Destined to draw for the Kingdom
Gateway News is delighted to introduce and welcome Bernard de Jager — otherwise known as Barry — who will be drawing a topical cartoon for our readers to enjoy each week from now.
Barry lives and works in the Helderberg area as a creative editor at a Somerset West production house where he dreams of creating his first Christian film. He is married to the love of his life, Susan de Jager and God has blessed them with a three year old son, James.
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Barry says his love for drawing started as far back as he can remember. At the age of 16 he was angry at God for things that were happening in his life and he told God to take back his talent because he would never draw again. He got sick and after a week was unable to walk. God told him to draw and he recovered on the day that he obeyed the Lord and began drawing again.
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Barry promised God that he will never take his gift for granted again. And he maintains that his ideas are not his own but that God helps him to be creative for the sake of His Kingdom.
He wanted to become an editorial cartoonist from a young age and approached many newspapers but says he was “always given the one word they all seem to know so well: No.” But the negative responses pushed him to get better and better at his craft.
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Then at this year’s Karoo Mighty Men Conference he saw a Gateway News video clip on the big screens and it confirmed something he had been awaiting for so long. He wrote a letter to the Editor of Gateway News asking if he could draw cartoons for the publication — “And the rest is a very short history”.
“I am looking forward to spreading the Word of God through creative cartooning for a digital newspaper that loves God passionately,” he says.
Barry’s first published cartoon for Gateway News (below) fittingly is inspired by the news that the Mighty Men Conference is being re-established in the Western Cape. Nor is it insignificant that he is wearing a Mighty Men tartan scarf in the photo on this page. God is saying something.
