Restoring Dignity Through the Gospel | Rolf Weichardt

Every ministry wants to make an impact—but what actually creates lasting change?

In this episode of the 5Nine Podcast, we sit down with missionary Rolf Weichardt, founder of Khanyisa, to talk about more than three decades of ministry in South Africa. From racial reconciliation during apartheid to serving vulnerable youth today, Rolf shares why relationships, consistency, and restoring dignity matter far more than quick programs.

We discuss:

• Why long-term ministry outlasts short-term projects
• How trust is earned in missions
• Restoring dignity to children growing up in poverty
• Why music, sports, and creativity open doors for the Gospel
• How one transformed life can change an entire community
• Rolf’s vision to turn Khanyisa Mountain Lodge into a place of restoration for weary missionaries and ministry leaders

Whether you’re involved in missions, church leadership, nonprofit work, or simply want to understand how God works through faithful obedience, this conversation offers practical wisdom and powerful encouragement.

Subscribe for more conversations with missionaries, ministry leaders, and storytellers from around the world.

#Missions #ChristianPodcast #SouthAfrica #Missionary #ChurchLeadership #Nonprofit #Faith #Gospel #ChristianLeadership #Storytelling

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

I think pictures tell a story. You know, when you when you see something, it's the same way music creates an emotion. Music can create joy or it can create a sadness. And and I think when people see pictures and also when they hear the heart of whoever the visionary person is, that tells the story. And it's far better than um in the old days when we used to write letters. It's very interesting for me. I was 66. So many young people have said to me, we don't read newsletters anymore.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Right.

SPEAKER_05 0:34

You know, because I I've struggled a bit. Like I've I write these newsletters and I don't get a response from the people who've served there. And then one honest young German man said, Uncle Rolf, we don't really read newsletters anymore. You must just make a little TikTok video or something.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Welcome to the Five Nine Creative Podcast. I'm Jeff. Every story has the power to change the way we see the world and sometimes even the way we see God at work in the world. Through our travels, ministry partners, and storytelling projects, we've had the opportunity to witness incredible things. And this podcast is where we unpack those experiences and the lessons we've learned along the way.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Welcome. We are here with Rolf Weikart, my friend, who is from um South Africa, and we are um going to be talking about his ministry today, Kinesa. And it's a really interesting um ministry that they do. They've been involved in music and um after-school programs and all kinds of stuff over the years, and so we're excited to talk to him today. So thank you so much for being here with us.

SPEAKER_05 1:43

Thank you for having me, Kenisa.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Yeah. So tell me a little bit about um Canisa and how it got started.

SPEAKER_05 1:51

So um Canisa started in 1991. It was still during apartheid South Africa, and we had a dream to um work cross-culturally. We had a dream to see people from different cultures and ethnic groups come to know each other through a relationship with Jesus Christ. So we had a slogan in the day said um we're catalysts for change, and we use the creative art. So it was a band when we initially started, and for approximately 12 years, we worked in South African high schools, we traveled a bit abroad, um, but primarily with the message of racial reconciliation through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Tell me a little bit about kind of how that has shifted, and now what are you doing through Kinesa?

SPEAKER_05 2:35

So when the band ended because of um marriages and kids, um, we moved to a rural community an hour and a half outside of Cape Town, and we have a passion to reach historically disadvantaged youth, um, kids that have been affected by um poverty, kids who uh are literally disadvantaged because of a system that treated them as less than. And we it's not, it's it's actually a very simple model. We love the kids and they we build relationships with the kids. We obviously do Bible studies, we tell them about the Lord, they know we're Christians, but we're just wanting them to know that they are loved and cared for. And so we work under the banner um restoring dignity.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Tell me a little bit about um what the kids in your community face, like different hardships and stuff like that, and why that restoring that dignity is so important.

SPEAKER_05 3:31

Well, I'll maybe just go one step back. When we moved to um Robertson, it was winter in South Africa, and I was taking our youngest kid to school, where the school bus was fetching him, and I saw these kids walking in the dark, literally in the dark in the rain. And I stopped these kids, and it was early in the morning, it was like something to seven o'clock in the morning, and I asked them why they were walking so early, and they said, Well, it takes an hour and a half to get to school, and that really troubled me. And I thought, like, how is it possible that these kids have to walk an hour and a half to school and the people closest to them or the farm owners closest to them aren't providing transport? So that's really how we got our our um connection with the kids. I I took a couple of kids in the car, drove to their school, and just realized that um these kids are really like the least cared for in the broader South African community. It's like they're rural kids, um, there's not a great lot of government support, their schools are very impoverished, um, they don't have parents who care for them, they aren't good role models for them. So typically, a kid growing up in our community would definitely be exposed to gender violence. Um, I would I don't know this actual statistic for our community, but in Southern Africa, 70% of kids never even know their biological father. So they could be living in small houses where there could very easily be two or three men living in the house, and who knows who's the father of this particular kid. So their circumstances are very dismal. Um, there's there is physical abuse, there's obviously emotional abuse, and we we try hard to help these kids understand that they have value, that they're not a mistake, that God loves them completely. And we really can see how it works because um, and it's I don't say this with any um pride or with any um you know patting ourselves on the back, but in the community, if we drive through the community or this the the students who serve in our community, literally every every kid that you pass waves and calls you by name because they feel we we're possibly the only people except maybe school teachers, but people who really care for them and they're known it's it's tangible. So we we in South Africa we allow to touch and hug, and um it's we we often say to the students, um, you you may not be good at giving a grand Bible study, or uh you may not feel you're an eloquent speaker, but all you need to do is love these kids and they'll be eating out of your hand.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

So, what made you realize that this wasn't gonna just be a short-term little project?

SPEAKER_05 6:26

That's a very good question. I think um, Katie, from my early conversion days, I just had a heart for um people in society that are broken and marginalized. So I always say as I 61 is big in my life to bind up the brokenhearted, um, to set captives free. And in South Africa, with our history of racial oppression, um, there still are generations of young people who always see themselves as less than and not as equal to white people, and that obviously is a tragedy. And so um, by the time we arrived in Robertson where we live, um, I knew that this is what I'd already been doing it for many, many years. And I knew that I'd always have a heart to to reach out to the broken audit.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Yeah. And um, you know, we got to travel and uh we got to travel with you like 15 years ago and do a camp with you. Back then, that's when we first met. Um, and then uh my sister Cameron and I got to come and visit you this past year and film with you, and we got to see some of that um ministry stuff going on firsthand. And one thing about just you and your ministry in general that I've um just always noticed over the years is you just are a very consistent spirit. You're a consistent um source of truth in my life. You're um, you know, you're very consistent and um stable, a very stable presence for people in your life. And so why is that um stability and consistency, why is that important in what you do?

SPEAKER_05 8:18

So that's a very good question because at one point um we had challenges with um living on the farm where we stayed before, where we are now, and we were looking at other properties in the and in a 50-kilometer radius. But the thing that was most troublesome was that I felt like we'd already started in this community. And if there's something these kids need to see, it's consistency. And so um, I think Katie, I I'm cautious of big programs that start and just leave, you know, and I'm not critiquing a big, smart program, but I feel if we're consistently doing something, even if it's small work, um, there's a credibility in the community, the community knows who we are, um there's trust, there's a trust factor. Um, I absolutely know that the commit community trusts us as a ministry. So anyone who visits our community, if it's an American student or a German student or British student, um, immediately the schools would also trust the students because they know that we we've we've earned the right to be heard. And I I think um I don't want to maybe overplay this, but I think when you're ministering into a different culture group, there often is a sense that you have to earn the right to be heard, and and it takes time. And I think the one thing that um may have been problematic in the past, um, if I think of missional work in Africa, um indigenous people have often felt like um missionary programs come and they speak down to the people and they give them grand programs and then they exit. And so we've just had a heart not for one, not to tell them what we think we must do. So our whole philosophy in going to the schools is not one of saying this is what we want to do. Um, we've gone to every school where we work, and we work in five schools. Um, we'd say, How can we best serve you? So every school looks a little different. In some schools, we're involved in a feeding scheme, in another school it may be um helping with kids who struggle with reading, in another school it may be um their phys ed classes. But every it's our our whole philosophy of ministry is not we're gonna tell you what you need, we want to come and serve you. And I think the consistency in that is that um students may change because they obviously do, but um there's already a credibility of who we are because we're not it's not like we've come in and we've left again.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

And I think um what you're describing is some of the most successful missionaries and uh ministry organizations that I've been able to see over the years that are the most successful and have the most impact are the ones who come in and either they're an outside agency that comes in, but they work with indigenous people and they give the reins over to them. They may provide training, they may provide funding or equipment or something like that. But the whole time, their their whole goal is to be able to turn this over to them and let them run it because they're the ones that have the most knowledge about the area and the culture and all those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_05 11:46

And so instead of just coming in and, you know, trying to do things the way that you think that it should be done as so we so we do have indigenous leadership, we've always had local people that we've trained and hand over to them. And sometimes it's a challenge because I think it's probably best to say that every culture is different, and so maybe just one example would be when we're working with German um volunteers and students, it's a very organized culture and it likes to put things in boxes. And in Africa, people aren't like that, it's there's a lot more spontaneity, and I always help them understand that we've got to come to the level of the people. We don't it's not that one culture group is better than another culture group. We may be the ones who are initiating, but let's understand the context in which we work and serve them in their context. And and I'm very I'm super sensitive to the fact that we don't come and tell them this is how it must be done. And and you know, it sounds good and it it's the right thing, and not, but there are frustrations at times. And we'll often, as an example, we'll find that um teachers in the community are not as committed to the kids as we think they should be. But that gives us the space again to show the kids that we really are committed to. It's not just a program. So typically on a Friday night, we'd have um students come to our farm, and we call it Girls Night, it's mostly young teenage girls. And and the simple thing like just um inviting them into our home for a meal, which we do often, it's massive for them because they they may not say it, but they literally do see themselves as less than. And so it's just constant affirming and showing them that they're not less than, you know, that that um before God, we we all created in the image of God. And I always say God didn't say he created black the black man or the white man or the Hispanic or the Asian in his He created man in His image, and so we've we we're very intentional to help them understand that you are God's creation, and I'm not better than you because of a skin color. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

So I know with um, you know, you were mentioning you do different things at different schools, you do um music with them, music and dancing, you do sports, you do um, you know, kind of vacation Bible school kind of activity type of things. Why why do you do that kind of approach instead of just having them come and sit and teaching them about the Bible?

SPEAKER_05 14:39

Great question. I've I've always, I mean, I'm a creative artist, but I've always thought that music is very attractive to any culture group. Um, if you play music, kids come. So um music has always been a big part of the appeal for young people to come to a program. They love music, they love to dance. Um, but as an example, soccer is also big. But it also depends on who we have in the program at the time. Sometimes we've had um recently we had two German students who were both very serious soccer players. So that was such a gift to the kids because they could literally coach them, teach them soccer skills. And so in that season, soccer was a big part. And so I would say, um, Katie, our our program isn't a very it is structured, but it's it's there's enough space for in one season there may be a greater emphasis on music, in another season there may be a greater emphasis on soccer, but it's always it's changing depending on the gifting that we have in terms of the students who work with us.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

And so, how do you bridge the connection from music and sports and all that to the gospel?

SPEAKER_05 15:50

Well, the philosophy is that we'll always have a fun program, so whether it's soccer or music or a dance workshop or something like that, and then we always end it with a Bible story, and we've also introduced leadership principles. So we'll just have a leadership principle, something we've identified in the community, which we've spoken about a lot at this camp as well, is um respect. So in this community, um the kids we serve, they don't see respect model, they don't see parents talking to each other with respect. There's not a there's no honor, and so it's a value that we're constantly trying to rein reinstill or reinforce on them learning to honor the next person. And so, yeah, there's always leadership principles, and um, and I do look, it's not an easy, it's I always say I do believe culture can shift. So it doesn't matter what your context is. I I'm a passionate believer that culture shifts, and I'm very passionate about Romans 12, too. Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed out of the continuous renewal of your minds. And and I've been in ministry, or rather, we, my wife and I, and our family, where we've literally seen radical change in people, you know, where someone maybe as a grade six kid didn't not have any um self-esteem or did not see him worse off, and then over time we could see how they they moved to a place of I am, I do have value, I can do something with my life, and you see the you see the change in the people, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Yeah, so do you have somebody specific that um you've seen um from the community or from your program that has made a big life change and then kind of what they're doing now?

SPEAKER_05 17:41

Absolutely, yes. There's a um he now works for us, so he's from the community. And so when I when I describe the situation, I would say it is a dysfunctional community because there's gender violence and a lot of physical and emotional abuse. And um this particular young man, um, his mother literally just delivered him at his grandmother. He was three months old old, and his mom just brought him to his maternal grandmother and and left him. So already that he didn't grow up with a father, his grandmother raised him, that already sets a pattern of like rejection or you know, what why did my mom not want me? Um, and when we started working with him, all the typical um dysfunctions with their poor self-image. Um, and often when kids have a poor self-image, they also display it in aggressive ways. You know, it's it's easier to kick and fight than to choose love and nurture. But especially my wife in this particular young man's case, she's been very consistent in helping him understand that we see the potential in him, he has potential. And today he works for us. He's um he's a chef in the lodge, and he's not only a chef, he is, we say he's probably the most um multitask kind of a person because he's brilliant in landscaping, he's great with guests, he does front of house, he does so he can do in one week he can be working in the kitchen as a chef, and the next day he could be front of house working with guests, and the next day he could be doing landscaping, and he loves the diversity and he loves that. And I'd be I'd be honest, Katie, it's like there are times when he will fall back into um almost like the thinking of um, and I I sometimes feel it's almost like a test to us like, do you really care enough about me that if if I should make a mistake that you would still believe in me? And so we in the beginning we there were here comes, but but now there's such a strong trust relationship, and we've seen literally someone just blossom. There's there's more than there's another girl who also works in our she's in our laundry, and she was um also from a very dysfunctional, sorry, dysfunctional background, and the same for her, and and we often say they are probably our most loyal staff because they've literally come through the program, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you talked about the lodge. Um tell us a little bit about um the lodge where you live and work and what that um what the function of it is right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:28

Well, actually, Katie, that's it's kind of like a bitter suite situation. The lodge was built. The initial plan was that we would just have a like a guest house, a manor house, and the ministry is our main passion, and that the manor house or the the guest house would be um passive income, you know, for the ministry. And then with our German funder and donor, the vision just got, or the dream to have this guest house just became bigger and bigger. And by the time it was finished, we ended up having a five-star lodge. And we completed building operations just as COVID hit. So our first two years were just absolutely dismal, you know, to start hospitality during COVID. So um, sadly, so a lot of energy had to then go into making this upmarket venue work. And at times we felt like it was more of a distraction than the blessing it is supposed to be. But we've come full circle to a place where um, coupled with um having a heart for marginalized youth, I've also always had a heart for broken people. And um I've met so many Christians, especially missionaries, who um really struggle with fatigue. Um I I've had this dream in my heart that we would minister to weary people, and so we now um obviously. we're still running it as a business but we we have a gr we we have a bigger dream that more and more the lodge will be a place where people can um come and be restored and so I would say there's a big part of our hearts that wants to see the lodge the the the there's the ministry to the kids but the actual facility the lodge become more of a place of restoration for those who have been wounded and um those who are just fatigued. It's just something that's it's the Isaiah 61 picture to bind a brokenhearted and broken hearted and there there just are multitudes of people who've been on the mission field who've served in missions that are weary and hurt and tired and fatigued and it may not necessarily relate to the mission field we we recently had um a spiritual retreat for for um tired people and two two of our attendees were um people who'd lost their the one guy lost his wife about six months ago to cancer so he's still in the deep place of grieving and the one lady she she was um her and her husband um did missions in Turkey and he died of cancer about a year ago but she's still in the grieving process as well and it it feels like a joy that we could offer a safe space for them to to and I'll actually just tell you the story um the husband on the first night of us sitting together he said when his wife died his brother's a pastor and he um he was given so many scriptures of how to deal with his grieving and he said that evening he said I so wish that I could have then had what I have to now just people willing to listen and allow me to cry and just hold me and not necessarily give me an easy answer.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Right. You know that kind of that ministry of just presence and and um can be such a a meaningful thing for people um so you really want to kind of um flip the script on how you're doing the lodge now where you're wanting to do primarily ministry through the lodge and then have it generate income. So you're in the middle of fundraising for that tell me a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_05 24:30

So as you know you and your sister came to visit us it was October last year and we did some um recording and um telling the Canisa story and we had to raise a significant amount of um I think in it's 8 million South African Rand but I think in dollars it's probably about 400,000 and as a deposit because we're in the process of purchasing the lodge because the German landowner the main funder there's been a lot of change in his life and he's been very gracious kind very supportive person but he's wanting to hand over to us um and it's been quite intimidating to raise that kind of amount of money but um absolutely the visual tells a story and um and we we're not done yet we've raised our deposit but we we're trying to raise the full amount so that we don't have this burden of the lodge must generate money you know that we we're trying to get to a place where um we've raised enough capital that people can come and not have to pay. So the retreats that we have done now we've we've offered them free that people didn't pay and we had a an organization in America called Dee Pistol Missions um and they very much believe in um restoration and reaching out to people that are tired and weary especially people who've been in in missionary work.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

So they've already provided funding but yes absolutely the visual goes a long way and we're deeply grateful for what you've done for us and and I believe we'll continue to um to raise funds so that we can be at a place where we're not dependent on business as such in the lodge yeah right and so what is appealing about having video and pictures and stuff like that well how does it um what can it communicate to people who may have never seen the lodge may have never seen any of your ministry how has that helped them connect to it?

SPEAKER_05 26:41

I think Katie I mean you're a creative person so it's quite challenging for me to tell you but I think pictures tell a story you know when you when you see something it's the same way music creates an emotion music can create joy or can create a sadness and and I think when people see pictures and also when they hear the heart of whoever the visionary person is um that that tells the story and it's far better than um in the old days when we used to write letters it's yeah you know and I'll I'll say this it's it's very interesting for me I'm 66 um so many young people have said to me we don't read newsletters anymore.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Right.

SPEAKER_05 27:26

You know because I I've struggled a bit like I've I write these newsletters and I don't get a response from the people who've served there. And then one honest young German said Uncle Rolf we don't really read newsletters anymore. You must just make a little TikTok video or something.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Yeah yeah and so you know we've seen um a lot of ministries that maybe haven't had a big social media presence when they can kind of um lean into that it's you know we see a good bit of success and it's it can be hard and especially if you don't have the right kind of visuals um that's why we're we're so passionate about that.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

We're also at that place now where we still have the commercial videos so to speak for the bus for the business side which has been necessary um but um we're already working towards that shifting um that when people hear Canisa or Canisa Mountain Lodge that it would speak of ministry more than it speaks of just a place of um upmarket leisure.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Right exactly if one of your students was sitting here with you 20 years from now what would you hope that they will would have taken away from your ministry?

SPEAKER_05 28:42

I always say to students when they serve there, you know when you're 18, 19 or 20, you can't imagine that when you're 60 you'll remember what you did when you're 18, 19 or 20 but I fully remember the people in my life that impacted me when I was a young Christian. Fully remembered I can at times I can still visualize um where we sat and when I heard a particular story and um I would want I would hope that a student that um served with us 20 years from now when they look back and they say I lived on a farm in Africa and we saw life change lives change through the gospel of Jesus Christ that would be my hope that that that literally say we saw lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Yeah absolutely um so how can people get involved in your ministry?

SPEAKER_05 29:40

For young people it's um an application process to come as a volunteer and serve in the community so that's what we rely on we're very volunteer driven for the actual missions work. But I, you know, just talking to um the main speaker of this particular where we now this camp um I just thought like you know someone like Josh could be at Kines and we could run a leadership seminar. So I I'm so wide open Katie to what you know what skills people bring um because in Africa we're not quite as um I don't want to use the word sport that sounds negative but we're not as privileged as America is and um we have such a ripe mission field um there's so much need and so the skills that you bring if you could come to the lodge and run a seminar on social media right you know literally and that be a blessing to the ministry um help us get off the ground better or um a friend of mine who you know Mike Demas he's sound engineer and I said trust me you can come to South Africa for six weeks and do workshops on sound engineering so there's so many ways and we we do we're also very intentional in being part of the community the wider community so we are very intentional and focused on working with local churches and right now I've just um started um a project where I'm working with pastors um from poor communities and the wealthier communities and bringing them together and we call it like a safe space where on a Thursday morning we'll get together the and and literally you're talking about pastors some pastors who will have church in a tiny little shack and then there may be a pastor from a church that's a beautiful historical um big building but for the body of Christ to come together and to to grow together so there's there's that as well there's always an opportunity for us to be catalysts for change and for a relationship like ours where you've invested in us and and I know you didn't have a great financial reward but I I hope that when you hear the stories of what you know um what's happening in the lives of kids and with expectation in my heart say what still will happen yeah on the mountain on at Kenisa Mountain Lodge um that that would also be very fulfilling for anyone who serves into our ministry. I would really be sad if anyone who comes there to serve in whichever way leaves feeling I wasted my time. Yeah but I we we've not had that we've had um most well most if not all of the young people who serve they really live very sad because it's it impacts their lives too this is maybe just what I'm going to say in closing Katie it's like it's very interesting that the young people who serve in the volunteer like reach reaching out to um the the youth in our community um they come to minister but I often feel they get ministered to more because it's life changing for them to see poverty to be part of kids um being healed kids' lives being changed it actually impacts them as much or sometimes even in a greater way.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Yeah absolutely well I love you so much and I'm so appreciative of you and taking your time to to do this with us today.

SPEAKER_05 33:28

Thank you so much Caden you've been a huge blessing to us you know that thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yeah absolutely thank you thanks so much for hanging out with us today. If you found this conversation helpful take a second to like subscribe and share it with someone who would enjoy it. Until next time keep looking for the stories that God is writing around you.