The mystique of Mozambique has captured the imagination of many.

It is one of the few places, apart from his country of origin, of which Bob Dylan wrote and sang about:

I like to spend some time in Mozambique

The sunny sky is aqua blue

And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek

It’s very nice to stay a week or two

And when it’s time for leaving Mozambique

To say goodbye to sand and sea

You turn around to take a final peek

Upon the beach of sunny Mozambique

On Boxing Day 2011, when seven Christian friends set out from Johannesburg to help with a mission in Mozambique, the lyrics and sound of Dylan’s love song were the furthest things from their minds.

But the aqua blue skies, sand and sea would be looked forward to, if time allowed, on their last day before returning to the high veldt of their landlocked city home.

Late on New Years Eve we received the grim news that two of the seven had drowned in the warm tropical ocean under the aqua blue sky that Dylan’s song had romanticised about.

Details of the tragedy were sketchy at first. But as more information filtered through, a story of heartbreak and heroism began to take shape.

One of the group, Sinazo, a final year medical student in Johannesburg, got caught in a rip. Hope, a student at the George Whitefield College (GWC) about to enter his final year of study, without thought for his own welfare or weakness as a swimmer, went to her rescue. Both drowned.

Two young people in their mid twenties, dedicating their lives to serving the Lord Jesus, one through bible teaching and church planting in Soweto and the other through practising medicine in impoverished urban communities in inner city Johannesburg.

When David Seccombe, the principal of GWC, received the news he recalls crying out and lamenting:

Lord, we are trying to build your kingdom. Why are you tearing it down?

At Hope’s memorial service a more composed David preached from John 12:27

Except a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains a single seed but if it dies it bears much fruit.

He went on to reflect:

Only when I saw the young people crowding into St Matthew’s Leondale (Hope’s home church in Johannesburg) and heard tribute after tribute did I see how that might be true of this 27 year old, who was not just a favourite at GWC, but also a leader at his own church’s youth, the greater Johannesburg area youth, and was involved in a church plant of one of our graduates in Soweto.

Derek and Anne Brown, retired missionaries from South Africa are now living in Sydney and part of the ministry at All Saints Waitara. They were Hope’s, and his family’s, pastors at St Matt’s Leondale in Johannesburg during Hope’s teenage years. Hope grew up with two older siblings under the leadership and care of their godly single mother, Constance. Derek and Anne recall:

The single parent Motlhope family were close knit and a source of great encouragement to us… during good and bad periods. As a teenager he was involved in Sunday School teaching, Christianity Explained courses, accompanied me on a mission trip at age 17 and was a regular visitor to the rectory to do school assignments and a variety of other things on our computer.

The current rector at Leondale, Rev Eric Sabela, himself a graduate from GWC, notes that during Hope’s two years at bible college:

His growth as a preacher and teacher had a clear evidence and indication of a man called by God and carried by the Spirit of God. He impacted both young and seniors. They often received calls and reading material from him; even the lukewarm types tended to be back in church when Hope was back in town.

In the weeks before his death Hope returned home to Jo’burg for the summer break. He was quickly mingling with young and old, taking a young adult bible study on Matthew 24:36-51 on, “Being found serving the Lord when he returns.” He led studies on a regional youth camp on the topic of heaven and on December 18 at St Matthew’s he preached what was to be his last sermon in which heaven was again brought to the fore.

A heartbroken but gospel trusting Eric Sabela concluded with these words:

Short lives, as far as numbers are concerned, yet a sweet smelling aroma to our Lord and Saviour Jesus. Hope was a young man whose life and service to Jesus touched every life that met him… a man of great humility. It is hard to believe that he is no more, but comforted by the fact that he is with the Lord and we were touched by his life and believed the gospel he lived for.

Hope acted that day as he sought to live every day. He loved his Lord. He loved to serve his Lord. The service he rendered that day was simply consistent with all that he relied on and rejoiced in as he built his life on the bedrock truths of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Will we live like Hope? Or will we remain in the shallow waters of Dylan’s time-bound sentiments about sand and sea, aqua blue skies and couples dancing cheek to cheek?

There will always be hope while people live like Hope Motlhope and testify to the hope we have in the crucified and risen Jesus.

Feature photo: Neosashimi