Building Relationships
We have now completed a full month of our sponsored work here in South Africa. We have both settled in well and acclimatised back to the South African climate. Our heads have been spinning getting to grips with all the ongoing and new projects being undertaken by the Cuddle Trust.
We have noticed the links between preaching and touching others with acts from God. It is not always the best time when they are hungry, and in such poverty, to preach alone. At times, it is just as important to feed and comfort and create relationships which could be used in kingdom times.
We have been working on the following projects:
1. Feeding soup kitchen at Green Village and food parcels: It has been lovely seeing this project develop from the set-up and getting to meet and know the community. Kathy and her family are an inspirational family. A God moment here for us was when we handed out food parcels. The following week we were told that Kathy had given away their food parcel to another family who they felt needed it more. Even though they have very little themselves they are willing to give up what they have to help others.
2. Youth project with Bible lessons and stories and guidance with the youth at Green Village: We have had our first week of running this and hoping to continue this valuable input to give the younger generation some guidance, hope, and activity. They all seemed to enjoy the evening and we are looking forward to returning.
3. Days for Girls making washable reusable sanitary products and supporting local enterprises: A small God moment with this project is that Leona was needing some more brushed flannel. I struggled to get this but managed to find 2 king size duvet cover sets. When unpicking them we needed to try and work out the best way of getting as much out of the material as possible. When measuring we found that the pillow cases were exactly the length we needed, which meant we could have 4 bags just from the pillow cases. I love finding small God moments in things around us to remind us that he is in control of everything, even the small things that might not seem to really matter. We have enjoyed visiting, supporting and helping a small enterprise which has been set up and working on getting enough stock together for doing a distribution very soon.
4. Little Brinks. Supporting an amazing project to help Kathy (a different Kathy) be able to continue with her incredible work. We have been spending time with the orphaned children, helping them learn through play and givinge them comfort to help them through some of the trauma they experienced. We have also been working on improving their plumbing and surrounding areas. This will be an ongoing project and we hope to make small improvements which will lead to bigger improvements over time.
5. Charles is working with a local underprivileged school to help them get the best use out of their computers that have been donated to them. Over the year he is planning on introducing computer club lessons to help teach the children more IT skills. Lots of meetings and plans ongoing with this, pictures and more feedback to follow once this has been set up and running.
6. Community clean ups.Continued with forming community relationships by supporting local clean up events. The Cuddle Trust is planning our own clean up initiative and we are waiting for T-shirts to return from the printers to start the ‘Christ Clean Up coming soon’ initiatives.
7. Hopefield workshop projects. Helping with activities and educating people to develop more skills. Helping with Bible story lessons with the younger children
8. Ongoing support with ecclesial duties (participating and presenting) and faith strengthening. This includes: talks, sisters’ class, Bible class, exhortations, Bible studies, social linking with brothers and sisters, and preaching opportunities. Together with the Cuddle Trust we are planning on supporting an ecclesial braai (bbq) on Christmas day for members in Cape Town area who would like to attend with their families. This would mean those those with no plans in place will have somewhere to spend a day with their spiritual family.
9. Web page for the online learn to read your Bible course for the Congolese and future plans for the Creche course to be presented online as well: Charles has been able to use his computing and programming skills here to start putting together a website which will help with spreading God’s word. Lots of work will be needed before it is ready to be up and running, but very good progress has been made already.
Some of the planned projects being set up and ongoing planning and organising:
Adult exercise and health information program with Green Village community and a local health facility near Hopefield.
Computer classes for children in underprivileged school
Support with food and creche upgrade with the creche/nursery school at Green Village.
Community hall upgrade for hall at Green Village
Feeding project and community support at Wolwerevier settlement community
Creche courses
Days for Girls enterprise setups and distributions and education
Ongoing support for projects still running in Kempton Park, Gauteng province.
Planning for P2P event in January 2022, God willing
We attend fortnightly planning meetings to discuss ongoing plans and support needs. These often change as new projects and needs are highlighted.
We are loving our time out here and enjoying making a difference to people's lives and supporting all the projects. We are looking forward to the P2P next year and getting to meet and know those coming from America. God willing, the plans for those still to travel will come to pass.
We will send the next report at the beginning of January., We wish you all well over this holiday period and if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to get in contact.
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
Cape Town, South Africa
