Their are occasions when The Lord brings people into ones life that one truly knows they are a gift from Him. This is how we immediately felt about Bill and Jackie Walmisley.
Christmas 2005, our church had a Carol Service, and it was a particularly blessed evening. I was enjoying a glass of mulled wine, and just socialising with people after the service, when Dave Richards the Apostolic leader of Salt and Light Ministries came across to me to say that he would like to introduce me to a fellow Zimbabwean. Of course I was keen, and was introduced to Bill Walmisley. From that night on we became firm and fast friends. Bill and Jackie Walmisley worked for Sir Michael Coleman as general maintenance manager and house keeper, a job we all laughed together about joking about how they were themselves where once a "Lord and Lady" by Zimbabwean standards, but, now, in some strange purpose known only to God, servants of aristocats.
Bill and Jackie were successful farmers in Zimbabwe, able to employ a good number of staff and responsible for the livelihoods of all their workers and their families. Mugabe's land reform program put an end to that, and they lost their farm to the evil land grabbing that followed this land reform program, something that broke Bill and Jackie's heart, something Jackie never recovered from. They, like us, arrived in the UK thanks to ancestry, with nothing but suitcases and the unknown prospects ahead of having to start again. What would a farmer be able to do other than farm? They landed up working for the estate of the Coleman's because this was the closest they could get to doing what they knew.
A wonderful friendship grew between our families, and Bill and Jackie opened their hearts to us, as we did to them. Culturally we were cut from the same cloth, understood all the jokes and phrases, Spiritually we shared our faith, able to weep together over what had happened in our lives, and ask why, learning all along the way some hard, but important life lessons together. We had many a barbecue at their house on the Coleman's estate, many laughs including the incident of Bills Pimms Number 1, which I cant really remember all the details, if you get my drift.
Life over the years continued, we would help and encourage each other where we could. My wife and I ran a home group and both Bill and Jackie were amazing worship leaders that complimented each other perfectly. What a blessing those evenings of home group were. We saw people come and go, healing and friendships grew and our purpose for this season was clear. We needed to encourage each other, and we needed to reach out to others. Jackie had a favourite scripture from the book of Esther, which she often reminded us about, and that was Esther 4:14
For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
That was the scripture she would constantly refer to when we would lament being torn away from our nation, especially in the coldest and darkest of days in winter time, a season we never could seem to get used to.
Bill and Jackie's daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren lived in the UK as well, and we would often see them visiting, and as a result they became our friends too. Their passion was also for farming and the land, also working for a large estate near Birmingham.
About four years ago, Bill and Jackie's daughter and son-in-law were invited back to Zimbabwe to join in a farming project, which was mission orientated. Coincidentally, the farming project was headed by a family I used to work for in Zimbabwe. So after much thought and consideration, and much to Bill and Jackie's disappointment, they decided to return to Zimbabwe to take up the position.
This proved too much for Bill and Jackie to tolerate. Their children now moving back to Zimbabwe, and their other daughter graduated from university ( one of the reason to come to the UK, so they could fund this education) in Australia, and more than likely to remain there. It was a time of change for them, and Bill was teaching himself photography and went off to college to learn Photoshop. He did well and had plans to start a little business.
Blood runs thicker than water, and so our dear friends decided it was time to move. They had a home still in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, and it was time to take up residence in it again. Their plan was to move to be near at least one of their children, for Jackie who had a passion for teaching to take up a teaching-while-studying program and qualify in the field of teaching, and for Bill to build up his photography business. This was no decision to take lightly, they were fully aware of the struggle that they would more than likely encounter. We prayed together about this, and we just blessed them. And so, on what was one of the hardest moments of our lives, we helped them pack up, clean their little home on the estate up and wave them goodbye.
After about two years, as a family we decided to go to Zimbabwe on a holiday. We would visit Bill and Jackie and then onto my parents to visit the Hwange game park and Victoria Falls. This would have also been the first time my wife and son, who was two when we moved to the UK and was now 14, would have been back to Zimbabwe. Again, another story for another time. We arrived in Harare on Christmas Day 2011 to be greeted by our wonderful friends Bill and Jackie who had come to collect us, and we went off to have Christmas lunch with them and their family, immediate and extended all of whom we had come to know and love over the years. On our return trip to the UK through Harare we met with Jackie, who was struggling with the life in Zimbabwe, as Zimbabwe had (and has) deteriorated badly, and trying to etch out a living in that environment was taking its toll. We were able to encourage her somewhat, but I left deeply concerned. We continued to write to each other, as Jackie was the writer in the family, as was I in mine. Shortly after we left, they had a break in and the thieves stole a few things, but what really upset Jackie, apart from strangers going through her things, was the fact they had flung her bible across the room. God word had it's rightful place in her life. She rested in the Lords plans and goodness, but she was also human, and was afraid.
In the early hours of Wednesday the 27th March 2012, those thieves returned. They attacked Bill and Jackie, and they killed Jackie. I wont go into the details of the attack, suffice it to say that those four thieves stole and Ipad, computer and mobile phone. Those four thieves stole the life of our beloved friend, Bills beloved wife, Jacques and Michelle's, Tracy and Hamish's mother, Joshua, Chloe and more recently Charlotte's grandmother (Jackie never got to meet Charlotte). All our lives were forever changed that day, and a cloud of deep sadness moved over our hearts. The church that Bill and Jackie were part of in the UK, the very same church were we had met all those years back in 2005, sent me to the funeral where I represented a church in mourning and shock, and me and my family who were grieved beyond words. If it were not for the presence of God, I would have more than likely lost my mind trying to think on this senseless event. An event that remains one of the biggest "whys" I have.
Its just gone past the anniversary of Jackie's death. You may want to know what happened to the four thieves, well, they were caught and we await justice, Gods justice, as for the Zimbabwean justice, will there ever be any? Bill is now living in Australia with his daughter and son-in-law in Perth, and the farming son-in-law and daughter are also in Australia working on, you guessed it, a farm. The family are still going through healing, and probably will for a while, but, we all have the assurance that we will meet again, and this time there will be no sadness and no mourning.
To honour our friend in a fitting way, we decided to have a plaque made that would be presented at the school run by our church. The plaque is made of glass and tear shaped to represent the tears that have been shed. It will be presented, in July 2014, to a student for academic excellence. I pray this will bring a smile, not only to the family and friends, but to our Jackie in heaven as well.
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