All is in God’s Hands

March has been a continuation of our support to the ongoing projects and helping out wherever we can. We are noticing a real impact that these projects are having on people’s lives. Knowing that someone cares about them and recognises their worth ignites personal self-belief in those who are served. The benefit of this is very real, and lasts longer than just feeding alone. We pray for continued guidance in our work and blessings on all that we do. We know that all is in God’s hands and that no plans are able to be undertaken without His support. We are thankful for the many God moments which are revealed to us every day. These help to strengthen our faith and keep us motivated, energised, and determined to be able to continue to serve our Heavenly Father.

This month we have been working on the following projects:

1. Soup kitchen at Green Village

We have continued to support the community at Green Village. Handing out hot food and food parcels. We have set up a volunteer routine for the soup kitchen on the second Friday of each month, and hand out food parcels on the 4th Friday. The community expresses their thanks and gratitude to us for believing and supporting them. We support both the new and old block of the village and we enjoy getting to know all of them. We hope that our continued support will help them fill the gap in their need for food, and also let them know that there are God fearing people that care about them. 

2. Sunflower Children’s Creche

We have had a couple of visits to Jacqueline's Sunflower nursery school to repair the outdoor road track play area, and to add a police station. It was disappointing that on the first visit there was a sudden storm that 'stopped play' and the work needed to be abandoned. We had better luck on a second visit and managed to get the police station completed, as well as a few other repairs. We will keep returning to maintain and finish the project fully. Both Jacqueline and AB, who manage the Sunflower Children’s Creche, are truly inspirational people and they value the support they are being given. 

3. Green Village Bible Club for Youth

We have met with the youth of the community every other week and enjoyed giving them guidance, hope, Bible lessons and activities. The children are always so eager to participate and look forward to our classes. We are starting to get to know them better each time we visit and we love seeing their smiles and enthusiasm. A God moment is that we never know how many children will turn up for each club. Yet, every time we have just enough of what we have brought for each child. This month we studied Cain and Able and the tower of Babel. During the Tower of Babel activity, the children were very confused when they could not understand the instructions being spoken in a different language, delivering a memorable object lesson. As winter is approaching, it is now very dark when the children need to walk home and they were too scared, due to having told each other ghost stories. We needed to drive behind them so they could walk in the car lights, and Val needed to walk with them to protect them from their scary stories. This reminded us of how Jesus is the light of the world and he helps to remove our fear when we walk in the light with him.

Val singing songs with the children before the lesson

4. Little Brinks

Continued support is given to this amazing project to help Kathy be able to continue with the incredible work with the Little Brinks Home of Safety. We have continued with our weekly visits to support Little Brinks. These visits and routines are vital for the children. They are always so excited to see us. They learn so much more than just play at these visits, and we are enjoying watching the children grow and develop their confidence. We love our play sessions with the little ones at Little Brinks. “Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” – Kay Redfield Jamison

Charles, Val and Stacey playing with the children

 5. Days for Girls Sanitary Product Distribution

Once again, we visited Ernita (The Blueberry Farms) in Wellington to assist the Days for Girls project. Continued support was given to improve their products and work towards achieving the gold standard. They are being supported by the Blueberry farm as well and Rowan spends a lot of time with the ladies, motivating them and helping them along their path. It will mean so much to these ladies once they have achieved this level and will open up more opportunities for them. We will continue to support them and help them to achieve this level as we have full belief in them and their abilities. This month we have been able to purchase products from them to be able to do a Days for Girls presentation at a farm school in a small town outside Wellington. Many of these pupils are from orphanages in the surrounding area. The school personnel said that these kids are hooligans and wished us luck - but the kids were incredibly quiet and attentive. They seemed to love the time being invested in their wellbeing.

Every time we provide a donation of washable sanitary pads to a school, the students (boys and girls, in separate groups) also have the benefit of attending an education session where they learn about everything from the basic physiology to sex ed, as well as the opportunity to ask any questions and receive honest, factual answers. During this session, Leona and Val chatted to both the boys and girls about bodies, sex and menstruation (in separate groups). Sadly, we found that girls age 13 are already sexually active and think it's normal. They still valued the opportunity to ask questions and be listened to. We hope that the information and care shared during this time will help them to better understand the consequences these actions may have, as well as give them some glimpse of a different possibility of what their futures could hold. They enjoyed learning and getting to ask the questions they needed to and get the honest answers. The girls were given a Days for Girls bag with reusable sanitary products and soaps, the boys were given some soaps and a reusable sanitary pad to give to their mum, sister or niece. They were all very happy with their gifts

 6. Shoe donations

We have received a donation to put toward buying shoes. The next challenge, however, was that we could not take all of the children shopping with us, and, since they have never bought brand new shoes, they have no idea of their own shoe size. Our creative solution was to trace each child's foot, so that we can now provide them with shoes that are exactly right for them. This resulted in some interesting shopping trips and some very kind shop assistants who took some of the papers to match up to shoes as well. We spent quite a few days shoe shopping, sizing and sorting to match the traced foot and place a child's name onto them. These shoes have been donated to the children from Wolwerevier community at the Bible club, Little Brinks home of safety and the children attending Greenvillage Bible club.

 We had bought extras in case we had more children at each of the clubs and our God moment was that there was just the right number of sizes for each child to receive a pair of brand-new flip flops. They were all so very thankful and pleased with their new gifts and said a huge thank you to the very generous sponsor. We have now managed to distribute almost 100 pairs of flip flops. We are just the workers on the ground and feel very privileged that we are the ones who get to see the smiles and impact on their lives that financial donations make.

7. Fundani Education container

The Cuddle Trust have been allowed to use a plot of land on the premises of Little Brinks to have a refurbished container where classes can be held. We have had regular Saturday morning bible clubs with the children from Wolwerevier. We have had lessons on Cain and Able and the tower of Babel. They have loved learning new songs and stories and enjoy the craft time and being able to just have fun. 

God moment: we were contacted by someone who wanted to help purchase some shoes for the children, after photos were shared of them only having one shoe. This has made a big difference to the children and they really appreciated their new shoes. 

 8. Christ clean up coming soon

Beach clean-up time at Bloubergstrand Rock pools. We once again donned our bright blue t-shirts and met together to do a beach clean-up. We were joined by some new helpers and visitors today and together we managed to clean up the beach and sand dunes and help the environment a bit. Every bit helps and with continued support and effort here and globally we are able to make a bigger impact on the project. This has now become an international effort with various groups across the globe getting together to help make a difference to the environment. Thanks to Bekah Entwistle who has created an Instagram page which unites a global community with one goal: to show Christ’s character through world-wide community clean-ups as we wait for his return. If you would like to join the group then just search for Clean-up for Christ on Instagram and follow. Every little bit helps, get together in your own community and arrange a clean up of a park, public area, beach etc and post your photos on the Facebook page. Be part of a global community. There is a clean up event arranged for the last Saturday of every month. 

9. Ongoing support with ecclesial duties 

Assisting with talks, sisters’ class, bible class, exhortations, bible studies and social linking with brothers and sisters and preaching opportunities. We have continued to support both the on-line zoom church and Cape Town ecclesia with duties. Every day we are aware of God’s presence and thank God for us being able to be part of all of His work. We see His hand in everything we do and in every part of the day. By God’s Grace we are all part of a big spiritual family and we keep our focus on the future of the Kingdom.

10. Renovation and Building Work

Charles and Lucas managed to move the caravan over to its new awning accommodation and put-up shade netting. This will allow for the caravan’s top to pop up and better facilities for extra accommodation and protection from the heat. It was not an easy job with the soft sand and took a bit of heavy pushing to get it into position. Lots of plans for further developments across all the properties. 

In Conclusion:

We are very thankful for the experiences we continue to have while doing God’s work out here in South Africa and have enjoyed seeing and acknowledging all the God moments that happen to us daily. It is a constant reminder for us to always be aware and take notice of how God works in our lives, no matter how small. We are looking forward to continuing on this journey through-out 2022.

We are also very thankful for the continued blessing of Stacey’s health and our grandson’s (Lyle) growth. Stacey and Llewellyn attended another scan appointment and we were able to see God’s incredible creation and miracles in action. We pray for continued health and strength for both Stacey and Lyle.

We continue to attend regular planning meetings to discuss ongoing plans and support needs, these are often changing as new projects and needs are highlighted and we are about to get very busy again with our next round of planned projects and creche courses and continuing with the ongoing projects and supporting the communities around us. 

May God continue to bless all the work being done out here and we ask for his continued grace by providing us with guidance and safety.

All our love in the Lord
Charles and Val Kotkin-Smith