Lydia and Francois met on the 25th of August 1974, while he was working with Youth For Christ. She was sixteen and he, nineteen. The following year he studied Greek and Hebrew at the University of Pretoria for three years while Lydia completed her nursing training.
In 1978 Francois also spent a year with YWAM.
They married in January 1979 and are blessed with four amazing children, Renaldo, Tehilla, Christo and Stefan; also, two darling grandchildren Nicola and Christiaan.
They pioneered and worked in full-time mission for fourteen years, during which time they also pastored a church and led a training facility for more than 700 students over a five-year period. During this time he translated several of the Pauline Epistles [The Ruach Translation], which were never published; although printed along with other booklets he wrote and distributed amongst their students.
They then left the ministry and for ten years did business mainly in the tourism industry.
They built and managed a Safari Lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve and eventually relocated to Hermanus where they started Southern Right Charters boat-based whale watching.
In December 2000 Francois began to write the book, "God believes in You" which led to him being invited to speak at various Christian camps and churches. Since February 2004, they travelled regularly abroad and into Africa as well as South Africa.
Francois has written several books in both English and Afrikaans, including God Believes in You, Divine Embrace, The Logic of His Love; these are also available on Kindle. Also, The Mystery Revealed and Done, which are no longer in print - although still available in Afrikaans.
In order to focus their time on writing and translation, they relocated from Hermanus in 2015, to a remote farm in the Swartberg Mountains. They have since, also stopped most of their travelling.
Lydia has written 6 amazing children's stories of which Stella's Secret, The Little Bear And The Mirror, Kaa of the Great Kalahari as well as The Eagle Story, are already published in print and on Kindle. Her most recent story "King Solitaire's Banquet" will be released soon.
Francois passionately continues his translation of the Mirror Bible, which will eventually include the entire NT as well as select portions of the Old. The 1st 250 page, A5 edition, was published in 2012. The current 9th edition Mirror Study Bible is a 7 x 10 inch book, now almost 1000 pages.
Lydia's books are already available in English Afrikaans, German and Spanish.
The Mirror Bible is currently available in Spanish, Shona, Xhosa and large portions in German.
More than 50000 people subscribe to their daily posts on Social Media; Lydia has her own fb page and Francois has 5 English pages and an Afrikaans, Spanish, Hungarian, French and Dutch page on Facebook.
Their email address is [...]
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The Mirror Bible is also on Kindle as well as an App, app.mirrorword.net
Their Mirror Word YouTube channel link is, [...]