Testimony inspires at Men’s Association event
IN the absence of the speaker on Saturday morning, the Christian Men’s Association (CMA) breakfast turned out to be no less interesting, as pastor Mervyn Comley gave his own very personal testament regarding his relationship with God.
Organiser Leon Coetzee said that in the 31 years the CMA has been in operation, this was the first time he knew of that the speaker had not arrived.
As an alternative, he proposed a round-table type meeting for the small group of Christians who had braved the frigid morning air to be at the Celebration Centre by 7.30am. When he suggested Comley recount his experiences with God, he readily agreed and continued as though it were scripted.
“It was in 1962 that the Lord first spoke to me,” he began. “I lived in a small village of only 25 houses, but there were four churches – two Methodist, one NGK and the other a Congregational church.
“I slipped into the church during a Pentecostal service. It was full with only 30 people, so I found a seat and sat down although I wasn’t really listening to the service. Suddenly there was a voice – God certainly moves in mysterious ways – which said to me, ‘I want to use you’. It was not a command, more of a request or a warning that my life was going to change,” he said.
Comley said that he called the minister a few days later and told him: “I don’t know what to do. He told me, and that was the first time I preached in front of a congregation”.
Comley said he had an urge he needed to be baptised. “The Methodist minister said he couldn’t perform a baptism, but that it was the Holy Spirit talking to me.”
Although he was now filled with the Holy Spirit, his marriage was deteriorating to a point that, after 20 years, he and his then wife decided to get divorced.
“It was neither of our faults, there was no infidelity, but we just decided it would be better if we were no longer married. At that point I went completely off the rails,” he confessed.
“One night, lying on my bed, having had a few dops, I prayed to the Lord. ‘Lord, I need to get out of this’. I was sitting when, all of a sudden, I felt a big hand on my stomach. I can’t tell you how sick I was. It felt like the Lord was holding me upside down and shaking me. I then had a shower and, the next morning, I was a different man.”
Comley decided he needed a lorry and a piece of land and asked God for assistance. “I needed R800 000 for the farm in order to purchase a piece of land and a lorry,” he said.
He told agents in the area the money he required for his farm. “They all laughed at me,” he related. “They said I would get R300 000 maximum. However, the next day a person came and inspected the property and purchased it for the amount I asked for.”
He continued, “Other things began to happen. After selling the farm I purchased a house in Port Alfred.”
Now, he needed a piece of land. Comley found what he was looking for, but the agents said the current owner would not sell. They told him another man had made an offer, and said he would pay anything to own the farm, and that had been rejected.”
Nevertheless, Comley’s offer of R60 000 was accepted.
“A person should never brag about what they have achieved because, in an instant, it can all be taken away. It is not by hard work that we have what we have, but by the grace of God,” Comley said.
“I do not need any further proof that God looks after us.”