All students of the Alpha Primary School in Morningstar and Cavalleria Primary School in Scotsdene received a surprise at the end of their school year. Each student was given a bag of Christmas chocolates and a Gospel pamphlet to start off the holidays. Altogether just over 2000 packets were distributed . As one can imagine, there were smiles all around; the last day of school, and chocolates to top it off. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas all!
Getting everything ready for the Christmas Outreach projects is part of the fun for us. This year we aim to provide chocolates and toys to around 5000 children. Packaging toys and treats for this amount of people takes the help of many, young and old. A huge thank you to all the volunteers that so cheerfully assisted in this year’s Christmas preparation. We’re ready to roll!! (Note: Not all volunteers are pictured here. But we appreciate you ALL! Thank you.)
A local school with 800 pupils, a center for severely disabled children, and several other centers and feeding schemes were blessed with fresh rolls and milk this week. Thousands of rolls and hundreds of litres of milk were donated to us for distribution, and this food was often enjoyed on-the-spot, as you can see from these pictures.
What a treat it was for us to receive over one hundred 5 Liter tubs of Ice-cream for distribution. Someone kindly donated the cold-storage until we were able to get the ice-cream delivered to the different centers we support. It was such fun to see the children eagerly wait for their bowl of this delicious, top-quality dessert; their little eyes huge and their mouths almost tasting the treat before they got it. Oh, yum! How they enjoyed themselves! And how we enjoyed serving them and seeing the obvious delight as they gobbled it up. There was plenty to go around, and we left many more tubs in the freezers of each center to be enjoyed at a later date.
The residents of the Klipheuwel township, the informal settlement near our mission, received a surprise visit from us this week when we came to drop off food parcels for everyone living there. It took just minutes for everyone to line up and patiently wait for their turn; it always touches our hearts to see people give priority to the smaller and weaker ones. Each person received their package-containing flour, pasta-meals, and jam-gratefully and we enjoyed sharing words of encouragement along with the food with everyone there. A big thank you to each one of our sponsors who keep making it possible for us to continue helping others.
The Lord blessed us with an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as tins, jars, and packets of food and during this wet and cold month of July. Along with distribution to our many regular beneficiaries, we made food parcels for the over 700 families in the Klipheuwel township. The people there sweetly received our help and a few of the local ladies helped us and made sure that everyone received their share of these needed items. The children also received a bag each and were happy to carry their bag of ‘trophies’ back home. Even though each person there is in desperate need themselves, it humbled us to see these dear people putting their neighbours first and being concerned with the needs of others before their own. Often a small child would let an even younger one get in line before them and make sure they got their parcel. Mommies would always let the children go first and we were touched to see so much kindness and unselfishness in this community. Although we went there to bless others, we returned having been blessed ourselves.Among the thousands of kilos of goods that were distributed there, each person received: bread, vegetables, pasta, juice, jam, cheese, fruit, crackers, and more! (Matthew 7:12 “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”)
Over the last few weeks we have picked up, sorted, and distributed over 12,000 rolls of fresh bread. This bread made its way to many different centres, soup kitchens, orphanages, and clinics, as well as hundreds of families! As winter sets in more and more staples like this become more needed, and we were so thankful to have such a valuable resource as fresh bread to offer the disadvantaged. God bless you, our donors and sponsors, for both the bread, and the means to pick up and deliver it! Many hungry children as well as grown-ups have benefited and been encouraged as a result.
With the weather getting colder and wetter, we were thrilled to receive two van-loads full of groceries: soup, tinned goods, coffee, tea, pasta and many other goodies. We divided the food between different institutions and packed food parcels for needy families and the elderly. Thank the Lord for this wonderful blessing.
