After becoming a Christian at age 19 in November 1962 in Cape Town, I felt a distinct calling to Full Time work. On advice from Nico Bougas I enrolled at BI and attended there 1964 to 1966. The thorough grounding in the Bible I received there has seen me through almost 50 years of service by teaching me to love the Word and study it daily. What I learned from the lives of my fellow students and the staff also played a big part in my life during those three years of training,

After graduating I took up a position as an Evangelist to youth with Youth For Christ in East London and the Border area (as it was then known). I was there for six years from 1967 to 1972. In ’72 two events took place which changed the course of my life. I met Wendy Milne, my future wife and I went to Munich in Germany to take part in an evangelistic outreach to the millions who attended the Olympic Games held there that year. The vision for the YFC, Y-ONE programme was conceived at this outreach.

In 1973 I was the leader and the preacher of the YFC team, ‘The Power and Light Revolution’ which toured SA and Rhodesia for six months sharing the gospel via Music, Drama, Literature Distribution, Testimonies and Preaching. Wendy was part of the group. We also recruited for the Y-One programme for ’74. In 1974 90 young people were trained under the Y-One programme and worked throughout SA, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia.

Wendy and I were married on in May 1976 and we continued with Y-One until the end of 1984 when we resigned from YFC and pioneered an outreach to children of farm workers in the Maanhaarrand area near Rustenburg/Magaliesburg. The heart of this work is Dayspring Children’s Village consisting of a school with weekday boarding facilities and a home for Aids orphans. We lived and worked on the Campus for a number of years and are now serving on the Board.

We have been blessed with six children, 3 boys and 3 girls who also attended Dayspring School under their mother’s tutelage. We have many, many more who refer to us and their parents. Their children now call us Grandpa and Nandi. What a privilege is ours.

We were called to pastor the Vanderbijlpark Baptist church in late 2009 and finally ‘retired’ end of 2014. During that time we were involved in training pastors from the surrounding townships of Sharpeville, Orange Farm, Evaton, Sebokeng and Bophelong. We are still in Vanderbijlpark vdbp and spend our time writing (have just submitted a manuscript to CUM), counselling and preaching wherever doors open.

Well, love to you all.    Looking forward to October 2016 and seeing you there.

Charles Paine