Finding God under a fig tree

At the tender age of five, Renchia Rhyn spoke to God for the first time.

Renchia was living in a house that doubled as a shebeen in Vredesvallei in the Northern Cape, an area where alcohol abuse is rife. Her own mother had a long struggle with alcoholism.

On her way to school one morning, she overheard two women having a conversation that would stay with her for a long time. “Ask God to help you. God can change your life,” she remembers the one mom advising her friend.

The house where Renchia lived was surrounded by many fruit trees and plants. The owner also farmed with chickens and goats. Renchia was in charge of caring for the trees and animals.

One day, during her daily chores she decided to start a conversation with God at one of her favourite spots in the yard. Although she had little knowledge of God, she looked up and spoke her heart’s desire.

“I stood under a fig tree, looked up and said, ‘God, if you are really there, will you please change my life, and will you please give me my mother?'” she recalls.

That day, God began to reveal Himself to Renchia, and her love for Him began to grow.

“God took care of me. He sent people on my path to help and guide me. I knew He was always there, but from that day on, I felt some sort of presence that, as a five-year-old girl, I could not explain,” she says.

“I didn’t know what prayer was. I didn’t know that you can close your eyes and get quiet and pray in your heart or your mind. So, I would speak to God out loud until I realised that people were giving me funny looks whenever I would ‘talk to myself’.”

Then a miraculous thing happened; a woman named Aunty Marie moved into the house next door. She had come to Renchia’s village to build a church and home for missionaries.

“She also sold klapperkoekies (coconut cookies), and the shebeen owner would send me to buy some,” Renchia says.

From the beginning Renchia realised that Aunty Marie knew God.

“She would have all of us sit around her in a circle while she read the Bible and told us stories about God,” she recalls fondly.

When Renchia turned eight, the church and house were complete. It was time for Aunty Marie to move on. At her farewell party, she introduced Renchia to two missionaries and their one-year-old daughter, who had grown fond of the village and its people.

“I told them my story. Little did I know, these people would open their hearts, call me their daughter and invite me into their home. They taught me about Jesus Christ and His love, gave me my first Bible, and helped me pray and ask God to come and live inside my heart,” says Renchia.

“I would visit them often, and even as a young girl, I knew that I wanted to do what they did when I grew up. At that time I didn’t know that they were called missionaries.

Having experienced the change in her own life because of missionary work, Renchia knew the mission field was her calling. “I wanted to become one because God saved my life through these people. I also wanted to share the Gospel and tell children about Jesus Christ.

I needed to tell them that they don’t have to fall into their parents’ cycles, that they could break free from it through Jesus Christ, that He is the one who can make everything bearable. They need only to grab hold of Him.”

Renchia pursued her passion for evangelising to children and took over the missionaries’ duties as Sunday school teachers. She became a leader in the spiritual dance group and started running the Bible study group.

Renchia matriculated in 2020. She took a gap year where  she worked a contract job with her best friend at Augrabies National Park. She also used the gap year to apply for study bursaries.

By the end of 2021, she began to lose hope of ever being able to study. Her mother was also still struggling with her addiction. She had become ill and wheelchair bound.

“I told myself that I needed to get out of this village and make something of my life. I don’t have a mother anymore,” said Renchia.

In February 2022, Renchia was in Johannesburg for an au pair job.

“I was barely there for a week when I was informed that I had been accepted to study Public Relations and Communications at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and that I received a bursary that will pay for my studies.”

She asked her new employer if she could leave.

“Not only did she approve, but she paid me for the time I had worked for her, sponsored my bus ticket and bought me food for the road,” says Renchia.

“That is God!”

The journey toward studying was tumultuous but Renchia believes that God was in control every step of the way.

He provided for her and sent people on her path to lighten the load.

In Cape Town, Renchia slept on her aunt’s couch for a week while arranging housing at the university. Her application was rejected and she found herself stranded without accommodation. She shared the bad news with her aunt and decided to return home.

But God had other plans.

She was introduced to someone in the Public Relations industry who told her about a Christian non-profit organisation, Isibindi Initiatives, who offer support to vulnerable children and young adults who could possibly help her.

“At this point, I was already very discouraged, so I didn’t care about the non-profit organisation or anything else; I just wanted to go back home,” Renchia remembers.

However, her aunt’s husband reached out to Isibindi Initiatives and told them about Renchia. She applied for accommodation in one of their houses and went for an interview.

“I had hope again. I fell in love with this organisation. I prayed a lot, read the Bible, and asked God to open the door because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I desperately wanted to make something of my life,” says Renchia.

On 1 March 2022, Renchia moved into one of the Isibindi houses.

A few months later they asked if she would be willing to move into their boarding house, where they focus on caring for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Renchia didn’t think twice about moving into the boarding house where she could help children complete their schooling while surrounded by a loving and supportive network of people.

Soon, she became the Sunday School teacher and joined the praise and worship ministry at Ysterplaat Primary School. “Many of these children have crazy and devastating stories,” says Renchia. “I recall two girls in the boarding house that reminded me of my story. Their mothers drink and neglect them; they are uncared for and broken. As a result, they try to do things in the world just to fit in and belong. They want love. And it’s a privilege to share Jesus Christ with them, to share my story and tell them that Jesus can and will help us!”

Renchia’s life was touched by many more miracles along the pathway of her life, and she continued to place her absolute faith in Christ to provide for her when man fell short.

She went on a missionary trip to Zambia, studied at the School of Fire missionary school and met the people God had intended for her to meet.

“Madine Dercksen and I met through our beloved friend’s birthday and instantly connected; I think it’s because we have the same Holy Spirit in us. She asked me if I knew anyone who needed Bibles, and I immediately said yes because I was on a Bible hunt at that time for the kids at the school,” she says.

“And then the Bible Society of South Africa blessed us with Bibles. We got the children up and running, reading the Bibles, and we have a rule that the kids must bring their Bible to school each Friday for praise and worship,” she continues.”

The way I live my life is by trusting God for every little need I have. I pray every day that I can become His servant, and I want him to look at my heart and ensure it is in the right place.

This is all or nothing faith, and I plan to give it my all.”

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