KOOS (JACOBUS) BASSON
BIOGRAPHY:
The present IMD Africa ministry in Africa is a life-time preparation.
BACKGROUND:
Growing up in a Christian home, my father being an elder In the Dutch Reformed Church, gave us exposure to God’s Word from an early age. Catechism laid a thorough Biblical foundation and I grew up with a strong awareness of the Holy Spirit’s convicting work throughout my life. However, hypocrisy in the church and a series of unfortunate events found me angry with God and rejecting His overtures as a teenager and young adult.
At the age of 24 God finally caught up with me and finding myself in South Africa after leaving Zimbabwe in 1982, I became a committed Christian while I was a student at the mines. It was here that I was introduced to intercessory prayer, strong Biblical teaching and developed a love for both.
The burden for lost souls grew so strong that I left my employment in 1983 and joined Youth With a Mission in Namibia. Initially I only intended going for 6 months, but I ended up in YWAM for 11 ½ years. Through a process of discipleship and being taught in the school of the Spirit, the Lord developed me to the place in ministry I am today.
In YWAM, I completed a Discipleship Training School, School of Evangelism, Counselling School and School of Frontier Missions. All of these schools left me with the conviction that God wanted me to be involved in Disciple Making, the process of Church Planting and Leadership Development.
In the interim, I met my wife Jeni of 30 years, being students together at Youth With A Mission and was blessed with 2 children, Jessica and Shaun. My wife and I grew together in this process and have been involved in ministry for almost 35 years in total.
After Youth With a Mission, I moved to the Limpopo Province in South Africa in 1994 to join a Baptist mission, called Samaria Mission where I was involved in big tent Crusade Evangelism, Church construction and Discipleship in rural areas. Part of my mandate was to train church leaders in targeted villages in the Limpopo Province, as well as in Mozambique, across the border.
I believe in a ‘unique solution strategy’, and in Mozambique I implemented the Train & Multiply materials in 1997, initially with 12 leaders and by 2002, a total of 52 new churches were started by these leaders.
I also facilitated the translation of material into various languages in our targeted areas in Africa, so we were able to better equip leaders and give them tools to use in their disciple making and leadership strategies.
I gained ministerial recognition with the Baptist Union after competing studies at the Randburg Bible College in 2004.
CURRENT STATUS:
In September 2002 God led Phil Largent (IMD Intl) and I to join hands in reaching out into Southern and East Africa, and IMD Africa was born. The specific focus is to come alongside ‘faithful men’ (2 Tim 2:2), who need additional teaching, encouragement and resources to continue making disciples, planting churches and developing leaders and churches.
I currently live in Mokopane, South Africa, with my wife Jeni. Our children are now grown and working in Taiwan.
Because we believe in being involved in our Jerusalem, we became involved in the community and two local ministries were birthed.
Jerusalem:
Together with my wife, we started a small Christian School in Masodi Village, called Maruda Christian School. This is a primary school for lessor advantaged children, with a strong focus on discipleship from Gr R (pre-school) to Grade 7.
Recently, we have purchased a piece of land to start developing a Youth Adventure Camp for youth, Grade 8-12 from surrounding townships, in partnership with RaN Foundation (Raising a Nation)
Judea:
In partnership with a local Dutch Reformed church in Mookgopong and local pastors, I am facilitating a farm ministry, where we have a long term teaching/evangelistic outreach to farm workers.
Samaria & Uttermost Parts
My work in Zambia has mostly been in the Northern and Luapula Provinces. I systematically worked my way from Muwele, further north and east over 3 years, establishing churches and training leaders. This work has expanded to reach leaders in Congo. In the North West Kenya, my God’s grace, I identified ‘faithful men’ through conferences and have engaged two areas, where there are least reached people groups, Lake Baringo, and Mt. Elgon. This work has expanded into Uganda.
“My passion is to see people discipled and growing in their faith in terms of maturity and multiplication”.
2 Tim 2:2 “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also”.
