Founder and Apologist
Lwandiso Dlokweni
Biography and published workPastor, apologist and Christian speaker helping African Christians engage the questions of their context with biblical clarity.
About the founder
Serving the church through preaching and apologetics
Lwandiso Dlokweni is the founder and apologist of Bisrat Apologetics and the pastor of REACH East London. Based in East London, South Africa, he is completing his Master’s studies at George Whitefield College.
He is a principal contributor to Christward Apologetics and Christward for Africa, producing accessible Christian content that answers African theological, religious and cultural questions from the Bible.
Lwandiso preaches, teaches and travels to speak at churches, conferences and ministry gatherings. He is married to Chantelle, and they are the parents of two daughters.
Lwandiso’s testimony
From the wide road to gospel ministry
The grace that changed his own life became the reason he wanted young people to encounter Christ—and eventually led to Bisrat Apologetics.
Lwandiso comes from three generations of committed church involvement. His grandfather served faithfully as a layman, while his father became an ordained minister in the Gospel Church of Power and planted several churches across South Africa. Those churches played a significant role in shaping him, although as a boy he had little desire to attend church.
During high school, Lwandiso was known for verbally bullying other learners and frequently found himself in the principal’s office. At a Christian camp in 2004, a message about the narrow road and the wide road confronted him. He recognised that his pursuit of popularity had placed him on the wide road, and the Lord began to change his heart.
He started attending youth group and rebuilding relationships with people he had bullied. Some became close friends, came to faith and served alongside him in youth ministry. Years later, they would stand as best men at one another’s weddings. Lwandiso went on to serve in youth ministry for fourteen years, longing to see God bring the same transforming grace into the lives of other young people.
A defining moment came through a Genesis video shown to his racially diverse youth group. Every biblical person in the video—including Adam and Eve—was portrayed as white. When a white student asked where black people came from, the black students became angry and began questioning their place within Christianity. During the COVID period, similar questions grew increasingly urgent across social media. Lwandiso saw how deeply African Christians needed thoughtful, biblical answers that took their identity and context seriously. That burden became the beginning of the ministry now known as Bisrat Apologetics.
Contributor
Andrew McIntyre
Andrew McIntyre is a third-generation worker for the gospel, with a family heritage of Christian ministry. His father serves as an elder in the Baptist Church, while his grandfather was a lay preacher and church warden in the Anglican Church.
Andrew began his first year of theological studies at the Baptist Theological College before completing a B.Ed. through Rhodes University. He later returned to theological study, completing a B.Th. and M.Div. (2026) through the South African Theological Seminary (SATS).
He has been involved in church ministry since 18 years of age, serving in churches and retirement centres across East London as a youth worker, preacher, and musician. His theological interests lie particularly in pastoral and systematic theology, with a concern for the faithful exposition of Scripture and the theological health of the church.
Contributor
Aluncedo Nqakwana
Aluncedo Nqakwana is a young Reformed Christian who fellowshipped at REACH East London during the final year of her undergraduate studies.
She is an eager student of the Bible and loves to read works from the Puritans and listen to sermons from the Reformers, all fuelled by her love for the Lord and the Word of God.
She is from KwaBhaca (formerly Mount Frere) and grew up in Gqeberha, where she attended primary and high school before pursuing her undergraduate studies in medicine at Iyunivesithi Walter Sisulu (WSU).
Contributor
Ahluma Lubambo
Ahluma Lubambo is a theology student and pastoral intern at Heritage Baptist Church. Although he now has a deep desire for Christ, His Word and His Church, this was not always the case. Born into a nominal Christian home, he left his parents’ Presbyterian tradition to join the Zionist tradition as expressed in the Zion Christian Church.
A few years later, through the ministry of the Christian school he attended, the Lord graciously called him to Himself—giving life where there was darkness and cleansing him through the precious blood of Christ.
Since then, Ahluma has been passionate about biblical theology, discipleship, evangelism and pastoral ministry. Rooted in the Reformed Baptist tradition, he desires to see Christ faithfully proclaimed and His Church strengthened, particularly in African and township contexts.
Originally from eGqeberha, he longs to serve the Lord by strengthening His people through Christ-centred, biblically saturated, Reformed works that speak meaningfully to the African experience.
Contributor
Manqoba Qhawe Twala
Manqoba Qhawe Twala was born and raised in Soweto and is a student at George Whitefield College. Passionate about Reformed theology and deeply influenced by the theological thought of John Calvin, Manqoba is particularly interested in the intersection of theology, culture and African identity.
A lover of reading and writing, he is currently wrestling with the idea of Africanness within Reformed theological convictions, seeking to explore what it means to think faithfully as an African within the Reformed tradition. His work reflects a desire to engage Scripture and Reformed theology seriously while asking meaningful questions about the African context.
Through his writing and speaking, Manqoba seeks to contribute to thoughtful theological conversations about Christianity, Reformed theology and the African experience.
Contributor
Rev. Xolisa Oscar Matrose
Rev. Xolisa Oscar Matrose is an ordained minister in the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA), serving as Minister of the Word at the Reformed Church Ibhayi in the Eastern Cape. He is a theologian, educator and apologist pursuing doctoral research on the prophetic-apocalyptic literature of Daniel.
He has lectured part-time at North-West University, tutored at Mukhanyo Theological College and served as a volunteer chaplain in the South African National Defence Force. He is also the founder of Kerygma-Apologetics Ministry.
His work brings Reformed theology, biblical exegesis and apologetics into conversation with African religious and public questions. He is currently writing Christ Above All Worldviews, a Christ-centred engagement with competing worldviews.
Contributor
Vuyolwethu Vatsha
Vuyolwethu Vatsha leads Hope2Africa Inc, a ministry based in Port Shepstone, South Africa, that raises up the next generation of African leaders to share the gospel with their people and make disciples who will disciple others.
Vuyo preaches in his local community and regularly speaks in schools, encouraging young people and sharing the gospel with them. He studied Biblical Studies at the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa.
He is married to Silindile Vatsha, and they have a son.
Contributor
Chantelle Dlokweni
Chantelle Dlokweni studied theology at Stellenbosch University, specialising in youth work, before completing her Honours degree at the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at George Whitefield College.
Her research explores church discipline within the African context, with particular attention to how churches respond to teenage pregnancy. She serves as Children’s Ministry Director at REACH East London and has worked in youth-development projects and missions organisations.
Chantelle is married to Lwandiso Dlokweni, and they have two children.
Contributor
Onelisa Twayinga
Onelisa Twayinga is originally from Elliot, a small town in the Eastern Cape. After losing his father at the age of nine, he and his two sisters were raised by their mother.
In 2016, he moved to a boarding house in Pietermaritzburg for his education. There he received the gospel through a Reformed evangelical pastor at a small church in Northdale and was discipled throughout high school and his legal studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Onelisa now lives in Pietermaritzburg, where he works as an attorney and is a member of Living Hope Bible Church under the teaching of elder Andrew Zekveld. A passionate writer, he publishes his work under the name @ThinkingBiblically.
Contributor
Mokoena Sonwabile Skhondo
Mokoena Sonwabile Skhondo was born in Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape. He became a Christian in 2015 through Gideon Ministries and currently attends Central Baptist Pretoria.
He holds a Bachelor of Theology Honours in Practical Theology from the University of Pretoria. With a background in practical theology and pastoral counselling, he is particularly interested in the intersection of Christian thought, philosophy, and questions of human identity and meaning.
His interests include philosophical theology, apologetics, existentialism, ethics, the nature of God, free will, personhood, and the relationship between faith, reason and culture. He engages critically with classical and contemporary ideas, seeking to understand what Christians believe, why those beliefs make sense, and how they shape human life.
An artist at heart, Mokoena also works in music, visual arts and graphic design.
About Bisrat Apologetics
A growing home for faithful African Christian resources
Bisrat Apologetics exists to equip African pastors, churches and Christians with free biblical resources for engaging African religion, culture and public life. Founded by Lwandiso, the platform is being developed as a home where other trusted contributors can also publish articles, books, sermons and practical ministry resources.
Speaking invitations
Invite Lwandiso to speak
For preaching, apologetics, conferences or ministry training, contact Bisrat Apologetics with details of your event.