Rachel Kalidass — businesswoman with burden for national revival

The state of our nation has been a cause for concern for a long time. The high levels of unemployment, violence, crime, corruption and maladministration all indicate a nation in dire need of nothing less than a miracle.

For some people, the mounting challenges facing the nation, have become a call to serve their country beyond their career comfort zones. One of those rising to the challenge is Rachel Kalidass.

Rachel is a chartered accountant by profession. Over the years she has served as an audit committee and board member/non-executive director in multiple public sector departments and entities. While she maintained focus on her professional duties, exposure to the many issues of corruption, maladministration and general lack of leadership placed a burden on her to pray for the nation. 

What began as a personal cry to the Lord, birthed a deep sense of responsibility to do something further. “I knew that the challenges I was seeing in the various organisations required more than funding, but a change of people’s hearts. Something that only God can do,” she said.. 

She began by supporting a number of Christian prayer groups so that they could reach out to more people. “Every year, on my birthday, I would purchase at least 100 Bibles and give to different ministries with a prayer that the transforming power of the Bible would change someone’s life”.

However, as the years passed and she continued to be exposed to the depth of the challenges in the nation, Rachel began to feel more restless about the state of SA. Through a series of dreams, visions and prophetic words, she received “that in order for the nation to be healed, the people of God in the nation needed to repent and return to God”. A prophetic word by US prophetic author and speaker Jennifer Le Claire released on August 7 2020, calling South Africa to pray for revival, brought a confirmation. 

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)

The message became clear to her that the nation needed to be “awakened” through a National Day of Prayer and Repentance to be held at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.

It took a while for her to move or act on this big project which is planned for March 22

“I was overwhelmed by this [initiating the stadium prayer event] but I knew clearly this was a word from the Lord.”

The Lord used many things to confirm His word and in June-July last year gave her the words “It’s time” after which she began to speak to people about it. In her childlike faith and also not being a religious leader, Rachel began to reach out to everyone she felt could help. This experience eventually brought her to a place of shifting from relying of people to trusting in the Lord. 

As she spoke to many people about this national call to repentance and prayer, she discovered a history of revival that is, unfortunately, untold in the nation.  

Rachel found out that revival had broken out on March 21 1953 at Lijizweni, a village in the Eastern Cape where ordinary women used to gather to pray and repent for the sins in their community. No one could leave the place for days after the outbreak of revival. When people came to look for their family members they would be captivated by the presence of God, beginning to repent and pray.

A similar move of God took place in Sharpeville, after Dr P F Molefe, who had come to salvation after a life of thuggery in Marabastad, received a call to move to the Vaal to preach the Gospel and pray for revival. After years of labouring there, a miraculous visitation of God broke out on March 21 1954. During an interview in 2018, at the time of his 90^th birthday celebration, Dr Molefe told me how people were transformed by the presence of God during the 1954 revival. Thieves were convicted by God to bring their stolen goods to the church. People who were sick were healed and at some point the police didn’t have work because the fear of God brought order, peace and justice in the community. 

Years later, God stirred a businessman, Graeme Power, to organise an interdenominational prayer day on March 21 2001 at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town. This began a movement of prayer and established the Global Day of Prayer. One year, people gathered in 70 stadiums in over 200 nations to pray. Through this movement of prayer, Power also established Unashamedly Ethical to help deal with the cancer of corruption and greed in the marketplace. 

Again, shortly before the 2020 Covid lockdown, former Chief Justice Mogoeng ended his presentation of the judiciary’s Covid measures response with a call for the nation to pray. In response to that call, a small group gathered online to pray on March 25. That event birthed the Healing the Nation Prayer Movement which continues to raise prayers for the nation. 

Interestingly, in 2023, during the revival anniversary week, God brought a number of prominent Christian worship leaders to South between March 18 to 26. These uncoordinated visits included Victoria Orenze, Nathaniel Bassey, Dunsin Oyekan, Bethel Music, Joshua Aaron and Naomi Raine — an apparent confirmation that there is a portal of revival in the nation which draws people to seek God at this particular time.   

Learning about this history of revival led Rachel to understand that, indeed, God has a plan that is much bigger than she had thought. A number of leaders who have over the years been praying for revival in the nation have come alongside her to support her in prayer and to stand in faith with her in contending for revival in the nation. On January 11 a preparatory prayer meeting was held at FNB Stadium and the prayer movement was officially launched on January 22 at Sharpeville, where revival broke out 70 years ago. 

“God has an amazing way to confirm His word. My plan was to have the prayer [preparatory prayer event] at FNB Stadium the first weekend in January to start the year. But the stadium was only available the following weekend, 11^th January, which coincidently happened to be my birthday. God had previously given me a burden to sow 100 Bibles on my birthday each year. This year, on my birthday, I was with many other believers praying for 100 000 people to be part of the prayer for the reformation of the nation,” said Rachel.

Rachel and those around her are on a journey of faith, and anyone who is burdened to see God’s move in our nation is invited to come alongside this initiative. People can participate by prayer and fasting, giving and attending the upcoming, historic Awakening SA event on March 22. See participation options below:

How to join the prayer movement:  

• Give financially to the project at the banking details below:
  Awakening South Africa National Day of Prayer and Repentance
  Investec Private Bank
  Branch Code: 580105
  Account Number: 10011536636

• Join a weekly prayer campaign by registering here: https://forms.gle/ctjgAyovrqntLxiE6

• Mobilise your community to attend the March 22 prayer day at FNB Stadium

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