In the summer, it is like an oven, in the winter just like a freezer. It is here, between the corrugated iron huts, that I saw the child with the beanie, for the first time. Every time the red Toyota (Church vehicle) stopped and later the church combi, the child with the beanie climbed in. “how old are you” I asked inquisitively, “6 years old, Uncle!” was the answer. Deidre, who attends church, asked the beanie child what standard he isin, at school?” Beanie child answered “Aunty, I am a girl.”
Beanie girl, is Teresa Jawa. Her mother and I registered her at the Daljosaphat Primary school, at the age of 9 years.
This is how her life started at the church and I had the pleasure of watching her grow up. She attended the youth group and church services, loyally. She accepted Christ as her Savior and obediently was baptized. Her mother sadly passed away at a young age. Teresa and her brother, went to live with her aunt. Teresa began to show wonderful leadership potential and was later chosen as deputy headgirl of the Daljosaphat Primary school.
One Friday even as the youth were taken home in the kombi, Teresa began telling the others about her 21st birthday. I jokingly asked her why I was not invited. With the same breath, I said that if she is in matric, she can’t be 21 years old. She reminded me “I was 9 years old when Uncle took me to school for the first time.”
Teresa became a small-group leader at the Waterval xxxxcamps. She is studying Tourism at the Boland college and has been chosen to help write a book that will focus on the youth in her community. Her love for Christ and faithfulness is obvious. In the church she is actively involved and is a blessing to all of us.
Good bye, adieus, farewell, ciao sinkhuisie (corrugated iron hut) I have a mansion waiting for me in HEAVEN!!
Johan Hildebrandt
