:: Go and Proclaim Ministries - Who We Are, What We Do. ::

Who We Are, What We Do.

A bit of history about Uitenhage.

Uitenhage is situated in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, and a “stone throw” from the port City of Port Elizabeth. Uitenhage was founded in the early 1800’s. It was the second town to be founded in the province after Graaff Reinet. Those days it was common for the Government of the day, at that time it was the Dutch, to establish a Landdrost wherever people settled in communities. The purpose of the Laddrost was to act as the seat of Government and to see that everyone more or less behaves as the authorities expected from good citizens of that time. The original Lannddrost building is still very much intact and has been, like all Drostdy’s, turned into a museum, which very few people visit. It took a long time for all the paperwork to be sorted out but eventually Uitenhage became a municipality in 1877. Today it is part of the Nelson Mandela Metropole.

But why did people settled in Uitenhage those years? Firstly there was an ample supply of fresh water and there was enough land around for people to settle and make a living of the land. But Uitenhage never became a model farming community as many of the towns in the Karoo that were established more or less at the same time. It become an industrial city with the first industry being a wool washery. Farmers from the karoo, were sheep flourished, were sending wagon loads of wool to Uitenhage to be washed and processed for export. Other industries soon followed with the Railways becoming the main role player in the town for many years. Uitenhage became famous for its railway workshops and the excellent tradesmen it produced. Today the skeleton of the original workshop buildings still exist as a reminder about days gone by. The legacy nevertheless never died and today Uitenhage is still the home of many industries like Volkswagen SA, Goodyear SA and many others.

To really appreciate Uitenhage a person must become to know it’s residents. On the website there is lots of information about all the activities that is taking place right now, and all the good people, and all the good things that is happening. Although many residents will deny it, Uitenhage still is, a place of hope!

A bit of history about us.
Over the past eleven years GAP ministries has evolved through different phases to what it is today. After being stirred by God to move to the Eastern Cape, and with a burden for missions work, God divinely connected us with a group of people with a similar vision and interest. This led to the establishment of the Exodus Centre about 9 years ago, which was instrumental in presenting the Love Southern Africa ‘99 conference, of which we were very much a part. The vision of the Exodus Centre was to mobilize the Church to get involved in world missions but also with the needs of our local communities. Over the years most of the people involved in the Exodus Centre left Uitenhage, basically leaving us on our own. After much prayer, our calling to the area was confirmed once again, and about four years ago we established “GAP Ministries” which functions independently of other ministries but with the full backing of our local church, the Dutch Reformed Church, Uitenhage North.
Where do you find us?
The demographics of Uitenhage are reminiscent of most South African towns and cities with a well built up Centre and neighborhoods with sprawling townships surrounding it. Fortunately Uitenhage is surrounded by the typical natural beauty of the province with many mountain ranges in close proximity. Some of the most inaccessible wilderness areas in South Africa are just a stone’s throw from here. So if you do get tired of the noise and bland appearance of factory facades you can easily escape by taking a drive into the bush, or to the beach, which is also not too far away. (Groendal Wildernis Area)

What do we do?
Moving from an initial focus of mobilizing Christians for missions, we gradually became more involved in mobilizing Christians to take ownership of their city, province and country; to adopt a transformed lifestyle based on prayer and to see Gods’ Kingdom established in our city. This focus led us to start networking with many other ministries with a similar vision. These are listed on our links page. In between, we never relinquished our passion for involvement with the needs in our local communities that led to our participation in many local and international outreaches. Our vision is: “To establish Gods Kingdom through prayer, evangelism and social action”. Our mission is to share the love of Christ through, prayer, evangelism, mobilization and transformation, not necessarily in this order.
Activities include the following: Prayer - Coordination of the local Prayer Network, facilitation of 24 prayer watches, implementation of national and international prayer initiatives like the Global day of Prayer and the mobilization of individuals and churches for prayer. Evangelism - Sharing the Love of Christ through outreaches like the Gospel Taxi Club, open air and tent evangelism in the townships and prayer evangelism in our local community. Community Outreach. Mobilization of Churches. Transformation of Communities through community development projects.
How are we governed?
GAP ministries is a trust that is managed by the trustees. The founder of the trust was Johan van Wyk, Pierre’s dad who realized the need for formalizing what we were doing and prompted us to jointly form the Go and Proclaim Trust 5 years ago. The trust is subjected to the requirements as laid out by government for operating a trust of this kind. The minutes of our last annual general meeting as well as the financial statements of the past financial year are available upon request. Due to the unique and demanding requirements of a ministry ,our church leadership require all full time missionaries to have, what we call, a sending cell or, in other words, a support group. Together with them we meet on a regular basis to pray, to strategize and to cry and laugh together. They serve as an accountability structure together with the senior leadership of our church.
How are we funded?
The Go and Proclaim Trust that serves as the operating mechanism for our personal as well as ministry expenses. The trust is financially supported by individuals and churches.
Our ministry networks:
We network with the following Ministries and Churches: - Jericho Walls International Prayer Network - Transformation Christian Network (Nelson Mandela Metropole) - Harvest Evangelism Africa - Uitenhage Ministers Fraternal - Dutch Reformed Church Uitenhage North (Our member church) Get more information about The Uitenhage Ministers Fraternal here

Where can you reach us? Postal Address: Pierre, Sugnet, Pieter and Eldi van Wyk GAP Ministries, PO Box 1305, Uitenhage, South Africa, 6230 Tel No (h): +27419228308 Tel No (0): +27419228708 Cell No: +27833703592 E-Mail: outreach@global.co.za Please sign our guestbook or give us feedback!
Recent Artwork by Sugnet


Please contact Sugnet at outreach@global.co.za for more information on her artwork.