More than 1 500 International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) graduates assembled at the church’s Jerusalem branch in North West on June 16 to celebrate the academic qualifications they obtained from various institutions of higher learning.
Some of the graduates, who hail from poor families, were financially assisted by the church to realize their academic dreams.
The celebration, organized by church leader Michael Sandlana, comes after he officiated at the weddings of more than 800 congregants on April 9.
This year’s numbers of the nuptial and graduation ceremonies have broken all the records dating back to 1962.
In his keynote address Sandlana, who is the eldest son of the late Glayton Modise, heaped praises on the couples who got hitched and implored them to respect the institution of marriage and their partners while enjoying marital bliss.
Sandlana encouraged his congregants to continue to educate themselves but not be boastful and arrogant.
“We must continue to educate ourselves but that does not mean that we must be arrogant and despise those who are below our stations. Even though we are educated, we must continue to be guided by the word of God,” Sandlana said.
“I repeat this because I know that my predecessors have taught you this before.”
He also called upon his congregants to be good examples in their communities and to the next generation, that education is the mother of success.
“We must never be egotistical and boastful about our achievements,” he said, much to the thunderous applause from the congregants.
Sandlana, who stayed in Angola for 18 years as a trained Umkhonto We Sizwe combatant, returned to South Africa when the ANC was unbanned and started working with his late father to grow the church.
While in exile, the late clergyman would visit him in a bid to convince him to quit politics and focus on growing the church.
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