A Baptismal Banner with Fond Memories

When Carl Kammeraad stepped into the home of a friend he hadn’t seen in decades near Pretoria, South Africa, a young man named Hahangwivhawe Liphadzi greeted him and then disappeared into his bedroom.

Soon afterward, smiling from ear to ear, Liphadzi reappeared, displaying a baptismal banner.

It took a moment, but Kammeraad, who was on vacation in South Africa with his wife, along with CRCNA Executive Director Steve Timmermans and his wife, was able to recall the time some 20 years ago when Liphadzi was given the banner.

As the pastor of Neland Avenue CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich., back then, Kammeraad had baptized Liphadzi, who was an infant. His father, the Rev. Tshililo Liphadzi, was at the time studying at Calvin Theological Seminary and attending Neland Avenue CRC with his family.

“I was amazed to see him [Hahangwivhawe] 22 years later — and the banner he brought out of his room,” said Kammeraad. “He was really delighted to see the pastor who presided over his baptism, and he had a question.”

The young man, a college graduate now studying business, wanted to know what one of the images on the baptismal banner symbolized.

On the banner, which was handmade by a woman in the church, are a dove, which he knew represented the Holy Spirit; a cross, representing the death of Christ; drops of water, representing baptism; and a tree, which puzzled him. He didn’t know what that meant.

“I told him that the tree points to creation and to the tree of life and the consummation of God’s creation,” said Kammeraad.

The Kammeraads and Timmermans had come to visit at the young man’s home after meeting with his father, who is now principal (president) of Heidelberg Theological Seminary in Pretoria and who also serves as minister of the Reformed Church Midrand.

Timmermans, who also had been a member of Neland Avenue CRC 20 years ago, said that this meeting with the young man and his family was one of several highlights of the trip.

“It was delightful to put this together, remembering their family [first with one son and then a second] as fellow worshipers at Neland Ave. CRC. . . . and also memories of their acts of kindness and relationships [that we were able to establish with one another] was very, very strong.”

Digging into past shared memories happened more than once, and that made the trip especially rich, said Timmermans.

“Tshililo and his denomination [Synod Soutpansberg] includes another church leader, the Rev. Dr. T.C. Ribali, whom I had also met 20 years before while serving as a visiting lecturer.

“He hosted a backyard gathering for us and a number of families, which ended with a hymn sing in English and Venda [an official language of South Africa].”

Timmermans also had a chance to get reaquainted with Rev. (Godfrey) Motlalentwa Betha, a pastor in the Uniting Reformed Church who had visited as an ecumenical delegate to Synod 2012 of the CRCNA.

“He is now the moderator of a regional synod of the Uniting Reformed Church. Also, we spent a Sunday with Rev. Mike Smuts [a retired Dutch Reformed Church pastor], whom I got to know a dozen years ago,” said Timmermans.

Smuts took the visitors to worship at both a Dutch Reformed Church congregation in Boesmanriviermond and a Uniting Reformed Church congregation in Klilpfontein.

There was great singing in both, said Timmermans, including familiar hymns sung in Afrikaans at one, and great African harmonies of praise songs in English as well as Afrikaans at the other.

Kammeraad, being on his first trip to South Africa, had a chance to preach at both churches.

“I preached on Psalm 34, verse 8 — ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.’ It relates to God’s goodness and to our having tasted many delightful South African foods. It gave me a chance to then talk about the rest of the psalm and the goodness of God.”

Kammeraad also appreciated meeting with church leaders as well as traveling through the countryside viewing mountains and lakes and visiting a game preserve.

Another high point was attending a service at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. “It was an amazing high Anglican service,” he said.

But the memory of meeting and getting to know Hahangwivhawe Liphadzi, whom he baptized so many years ago, really sticks with him.

“It was truly a highlight, a holy moment,” said Kammeraad. “And I remember baptizing him on that day in April 1994 because I needed to make sure that I pronounced his name correctly.”