::: Zachariah Cianda Tribute :::

Praise God.

My name is Zachary Chianda, the 6th Born in the Chianda family. Iam here this morning to give tribute to our late brother, son, uncle and friend. Halewijn became a member of the Chianda family in 1989 upon marrying our sister Joyce. We remember Halewin for many things. For 20 years he has been a son to our parents, a brother  to Joyce’s siblings (that is brothers and sisters) and uncle to our children. We have many children  in Cianda family and even the bigger extended family.

Halewijn has participated fully in all key family gatherings and functions; christmas parties, church functions, get-togethers, marriages, weddings, baptismal and all those things, he was part of the family. He rarely missed these functions unless on safari. He was a very adaptable gentleman, never expressed boredom or impatience, even in our rural settings or with our a local dialect which we often spoke as brothers and sisters.  With all this he never felt left out. I would say that Halewijn was not only bright but enthusiastic in all circumstances.

We remember Halewijn as a very talkative person.  I would personally say there was a time he traveled for 10 hours from Utrech to a town called Ormos in Denmark to come and have fellowship with me. Utrech is in the centre of Holland and Ormos is the centre of Denmark. At the time I was attending a course there. We talked for a marathon 18 hours after which he got into his vehicle again and drove for 10 hours  back to Utrech.  I know him as a talkative person with a lot of energy who could engage somebody for hours and  not get bored. My older brother David stated he found Halewijn’s talk therapeutic to him. Halewijn would come to his office every time he was in Nairobi and they would sit for hours to an end chatting and discussing politics, contemporary business issues, economics and trends in the nation.

We found Halewijn very approachable as a person. He was able to relate to different members of the family with ease. It did not matter the age, gender or educational orientation. It did not matter whether you were a small child or like our mum he would find away of engaging you. He had a word and was  able to communicate one on one with most of the family members. In spite of his safaris, he kept himself  well informed of key developments and issues in the larger family and was never left out on family happenings even when on safaris.  We knew Halewijn as someone who had a ready smile for everybody.

He treated all family members with due respect and that is why we are recognizing him and paying tribute to him..... we will miss him. We will miss his engaging smile; his openess and approachability; his chit-chat demeanour and his tall towering frame among the Cianda family, he was the tallest among the Cianda family.

But as the wise King Solomon in the Bible noted in Eccleciates3:1, “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to come and a time to go.” For Halewijn a time to bid farewell to Halewijn fell due last week on 9th of December, Wednesday 2009.

We are praying that God will rest his soul in eternal peace and provide comfort and encouragement. I urge you to keep putting your trust in God Lord Almighty the maker of Heaven and earth, the one who gave us Halewijn for these 20 years and the one who has taken him away. Praise be to his Holy name. He is a God of all comfort, a husband to widows and  a father to the fatherless. So Joyce don’t think you have lost a husband, God will be by your side.

To Jalida and Ngalivia, we are told by the holy scriptures God is a father of the fatherless so he will step in to fill the gap. God is our fortress and our shield, he is our shelter and the rock of our salvation, he is our salvation.

He is Jehova Shalom, our Peace. Peace be with you and God bless you.