Day 11- Houtbos

Today we got up quite early as we had women’s and men’s prayer. At the Oshoek Service Centre they hold these both on the same day. Oliver set up his cafe and made sure everyone had hot drinks ready for prayer time.

Here are a couple of paragraphs about our time this morning before we continue with the main blog. 

Women’s Prayer (By Pippa) 

Today we had woman’s prayer in Osheok, around the fire as it was so cold. We started by going around the group saying how we were feeling and how we slept. After that we sung a worship song before praying together. The bible verse we read today was Acts 9:36.

Tabitha got ill and died and they washed her body and put it upstairs. Peter was in Lydda and he came and prayed and urged Tabitha to get up and she did. 

During her life Tabitha had been a good woman and had done good works to help others. When she died many people mourned her death and were broken without her. The message of this verse was to think about our lives. Have we blessed and made significant impact on enough people with Gods love that they would be broken if we died today. The verse also reminds us to be like Tabitha in our lives. She was kind, she helped others and made clothes for the poor. This reminded us all to keep working towards helping others in our daily lives. We concluded with prayers after reflecting on this verse. 

Men’s Prayer (By Oliver) 

This morning we had an opportunity to have another Men’s prayer session while the women had their prayers inside around the stove, the men sat outside in the sun. Senzo led the the session. We had an opportunity to share how we are feeling, at this point Senzo shared some sad news that Sthobela A, a community that hands previously supported that had now graduated, has had the roof stolen in the past week - we prayed for this situation.  We then read a passage from Mark 9: 35 “He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, "Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else." 

We were then encouraged to think about our positions in the world and our communities as well as within our families. We discussed our beliefs that God had called us all here at this time to be servants to him, and that we had put our personal lives behind us to serve God and our community in South Africa. We discussed about God being the wisdom of all things and that we should turn to him and use him as the foundation of all of our decisions. We also thought about how we should use the wisdom of others who have been put into our lives for us to learn from. 

We had a time of individual prayer and then we prayed all together for everything we had discussed and was on our hearts from this mornings prayer session.  

After women’s and men’s prayer we got ready to go out to Houtbos. It was really cold so we layered up and went to community. 

When we got there the smaller children were not in school as the primary school was being cleaned so we played with them. Oliver and Nick helped polish the Care Point floor, Pippa and Noah set about chopping the vegetables whilst Alice and Rachel played with the small children. 

We then all got the balls and bats out and played some batting games. 

Then it was time to do the morning meeting with the Care Workers where we sung and said how we were. We did this outside in the sunshine which was extra special. We then prayed for some of the prayer points and then Nick shared some words of encouragement. He shared from Matthew 5:14 about being a light of the World like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden! This felt very apt given being on top of a mountain in the sunshine! 

Some of the team then went out on Holy Home visits (see separate blogs) and some of us stayed at the Care Point (Pippa and Rachel) to play with the children. We got some bubbles and skipping ropes out and played with them for a while until the groups on the Holy Home visits came back. 

When they returned we played with the parachute until it was time for their prayers and worship before lunch! Lunch today was rice, mince and beetroot.

After lunch we got the speaker out and danced with the children as they love it. 

And after we finished dancing the children surprised us with wanting to sing and dance for us which was really nice.

As it was our last day in Houtbos we were saying goodbye when some of the care workers and children wanted photos to remember us. That was lovely. 

When we got back to the service centre we had a debrief with Virginia before settling down for the night. Oliver then produced some random portable camping shower contraption that we all then gave ago! It worked quite well! Gift shared her story over dinner and now we are looking forward to playing rage and going to sleep to be rested for our day in Osheok tomorrow. 

By Rachel

Day 11 - Houtbos Holy Home Visits - Visit 2: Oliver and Nick

Nick and myself walked with Virginia, Penelope, Care Worker Nelli and local pastor Dumi approximately 45 minutes from the Care Point to meet Jackson and his family at their home in a rural area of Osheok. In the home lives Jackson and his wife with 4 children; a 17 year old from his first marriage, a 7 year old, 4 year old and 4 week old from his current marriage. The 4 week old was doing very well and gaining weight well. 

Jackson was telling us about how his wife went into labour at approximately 2am however they had to wait until later in the morning when the labour was progressing to then walk up the mountain to get to a road where they were able to get a car and travel to the hospital. Jackson was originally from Eswatini, as is his first born child, however his wife and other three children can be registered as South African, get ID and therefore are eligible for grants. 

When we arrived, Jackson was watering his vegetable patch. It was explained that as Jackson was a hard worker in the community and even comes to the care point to help chop wood and cut the grass - Hands at Work had provided him with some seeds so that he was able to start a vegetable patch. They also had provided the materials needed for a fence to protect his growing produce. 

He was growing spinach, lettuce, beetroot, onions, green peppers and a small amount of cabbages. He also had lots of peach trees as well as some self set avocado trees. Jackson explained that some of these will feed his family, however the majority he will harvest and then go and sell door-to-door at the border to get money to buy more seeds and other food for his family.  Some members of our visit assisted Jackson in watering his vegetables and they way Jackson watered each plant individually reminded me of the parable of the lost sheep told in Matthew 18: 12-14 and that if Jackson lost 1 plant then he would do what he could to rescue it as each one is precious. 

Having been joined on our visit by Pastor Dumi, we were privileged to have him share some words of encouragement with the couple. Pastor Dumi spoke about Psalm 27:1-5 (below). Dumi encouraged the couple and ourselves to always praise the Lord for what we have and even on the days where we don’t have anything to still thank him, and to remember to trust in the Lord for he will provide. 

After the encouragement provided by Pastor Dumi, we then asked Jackson and his wife for prayer points - they advised that they are still awaiting confirmation and certification of South African identity for 2 of the children and asked for prayer for these to come quickly so they could claim the grant and for these continued growth of the vegetables so that they can benefit from them. 

We then walked back to the Care Point - accompanied some of the way by Jackson - allowing us to get to know everyone a bit better and ask questions about each other’s lives. 

27 A psalm of David. 

The Lord is my light and my salvation-so why should I be afraid?

The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?

When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.

Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid.

Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident

The one thing I ask of the Lord-the thing I seek most-

is to live in the house of the Lord all the

days of my life, delighting in the Lord's perfections and meditating in his Temple.

For he will conceal me there when troubles come;

Day 11 - Houtbos Holy Home Visits - Visit 1: Alice and Noah

We went on a Holy Home Visit which was down the mountain and through the trees. It was to check on a teenage girl that had had a baby 18 months ago and hadn’t returned to the Care Point. 

It was quite a trek! Busie and Nontobeko came with us along with the Care Worker Nohlanhla. Along the way they shared a bit more about the family we were visiting. The older sister had gone to Eswatini and got married but it hadn’t worked out so she had returned but hasn’t really been seen recently. There are also two boys in the family. 

On arrival at the home we were greeted by the teenager Nonnee and her Dad. Her Dad is a farmer and he quickly got us some benches to sit on. It was very hot sitting in the sun. Nonnee and her Dad Sam had excellent English! Sam is a farmer and has en extensive plot! Sam currently supplies the Care Point with a large bag of mini meal every month or so which is amazing. Busie encouraged him to share this with others in the community as then they would become jealous and this would encourage them to see how they could support the Care Point. 

Nonnee went to pick up her child from the neighbours- she was also not at School today because she had a tooth ache! 

We had heard yesterday that School was closed today for Grade R to 4 and we found out today that it was ‘Love your School’ day where teachers, parents, carers and the older children clean and fix up the School etc. Sam had gone in the morning to help. Busie suggested that we should have a ‘Love your Care Point’ day where Care Givers and the community could come and paint the buildings, mow the grass and tend to the Care Point! Everyone thought this was a great idea! 

Sam shared his passion for farming with us all and also about the challenges of the community of Houtbos that there are many people that don’t have papers from either South Africa and Eswatini and that he wanted to help with this by having conversations with the Chief. Busie suggested that he could offer to show people how to set up small plots of land with crops and then might be able to get the support of the Chief and others. It was also suggested that he could also up-skill others in the community so they can provide for themselves. Sam agreed and is already speaking and sharing his knowledge at a community meeting on Friday. 

Sam thanked us for coming to visit and said that us sitting on his benches was a real honour. He was interested in what the UK was like so naturally we talked about the weather and how it varies to South Africa. We discussed the rain particularly how in South Africa it rains a lot in short spells at a time whereas in the UK it can drizzle for days! We then discussed about Alice’s time in South Africa as a teacher and how she was unable to stay before then Noah shared about being a paramedic. 

Before we left, Sam shared that his children benefit from the Care Point in many ways but particularly that they gave them blankets and that his wife visits the Care Workers every week to say thank you. He then asked Alice to pray for strength and provision to build a concrete house so that his family will have a stable home for years to come and that he can continue to help the community. Alice prayed for these things and also health for Nonnee and that she will be encouraged as a young mum and be able to move up to Grade 12 in January. Noah then spied a very large and tall chicken which made us all chuckle! 

We then started the long walk back up the mountain to the Care Point. Noah asked Busie to share her story on the way which helped pass the time as well as being inspiring and interesting!

 

Blogged by Alice and Noah