Growing up has been especially confusing for our generation – we got to know the world as a place of separateness and institutionalised injustice as we were born into Apartheid South Africa, then witnessed the sometimes violent and uncertain transition to democracy as children and ended up as teenagers with Nelson Mandela as president during our Rainbow Nation’s honeymoon period.
As a young married couple, Chantel worked as a nurse in the under resourced government health sector at a time when no treatment was available for those that are HIV + and poor. Arnie, on the other hand, worked as an investment banker in Sandton, Johannesburg’s most affluent business area. Comparing our typical working days launched us into a journey of discovery of the extent to which South Africans’ view of the past and lives in the present differ.
Shaped by all these experiences, we left for London – hoping to save enough money to be able to return to South Africa and play a greater part in the building of our new society. While there, we joined a church that was very different from what we were used to: a diverse community of people where everyone felt welcome regardless of who or what they were. A community of people whose faith motivated them into action. An articulation of the gospel as also having real consequences for this life. The type of community we felt South Africa needed…
We later discovered that this church was part of the Oasis family and, following many conversations and six months in Mumbai, found ourselves back in Johannesburg in January 2006, starting the South African member organisation of the Oasis family. We started off by doing what we can to address the challenges our communities face: setting up youth development and home-based care projects. Throughout, the question remained: how can we be transformed as well as bring sustainable transformation to our communities?
A continuous process of doing, reflecting, learning from others and adapting lead as to discover what seems so obvious now: transformation comes only through relationships. And, deep relationships are best formed when people work and fight together as equal partners to overcome challenges that seem insurmountable.
The one thing that stands out when we look back at the story of Oasis South Africa is the way in which God has been at work to bring together many people from very different backgrounds – each making a unique contribution and influencing the organisation’s evolution at the right time.
The end result is our Change Agent Approach and Rhythm of Life (a gift from another group’s journey to live out their faith in the South African context) that is now at the core of all we do – leading to the ongoing transformation of the lives of all involved as well as the communities in which we live. Slowly creating the type of South Africa envisaged in our Constitution and a providing a glimpse of the world spoken about by Jesus when He taught us to pray that God’s Kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven.
Arnie and Chantel with their kids