Hailing from a farm just outside Phalaborwa, Tashai van Wyk is the quintessential girl next door.
A gutsy, go-ahead type of woman, she isn’t afraid to try new things or to get her hands dirty. “I always say I have more guts than brains,” she smiles. “I’m not scared to just do things. I once cut a woman’s long hair into a bob on one of my TV shows. I’d never done it before – I just asked my hairdresser to show me how to do it. She thought I was crazy! I never told the woman any of this, but her hair came out just fine. I’m truly a jack of all trades and master of none.” Shai goes on to say that she is a photographer and videographer, too, and that she can do flowers, cook, bake, preach and do makeovers. “I also have my PADI diving licence, I love arts and crafts and I can float cement floors. My favourite colour is brown – how boring is that?” she laughs. “I believe that life is a gift and you should live it. I love trying different things, but that doesn’t mean I would change my mind about things I love and believe in, like my husband, my kids, my family, friends and God’s grace.”
Shai met her husband, Danie van Wyk, in Phalaborwa, when he was part of a ministry team visiting town. “I was only 20 when we saw each other for the first time, and it was love at first sight – butterflies, fireworks, the whole kit and caboodle. We got married six months later and I can truly say I love him even more today than I did then. I remember my grandmother telling me I should marry a pastor one day, and I replied, never! Well, you know the saying ‘never say never’… Next year Danie and I will be married for 30 years. He’s my best friend; we are so alike that it’s easy for us to spend all our time together. We complete each other.”
Tashai and Danie have three beautiful daughters. Shani is 25 and has suffered from epilepsy for the past 19 years. “She taught us about trusting God, even when things don’t make sense. She has a lovely singing voice and plays the piano beautifully. Kaylee-Shaye is turning 22 this month and she’s studying education. When she was little, she would climb trees with her plastic high-heeled shoes, and she’s still like that today – one of a kind with a heart of gold. Dineo is 13; we adopted her when she was seven months old. The hospital called her Dineo, meaning gift, and we loved that because she truly is a gift from God. She taught us about unconditional love. And now she is 13 already! Time goes by so quickly.”
The couple have been together in full-time ministry for 29 years. They always loved Mbombela and wanted to live here, so they decided to take the big step and move to the Lowveld with their three daughters seven years ago. “But things don’t quite always work out as you want them to,” Shai says. “We ended up living on my sister and her husband’s stoep for a year, while our big house stood empty in Phalaborwa – we thought it would have been sold in three months, but it turned out to be seven years. We had to start a new church from scratch, which was challenging, but a kind benefactor gave us the use of an awesome building for an affordable amount. We worked hard to restore the place with almost no money, but we loved our building and put everything into making it work.”
The following year, Tashai and Danie decided to purchase a property in Uitkyk. They borrowed her sister’s caravan and started construction on their home. “With limited funding, my husband, our worker, Vusi, and I started to build our rustic house,” she smiles. “In the beginning, we showered under the trees in cold water before eventually moving in, still without any doors or windows.” Three challenging years later, just when it seemed they were able to settle in, they received a frantic phone call one night saying that their church was on fire. “I cried so much that night, for us and for the owner of the building who had been so good to us,” Shai remembers. “We were broken. We lost everything we had worked for in that fire. All that we had left were the 120 chairs we’d previously taken home for Danie’s 50th birthday.”
Devastated by their loss, the Van Wyks didn’t know what to do or where to go. They decided to hold their next service on their property, under two pieces of old shade netting. “We sang a few songs, had Communion and then a braai. It wasn’t much, but it was something,” Shai recalls. “The following week, a huge storm ripped the shade net apart. The next morning, I sat down on the wet chairs under that broken shade net and said, Lord, I am done. I can’t anymore, I don’t want to anymore. I’m done. And I just cried.”
That same day, Shai received a phone call from a stranger. “We’d never met him, but his kindness gave us hope. He said he’d seen our article in the newspaper and had recently completed a job which had left him with spare corrugated roofing. He had it on his trailer, all we had to do was to go and fetch it and we could have it for nothing. It seemed that we weren’t done after all; we had people and churches offering to help us, enabling us to buy new instruments and sound. “We borrowed money from my parents and refinanced our car. We bought wood and we started to build our church with our bare hands, mostly Danie, Vusi and myself.”
It’s two years down the line and the couple have a beautiful building that they use for weddings on Saturdays and church on Sundays. Shiloh is lovely. Peaceful, quaint and pretty, it nestles up against a magnificent granite dome, complete with rock figs and glorious views. “It’s taken a lot of hard work, but we love it!” Shai smiles. “Looking at our economy, corona, the looting and everything else going on in the world at the moment, I know there must be many people out there feeling that they can’t carry on, but one thing I know for sure is that we South Africans are a strong nation. We stand together and help one another in times of crisis.”
Details
Dineo 10/10 & Shai 101 on YouTube, Shiloh wedding venue/Shiloh Productions on Facebook
Photographer: Tanya Erasmus, Something Timeless Photography
Make-up: Elsabe Steyn Styling Studio
Flower crowns: Pearly Bothma, Floral Flair
