missionary journeys.
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“We want to give quality to the people,” he said, explaining that they will spend time at different stops according to the ministry needs that they are led to address. They planned to press on with their journey until December and “see how far it takes us”.
He said God had given the vision of taking the cross from Cape Town to Musina to team member and passionate cross walker Reini Coetzee who was now on his fifth cross walk. He said that he and another member of the team, David Smith, had joined Reini in March this year taking the cross on a 380km trek from East London to the Mighty Men Eastern Cape Conference at Jeffreys Bay.
The other members of the current mission are Sivenkosi Mjoli and Anthony’s son, Daniel.
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“We get on well together. We are a good team,” said Anthony.
He said the theme of their mission is “A Revelation of Revival” and their foundational Scripture is Mark 16:15 — He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
“We are doing it mainly to preach the Gospel. This Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached everywhere — emphasising Jesus as King.
“And secondly we are opposing farm murders, gender violence and racism,” he said.
In a message on the street at the start of their journey, Anthony, said: “We are bringing the Gospel because we need revival. If there is no revival there is not going to be a survival. So the Church needs to come back to God and people need to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.”
At this early stage of the journey they have preached the Gospel, shared testimonies, prayed for the sick and ministered hope to the despairing. They have camped overnight and also accepted overnight hospitality from wellwishers.
In one incident, when Anthony was ministering to a hobo under a bridge near Paarl, a man parked his car near them and observed them. When Anthony finished with the hobo the man told him he had been following the group over a distance of about 40km. He said he had been feeling despondent after a family breakdown and had been thinking about taking his own life. But when he saw the men with the cross he felt hope and followed them.
Anthony said he shared hope with the man, who is a Christian, and while he was talking to him the man received a call from his daughter. “I trust that God is busy restoring the whole family,” he said.
“The cross makes an open door — people just see it and they see hope. A lot of people hoot as they pass,” he said.
“In Chronicles it says: ‘if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray …I will heal their land.’
“It is very, very humbling carrying the cross. I realised that this cross is heavy — in the sense of distance, in the sense of that we need strength: we need to be filled up with His love. It’s supernatural — He’s just done that.
“If people will humble themselves, He will heal the land. So I just see this as a mission of a trail of the blood of Jesus redeeming South Africa as we go.”
Anthony said the team needs backup in prayer and agreement, as they continue their mission. If you would like to contribute towards the daily expenses of the team you can do so at this page.
You can follow the team’s missionary journey on the Revelation Ministries Facebook page.
Watch: The start of the cross walk in Cape Town last Friday
This is indeed, death to self
It was a great honour for Ina, Warren, Debbie, Glynn and Gary from Mighty Men and Mighty Women of the Western Cape to have been part of the ‘seeing off group’ at Signal Hill. Other Mighty Men of the Western Cape have been helping along the way too including Jako, Raphael and Anthony in Worcester. Thanks to Anne and Brian at Sandringham Farm too. Amen! Love to all from Piperjames.