7 Anne James’ story 2

Anne James responding to Cas Weber about her grandfather, Bill Westcot.

Thanks very much for your message Cas. Oh My! This is exciting. I do apologise for taking so long to respond. I delved into my grandfather’s and my journals of our many hours of discussion over this period in order to confirm times and dates. Just to give you some idea ; a brief background into the life of my grandfather Bill Westcott who passed away three years ago at the age of 75.

From Kwa-Zulu Natal and having spent most of his life here; married etc; my grandparents separated due to my grandfather’s rather sad affair with drugs. He moved to Johannesburg in the 1960′s. Spent most of his time (if not all) in Hillbrow; living from hand to mouth and later on as a drug addict whose job it was to supply drugs to others. So yes he was a drug supplier and mostly delved in and was addicted to LSD. This continued until the early 70′s when he “found” himself in Cape Town and in Cape Town central.

He remembers walking aimlessly around the centre of Cape Town and suddenly found himself in the middle of a rally. It was a Christian rally of sorts. People were crowding the street and listening to men (including Brian O’Donnell) preaching the gospel. To cut a long story short; my grandfather remembers kneeling down and completely surrendering his life to Jesus Christ.

His life changed dramatically and his first mission was to travel to Durban to reconcile with my grandmother ; travelling back to Johannesburg to collect his belongings ; he met a man along the way who was wanting to minister to prisoners and hand them bibles so instead found himself at a prison in the Karoo ; due to him having spent a short time in jail for a drugs related crime he felt too that this was the least he could do.

It was here that together with this gentleman (whose name I do not know) he met a prisoner whom he only remembers as John. Both my grandfather and his gentleman spent some time at the prison and then my grandfather and this other man (with whom he became a good friend) continued on their way back to Johannesburg.

He also spent some time in Hillbrow and people were naturally astonished in the dramatic change in my Grandfather. Some time later my grandfather and his friend miraculously bumped into this young man again and invited him to church. The young man gave his life to Jesus that night. That was the last time he saw John. My grandfather often talked about him, wondered how he was getting on and what became of him.

If your husband Johnni Weber is the same John ; how wonderfull! When he reads this; I am sure he will remember. Has your husband continued well in his Christian walk?

Back to my grandfather ; He returned to Natal and my grandmother and he reconciled. Both attended bible school and later on my grandfather was instrumental in co-leading and pioneering a church called THE WALK where hippies and other folk of all walks of life congregated and grew in Jesus. The rest of my grandfather’s history is colourful and meaningful. His love for these wonderful people from the Hippie movement touched his heart. His vision was to trace as many Christians from that period including hippies.

08 March at 11:19

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