God Moments

It is hard to believe we are already a month into the new year and that the Prepare 2 Preach/Touch 2 Teach campaign is now over (P2P/T2T). We have had a very busy start to the New year with the arrival of the volunteers for the two-week P2P programme. We loved getting to know our brothers and sisters from the States & have loved working on projects together. We are very thankful to have been blessed with being able to continue to support many communities and touch many lives. We are starting to form bonds and connections with those within the communities which is lovely to see. It takes a lot of time to be able to establish these connections and we are looking forward to seeing these deepen through the year as more of the projects become established. The two-week P2P/T2T campaign helped to launch a couple of new projects and we have been blessed to keep these running after the volunteers have left. 

From the 1-2 January we had the safe arrival of the volunteers from America, Ben and Hanna Link (who were already in South Africa at the time), Seth Thomas, Rebekah Entwistle, Joshua Budney, Christina, Jacob and Elia Lloyd, also Pippa Larsen from South Africa. We thank God for their safe travels and that with all the Covid restrictions they were all able to be here. There was so much planning done beforehand and we had to have faith that God would allow them to travel and we would be able to complete the two-week programme. We had a jam-packed programme, splitting the group into 2 teams supporting projects between Cape Town and Hopefield. The teams changed places at the end of the first week. We were able to do some of the bigger projects together as a full team. This was the most efficient way to be able to manage the work and distance needed to be covered. Charles and I supported the Hopefield team along with Lucas and Leona Scheepers. We thank all the volunteers for their energy and work they put into all the projects. There were many very early starts in order to beat the intensity of the heat in Hopefield and the teams continued to work late into the night to ensure that all projects were able to be achieved. 

We tried to fit in some sightseeing around the projects to ensure the teams got an insight and feel of this beautiful country and a bit of a better understanding of the diversities within it. 

During the first week of the two-week campaign, it became apparent that there were some complications with Liezl Viljoen’s pregnancy and Hendri and Liezl’s little twin boys needed to be delivered much earlier than planned. We are so thankful to God for his guidance and mercy for allowing the twins and Liezl to be safe and well looked after. Tyler and Tegan Viljoen were both born on 5 January 2022, weighing just 2.1kg and 1.4kg. This became a huge part of the P2P campaign as we all waited for news each day and we were able to all be there for support for the family in prayers and continuing to keep the projects running. It was a very challenging time and one not fully planned for during all of our planning for the campaign but one that we are thankful to God for, as we placed our trust and faith in him that he knows the right time for everything and that he had them in his care. 

We also had a little bit of down time towards the end of the month, which saw a slightly slower pace of work and allowed for a little time to catch up on ourselves and spend time together with the family and allowed for further planning of work over the next few months. This ultimately gave us all time to give Liezl and Hendri support while waiting for the twins to be well enough to come out of hospital. 

We are looking forward to starting the Creche courses over here in Cape Town, starting in March 2022 and another course will be run again in Kempton Park. In March we will be splitting our team: Lilandi and Michael Furstenburg, Llewellyn and Stacey Scheepers and ourselves supporting work and the Creche course here in Cape Town, while Lucas and Leona Scheepers and Hendri and Liezl Viljoen will be going to Kempton Park for 2 weeks to support with the Creche course and work there. 

We pray for continued guidance in our work and blessings on all we do. We know that we are all in God’s hands and that no plans are able to be undertaken without His support. We are thankful for the many many God moments which are revealed to us every day, which just help to strengthen our faith and stay motivated, energised and determined to be able to continue to serve. 

This month we have been working on the following projects:

1. Feeding scheme: A soup kitchen at Green Village, with a vegetable parcel handout: We have continued to support the community at Green Village. Handing out hot food every week during the P2P/T2T campaign, we were also able to hand out vegetable parcels on the second week. The soup kitchen and vegetable parcels is about a 2 – 3 day work load, from buying the ingredients and chopping and cooking before distributing on a Friday night. This time it was made a bit easier with lots of hands to be able to help with the carrying, chopping and cooking. Wonderful to have such happy helpers. 

A God moment for us was at one of the soup kitchen days, there were a lot more people than expected due to there being a funeral arranged over the weekend,but yet our pots remained sufficient to ensure that all were fed and received a hot meal.

2. Bible club with Bible lessons, stories and guidance with the youth at Green Village:

We have continued to support this valuable input to give the younger generation some guidance, hope, Bible lessons and activity. They enjoyed the interactive Bible lesson on Daniel in the lions’ den and the puppet show on Jonah. 

We also had a couple of days spent with the children just playing games with them. loved meeting their new friends from America and learning from them. The kids are always there with a smile and enthusiasm to engage with the activities. 

A God moment was that on the last Friday of the P2P campaign, we were told that the hall was going to be used for a funeral and we would not be able to have the Bible club that night. We were all very tired as it had been a very full week with lots of early starts and also very very hot. We felt that it must be a sign that we needed to rest a bit and finish early and ashamedly we actually felt a little bit relieved. A group of the children were so disappointed and managed to get further information from the adults in the community that as the funeral was only on Sunday, they were happy for us to use the hall after all. We landed up with a group of about 16 children, their enthusiasm rubbed off on all of us and we presented a really fun acted out story of Daniel which they loved. We all felt so much better after spending time with the children and feeling their enthusiasm to learn. A reminder of why Jesus instructs us to be like the little children 

3. Random act of kindness (ROK) – helping out a local farmer: 

During the P2P campaign we had planned a few ROK’s. A local farmer was needing some help with vaccinating their sheep, cleaning out the sheep pen and painting their roof. 

It certainly was an interesting experience helping out with all the tasks. The volunteers really put in all the effort in getting to grips with the different tasks and learning how to handle the sheep. In the second week we cleaned out the sheep pen and moved the used straw over to a nearby field for fertiliser. We had hoped to do both this and painting of the roof, but the temperature rose very quickly and we were not able to get up onto the roof. 

A God moment for us was that the group of volunteers got together and really wanted to try and find time to be able to complete the ROK of painting the roof. worked out that if they got up really early on the Friday, then we could fit this in. Their willingness to help the farmer was inspirational and we all enjoyed a very early start on the roof and managed to get it finished before the sun was too hot. Serving with a willing heart put into action. 

4. Days for Girls making distribution of reusable sanitary products and activity day for the children, also stationary pack distributions: 

We visited the blueberry farm near Wellington where there is a Days for Girls enterprise running. The children loved getting to meet all the volunteers from America and playing games with them. Leona presented an education session for the Days for Girls products and explained what is happening to your body during adolescent and menstrual cycles. Hannah Link then completed a health-mind-body connection talk, identifying circumstances where you can de-stress and then shared some basic breathing and yoga moves that the attendees could implement for relaxation. We were then able to distribute some Daysfor Girls packs that we had received from Edinburgh, Scotland. These were issued to the ladies in the community. 

The children then joined us and we issued prizes for those who had coloured in their pictures from last week and handed out stationery packs that Seth Thomas and Rebekah Entwistle had brought over and put together. The children were very pleased and thankful for their gifts. 

5. Games activity day and puppet show at the Blueberry farm: 

We visited the blueberry farm with the first group of volunteers and the children enjoyed a fun-packed games morning meeting the volunteers from the States. 

Afterwards they watched the puppet show on Jonah and enjoyed learning more about the Bible. They joined in with activities and we were also able to distribute some snacks. 

6. Little Brinks: 

We gave continued support to this amazing project to help Kathy be able to continue with her incredible work with her home of safety. We have continued with our weekly visits to spend time with the orphaned children, helping them learn through play and get comfort to help them through some of the trauma they experienced. We always enjoy spending time with these children and they really look forward to our visits. The P2P volunteers helped make and put together a variety of activities to rotate through, helping the children to always learn through play. 

7. Education container, now named the Fundani Centre: 

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. 

God moment is: seeing the dream and ambition of the Cuddle Trust for an Edutainer arriving in Cape Town becoming a reality. Now named the Fundani Centre. Fundani Centre means ‘learning’ and we put the ‘fun’ in Fundani. 

During the P2P campaign we saw the clean-up and clear-up of the area and putting up a fence and the launch of the first Bible club. The children from the Wolwerevier community really enjoyed the games and learning more about the Bible. The edutainer Fundani Centre received a facelift with all 

hands working together to create a bright and cheery fun scene for the children to enjoy coming along to.

8. Christ Clean Upcoming soon: 

Continuation of the ‘Christ Clean Up coming soon’ initiatives. We once again donned our bright blue t-shirts and met together to do a few beach and park clean-ups. 

God moment: We had planned on doing a park clean-up but when we arrived, the Municipal workers had obviously been there during the week and there was no rubbish about. We managed to only find one piece of litter. We felt pleased to see the area looking so clean. We decided to go onto Dolphin beach front as we know this area normally needs a clean-up. It was a public holiday and the beaches were very busy, lots of rubbish taken off the beach and many opportunities to speak to people about our initiative and faith. 

The day had not gone as planned, but we were happy that we were able to make a bit of a difference. We went on to a restaurant where we had booked to eat out. A few of us decided to have a swim in the sea between ordering and our food arriving. Once we saw the state of the beach at Big Bay we knew our services would be needed after the meal to help clean the area. We were overwhelmed by the amount of rubbish left behind by the people visiting the beach and managed to fill about 25 bags in under an hour. Many opportunities were created to speak to people and we made a huge difference to the environment, preventing this rubbish and plastic from washing out into the sea. We felt that God had really directed us to where we needed to be that day. There was awesome teamwork and an example of letting God guide our lives and take control. 

The beach clean-up initiative is one that has been the most surprising. Once you start noticing just how much mess there is in the oceans and beaches, it is hard to miss it. We have had quite a few clean-ups now and each one surprises us. They allowus extra contact with people and open up conversations we wouldn’t have had. The last picture in the beach clean-ups sums up the need for Christ’s return to this earth. 

9. Random act of kindness (ROK) – Creche upgrade: 

Another ROK which we planned on doing during the P2P/T2T campaign was to help a family run creche nursery school near Greenvillage. Jacqueline and AB were overwhelmed by the energy, help and amount of generosity of time given to them. We were able to help out with some basic maintenance things that AB had on his very long list of to-do’s: fixing windows, sorting electrics, mounting a tv, painting the walls and putting flat surfaces onto the tables. 

We were able to help Jacqueline with painting education murals onto the walls making all the areas bright and cheery and a happy place for the children to continue to learn through play and stimulation. 

They both had a ‘wish list’ to transform a concrete slab on the side of the school into a cycle road map, where the children could ride their bikes and enjoy interactive play. We all pulled together to work hard and tirelessly on this project, transforming a concrete slab into a fun cycle path which the children are now able to enjoy. This was certainly one of the largest projects we worked on and we were very happy with the finished product. Hopefully the children will get many hours of fun and educational play on this. 

We were also able to support the creche with planting a life garden. Both AB and Jacqueline also support the community by providing food for the children and by having the garden growing. Itmeans there will be fresh produce growing for good nutrition and also help with teaching the children about growing food. 

10. Ongoing support with ecclesial duties (participating and presenting) and faith strengthening:

This includes: talks, sisters’ class, Bible class, exhortations, B studies and social linking with brothers and sisters and preaching opportunities. We have continued to support both the online zoom church and Cape Town ecclesia with duties. Val gave a sisters’ class via zoom on faith and highlighting the choice we have in our lives to either choose to live our life by having faith in our faith or faith in fear. We have enjoyed many fellowship opportunities during the P2P/T2T campaign and enjoyed getting to know our brothers and sisters from the States more and establishing relationships. A highlight was the trip to Aquila Game reserve where we were able to share the beauty of South Africa and God’s creation with the team, while experiencing a game drive. 

11. Local leadership workshop and project at a local school: 

We were delighted to be part of another new programme being set up in the Cape area. This programme works by helping the young adults develop life skills and guidance. The two workshops held were hosted by Leona Scheepers and the volunteers from the States, focused on developing leadership skills, setting goals and working towards realising their dreams. We were also able to distribute some fruit snacks and give out ice creams provided by the school.

The volunteers were also able to distribute stationery packs which they had brought with them from donations they had received. 

In Conclusion: 

We are very thankful for the experience we have had with meeting our fellow volunteer brothers and sisters and being able to do the work within the communities. We ended off the campaign with a lovely team photo. Thank you everyone for all of your hard work. 

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. 

We also give thanks and praise to God for the exciting announcement from Llewellyn and Stacey Scheepers (our son-in-law and daughter) that they are expecting their first child. We are looking forward to the arrival of our first grandchild in August 2022, God willing. We give God thanks and 

praise that we have been blessed with this opportunity of being out here in South Africa during this time to be able to share this miracle with them. 

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