Potted History

1. How it all began

Steve and Johanna were born at an early age. Separately, of course: Johanna in Tanzania (yes, that’s right: Tanzania, then the British colony of Tanganyika); and Steve in South Africa. They grew up speaking different languages. Steve spoke a South African dialect that might loosely be called ‘English’; and Johanna spoke a corrupted version of Afrikaans called ‘Dutch’. Maybe this is why we both ended up at Wycliffe Bible Translators. Before then, of course, we had both become Christians—more about that later…

We met while doing our training at Wycliffe UK in the previous millenium (1982—ouch!). Steve strongly felt we should throw our outlandish languages into a common pot and see what happened (like pouring chemicals together in a bowl); but Johanna didn’t think that was such a good idea.

So Steve went to Kenya and Johanna went to Bible college. Steve had asked God to send him anywhere, but please, not to a tone language.

So, of course, he ended up with fellow-South Africans Nick and Lynne Swanepoel among the Rendille people—nomadic camel-herders of the northern Kenya desert. Rendille isn’t exactly a tone language, it’s a tonal accent language; but Steve told the Lord that was splitting hairs. The Lord told Steve to deal with it. While Johanna learnt basic hairdressing, Greek, and other useful things at Bible college, Steve struggled to make sense of the ups and downs of Rendille tone. He also put together a slide show describing his early experiences of camels, goat’s meat, dust and scorching heat…

Print (PDF)

Or, get HP Smart Web Printing

2. Welcome to the Rendille

This presentation is slightly dated (umm… 1984!), but still gives a good impression of the traditional Rendille way of life, which has changed little in recent decades. It also illustrates some of the stages involved in reducing a spoken language to writing, and beginning to understand a very different culture.

The video lasts about 15 mins. Enjoy!

[Note that this video presentation only has a Pause button. To restart, refresh the page.]

3. The path of true love

You have of course been wondering what brought Steve and Johanna together after Johanna turned him down like a bedspread. We will now put you out of your misery.

As we said earlier, the idea was first mooted (in Steve’s mind) while we were both doing our training at the UK Wycliffe Centre. The courses ended, and we went our separate ways — Johanna to Bible college, Steve to Kenya and the Rendille translation project. (Aaah!)

But among the Rendille Steve found that, as a single man beyond the normal marrying age, he was, um, how shall we put it? Regarded with a certain amount of suspicion. Not enjoying this, he finally decided there was only one solution. So completely out of the blue he wrote to Johanna. (Yay!)

Meanwhile Johanna had enjoyed Bible college, but gradually realised that partnering with another single girl (fairly common at that time), was not for her. So she drew up a list of requirements for a husband: among other things — yes, you guessed! — ‘tall, dark and handsome’. (Aaah!)

But then God, with His wonderful sense of humour, turned her thoughts towards Steve. Even though he was short, furry and funny. She actually risked praying that he would write to her.

The fateful envelope arrived. A letter from Kenya! Who did she know in Kenya? Oh. … No. … It couldn’t be… She turned the envelope over and saw the address label. It was. (Yay!!)

Well, that led to our courtship by correspondence. Steve wrote carefully with a fountain pen (no computers then) about neutral things, like his Rendille experiences. Johanna noticed that the letters were perfect: no corrections or crossings-out. They had clearly gone through several drafts. Hmmm. Interesting.

Interesting, too, that Johanna’s best friends at Bible college were from northern Kenya, and actually spoke Rendille!

Anyway, Johanna replied, sympathising with Steve’s situation, and saying that he must find it difficult not being married [xxx]. The [xxx] was a small word, crossed out. Steve cunningly looked on the other side of the thin airmail paper, and discovered that the crossed-out word was ‘yet’!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, Steve invited Johanna out to Kenya to help with food distribution among the drought-stricken Rendille. This was officially sanctioned by the local Wycliffe leadership, with a gleam in the eye and a tongue in the cheek. To everyone’s satisfaction (including our own) we got engaged on the slopes of Mount Kenya on the way back to Nairobi after a good stint of food distribution.

And we were married the next year (1985) in Colchester, UK. It was a multi-cultural wedding, with the Dutch bride wearing a Rendille bukhúrcha — a necklace of palm fibres decorated with red beads, the trademark of a married woman.

And the rest, as they say, is history (to be continued) …

Print (PDF)

Or, get HP Smart Web Printing