Born on the 4th of July, 1976

Why did you come to America?

People ask me this question often, and my answer never changes: the Lord brought me. But the story behind that answer spans fifty years.

On the 4th of July 1976, I stood at the feet of Lady Liberty as a 19-year-old South African sailor, sent aboard a warship to represent my country at America’s Bicentennial. I did not know the Lord then. I only knew that standing on Ellis Island, where millions had arrived seeking freedom, something gripped me that I could not explain. Looking across the water at Manhattan, I was overwhelmed by a sense of destiny far too big for a young sailor to understand. All I knew was that I would be back.

Twelve years later, after I had come to know the Lord, the word came: “I have spoken to you at the gateway of that nation, and I will take you back there, and you will reveal my glory to my people.” The person who spoke it had no idea what it meant. I did. The floodgates of memory opened to that day at the gateway of America.

So why did I come? I did not choose America. The Lord chose it for me before I ever knew Him. That was fifty years ago, on the 4th of July 2026.

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The Defining Moment:

Today is the 4th of July 2026; I am remembering how the Lord’s predetermination has worked in my life. It was exactly 50 years ago today that I celebrated the Bicentennial in New York.
The year was 1976, and that’s when my life changed completely, even though I was not aware of it until much later. I am totally overwhelmed by how the Lord planned and executed His will for me to be here in America at this precise time.

Some may say, What do you mean?

Well, let me begin at the beginning. For me, it began in June 1976, when I was suddenly drafted aboard one of our warships, with orders to travel abroad to participate in the 200th anniversary of America’s independence, known as the Bicentennial.

South Africa at this stage was in the grips of a full-scale border war and was experiencing tremendous rejection from world powers. These were troubled times for South Africa, and relations between America and us were at an all-time low.

We sailed out of Simonstown Naval Base on the Western Cape coast on June 3, 1976, on an expedition that would set the course for my life, even though I did not know it then. We sailed from Cape Town to Walvis Bay, then to Abidjan in Ivory Coast, where we refueled. We then crossed the Atlantic and stopped midway to visit Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. We docked in Las Palmas for 3 days before proceeding to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.

We spent a week in Norfolk while we waited for the fleet of 53 vessels from 22 countries to sail to New York Harbor, where the full Naval Review took place on the 4th of July, 1976.

Many tall ships sailed into the harbor. It felt like being in a parade of sailing ships; the harbor was full of small vessels, with horns sounding and sails flapping. Then they sailed by majestically, with sailors in the rigging and ship’s bells ringing.

Once the tall ships sailed by, we all docked in New York Harbor. Liberty was granted to all sailors; you can imagine free travel and free everything in New York for a solid week. Everyone went crazy.

Later that afternoon on the 4th of July 1976, some of my crewmates and I toured Ellis Island. We spent the afternoon into the early evening visiting “Lady Liberty” and then waited for the fireworks display in the harbor that evening. It was beautiful to be there, seeing the broken chains on her feet signifying “Freedom,” and I was overwhelmed by a sense of destiny.

I looked over the Hudson River at Manhattan and was overcome with awe; it was very difficult to explain what I felt and how, at the age of 19, I could even understand it. All I knew was that I would be back here one day!

We stayed aboard the ship in New York Harbor, and on July 6, 1976, we paraded through the streets of New York as a farewell. But I knew this wasn’t goodbye, just au revoir! We then sailed to Charleston, SC (my city), spent a week at Naval Station Charleston, and visited the beautiful city where the first shot of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) was fired.

I felt a real bond with this city and its history, and I formed a close bond with it as well. We sailed from Charleston, SC, to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria Islands, and back home, where we sailed into Simon’s Town on August 6, 1976, to a warm welcome from our country.

For me, something was lost when I returned home, and I could never quite explain it.

In 1985, I encountered the Lord and was saved, and once again I had that sense of hope and destiny restored. I heard that the Lord had called me to be a Prophet to the nations. I did not understand what that meant at the time, but I was delighted.

On many occasions in our church, prophetic people would come through and call me up to prophecy, that I was called to the nations and that I would sound the trumpet. Eventually, in 1988, the word of the Lord came: “I have spoken to you at the gateway of that nation, and I will take you back there, and you will reveal my glory to my people.”

It then began to make sense to me. The person who spoke the word over me had no clue what it meant. But the floodgates of my memory opened to that day on the 4th of July 1976, when I stood at the foot of “Lady Liberty,” overwhelmed and deeply connected to destiny. That day, I stood at the gateway to America, on the very island where so many immigrants had stood years before, seeking freedom from tyranny. New York is the historical gateway to America!

The confirmations that preceded that time were amazing; from every corner, people would come and say, “You are going to America!” Someone felt prompted to give me a CD of trumpet music by Phil Driscoll, even without knowing what had been said.

For me, even then, it was so exciting to realize that all those years ago the Lord had a plan for me, even though I never knew Him – He had a calling and a purpose for me. It felt as though I was born on the 4th of July 1976 – the day God first spoke to me, even though I didn’t know Him.

2 Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”.

~ SELAH

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