Nobuntu Penxa-Matholeni (the author of this blog) is a mother of two girls – Thembakazi , Olwetu (14) and recently Zizo (3). She became part of this family in 2015. She is such a blessing to the entire family. Nobuntu grew up in the Eastern Cape. Her dad passed away when she was only two years old and her mother struggled a lot to raise and educate her children. However, she was determined to give her children an education as far as grade 12. Out of eight children, it was only Nobuntu and her younger brother who managed to finish grade 12. Her younger brother did not go further than grade 12. The author of this blog did, although not straightaway. After having first worked as a domestic worker for many years, she went and continued to study. She has an inspiring testimony of how God moved her from being a domestic worker to where she is today.
Shortly after she found Jesus, she felt called to study ministry at Cape Town Baptist Seminary. That was not easy, as she struggled to pay the fees. However, she is a living testimony to the faithfulness of God who carried her through all four of the years she spent studying at the Seminary. After that, she received a call from Fish Hoek Baptist Church. There she worked as a Chaplain at the Living Hope Centre, the ministry of the Fish Hoek Baptist Church. She worked with people that are living with HIV/AIDS and their families. She has a great testimony of how people met God, and how they taught her how to care. While she was there, she studied a post-graduate diploma in Theology.
After five years working at the ministry of the Fish Hoek Baptist Church, she felt that God was once again moving her on, however she did not know where. When she resigned from the ministry however, God led her to do the Master’s Degree at Stellenbosch University. While she was doing her thesis, she worked as a Pastoral Therapist, counselling children that had been victims of rape and their families.
She finished her Master’s degree in Clinical Pastoral Care and counselling in 2012. She became the missionary for the Helderberg Gemeente serving the Coloured community in October 2012 until October 2015. At the beginning of November 2015, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation (DLTLF) offered her a position as well as a PHD Scholarship. She worked at Tutu Foundation until October 2016. She took the lecturing position at Stellenbosch University on the 1November 2016, she is lecturing Pastoral care module and Youth work module. She is very passionate about Pastoral care. Nobuntu is still working with the Masiphumelele and Gugulethu communities doing research for her PhD. She is staying in Fish Hoek, as it is a central area to both.
“Preaching/teaching has always been part of Nobuntu’s ministry, but she knew that God did not call her to pastor a church. She always wondered how she was going to use her preaching/teaching gifts. Eight years ago God spoke to her about this ministry and only last year God gave her the message that she is going to spread, the message of “hope and a future”, which came from Jeremiah 29:11. She visits people and passes this message of hope on. Even with counselling, which she does most of the time, she goes to the people, and she does not have an office. She never has, now she understands why. God has been preparing her for this traveling ministry.
