From David Seccombe
(Picture shows the main teaching centre of GWC and the Broughton Knox Library on the left)
Dear Team,
For some time I have been pondering how best Whitefield International Partners could be helping George Whitefield College. Since stepping down as Principal and handing over to Mark Dickson I have continued to be involved with the College in various ways. Most recently we incorporated Whitefield International Partners Ltd to simplify sending funds overseas. WIP is not limited to helping GWC, so we have also assisted a struggling theological college in Zimbabwe to develop its IT network to cope with Covid conditions, and a Bible College in Mauritius.
Training Christian leaders for Africa is a strategic priority. Churches are growing at a pace unequalled in the rest of the world. Global leadership this century will likely pass to Africa. Ensuring churches are Christ-centred and Bible-focused is the challenge. Africa is awash with liberalism and other heretical movements. GWC has found itself in a unique position to train pastors and Christian workers for Africa, and also to help future leaders and theological teachers.
I was recently given $24,000 and talked with GWC about how best we could help with current needs. I agreed with the Principal that assisting the library would help at a number of levels, so resolved on a project to raise $100,000 (1 million rands). I am writing to ask if you would help with this Library Development Project.
I arrived in Cape Town in 1993 and moved into the Principal’s Residence which Broughton and Ailsa Knox had just vacated. There was a double garage behind the house which housed the College Library. Dr Knox had left most of his own library to form the nucleus, and impressed on me in his usual visionary manner that I should aim for the best theological library in Africa. It seemed a far cry; the garage was damp and distant from the main college, so it was not much used by students. My first task was to move it to the main campus, and it started to grow.
When the College moved from Kalk Bay to Muizenberg the library was relocated to the top floor of the main college building, but we soon outgrew this, and started dreaming of a purpose-built facility. As the Muizenberg campus grew our first building project was the Broughton Knox Library, on the site of an old pub. Getting this to completion was a story in itself. Stephen Kratz caught the vision and gave the rest of his life to developing the library, until cystic fibrosis took him away.
Assistance from Theological Book Network in the USA moved the book collection forward, and the library, while not yet the best in Africa, is getting there. Students, postgrads, and researchers are coming from all over Africa, drawn in part by the excellent library facilities.
One of the challenges faced by the College now, is to keep the library up-to-date. Help from all-over has filled many of the gaps in older material, but keeping current with new books, journals, e-resources, and previously unobtainable older books is a big demand on the operating budget. Whitefield International Partners wants to make a significant contribution here to boost the quality of the library and to take pressure off the operating budget at the same time.
Would you help? Thanks to partnership with Trustbridge Global and its Australian partner, Entrust Foundation, donors in Australia are able to receive a tax-deduction. Trustbridge is a charity which helps other charities transfer money overseas. Its headquarters is in Atlanta Georgia USA. When I contacted them, I was surprised to receive a reply from an old St Matthew’s Shenton Park boy (now grown up). Gifts sent to Entrust will be receipted for taxation deduction purposes. Trustbridge Global looks after the distribution to South Africa.
Entrust retains a small percentage where a tax deduction is involved, to deal with the considerable compliance issues (I think it is 3%). Non tax-receipted donations go in full to GWC.
I do hope you will be able to help.
Yours in Christ’s service
David Seccombe
Entrust Foundation is a DGR1 charity able to issue tax receipts in Australia.