God called Andre and Raquel into fulltime ministry in the year 2000. Raquel immediately stepped out into her calling while Andre took about 2 years to completely free himself from his secular job in the corporate world.
Andre and Raquel Stroud grew up together in the Pentecostal Holiness Church where they spent most of their teens actively in the Sunday School , Youth, and Praise and Worship ministries. During this time they developed a passion for evangelism and spent much time assisting various ministries through evangelism and outreach. Their passion and the many sacrifices they made, was a clear indication that they would eventually respond to the call of God upon their lives.
Their involvement in kingdom work beyond the local house and denominational structures often caused them many issues with leadership which did not understand how God was calling them into ministry beyond the local house. The Strouds married in 1995 and have two bio-logical children. They also adopted another son, Winley Wheat who has since gone on to marry his wife Stephane. Winley is currently the worship leader and produces his own music besides also holding a secular job. Lisa is their eldest daughter who shows the same passion for ministry her parents showed in their late teen and twenties. Being sold out for youth she is passionate about facilitating camps and her secular job as an educator. Their youngest son Jean-Andre, is a law student at Stellenbosch University and is involved in the music ministry.
Unlike most other minsters they did not start a church but a youth ministry, setting up youth clubs at every community centre in Mitchells Plain and Heinz Park. After 7 years of youth development they started a church called Themelios Christian Fellowship, under the spiritual covering of Apostle Stanley Flandorp. They were ordained as pastors on 7 February 2007. During a conference in Hermanus, a prophetic word confirmed that Andre was being called as an Apostle. At the very same conference he was ordained as an Apostle, by the very same Apostle Stanley Flandorp. The ministry underwent a name change in 2018 and now operates as Rock City DMC as an affiliate of The Docks Mission of South Africa.
Both Andre and Raquel are second generation ministers and together flow strongly in the apostolic prophetic. Together they have travelled and impacted the lives of many throughout South Africa and other Southern African countries, including Namibia and Botswana.
