A Morning at Character Cafe with a main character from the Our House series — a guest from The Singer’s Calling
AMY: Welcome to the Character Café, Elias. Since you’ve come all the way from Cedarfontein, South Africa, why don’t you choose something to eat before we start chatting. You need a tea and a pastry from our menu that represent home.
ELIAS: Rooibos. That part is easy. And if you have melktert, I’ll take a slice.
AMY: We absolutely have melktert. I guess we should explain to the readers that South African milk tart, or melktert in Afrikaans, is a traditional heritage dessert featuring a sweet pastry crust filled with a light, creamy milk custard and dusted with ground cinnamon. Here is the recipe we are using from Feast and West: https://feastandwest.com/south-african-milk-tart/
ELIAS: Excellent. Your café is remarkably well stocked.
AMY: We try to represent all the characters who come to visit something tasty. Tell readers a little about Cedarfontein. What’s it like being a pastor there?
ELIAS: It’s a small town along the Garden Route, tucked against the Outeniqua Mountains. Beautiful place. Forests, farms, mountains not far away. And the sort of town where people know when you’ve changed your haircut before you’ve decided whether you like it yourself.
AMY: So there are drawbacks.
ELIAS: I was going to say accountability.
AMY: Of course you were. What is Hope Fellowship like?
ELIAS: It’s a small church. About a hundred people. We worship in an old stone chapel on Jakaranda Laan. Being their pastor means preaching on Sunday, certainly, but it also means hospital visits, cups of tea, helping someone move furniture, sitting with people when there aren’t good words to say. Sometimes it means holding a baby while her mother cries. You learn quickly that ministry happens in ordinary places.
AMY: Which is actually how you met Alexandra, isn’t it? Not in an ordinary place—but through ministry.
ELIAS: Ja. Though we didn’t meet face-to-face at first. Alexandra was in Pennsylvania, volunteering online with HarborLight. Late one night, she answered a message from a young woman in Cedarfontein who was in a very dark place. Alexandra kept talking to her while help was arranged here.
AMY: And that brought you into the conversation.
ELIAS: It did. One desperate message crossed an ocean and connected quite a few lives.
AMY: What was your first impression of Alexandra?
ELIAS: That she was stubborn.
AMY: Elias!
ELIAS: You asked.
AMY: Anything more flattering?
ELIAS: She cared very deeply about people and tried very hard to pretend she didn’t need anyone caring quite so deeply about her.
AMY: That’s better.
ELIAS: I didn’t say the stubborn part was bad.
AMY: Eventually she came to South Africa. Was she what you expected?
ELIAS: No.
AMY: Care to elaborate?
ELIAS: She was funnier. More complicated. And quieter in certain ways than I expected. I knew she had been a singer. I knew about the cancer and what it had cost her. What I didn’t understand until she was here was how much of herself she thought she had lost along with the life she’d planned.
AMY: And what did you think when you heard her sing?
ELIAS: I think you’ll have to read the book for that.
AMY: You’ve been talking to Jonas.
ELIAS: Oh yes. Alexandra’s sister’s fiance. He’s becoming quite famous with his suspense series that partially takes place in Cape Town. He gave me some marketting tips.
AMY: All right. Pennsylvania versus the Western Cape. You’ve never been to Pennsylvania, so what do you imagine would feel familiar?
ELIAS: Mountains. Small communities. People attached to where they come from. Churches where everyone knows which casserole dish belongs to whom.
AMY: That last one is remarkably accurate. Different?
ELIAS: Your winters concern me.
AMY: Fair.
ELIAS: Alexandra has explained snow blowers and snowplows that attach to ATVs to to me. I remain unconvinced that people should willingly live somewhere that requires them to shovel themselves out before going to work on winter mornings.
AMY: And what do you think Alexandra would miss most if she stayed in Cedarfontein?
ELIAS: Her family. Her students. Her doctors. The potential to get back in with her band which is recording an album with a small record label.
AMY: You answered that awfully quickly.
ELIAS: I’ve thought about it.
AMY: I see. And what would you miss if she went home?
ELIAS: Amy.
AMY: Yes?
ELIAS: Eat your melktert.
One late-night message. Two people on opposite sides of the world. And a woman who thought losing her dream meant losing her calling.
The Singer’s Calling, Book 7 in the Our House on Jakaranda Laan series, releases Friday.
Cancer took Alexandra Ward’s leg. It also took the future she thought she wanted.
Now she spends her days answering crisis calls for Harbor Light and trying to figure out what comes next.
When a desperate late-night call connects her with a pastor and a young mother in South Africa, an unexpected friendship begins to grow across continents. As the months pass, Alexandra finds herself drawn into lives she never expected to touch—and questioning whether God might still have plans for her voice after all.
The Singer’s Calling is a heartwarming story of faith, friendship, healing, and the surprising ways God brings people together when they need one another most.
Our House on Jakaranda Laan
Our House on Jakaranda Laan is the third in the multi-author, multi-genre Our House series. Located near the majestic Garden Route of South Africa, the town of Cedarfontein has roots stretching far back in history while living firmly in the present. With stories of redemption and salvation behind every door, you’re sure to find a new tale of romance, intrigue, humour or heart. All you have to do is knock!
Other books can be read in any order:
The Mask’s Shadow by Anna Jensen
The Daughter’s Goodbye by Danielle Grandinetti
The Enemy’s Sister by Dienece Darling
The Fullback’s Try by Caroline Johnston
The Dreamer’s Promise by Vida Li Sik
The Fixer’s Release by Vida Li Sik
The Survivor’s Journey by Francine Beaton
The Location Scout’s Quest by Christine L. Henderson
The Ranger’s Restoration by Lori Soard
The Caretaker’s Choice by Elsabé Welman
The Doctor’s Burden by Allyson Koekhoven
The Hacker’s Headache by Ashley Winter
The Developer’s Dilemma by Jilly du Plessis
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