About Us

Malcolm Smith was born in London, England just as Europe was plunged into World War two. He came to faith in Jesus Christ in his early teens and experienced a fullness of the Spirit almost immediately that was to change and redirect his life forever. He began to preach at age fourteen and has over the last decades preached throughout the world. Malcolm Smith is not an evangelist but as he often describes himself, is an evangelist to the evangelized, teaching believers who they are in Christ, the beloved of God and His dwelling place through the Spirit. From the beginning he had a passion to know how the earliest church understood the Gospel as they changed the face of civilization with their message. He soon realized that the focal point of the Gospel was the covenant love of God cascading into creation through Jesus Christ. But more than doctrine, his passion was to discover the way in which the message of God’s covenant love worked out in our every day lives and the work place. How do we love one another as He has loved us? He was pastor of a church in New York City where all that he was beginning to understand was put to the test of the broken lives that fill the streets of that city. It was during that time that he found himself traveling through the U.S. as a teacher and leader of the emerging renewal of the Spirit throughout all denominations in the 60′s and 70′s. These travels extended to almost every continent. He now resides in Bandera, Texas and conducts retreats and a non-residential Bible School. He also travels throughout the U.S. conducting retreats and meetings in churches and organizations of all denominations.

Lydia and Francois met on the 25th of August 1974, while he was working with Youth for Christ. She was sixteen and he, nineteen. The following year he studied Greek and Hebrew at the University of Pretoria for three years while Lydia completed her schooling then completed her nursing training in 1978. In 1978 Francois also spent a year with YWAM. They married in January 1979 and are blessed with four amazing children, Renaldo, Tehilla, Christo and Stefan. (They now have 5 grandchildren! 2024) They pioneered and worked in full-time mission for fourteen years, during which time they also pastored a church and led a training facility for more than 700 students over a five-year period. During this time Francois translated several of the Pauline Epistles [The Ruach Translation], which were never published; although printed along with other booklets he wrote and distributed amongst their students. They then left the ministry and for ten years did business mainly in the tourism industry. They built and managed a Safari Lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve and eventually relocated to Hermanus where they started Southern Right Charters boat-based whale watching.

John Land, a San Francisco Bay Area native and baby boomer, served four years as a medical specialist in the USAF. After serving in Japan, he returned to a transformed San Francisco, captivated by the psychedelic hippie counterculture. Immersed in the movement, he explored Buddhism, eastern mysticism, and the use of psychedelics for spiritual enlightenment, inspired by Timothy Leary's philosophy. Years later, John discovered that the love of God was the answer he had been seeking. With his wife Lois, he has dedicated over 40 years to serving the needy through their non-profit, Christian Outreach Resource Endeavor (CORE), providing essential aid in Baja, Mexico, and Lebanon to war-torn Syrian refugees. John is currently writing his memoir, offering a firsthand account of his journey, shedding light on a generation's pursuit of meaning and the profound impact of unconditional love.