Kathy Cotterrell
(nee Church) was born in
Kimberley,
South Africa, on 13 December 1951, to Thomas & Louisa Church. They have 4 children, of whom Kathy is the 2nd born.
Thomas (Tom) was a fitter & turner by trade and at the time of her birth, was working with a big diamond corporation on the outskirts of
Kimberley. Louisa (Lou) came from a small village a distance from
Kimberley, where she grew up on a farm. After Kathy was born they lived for about two years in company flats and then moved to the farm where Louisa’s father had been taken very ill, so that they could help her mother run the farm.
At the age of almost seven, her parents moved back to
Kimberley, where Thomas took a job at the local railway station where he worked until Kathy was about 13 years old, after which he and his brother started an engineering business of there own.
Her life was reasonably average: going to school (1959-1969), working (1970-2000), married (1973), had two lovely children, Suzette (who herself already is mother of two lovely children, Stephanie & Morne) and a blood technician by profession; and Eric (not married yet) who is a fine-dine chef by profession (his childhood desire). Unfortunately the marriage did not last, they got divorced in 1983, Kathy then moved back to Kimberley, and later to Pretoria, South Africa, where in October 1989 God at last managed to capture her heart and she said ‘yes’ to Jesus. She then moved back to Kimberley where she joined a local fellowship, attended Bible School, was involved in KAM, the ministry bookshop and the charity shop as well as attending Home Cell every Wednesday evening and prayer meetings every Saturday morning.
During this time Colin Cotterrell came into the picture and after a three month courtship they decided to get married. God took them from
Kimberley to Danielskuil to Delportshoop where they were both very involved in managing seven diamond mining projects and started a small fellowship in their Delportshoop home.
In 2000, after some encouragement from her daughter and husband, Kathy started writing small Christian booklets to help young believers who could not afford buying expensive books to understand, in layman language, God’s plan of redemption and regeneration. By 2003 she had already written 12 booklets of which three eventually were published in RSA and
Botswana, but in October 2003 she lost five years of work after a terrible power surge. Since then she has been writing the odd
article
here and there, and at present is working on a novel, which God willing should be available by 2008, if Jesus tarries!
In 2001, the Lord called them into fulltime mission work where they have been working ever since, first in
Botswana (2001-2006) and since February 2007 with
AIM Africa
in
South Africa and
Swaziland. Their immediate plan is to move to
Swaziland where most of the AIM ministry activities are taking place and from there be open to the Lord’s guiding, day by day!
