Hey! I’m Sarah...

Welcome to the Beautiful Withness

I should probably tell you a bit about myself since you’re here, on my ‘about’ page. I’m from the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa, where I live with my husband, Pete, my daughter Simthandile, my son Luca and our faith community called Tree of Life.

I am the founder of the Beautiful Withness.

In this space, I explore and share what I have learned about love, loss, grief, trauma, and ultimately resilience. It is my dream to create a space for growth and learning together through discovering what healing looks like in the face of suffering. My greatest desire is for you, as you interact with these words, you discover how deeply loved you are, and how that love has never left your side. My hope is that those seeking to understand their faith in a world of such great pain would begin to form a theology that is resilient and unshakable. Through this hope and this love, I know we can bring the fullness of love to others who find themselves in the darkness of pain.

 

 

This is the love that I call The Beautiful Withness.

 

 

Together with some of my dearest friends, I am part of leading our church which is located in Manenberg in the Cape Flats. This is a community which is notorious for gang violence and addiction, and as one of our responses to these struggles we run discipleship houses for young men including those seeking freedom from these things.

I co-lead the discipleship house for young men with a papa-bear called Leon and being a kind of spiritual mama to the young men. This is why you may randomly hear people yelling ‘Mums’ at me in the street. It is mostly likely a young man whom I have had the privilege of walking alongside in his healing journey.

I hold a BA in International Relations from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College in London, United Kingdom. I have done a variety of training courses in addiction and trauma, grief support groups and an ongoing side hustle studying theology online. 

But it has been the personal losses of those I have loved, a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder in 2017 and sharing life with those who have suffered so much that has largely formed my understanding and knowledge of what it is to heal and get free from deep inner pain and trauma.

I love growing flowers, especially fynbos, walking in the mountains, splashing in the ocean, cooking for friends and dancing with my kids in the sunshine. It is my life’s work to be a student of love and to learn how to live it out in community and as a daily practice of following the one who is love, Jesus.