You might have already met Cornelia. She is one of the team that plans and organizes Oasis each month, and she also can be found teaching Wee Worship during first service with the help of her daughters. Here in Campbell, Cornelia is a long way from home. A long, long way from home. “My husband, Gert, and our two daughters are the only family we have living in the USA. All our extended families are back in South Africa. Marné is freshman at Cogswell Polytechnical College and Danielle is freshman at Willow Glen High School. Gert is a stay-home-dad, allowing me to have a busy career in technology.”
Cornelia has achieved great success in her career. But beneath her technical knowledge and executive leadership lies the heart of a farm girl. “I was born and raised in a farming community near a very small town called Barkly East in South Africa.” She attended a tiny school of just 200 students, from elementary through high school. “I was in a boarding school from age 5 to age 18. We lived for weekends and holidays on the farm where we played and worked barefoot outside under the warm African sun.”
Cornelia and her family have been a part of the Campbell church since 2003. “I worked with Bo Brockman, one of the elders from the Campbell church, and one day he suggested we try it out. From the first day I walked into this church I felt at home with the message and the spirit of the people.”
Cornelia found her faith at a very young age. “Both my parents were incredible role models. My dad had the deepest, most resolute faith through so many natural events a farm can be exposed to – droughts, flash floods, hail storms, disease, and family tragedies. I can still picture him standing with his hands in his hair in despair, then later to find him on his knees in his bedroom praying.” Though her father is now with God, and despite living half a world away, Cornelia still relies deeply on her mother as a spiritual teacher and mentor.
Cornelia is a spectacular amateur photographer, and her family loves to travel and see new places and natural wonders. “I can sit and edit pictures for hours because I enjoy the technology, but more because it allows me to remember and appreciate my experiences.” If she’s not at the computer, in the winter you’ll find her working puzzles or an elaborate needle point. She also loves beading, reading and in the spring and summer, digging in the garden. “I absolutely love to see plants grow!”
On Ministry: “Women can make a big difference in the lives of people around them. Yet, so many women struggle to find a good support system that gives them the strength to stand in the face of everyday adversity. By ministering to women, we ‘pay it forward’ for generations, throughout households and communities. Like my grandmothers and my mother showed me the way, I hope that my daughters will see God in me and I pray that they will walk with Him too.”
On faith: “I’ve learned that I live close to God when I serve, when I teach, and when I participate using the capabilities God gave me. What I have is because of His grace alone, and He has blessed me. I am now in a phase where I enjoy Bible studies and connecting the dots at so many levels. There is just so much about Biblical history that gives a new perspective on the context of the Scriptures. Amazing.”
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