We committed to one another in 1989. Both were entrenched in the rat race and decided to get out, do something more meaningful. Both had interests in spirituality, albeit diverse. Jean had been studying yogi philosophy and religions since he was a teenager. I had dabbled in a variety of new age things. We made a cencerted effort to increase our efforts in finding our truth.

One morning at about 2, sipping coffee in Hillbrow, the neighbourhood that is the heart of inner-city of Johannesburg, we discovered that young girls and women sleep rough on the streets. We learned from them their brothers are in shelters, but there ae no shelters in the country for so-called “street children” of the female gender. While the boys had food and schooling, the girls resorted to survival prostitution and many were under “protection” of pimp-boyfriends.

During 1990 we started a shelter for girls. It was not legal, because there were no laws making provision for it. We rented a large dilapidated old house, one of the only houses in the high-rise downtown slum. The kids referred to it as The House. We ran that project 24/7/365 for 10 years when we burned out. The community took it over and continued. After almost 30 years, The House is still called there, still saving lives every day.

We studied part time at seminary to become Anglican priests. Continued part time at university to get degrees in World Religions & Biblical Studies. Studied with clergy of Church of the East in India and were ordained. In India we discovered Wayism, and knew that this is what we wanted to do with our lives, forever.

We have been together, working, studying, and doing amazing things all over the world all this time. Jean says he want double merits for being together so long because it is a 24/7/364.25 journey, not just 10 hours a day.