The Reverend John Simons

My Testimony - "Powerful Moments of Forgiveness"

At the cross we find God's forgiveness

After 27 years as a regular churchgoer in Capetown, South Africa, the penny finally dropped for John Simons. And he wasn’t alone.

“In our hearts, the Lord was revealing to us that we were living a lie as professing Christians,” says the newly appointed national director of Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) in Australia.

“Humanly, we did seem justified in hating the White Government’s apartheid policy.

I mean, how would you like to live in segregated areas as a second-class citizen in a constant environment of oppression?

But the Lord revealed to us that our hatreds and resentments had to be repented of if ever we were to witness reconciliation and a spiritual awakening in South Africa.

We had to learn to forgive our enemies – just as Jesus did on the Cross.

So we followed Jesus’ example of forgiveness and love and this led to a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, spearheaded by Africa Enterprise. This move of the Spirit touched both blacks and whites.

The Bible verse the Lord had me focus on during this historic time of reconciliation was 2 Chronicles 7:14:

‘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.

God’s promises of forgiveness and healing contained in this verse were fulfilled, as the entire world witnessed. The blacks gained independence, Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa and we learned a powerful lesson about ‘hate the politics but never hate the person.’

All South Africans, including myself, gained freedom but I still had much negative baggage to deal with in my Christian walk.  You see, I had been a very successful businessman – the first person of colour to join the national sales advisory service in Capetown, the highest rank a sales consultant can achieve. But because of a fear of rejection I only worked within in my own ethnic group; and it took about a year for the Lord to eradicate this negative attitude.

 Between 1993 and 1998, I returned to South Africa to be part of healing/reconciliation ministry within the church. Today, Mildred and I continue our involvement in SOMA and Healing Ministry, where we share Stephen’s great example of forgiveness. As he was being stoned for his faith, he said ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’  (Acts 7:60)”