I Bought a Library Today

Many years ago, I had a dream that I was in a beautiful library similar to the ones in England. I was walking with books in my hand, and there were shelves of books all around and people ascending and descending stairs. I spoke to our friends in the UK and told them about it and they said that old country estates could be bought and repurposed for such a venture. Today, I bought a library! Anemarie Wever contacted me last week and said that I should come quickly if I wanted to salvage books from the old Cape Theological Seminary library. She and her husband Tjutte, sell books online and have been trading in rare books for years. They had always shared wonderful literature with us as a family and a church, we have well stocked libraries at home already containing spiritual works and classic literature. My dad and mom never miss an opportunity to obtain valuable reading material, so I took them with me. When we arrived we drove around the facility that is preparing for demolition. A sadness came upon me that such a functional Seminary with classrooms, auditoriums, accommodation for hundreds of students should be laid waste. It would have been a facility of our dreams because we are often turning away students who wish to stay in Cape Town for lack of facilities. Walking through the courtyards where so many have been trained and equipped since the mid twentieth century, where foundations had been laid in lives who were sent off on their missions across this continent, you could almost imagine a bustling heyday of activity in the golden years of this former bastion of Theology in the Cape. Oxford has always been a favourite place to visit when in the UK. Last time I went there I visited the Bodleian library and loved it so much I relived that old dream about our own estate library. There are twelve million books in all the libraries of Oxford and people from around the world can apply to ‘read’ there. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to host a library of spiritual books that people can com e to read from the four corners of the earth? As we pack box loads of books into our car that we had bought at salvage prices, we also packed in a book by Saint Francis of Assisi. He writes: “And I act thus because I see nothing with the eyes of the body in this world of the most high Son of God except the body and blood which they receive and administer to others. I wish that these exalted mysteries be honoured, venerated, and maintained in precious places. Anytime that I have found the holy names or the sacred writings in the indecorous places, I have wished to gather them in decent places, and I wish that others will also do the same. Thus we should honour and venerate all theologians and others who dispense the Word of God as those who give spirit and life.” He had such respect for his persecutors and tried to see Christ in them and honour them for ‘dispensing the word.’ The fact that I found his book and saved it from the dump resonated with me. A king who did the same was Josiah in the Bible: 2Ch 35:4 Prepare yourselves according to your fathers' houses, according to your divisions, following the written instruction of David king of Israel and the written instruction of Solomon his son. Here Josiah reinstituted the Passover and reformed his nation. 2Ch 35:2 And he set the priests in their duties and encouraged them for the service of the house of the LORD. An interesting implementation of reform is following written instructions of successive generations of reformers! I have had the privilege of working with my father in reformation. He has written many instructions on reform based on the revelation of God’s genius seen in the living Church of Jesus Christ. I have continued to write many instructions too! Those who keep it will continue a succession of reforms in the church that will finally usher back the Lord Jesus for His pure and spotless Bride. Keeping those instructions on a cloud and in hard copies, carefully and lovingly filed over several decades of work and missions, has become a passion of mine. The library at the Seminary had about 25 book shelves made to library specifications and divided into classification of the integrated catalogue library system. We made an offer to the demolition company on site and purchased as many shelves as were left standing! Praise the Lord we bought a library! When it is ready, we invite you to visit the Pelser Library Wing of our new facility at Burgundy Estate in His will and for His glory!