“We Only Die Once – It Might As Well Be For Jesus.” (Werner Groenewald)

Five months ago today, the sun would have risen in Kabul, Afghanistan. As the day dawned, the Groenewald family would wake up for the last time in their compound in the city. Residents of Afghanistan for 12 years, they had made a home for themselves amongst people of a vastly different culture. Werner Groenewald and his wife Hannelie had a heart for the Middle East. When their children, JP and Rode,  were only pre-school age, they made the move to go and serve in a war-torn broken country. Their motive was to help rebuild. They went with hearts of love, but they did not go as missionaries. They went as workers. Joining with an organisation Partnership in Academics and Development, they went to assist in education and health.

Their family grew up in Afghanistan. Werner and his son JP cycled the hills, they drove around the city without an armed escort. They loved the people and perhaps in doing so, their love of Jesus shone through. When you have good news, you want to share it, but in an Islamic country such as Afghanistan, doing so comes with risks. I am not a missionary, but still I will share my faith with strangers. If I do so in South Africa, my life is not in danger. Not so in Afghanistan. If you are bold enough to share your faith in strict Islamic countries, there is a risk. Somehow word got out that the Groenewalds were Christians.  In a well orchestrated attack, gunmen burst into the compound on Saturday 29th November 2014 and brutally murdered Werner, JP and Rode. Hannelie was working at the time and not at home. The compound was set alight. That day, many have said, Hannelie lost everything. She lost her husband of 24 years. She lost her beautiful children. She lost her home. She lost the life she had known for 12 years.

But she did not lose everything. She did not lose her faith. She did not lose her hope. While she may have wished that she had been home that day to die with her family, her life was spared for a purpose.

Five months later, Hannelie is back in South Africa, trying to find a new kind of normal. She finds herself in Job-like circumstances, faced with believing and trusting God regardless of her suffering. When I asked her how she was doing, she said,

” I am doing well under the circumstances. There are good days and bad days. Life is still a roller coaster although a bit less chaotic than before. I’m still trying to find my niche, but for now I live one day at a time and do whatever that day puts before me to do.”

The book of Job in the Old Testament is a book querying where is the justice of God in a world where righteous people suffer. The Impact Bible says, “No other book does more to dispel the false belief that your life circumstances are an indication of your standing before God.” The truth is that throughout life we cannot grasp the depth of God’s wisdom & His ways. Will I serve God even if there is no apparent reward, only suffering?*

Hannelie has said ‘yes.’

This life is only a pencil dot on a billion mile line. The reality is ‘the best is yet to come.’ Werner, JP & Rode are currently experiencing ‘the best.’

It’s sobering and it’s humbling, but it makes me cling to the only Rock I know.

Psalm 63:8

I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

In the end, we have no other foundation except that of Jesus.

God Bless you.

In His Grip,

Helga xx

* From Fish Hoek Bible School notes on Job by Gail Wingreen.