August is Women’s Month: Profile of extraordinary women in our community
“Part of my calling as a community and justice pastor is to assist where possible and as much as possible victims of any kind of abuse, sexual crimes, human trafficking."
Wendy McKillop is a community and justice pastor at Frontline City Church in Ambot AH, Roodepoort.
She was born in Pretoria and spent most of her childhood in Welkom before moving to the Johannesburg area in the late 80s.
The proud mother of two was raised in a Christian home and made her own decision to follow Christ in 1979.
“I am a survivor of sexual molestation, depression and divorce. It was shortly after my divorce in 2007 that I met my current pastors and friends, Hannes and Mandy Wessels who played an integral part in my emotional and spiritual healing,” said Pastor Wendy,
In 2010, at the age of 45, Pastor Wendy decided to study through Unisa and graduated in 2016 with a BA Health Science and Social Services.
After volunteering for three years, she left her job of 16 years in 2017 and worked full time in the anti-human trafficking field, working mainly with survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation until August 2019.
Pastor Wendy plays a part in building effective support, communication and bridges between law enforcement and the Church, as well as encouraging appreciation and gratitude of the community in general, to all our community services.
“Part of my calling as a community and justice pastor is to assist where possible and as much as possible victims of any kind of abuse, sexual crimes, human trafficking etc.
“I am a lay counsellor and offer pastoral, grief counselling, trauma counselling and debriefing to community members.
“I am also busy training as a community chaplain through Trauma Support SA, and I am a member of our Sector 3 CPF,” said Pastor Wendy.
When asked by the Northsider about her work in the community, Pastor Wendy reveals that she is blessed and very fortunate to have been able to go from being broken to where she believes that she can do anything through Christ who strengthens her.
“One day when my time on earth is done, I want to know that I’ve played a significant role in actually being part of my community, not just living in it. In my eulogy I’d like it said that I lived a significant life,” said Pastor Wendy.
According to Pastor Wendy, women do enough and have to go through enough to deserve to be celebrated.
