Les Hammond and Trulite Reformed Church

About Arthur Leslie Hammond
(1936-2012)
Reverend Arthur Leslie Hammond was one of South Africa’s very influential church leaders in the Indian community during and after the apartheid era. He was well known throughout South Africa as a great theologian with peculiar views regarding politics, church governance and Christian living. His powerful preaching and teaching regarding ones approach in dealing with the above made him a controversial figure amongst many Christian leaders of the time. Some ministers went as far as to refer to him as a Christian heretic.
Leslie Hammond refused to compromise with the worldly views regarding the scriptures and his Lord Jesus Christ, so much so that he had many more critics than friends. He emphasised the first and second commandments in his teaching all the time. The issue of idolising and worshipping family, work and money and neglecting the things of God, like the body of Christ (The Church) created much discomfort to his listeners even within his immediate family. It was a known fact that he questioned pastors in their fraternal meetings as to whether they were really born again!
Les always gave himself fully to anything he was tasked with. Being a man of integrity, his word was his bond, even if he promised a toddler something, he was sure to follow it through. These qualities made his pastor “friends” uncomfortable as it exposed their gross lack of integrity in their Christian living. He lovingly disciplined his pastor students and people in his congregation to develop themselves and become industrious and better citizens. His vast knowledge of electronics , mechanics, building, law, medicine, psychology, sociology, economics , politics and other subjects kept people of all age groups intrigued when in conversation with him. Nobody that knew him well called him “pastor”, he preferred that people call him uncle Les, even other pastors addressed him as “uncle”. At no time did uncle Les refuse to help anybody in trouble although he had his own serious issues at home to deal with. Often the very people that disliked him and slandered him would seek his help and advice when they were in serious trouble. People did not understand the suffering he had to endure in his home life and he did not expect them to. He was convinced that it was Gods way of keeping him humble and clinging to the Cross for dear life.
In the seventies he formed an organisation called SAFIM (South African Federation of Indian Ministers). His aim was to educate the churches with regards to the “rooi gevaar” (communism) and also empower the Indian ministers by uplifting their self esteem so that they would stop behaving like the White pastors boy(slave)and not continue with the “yes baas” mentality. Many pastors during the apartheid era were under the supervision of white pastors who knew far less than he did yet the colour of their skin totally intimidated the Indian ministers. To this day some ministers try to speak with a white accent because they feel inferior being themselves...how sad. One day the special branch (crime intelligence of the time) picked him up for questioning but found him to be quite interesting to talk to and let him off.
Business houses saw the other side of this Indian pastor when they tried to rip off poor and ignorant customers. He fought with big white owned businesses until they satisfied the customer concerned. His confidence in having everything in black and white won him many a fight. This caused Les to form another organisation called the “Watch Dog for the Under Dog.” To his surprise white people were contacting him for assistance. He eventually handed the reins of the organisation over to some white ladies that were keen to take over because the load was too much for him to handle amongst the other things he was involved with let alone the running of the Trulite Reformed Church.
Church, to him was the most important because it was the bride of Christ. He could not understand how other pastors were not concerned of their grave calling to prepare the church as a pure and true virgin to the bridegroom on his arrival. His love and devotion to his flock was second to none. He gave his all to Trulite Reformed Church. Les taught that the church was not the building but the people of Lord that was called church and he Loved his church, every one of them especially those that needed tender loving and caring after falling into sin. Sin never had a chance to crush anybody whilst they were in his flock. In the late eighties he added a caption to the church name which read Trulite Reformed Church.....”A HOME FOR SINNERS”. He often told people that he was a sinner like them so that they would stop their futile efforts in wanting to be perfect before they experienced Gods saving Grace. “Live your depravity,” he would say, “are you perfect.... or depraved in need of a loving saviour?” This made him more of a heretic amongst the less informed. Many that were in Trulite enjoyed the presence of God in their lives and many a broken life was restored to a life of hope and purpose.
The Rev, as some called him, constantly probed his flock for evidence of Christ’s true brotherly love amongst themselves; as any good shepherd knows when love goes, God goes ! After much talking to his Master he sadly closed the Chatsworth branch down and had combined services at the Merebank branch.Eventually all the members of the Chatsworth brancn left Trulite;it was a sad time for all at Trulite. The closing down of Trulite Shanthi, a church that consisted of mostly affluent people, bewildered many pastors! The congregation in Merebank was small and he referred to it as “my little flock!” His standards were high and those that wanted to remain in the “gutter” and maintain “ghetto” mentalities found it very difficult to sit under his ministry. He always in frustration asked of a hopeless, grumbling, poverty stricken Christian “you claim you are saved......saved from what?” The Hindus and Muslims seem to have good gods that care for them where is your God? He would often blurt out, “Don’t say you are saved when the devil has you in his clutches, you disgrace my God” and then would love them in a very practical way. When he walked into a house and the people asked him to pray because they were destitute he would respond “you prayed already, didn’t you?... I am the answer” and he would take out his wallet, but never pray.
Religion and religious people grated on his nerves. He felt that the more religious a person got the more mean and cruel they became, just like the Pharisees. He was convinced from the scriptures and his own life’s experience that the religious self righteous people exhibited great potential for persecuting the true church and continually accusing the brethren. He, out of the blue would ask his son to hold his hand and pray for him but would get so frustrated when others wanted to pray for him during his grave illness, he used to tell his son that he was too tired to entertain their religiosity! One day Dolly an ex member of Trulite came to visit him and on her own tidied up his room and folded the clothes etc. He never forgot that and compared her to the religious that make themselves a nuisance instead of folding up their sleeves and being like Christ. He even told the religious to go and commit some kind of sin in order to feel what God’s forgiveness was like. Les was never afraid to preach the unadulterated word of God. At times he would tell people to take their tithes and go and join another church where they could just clock in and out without accountability.


People who do not function for God will be used by the devil and he tried to create something for everybody in church to do. Those that isolated themselves from such loving discipline are sadly reaping their harvest of thorns today. The others are shining stars wherever they are. They are the salt of the earth and the lights of the world radiating the glory of Christ to their unbelieving colleagues by what they DO! Trulite was pushed to do. Les Hammond often echoed the words of St. Francis of Assisi “By all means we must preach the gospel often, and sometimes use words in so doing .”
Rev. Hammond foresaw that the current government would not be able to deliver the basic services that we were accustomed to pre 1994.He explained the history of Africa and about the corruption that held Africa captive, and that we too will also fall prey to this kind of corruption that destroys the infrastructure of a well governed country. He encouraged Christians to vote for a multi party government in 1994 to balance the power at national level to keep corruption under control. His catch phrase was “vote with your brain and not your heart!” That too created waves amongst church leaders who were pro ANC but Les also a victim of apartheid, knew that Africa’s history could not be reversed and that South Africa would not be any different. Today we are testimonies to the accuracy of his analysis. Being the pragmatist that he was, he encouraged his people to live in harmony with other race groups and to uplift the disadvantaged and stop complaining about the corruption and the stealing going on in government. His recipe for success in the new South Africa for minority groups was “become your own capitalist!”
He openly taught this from the pulpit and held special skills development classes for his congregation .Many people under his care were motivated to study and become independent. Young people who came in from poor backgrounds became skilled artisans and professionals due to his motivation and positive attitude toward the new South Africa. He believed Jesus liberated His children from poverty and dependency when He made them obey God’s natural laws of sowing and reaping. “Pay back time begins around 50years” he reminded his listeners, sow seeds of laziness and disobedience and you will reap its produce at around 50.His favourite line for the arrogant, “time will tell” always proved to be true. Rev. Hammond insisted that his people take the Bible literally; at times he said “if your Jesus that you are so faithful to fails you, put a banner outside your house stating Jesus failed me!” and would then conclude with “I’ve yet to see the faithful forsaken!”
His teachings seemed to really rub people up the wrong way because his mind was so absorbed in the things of God that he was able to unwrap the mysteries regarding grace, the promised abundant life and death from the scriptures unlike the average pastor who merely scratched the surface of these hidden treasures. He believed that Christians who feared death had a serious salvation problem, every born again child of God should be looking forward to being with their Father, that was the unique hope only the Christian possessed in this world of grief and hopelessness. He proved the reality of this hope to many whilst he lay on his bed battling to breathe for most of 2011 and by completing his second book “Suffering & Imperfection.” Even in his writing he did not conform to the norms and traditional writing styles but wrote as in a conversation with the reader. This tends to make the reader feel as if they knew him personally and leaves them surrounded by an aura of love and a burning desire for that life of abundance which Les possessed and invites the reader not to miss out on. His book “South African Indians Today” is really difficult to put down once you begin reading and will elevate you to a level of hope that very few people are aware of.
On the 2 May 2012 at 05h30 Les passed away in his son’s arms at home as his son sang, with tears flowing down his eyes, Les’s favourite hymn “My Jesus I Love Thee I Know Thou Art Mine.” He now joyfully resides in his exciting heavenly home with his LOVER of sinners where there is no sin, pain, tears, suffering, slandering and grief!
Love you Daddy !
Maranatha!!! 9/11/2013