Support

Winter is fast approaching, and the evenings are getting darker. It has been extraordinary to feel cold again after many months of scorching weather here in South Africa. The darker evenings and cooler weather mean some changes and challenges to some of the projects we support. We have also had to learn to work around the regular load shedding timetables (Eskom reports that there is not enough electricity, therefore, putting areas into scheduled electricity blackouts). These can be challenging when you have huge pots of soup and pasta to be cooked and in need of a bit of planning. Still, we have continued to support the communities and projects with flexibility and adaptability.

We have been joined by two new volunteers, Gideon and Shoshanna Hewitson from Canada, who arrived to spend four weeks here in Cape Town and Hopefield. It has been lovely getting to know them and having some extra help with the projects.

We pray for continued guidance and blessing on all the work we do out here in South Africa. We know that all is in God's hands and that no plans can be undertaken without His support. We are thankful for the many God moments revealed to us every day, which help strengthen our faith daily and keep us motivated, energised, and determined to continue to serve in this manner for our Father.

This month we have been working on the following projects:

Feeding scheme: A soup kitchen at Green Village:

We have continued to support the community at Green Village. We are handing out hot food on the second Friday of each month. We have changed our soup hand out slightly and now distribute the food at the church community hall instead of at our contact's house. Distributing from the hall ensures that the community does not feel we are favoriting one family out of the others and that there are no difficulties brought to our contact's front door. It does seem to be a fairer way of distributing and means that we are equally accessible by both the new and old blocks (2 community groups in the area). The children often bring larger bowls to take back food for the whole family. It also means that the children get their food before our now earlier bible club (moved earlier due to the sun setting earlier and colder nights). We also have a local farmer who has been donating boxes of tomatoes to us. Usually, these perfectly edible but 'wonky' tomatoes just get thrown away. We are so thankful for God's provision that we can now distribute these to the community. Val and the children had a lot of fun fashioning bags out of their jackets, and the children were so excited to take back bundles of tomatoes to their families.

Food Parcels at Greenvillage:

On the fourth Friday of the month, we aim to do a food parcel handout at Greenvillage, also now distributed from the church community hall. These take a lot of preparation, and we are trying to find a system that ensures they are fairly and evenly distributed to the most in need. We now work on a list of names (given to us by our contact in the village), and the families are to come themselves to collect the parcel. We had a problem this month as someone came to collect a package for someone else, but they never received their parcel. This upset the family, and now we are tightening up the distribution to ensure that packages don’t go missing. Charles has taken control of this and is getting to know the community well. They also realize there is no way of pulling the wool over his eyes. It is a tough job but one that needs to be done to ensure that the parcels go to who they are intended for and that it is fair. Sadly, when there is extreme poverty and need, there are sometimes those trying to get more as the survival instinct kicks in, and there is not always a fair system of love and helping others. We can only imagine what it must be like to be in that situation, and it can be easy to judge or condemn the actions, but you never know what you might do if placed in a similar position. This new system seems to be working well. The families are thankful to receive their parcels, and there is a feeling of calm and order in the distributions. The families also bring along thank you letters to express their thanks to the donors, as without the financial support for this project, we would not be able to do this vital work. Thanks be to God for his provision of people being able to make financial donations to support work on the ground and help feed this wonderful community. 

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

We continue to meet with the community's younger generation every second week and enjoy guiding them, hope, Bible lessons, and activity. We were faced with an extra challenge on one of our Bible club days. We could not access the hall as the person who had the key had gone away. We decided to make a plan, and thankfully God had provided a dry/ warm winter afternoon, and we could do the lessons and activities outside. Val's class was on the stone chippings, and Leona's class was on top of the sewage drains. The children did not seem to mind and were just excited about learning more bible stories. This month they have learned about Isaac finding a wife and Jacob and Esau and how Jacob deceived Isaac to receive the birthright. Before starting the lesson, they were each given a bowl of food as it is tough for them to concentrate and learn when hungry. The large pots are always empty by the end of the night, and the children are well fed.

Pencil cases and stationery:

When we do our bible clubs with the children, it is always a challenge to have the stationary accessible for all to share, and the children land up fighting and grabbing supplies. To make this easier, we have made pencil case bags, and Val and Shoshanna used previously donated stationary (From the P2P group that was here earlier this year) to fill the bags equally. These bags are then named for each child, so they can use them on the day of the bible club. Something as small as a pencil case with their name on it and stationary has meant so much to the children as they know they are essential and have the supplies needed to do their work. Their faces were a treat when they realized they would each receive one to use at each bible club.

Little Brinks: 

Mondays are our regular visits to Little Brinks. Every week we can see that they are growing in confidence and ability. We enjoyed playing games with the children. They are always energetic and happy in play and look out for each other. We have certainly noticed a more substantial connection with the children as one of the boys, who usually doesn't talk much, has started speaking a lot more. During one of our visits, he loved blowing the bubbles and enjoyed counting them as they flew up into the air. He is starting to come out of his shell as he can live in peace and safety now, thanks to all the work done at the safe home. We are just a tiny part of the team but are so thankful that we can be there to offer the children a time for developmental play, growth, and love. There has been a newborn addition to the children. She is just a beautiful little tiny bundle (only 3kg). So incredibly sad that she has not been wanted but so thankful that Kathy (the owner of small Brinks home of safety) has been able to be there to offer her a place of safety to grow and get love till the social workers sort out a more permanent home for her. We could almost just bring her home with us. We enjoyed getting some cuddles with her, and we can see the little girl (who used to be the youngest) is just fascinated with her. It also gave the house mother time 'free hands' to get some jobs done. During our visit, the children enjoyed blowing bubbles, playing with play dough, and building Lego, and they were delighted to discover some new toys bought for them. The taller cup stacking tower got lots of attention, and they enjoyed recognizing and saying the names of the animals and insects on them.

We decided to bring a few new things to do. We started with balloons. The children had a fantastic time catching and playing with the balloons. They learned how to blow them up and the sound they made when letting them go untied. The time went by so fast watching them play with something as simple as a balloon. During one of the visits, Lilandi sat with one little boy cutting out and sticking stickers on paper. He was delighted when he was able to master using the scissors and cutting the writing by himself. They are all learning all the time, without even realizing it. Developing and growing through play. We also handed in another donated pair of shoes for the house mother's child. Our visits here are always full of so much activity and fun

Hopefield Workshop Project:

We helped support the Hopefield workshop project, where people learn basic woodworking skills. There were some new attendees and some returns, and a great day was had by all making a small bookshelf. The children loved learning some new skills. There is also a children’s club run simultaneously, which the younger children enjoy while freeing up the parents and older siblings to participate in the woodworking skills.

Jacqueline’s Sunflower nursery school:

We provide extra support to Jacqueline’s nursery school. She does so much good work supporting the community of Greenvillage and surrounding areas. She is an incredible example of giving and caring, and she has a passion for helping educate young children to provide them with the best chance in life. Leona offers extra music classes, helping teach the children through music and play. Val helps out on these visits when they coincide with us being in Hopefield. It is lovely to be around the small children and see them play in the creche where a lot of upgrade work has been done. Our visits also give Jacqueline valuable peer support to help her keep doing what she and her husband, AB, are doing. Sometimes donating time to a project is just as valuable as money, and they appreciate all the support. Although they are a valued project where vital financial support is needed, they value our time and enjoy all the support that has been given.

Funding Education container, Bible club:

We have helped support the bible club activities with the children from the Wolwerevier community, held at the Fundani Centre. Gideon and Shoshana did a great job telling the story of Jacob and Rachael via puppet show. The children loved singing songs, learning something new, doing the activities, and playing games afterward. They were so excited about making sheep, and there were loud sheep blowing noises from each child once they had completed their sheep. Before leaving, each child was given a food parcel to return to their family. The children are picked up and dropped off from Wolwerivier by Llewellyn and Michael. When we arrived back at Wolwerevier, a small boy had been waiting patiently for us to return to see if he could get anything for his family. The parcels were almost as big as him, yet he was determined to carry them back to his family. His friend came to help, and he ran off happily alongside him to deliver the parcels.

Christ clean up coming soon:

This month we had another Beach clean-up time at Bloubergstrand Rock pools. We again donned our bright blue t-shirts and met together to do a beach clean-up. It was quite a cold and windy day, but thankful that the forecast rain held off till the afternoon. We managed to collect a few bags of rubbish and helped with trying to make a difference in the environment. We had a few opportunities to connect with people and explain why we feel it is essential to do what we do.

As this is now an international effort with various global groups getting together to help make a difference in the environment, we were also joined by some members worldwide. Together we gathered quite a bit of rubbish and helped clean up the community area. Every little bit helps. If you would like to join the Facebook and Instagram group to see when the subsequent events are planned and supported, then follow their pages:

https://www.facebook.com/CleanupForChrist/

or on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/cleanup.for.christ/

The goal is to create a global community with one goal. To show Christ’s character through worldwide community clean-ups as we wait for his return. Every little bit helps. Get together in your community, 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.

Ongoing support with ecclesial duties (participating and presenting) and faith-strengthening, this includes:

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 online zoom church and Cape Town ecclesia with duties. There have been a few different ecclesial events this month:

• Praise and worship Fellowship Day: We had a praise and worship day and lunch where we had fellowship and sang praise and worship to our Lord. We enjoy these days so much; it helps bring us together as a family and community. It was also an opportunity to wish Gideon and Shoshanna a safe journey back home as their stay with us ends.

• Harvest festival at Bilton Farms invited and arranged by Mark Bilton: We shared a beautiful lunch with brothers and sisters from Cape Town at a praise and worship day at Mark Bilton's wine farm. The surroundings and views were so beautiful. The fellowship, spending time with friends and family, and singing praise to Yahweh were uplifting.

Ongoing improvements, renovations, and building work to various properties:

Another building work improvement is underway, this time at Lucas and Leona’s house. With the intense heat, these veranda roof surrounds make such a difference. Charles, Hendri, Lucas, and Gideon completed this mammoth task.

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. There are continued lessons we are being taught and shown, many examples of people’s faith and their struggles during adversity. It is a great privilege to be here to reach out and touch and help those willing to receive. It is profoundly personal to be in such need and rely on others helping you. We respect these communities for allowing us into their lives and accepting our help and support, and allowing us to share their lives with everyone else.

Words also cannot explain the deep gratitude to God for his timing of Llewellyn and Stacey expecting their first child (our first grandchild) while we are here. This month we were able to go with them for a 4D scan and view the miracle of Lyle’s growth. It is incredible how much technology has improved and that we can get such clear photos of a baby still in the womb. We pray for continued safety and health for Stacey and Lyle and let us not forget the father-to-be Llewellyn.

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. We are 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