Brackenfell Seventh-day Adventist Church

History of the Brackenfell congregation

The first church service of the Brackenfell congregation was held on 4 February 1995 at the Members in Christ church building in Bellville and the congregation was officially organised on 20 May 1995 with Pastor Roelof Geldenhuys as pastor. Pastor Geldenhuys, together with Pastor Tinus Pretorius, held the first Revelation seminar at the Cape Rendezvous Hotel in Brackenfell.

For the next two years the congregation worshipped at the above mentioned rented premises. In 1998 the Cape Conference received funds from the Hands-across-the-World 13th Sabbath offering and Brackenfell was nominated to receive a portion of this offering. Under the leadership and motivation of Pastor John Evert the search for suitable premises for a church building began.

After many prayers and an intensive search, the occupant of the property at 23 Buitenkant Street, Mrs Slond, was approached for the second time with an offer to purchase, and it amazed everyone involved to learn that she was a Seventh-day Adventist! She eventually agreed to move and the transaction was finalised with her brother, who was the owner.

It was also later established that the original farm on which this property was situated, used to belong to the Billes family many years ago, who were well-known Adventists. It was obvious that the Lord had His hand over this property all these years in order for His church to become a shining light in Brackenfell.

The property consisted of an old house which was renovated and is now being used as a hall with Sabbath School facilities. An old garage had to be demolished to make space for the church building. Pastor Evert, his wife, sister Evelyn and every member of the original congregation put all their energy into the project, and with many earnest prayers, sacrifices, hard work and numerous events in which the Lord's guiding hand could be clearly seen, the church building was completed on 2 October 1998, exactly 52 days after the clearing of the building site commenced! The building was officially dedicated on 3 October 1998 by the then Cape Conference President, Pastor George Baxen.

Soon after completion of phase one, a fundraising campaign was launched and we were again fortunate to benefit from a grant by the South African Union Conference. Together with other donations and a lot of hard work from our members, phase two of our building project was completed. In 2002, by the Grace of our Heavenly Father, who still each day supplies our every need, a baptismal font with change rooms were added to our church building.

In 2002 a further enlargement was made to the church building.

We want to thank everyone sincerely who supported our building projects during the past few years. Without your help it would have taken so much longer.

Our congregation has 167 members (as of June 2020).

We especially wish to mention the following pastors who have served and guided our congregation at Brackenfell over the years: