Longtime residents, Ferdie (74) and Ria Warwick (70) have moved away after 37 years in Amanzimtoti.
“It is with mixed emotions that we close this chapter in the book of our lives, and open a new chapter,” said the Warwicks.
Both their children, Yréne and Adele grew up in Amanzimtoti. They went to Warner Beach Preparatory School and matriculated at Kingsway High School.
Ferdie was born in Morogoro in the then-Tanganyika, now Tanzania, and Ria was born in Springs.
The couple met at a church camp and moved to Toti when Ferdie accepted the call as pastor to Sweetwaters Church on 1 May 1980.
Ferdie was a full-time pastor and he has emeritus pastor status in the Full Gospel Church of God in SA.
READ ALSO: Sweetwaters founder turns 90
Ria worked as an executive secretary to the marketing executive at Ithala Development Finance Corporation. She took early retirement at the end of 2000 and Ferdie retired at the end of March 2015.
“So much of our lives are invested in Toti, but there’s a time for everything and the time has come for us to move on. We planned to spend our retirement years in Toti, but it was not meant to be. Once again we realise that “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9).
We’re moving to Kloof. Our younger daughter, Adele and her family live there and they convinced us that building a cottage on their property is a brilliant idea.
There is so much we will miss about Toti. Thirty seven years is a long time. When we moved here in 1980, Toti was a still a village and, of course, we loved the village atmosphere. But Toti grew and is now a big town.
Most of all, we will miss the people. The community have always been kind and friendly to us, which really means a lot and we want to thank them for that. We have made many wonderful friends here and will miss just being able to pick up the phone and arrange an impromptu coffee visit at any of the many lovely coffee shops in Toti.
We will always remember Toti with much fondness.
We also thank the members, past and present, of Sweetwaters for their love, kindness and support during all the years that we’ve been associated with the church. It has been a great honour and privilege to serve you and be associated with you for 35 years – God bless you. We will always keep you close to our hearts.
We’re not saying farewell, as we will definitely be popping around from time to time to visit friends, see our doctor, our pharmacy, hairdresser and so on – fortunately we will be within easy reach.”
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