Robbie
I have pondered much on these words since Jolanda and I did in fact start with a great disadvantage. Let me not get ahead of myself; first I have to tell you about Pastor Steven from Zambia.

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A few brothers and sisters came over from Zambia to Hilleród in Denmark to see how we practiced community living. We were part of a ministry where we lived together in communal houses. During a Wednesday evening meeting, I was standing at the back of the community hall looking out over the people when I heard a voice of greeting from behind me. When I turned around, behind me was one of the Zambian pastors and he introduced himself as Steven. We got talking and eventually he asked me where I was from. I told him I was from South Africa, however we had been living in the Netherlands for close to 12 years at the time and intended to go back to the Netherlands when we were done in Denmark.

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He then asked me whether I had ever heard the call of a fish eagle? I replied that I had, of course, having been born and bred in KwaZulu-Natal. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “When you hear the call of the fish eagle, you will know it is time to go home”. I did not think much of it then, since I argued that the chances of me hearing a fish eagle where I was headed were rather slim.

Seven years had passed, and truth be told, I had long forgotten about pastor Steven when I got a call on my mobile while at work one morning. A stranger asked me whether I knew Dr. Rensia de Wet and I replied yes, I do, how can I help? She then told me to contact a number in Witrivier, Mpumalanga and when I did, I was given the terrible news that Rensia had been raped and murdered the evening before.

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I was totally devastated since Rensia was more than my niece; she was my little sister.
I flew to South Africa the next evening to make all the arrangements since Rensia had told the locals to phone me should anything ever happen to her. After the funeral I decided to drive to the south coast of South Africa where I was born. The next morning when I woke up, I walked outside to look at the river and just reflect on the events of the previous days. Suddenly I heard the call of a fish eagle. I looked up and to my amazement a fish eagle was soaring right over my head. At that moment I recalled the conversation I had with pastor Steven and I knew it was time to come home.

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A few days later I drove back to Gauteng and returned to the Netherlands.

Rensia’s passing was probably the most devastating disadvantage I had ever experienced, yet had that incident not taken place, I would not have been in South Africa at that time and subsequently would not have heard the fish eagle call. Upon arriving home, I told Jolanda about the incident with the fish eagle, the conversation with pastor Steven and the fact that I knew we had to return to our roots. We made our plans and in September of 2017, Jolanda and Danielle left Europe for South Africa.

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Jolanda
This is where I continue the story…..

After Rensia was so cruelly taken from us, Danielle and I vowed never to return to South Africa again.
However God had other plans and the call of the fish eagle, often referred to as the voice of Africa, changed everything.
We knew that there was a purpose in returning to the country of our birth.

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“I could never lose my love for Africa…. it’s in my bones” – unknown

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This turned out to be so true in our lives.

Although Rensia had lost her life in such a cruel and tragic way, we knew we wanted to turn this tragedy that devastated our family into something positive: forgiveness and love instead of hate; restoration instead of destruction; trust instead of fear and building instead of tearing down. Our deepest wish was that her death would not be meaningless, but that it would be like a seed planted that brings forth a harvest of hope and healing.

We did not want our focus to be on building a good and comfortable life for ourselves, but rather on helping build and rebuild a beautiful country. South Africa is bleeding and we want to be instrumental in binding up her wounds.

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Having experienced community living in Denmark, it left a desire in us to somehow use what we had learnt and build it into our lives here. Community living is hard but wonderful, life changing and challenging. We have made forever friends in Denmark.

At the time of arriving in South Africa we had no idea of the specifics; the how, when or where.
We lived in a community with my sisters and their families for almost 2 years. What a special and wonderful time that was!
During this time the desire to start an NPO began to take form, however at the time it did not yet materialise.
Fundiswa came into Danielle’s life in an unexpected way and at an unexpected time. She was only 3 weeks old, and that changed the trajectory of Danielle’s life forever. She is now in the process of adopting her.

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Also during this time we started up a touring company with family, DuVan Tours & Travel. Setting it up took time and the willingness to further educate ourselves. Moved by the hardship we saw all around us, we started feeding the hungry and helping people that crossed our paths in daily life; on street corners, in shops and working day jobs in gardens or homes. The suffering was everywhere. People often have to feed their families at home on a very meagre income. It is deeply heartbreaking. We started by distributing some food parcels and helping in various ways as often as we could.

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the touring company came to a screeching halt and we had to make the difficult decision of closing it down. However the end of one journey often marks the beginning of another.

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As we were all in lockdown for weeks on end, the dream of the NPO started awakening again.

This virus has left hunger, lack and devastated families and communities in its wake. We felt there must be something we could do!
As we started brainstorming this, things started to fall into place. Robbie became our hero by contributing the very first donation to feed the poor. Riaan and Els followed and soon some more family and friends. Before long we were overwhelmed with the goodness and trust of family and friends as they offered to contribute. Our dream of a NPC was starting to take form.

Mother Teresa has always been a source of inspiration to us, so one of her quotes became our NPO motto and name.

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“I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a pebble across the water to create many ripples”

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On 30/06/2020 our NPC was registered and Pebbles & Ripples NPC became a fact!!
Together with family and friends we are embarking on this new journey to be the change we want to see in this world; in our beloved South Africa.

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“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together” – African Proverb

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We would love for you to join us on our journey.

Please make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel

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Blessings,
Robbie & Jolanda