History of South Auckland Bible Church
Before SABC was formed, we were known as Otara MEF and we met for services in a little house, (Little House on the Prairie), which was owned by Esley Forest (Draftsman), situated on the corner of East Tamaki Rd, and the Otara Southern Motorway on-ramp.
This is where Wendy’s Restaurant is now.
1. 1979 – 10th Oct, SABC began, they came out of Otara MEF.
Services were held at Te Puke Otara Hall and then to Rongomai Primary School in the hall.
2. 1980 – purchased the church building for $2,000 form Howick Apostolic Church.
The 29 wooden forms were purchased for an extra $200.
3. The cost to move the building from Howick to East Tamaki was initially supposed to cost $4,500. The council wouldn’t allow the building into the area because of all the fibrolite that was on it, so the building was moved twice, costing in totatl $9,000.
4. The building was moved to Keith Hay’s yard in East Tamaki, and the moving company was Rod Hanes from Hanes House Holdage.
5. The building sat in two halves for a number of months in Keith Hay’s yard. It sat through the winter months, exposed to the weather.
6. The vacant plot of land on the corner of Rapson and Flatbush Rds, was owned by the Crown. SABC leased the land for 11 yrs which was its’ 1st term lease, with the right of renewal.
7. When it came to the time of moving the building, the bricks had to be taken off the front of the building, and they were placed underground, under the front,pavement, to build up the land leading into the front door.
8. The preparation for the building was done on the vacant lot of land and the holes were dug for the piles.
9. The building was moved to the site, in two halves, it stood on piles until all preparation work was completed.
10.When the time came to put join the two halves together, it would not join properly.
Months of being exposed to the elements, and in two halves had warped the building.
As a result, when it was put back together, the building was plagued with many leaks for years afterwards.
11. It was a difficult task to get the building up to council approval, in order to use the building. The finances had been drained, there were delays in maintenance, and the building was still unfit to use.
12. The church was so much in debt that 6 families, each gave $500 to help pay the debt.
13. The first families that formed SABC were the Martins, Sinclairs, Katenes, Joyces and the Edmonds (Danfords).
14.The first pastor of SABC was Jim Martin. He and his family were very active in the church, in the various ministries.
15. By about 1982-1983, SABC needed some help with preaching and teaching, so Myron Mattocks was asked if they would be able to assist in this area. This was the beginning of SABC’s association and partnership with BMW.
16. We had the help of Bob Ensminger (who pastured for a time), Myron Mattocks and co, ( would drive an hr or so to help with teaching etc.), Ted Cripe, (who pastored for a time) and Terry Zolman.
17.There after, Jack and Bev McMahan and family came to pastor the work in South Auckland.
- SABC put together a constitution which was accepted by ?, and charter members were accepted on October 14th, 1990.
- One memory that Kay Cripe had, was that there has been so much work gone into fixing up the building so that it is honouring to the Lord.
- She was remembering when there were rats and mice running around while Ted was preaching.
- Another recollection was when the ladies were having a Bible study in the kitchen, which had a hole in the floor. While Kay was teaching, she noticed that a rat stuck its’ head up through the floor and just about gave her a heart attack.
