The message was that it is by the grace of God that we have the things that we have, it is up to us to be good stewards of everything that we have and do, because what we have is on loan to us from God.
The passage concluded by talking about our health and our reliance on all sorts of medicine to live and how we run to the doctor at the slightest thing and yet God himself has told us that he is our healer (Exodus 15 :26). We should look to God in the first instance for healing, but God also created physicians and they play there part in the healing process. George told us that in something like 85 % of illnesses were actually weakness of spirit and we should put out trust more in God.
We then had a short time of reflection followed by prayer of thanks and prayers for what is going to be a busy week for the Hands community.
This was followed, as last Monday, by praise and prayer. The bible readings lead to discussions about leadership, particularly referring to those in national and local government.
Today's care point was at Zwilisha, a community which was only set up 18 months ago. We were all looking forward to this visit as none of us had visited there before; it was good to see a care point in the early stages as the others we had visited were well established. We received a very warm welcome from the care workers who were extremely well organised having already prepared most of the food.
The care centre was different to the other two that we have visited as they were still working in temporary buildings. The only permanent building was a Wendy house that the fire service had donated on Mandela Day this year. It is hoped that a permanent building will soon be built.
Building work for a permanent structure is going to commence next week. The breeze blocks were already on site and in position. Money awarded to "The Room" from the 2014 Deanery Project will go along way to funding this new building.
We were then split into three groups so that we could make Holy Home visits with the Care Workers.
The first group visited Celine who was living with her son and her older daughter, although we arrived to discover that the daughter had left the home leaving her young son there to be looked after by his grandmother. Her brother's daughter also lived in the house, she had left school as she is expecting a baby in October. Her boyfriend had also left school to find work so that he could support the family. Celine is a Jehovah's Witness, and had been for 22 years, so declined our prayers. As we were leaving she gave us some cassava to take to the care point, this was immediately prepared for tomorrow's dinner for the children. As we were leaving we were presented with a plate full of cassava for us to try, Clive mentioned that he had been waiting 60 years to try some, as his father used to say how good it was, after eating it in the Gambia in the war.
The second group walked for 20 minutes along the road to visit a grandmother who was looking after her grand daughter, Joy, as her mother had passed away. Joy is sixteen but is still at Primary School as she had learning difficulties and could not move up to High School until she graduates. Also in the household were two of Joy's aunties one of which had an eight month old baby. Grandmother was not at the house when we arrived as she was working in the local school. The school was directly across the road so she came across to spend her break with us. She sat with us and asked us to pray for Joy and asked for help in finding a new job as she was finding her present one too hard.
The third group walked a short distance from the Care Point to visit a twenty one year old boy called Siabo who lived with his grand mother and six other siblings and cousins aged between two and twenty one years old. Siabo was thought to be vulnerable as he had repeatedly failed at grade ten and therefore had not matriculated. Hands was working with the family to help him complete his studies. The group was then joined by another grandmother who lived next door, she had her orphaned grand daughter with her. She explained that she was struggling as she had no I.D. so they were living on the children's allowance and help from the other members of the family.
We all returned to the Care Point and enjoyed playing with the children. We were all impressed with their skipping skills and they were impressed by the rainbow coloured parachute.
All too soon it was time for pre dinner prayers and bible readings. These were led by a very mature young leader, Celine, in grade 10 who had excellent English skills, she kept the register, led the prayers and ensured that we served exactly the correct proportions of food to all of the children.
All too soon we had to leave the children while they were enjoying their meal of cabbage, pap and potato. Everyone felt that it was a very rewarding visit to a well organised centre which offered us a very warm welcome. We wish them well in the future and hope that their permanent buildings are soon constructed.
Blogged by Christine
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