Reformed Church bids farewell to Dutch pastor
NHLANGANO – The Reformed Church of Swaziland (now Eswatini) formerly known as Dutch Reformed Church, on Sunday, bid farewell to its Dutch Pastor Dr Arnau van Wyngaard and his wife who came to the country in 1985.
The event was held at The Reformed Church of Swaziland, Matsanjeni Branch.
The pastor, Dr van Wyngaard and his wife, who got local names Luququdvu and Nozipho, have been in the country for over 39 years.
Present during the event was South Africa Dutch Reformed Church Reverend Francois Retief, Swazilandse Sendingkommissie (written like this) Reverend Johan Botha and the Van Wyngaard family.
It was said that Dr van Wyngaard grew up in Durban and completed his schooling in 1975 at the Port Natal High School.
Qualify
Although he intended to qualify as a chartered accountant, in 1974, God called him to let go of his plans and became a minister.
He enrolled at the University of Pretoria in 1976 to start his theology studies and in 1984, he received a call from the Swaziland Reformed Church (SRC) in Shiselweni (then known as Swaziland Ningizimu) and was ordained as the minister of the congregation on January 13, 1985.
During his time in the country, it was said that new churches were built at Makhosini, Matsanjeni, and Qomintaba and older church buildings at Dwaleni,
Hlushwana and Big Bend were renovated, making these buildings a beacon of hope for the community. Extra classrooms for the preschool were also built at Dwaleni, Hlushwana and Big Bend.
During the HIV and AIDS peak era, the man of the cloth formed Shiselweni Home-Based Care (SHBC) in 2006, where people of the community received efficient training in ways to take care of family members, friends and other people of the community who were infected with HIV/AIDS.
Trained
It was further shared that through donations received by van Wyngaard from local and overseas donors, at least 2 200 people have been trained as home-based caregivers in 52 different communities in the Shiselweni Region, and around 15 000 clients benefitted from SHBC’s services.
Those services, it was said, were expanded to include several neighbourhood care points where, at one stage, 750 children received meals daily.
Also, three high-quality Early Childhood Development Centres were established at Dwaleni, Hlushwana and Big Bend and a wheelchair ministry was started where wheelchairs were distributed, free of charge, to those in need of them.
Speaking during the event, van Wyngaard said when he arrived as a young man of 26 years of age, he believed that God had opened a door for him to share his knowledge with the church members, never realising that he was the one who would be the student, being taught by many people much older and wiser than him.
“If God granted me to have my life all over again, then I would choose to come back to Eswatini,” he said.
He appreciated the patience that was shown to him when he made mistakes and for the continued love that the Eswatini people expressed at all times.
Washed
He shared a Word of God, which was spoken by Jesus as a goodbye message from John 13:14 which reads, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet”, and John 15: 12: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
He also quoted some verses in Corinthians that talk about taking over the race to the finish line.
Speaking on behalf of his four children, Cobus van Wyngaard said they saw their father dedicating a lifetime to one community of people. He said over the years, they saw his commitments evolve with the challenges faced by the community.
“Without doubt, one of the biggest parts of this was recognising that the work of a minister isn’t just that of preaching the word and administering the sacraments, but of caring for the whole of our lives and bodies - seen in his commitment to home-based care during some of the darkest years of HIV experienced by our communities in this part of the world,” he added.
The event ended with an exchange of gifts as Pastor van Wyngaard gave the different branches a framed photo of him and his wife while the congregants gave them gifts.