1. How did you become a Christian?
I was born into and raised in a nominal Christian home. While attending university, I attended a camp organised by an interdenominational youth organisation. The Lord revealed Himself to me through His Word and Spirit. However, it took me a few days of pondering on the decision and implications of committing my life to Him. I did so one afternoon while in my room, being convicted of His love, sacrifice and my need to know and walk with Him.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
I don’t know if I would do anything any differently. I made mistakes, but that was part of the growth process. I was privileged having people alongside me who took discipleship and mentoring seriously and did it with me when I came to faith. That included the awareness that faith was not only a personal matter but communal and expressed in acts of service.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
A conversation based on reverence and friendship.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr; Knowing God by J.I. Packer and Celebration of Disciple by Richard Foster
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
A leader (and his team) in Namibia who started the youth ministry through whom I got saved, discipled and mentored into leadership.
A couple – the husband is a missions leader and his wife an interculturalist. They shaped me in terms of their faith, but also engaging with the missions world and the corporate world, where I also ended up being an intercultural consultant.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
Lack of Biblical discipleship
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
The growth of the church in Africa and the many men and women, young and old, of diverse backgrounds and circumstances, who love Jesus and faithfully and sacrificially serve their communities.
Discouragement – a sense of superiority and unwillingness to see others as made in the image of God and of equal value irrespective of their backgrounds and circumstances.
8. What makes you laugh?
My children – I have four of them!
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Though we face many challenges and sometimes want to be protective of whatever we consider as ‘ours’ – don’t treat people as enemies.
10. Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
Gotta be King Solomon – what a life!
