The importance Family and Faith in ordinary family life was brought home to our family when I and one of my sons faced the ordeal of criminal and civil charges in South Africa from 2006 to 2013.
We appeared in court 42 times on serious criminal charges of theft, fraud and money laundering. If found guilty we could be sentenced up to 15 years in gaol. At the same time, we were sued civilly for substantial sums of money.
At the start of our ordeal we were arrested by the Scorpions, driven in a convoy of police vehicles from Pretoria to Johannesburg in peak traffic and appeared in court in handcuffs. Our passports were confiscated to the State.
At the same time, we had to try and deal with the serious consequences in our personal, professional and community lives. The idea slowly evolved to look at the role of family in supporting each other, the issues facing families and the glue that binds family members together in today’s world which must include faith as a way of life more than anything else in order to live life to the fullest.
Doug Boake
