New Lutheran church pastor welcomed

PASTOR Reiner Focke, his wife, Anne and son Michael have arrived in Empangeni and will be the spiritual leader of the Trinity Evangelical Church (Zululand) with centres in eShowe, Darnall, Empangeni and Richards Bay.

He was inducted into Trinity at the Empangeni centre on last Sunday, by Bishop Horst Muller.

Reiner was born in Pretoria and grew up on an irrigation farm near Brits.

He attended Voorwaarts Primary School and then the Brits Hoërskool.

He studied Veterinary Science at Onderstepoort, qualified as a veterinary surgeon in 1986 and is still a registered vet.

Reiner attended the ‘Studentenkreis’ at the St Peter’s Congregation in Pretoria where he met his future wife, Anne Monika Drews, and they got married in 1990.

After doing his two-year National Service and working for a short while as a locum for vets, Reiner studied theology at the University of Natal Pietermaritzburg and obtained his BTh in 1993.

After a year of internship in Lingen, Germany in 1994, he served for three years in the Michaelis Congregation in Vryheid before moving to Neuenkirchen Congregation, Harburg in 1998.

Anne grew up in Pretoria and attended the Deutsche Schule Pretoria and Verwoerdburg Hoërskool.

She qualified as an occupational therapist in 1988 and is still practising.

Her main area of interest lies in treating children with developmental delays.

Michael is attending Felixton College as a Grade 8 pupil.