Transforming Lives in Beaufort West, South Africa

There is a sign as you come into Beaufort West that says: “Hands off our children”. Sex with children is a crime” 2 out of 7 children are affected with this kind of abuse. 

 Beaufort West – what a challenge! If I think back to the beginning of the year (2010) when I stood on the rubbish dump crying before the Lord as to what he wanted me to do and why He had me there without any means to help. Little did I know that He was working in the heart of a church in Kleinburg, Canada… Pierre Roux

Our goal is to help eradicate the existing problems of unemployment, material and spiritual poverty, substance, violence and child abuse, child neglect and help with the HIV/aids pandemic as well as help the elderly.

One of the things Nashville Road has successfully done in Beaufort West has been to expand the work of the Helping Hands Soup Kitchen. This project provides food to a large number of children, many of whom carry the deadly HIV virus.  Without this food, these vulnerable children are unable to hold down their medication.  Prior to our involvement in this project, the soup kitchen was unable to provide food for these children on a daily basis.  Thanks to your generous giving to Nashville Road Community Church’s weekly offering, the children and parents are now fed on a daily basis.  The happy consequence of this is that the children are not getting as sick as they used to and both they and their parents are hearing the life changing truths of the gospel that is presented to them by the soup kitchen. 

There is much work being done in Beaufort West... stay tuned for further updates and how you can partner with NRCC to transform lives together in Beaufort West.

Report from Neil Henry

Neil Henry visited Pierre in August 2011...

Pierre Roux, two staff workers from Living Way (Richard Lundy and Joey Lankford) and myself have just returned from Beaufort West and George. We had safe trip and are grateful to the Lord for His provision..

We visited several projects that are funded through HIS Trust and met with some key leaders with respect to various options for job creation, alleviation of poverty and leadership development.

·         In Beaufort West we visited three out of the four feeding schemes that are funded through HIS Trust:

o   Pure Hearts (an outreach ministry to children and teens caught up in the extreme poverty. Rudi and his wife reach out to young ladies offering free sanitary towels because so many girls don’t go to school during their period because they can’t afford sanitary towels). I met Rudi Oranje and his family – a godly man and a real asset to the ministry in BW. He has a deep passion for the gospel and is greatly burdened by the plight of kids and depth of despair that sin has plummeted the community into. He also works part time for ATAIM and represents all their interests in Beaufort West. He lives a very modest lifestyle and is greatly in need of additional support. It would be a real pity to lose him as he serves with great sacrifice to his own family.

o   Helping Hands (a feeding, care and counselling ministry that provides for about hundred and ninety kids with “dread” diseases). This ministry is run my Mrs. Stoney in the heart of a community from a “run down wendy house” where support for these kids is all but non-existent except for the food that has been donated by a church from Canada. What really stood out was the extent of the effect that these social evils have had on this burgeoning community.

o   It was a great privilege to meet Nosi, a 61 year old Christian lady with a huge heart, who just pours her life into providing feeding care and refuge for many kids who are left destitute and abandoned by “absent” parents. She would often take them in, in the evenings and provide shelter for them by keeping them off the streets where prostitution and substance abuse is rife. She also feeds mothers ravaged by HIV/Aids and the mentally retarded.

·         We met with the leaders of St. Francis Centre and particularly with Pastor Eugene Le Fleur (the Anglican Archdeacon of the Karoo). The water tank and pump have just been installed at the St Francis Centre (after 3 years of trying to find someone to install them) and the potential for development of the Olive groves is great and the growing of vegetables which will go a long way in supplementing the fresh food for the children of Helping Hands. There are several ministries at the centre which has five arms of outreach to the community: Home Based Health Care for HIV and TB, Annex, a ministry dealing with child prostitution and child trafficking, Schools Outreach and job skills programme; ABET training, Sompumalela HIV/Aids support group  and Church community development. There are no training facilities and the few opportunities offered by government are not Christian based. There was great appreciation for the interest shown in basic Bible and Theological training. A leadership course offered by Leader Mundial has been previously hosted at the centre. Facilities are available, but the great challenge will be developing relationships within a fraternal that is largely distrusting, divided, disengaged and disinterested.

·         We also had fruitful meetings with the pastor of Christian Centre, Stephanus Jooste (who is also the District Manager for BW) – this local church has excellent facilities, and is willing to host seminars, leadon leadership development and teams on mission trips and short term outreaches. Richard and Joey discussed extensively with him the possible tender for the takeover of the hydroponic tunnels project just outside the town, which if run successfully, would  assist with job creation, feeding the poor and providing a huge economic injection into this already impoverished economy. We visited the site and the 30 tunnels have been abandoned, vandalised and neglected since October 2010. The potential of this project in huge, but much wisdom and careful investment with a strong Christian ethos would be a powerful witness in this community. Pray for pastor Jooste as he has to balance his political office with its huge responsibilities, with his work as a pastor and shepherd of a local church.   

·         Pierre also arranged meeting with Church leaders from the local Methodist Circuit which was represented by the pastor, Jabu, the secretary of the local WA and several lay leaders. It was encouraging to find a group that were enthusiastic about getting involved in the local community and this meeting led to the church volunteering their labours to help paint a few classrooms at a local school. One can imagine how encouraging this is to a rather frustrated school principal who last had his school painted 23 years ago. This is a great way to bring the love of Jesus to the children.   

·         A visit to the dumpsite showed the desperation of a community where 50-80 folks live on the smouldering heaps of trash and garbage rummaging with skinny children and dogs for discarded food or anything that could be salvaged so that they could eke out some kind of existence. This was probably the most emotionally devastating visit of our trip and it was with relief that we drove out of the dumpsite, so that we would not continually be plagued by the desperation and hopelessness of people there. The district municipal manager also indicated that there was a fully fitted kitchen container that he would try and make available to ATAIM to put at the dump to feed these people. Christian Centre Church has volunteered to do the cooking and feeding if we can raise the food.     

·         Our stay at the Karoo Gateway led to a meeting with the owner of the property. Pierre had reported this at a previous Trust meeting, and Bambi again confirmed the use of a house on the facility for use by ATAIM to house ATAIM workers to bring costs down when travelling to Beaufort West and to help fulltime Christian workers whenever they visit the area. Teams will be accommodated at the B&B, A farm outside the town was also offered for ministry use at a lease of R50pa (... yes that’s right) -  that could be developed into a Christian Conference and Camping Centre, Children’s Adventure Farm for outreach to local school children, a Retreat for fulltime Christian workers and a working farm with produce and livestock that could provide a much needed boost in the local job market.

In summary, the trip was exceptionally fruitful, many contacts made and new relationships developed, a good understanding of the need and the major difficulties, as well as a look at potential opportunities for the future. One big observation that stands out is the sense of “hopelessness” amongst the local people. The evidence of children on the streets near the truck stops, adults sitting around in stupors under the influence of some or other substance abuse, large numbers wandering aimlessly evidencing the 67% unemployment rate, disunity in the churches with many church splits and the discouraged expression of forlorn and lonely pastors left us all emotionally devastated.     

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Yours in Christ

Neil Henry

2010 Report

Where does one begin to say thank you thank you Jesus for all the incredible people He has put into my life this year. I would love to write your names down in this letter but I know you all are such humble people that you would not want me too. I really praise Jesus for you all and I mean it from the bottom of my heart that without your love and support I would not have made it through this year. I know my communications are erratic at the best of times; I really pray that I will improve in the coming year, thank you for your patience. Once again a huge thank you from my family and I.

I have been away from home for 28 weeks of this year. This year I have had fewer teams than normal but have helped many others with their planning and implementation.

I have done 14 trips to BW this year and in all honesty I feel like nothing has changed.   

The positives -

ü  We ran 4 Vacation Bible schools with an average of 300 kids a time.

ü  We did 1 Christmas party for 309 children

ü  We fed over 500 children (of which 170 of these children have one of the dread diseases), one good meal a day for 5 days a week.

ü  We fed over 80 people from a HIV/Aids support group, 1 meal a day, 5 days a week.

ü  We helped paint the outside of St. Francis Centre.

ü  We were able to go to the trash dump 3 times to feed and minister to the adults and children. We went many other times just to befriend the people living there.

ü  We bought Kentucky Fried Chicken for 50 street children and sat in the middle of the town on the sidewalk eating and talking about Jesus.

ü  We helped arrange and supply soccer balls for 10 soccer tournaments during and after the world cup.

ü  We ran a leadership development seminar for 27 leaders from around the world and 5 men were from Beaufort West

ü  We ran a follow up training course for the BW 5.

ü  Seeing 30 girls who would not have passed their grade because of not having sanitary towels, now passing and at the same time receiving the gospel and counselling every time they come to collect sanitary towels.

ü  The majority of the time was spent taking donors, partners and teams around Beaufort West, meeting and spending time with pastors and NGO’s

ü  My wife seeing the ministry for the first time.

ü  Finding Rudi Oranje. He has been a real gem and I am looking forward to him working full time with us. Rudi also attended Leader Mundial Africa

ü  We have 2 churches out of 35 working with us and 12 NGO’s. We have had a number of other NGO’s asking to work with us next year.

The negatives

Ø  Being totally stumped about the trash dump.

Ø  Seeing all the mentally retarded, aged and children on the streets.

Ø  Seeing to many raped, murdered and abducted girls.

Ø  Seeing the lack of unity amongst the churches. 

Ø  Putting together a function for the top 100 leaders in BW and only 5 turning up.

Ø  Trying to buy bore hole pumps for St Francis Centre and not finding anyone willing to install them and to honour the warrantee. This would really be great to grow veg and fruit. We also have not been able to plant olive trees which would lead to generating funds for the various projects.

Ø  One of the saddest moments for me was on my second last trip where I found out that a young girl was hacked to death and her pieces fed to dogs and then I was asked to pray with a mother whose mentally challenged daughter was abducted. While I was praying for the mother the grandfather fell in the dirt sobbing, I sat next to him and spoke to him and prayed for him, he kissed my hand. This drew a large crowd and I heard a lady say “never before had they seen a white man sit in the dirt and put his arm around a coloured man.” As sad as this was I think it has opened a door that no man could have opened – praise Jesus.

Ø  The water crisis in BW is critical, but God lets it rain just enough to stop people dying of thirst but not enough to heal the land. They have tried recycling human waste but that made the children sick. They have trucked in water. They have cut water to different areas every 3 days. There was an appeal on the radio for people to drop off bottled water as they pass through. So far 30 000l has been dropped off. The land will not be healed until the people who are called by God’s name, will humble themselves and pray, turn from their wicked ways. They need to work together and acknowledge God for who He is.

Prayer Requests –

Next year we want to concentrate on the children and youth and their relationship with Jesus.

We also want to develop Godly leaders to help tackle the so many problems of BW. We need Godly leaders so that we can reach BW and the rest of the Karoo

As always we want to develop the unity in BW amongst leaders and church leaders.

The raising of prayer cells in every sub division of Beaufort West.

God’s Little Light House – We did not have much to do with this project this year. We had one team go there. We had 2 people work there for a month each and 1 person worked there for 3 days. A few churches showed interest in sending teams to GLLH, but so far nothing concrete. One of the pressing needs is a fire escape door. We have raised a third of the money, please pray for the other R3000.00.

GLLH still needs Maintaince and VBS teams.

Steinthal Children’s Home, Tulbagh – Belhar Baptist Church adopted this project and it was great to see some of the kids going home with some members of the church for Christmas. Belhar did 3 outreaches at the home. Steinthal needs VBS and Maintenance teams. We had the privilege of having Robin the director for the children’s home drive us around for the ER Christmas Parties. Robin was also part of Leader Mundial Africa

Steinthal needs VBS and Maintenance teams.

Miemie’s Soup Kitchen, Khayelitsha – This project feeds 210 children from the surrounding area of which 10 children have HIV/Aids. Miemie and Lyndi run this project so well. They know what their children need and when I arrive a the wholesaler they are waiting and all I need to do is pay. If they run out of anything one of then goes and gets a casual job to buy the food they need. The children get a Bible story and prayer before every meal. She feeds the child twice a day. She starts at 4am baking break and works the whole day. Lyndi was also at Leader Munial Africa.

Sinekona, Mpenjati, Kwa Zulu Natal – Is a community based Christian Organisation, that has a 2 prong approach to spreading the Gospel. The first prong is Palliative Home care to the locals in the village (village is spread over a large area). The community workers have a large area to cover and most times they don’t have medical supplies so they just wash and talk to the pasients. The second prong is to work with orphans and vulnerable children. They have built a little wooden hut where they feed 200 children, 56 at a time 2 meals a day. The hut is built near a school were children can walk up to 10km’s to get to school.

Prayer requests – For the finance to keep the project going. For food and medical supplies they need R15000,00 a month.

For a vehicle so that they can transport the sick to hospital, children to school and to buy food. The nearest hospital is 30km’s away and the nearest general dealer is 25km’s away.

For finance for me to go there 4 times a year to check on the project and to look for others in the area.

KZN has the highest HIV/Aids rate in South Africa and has the highest number of orphans infected and affected by HIV/Aids in South Africa.

ER Representitive – the first year was a period of finding my feet but I did enjoy getting to know the partners better and watch how God is using each partner to His glory in such diverise ministries yet each with the same goal – Jesus.

One of the highlights for me was the Christmas parties that was run by ER here in South Africa and to have so many people who are close to me on the team.

ATAIM prayer requests

Our biggest need is office and storage space. Currently we are hiring a a garage in storage land, my garage is full, my wife’s balconey and a friends storeroom.

An admin assistant.

More team facilitators to raise and help teams.

God’s hand of protection on our travels next year and us as a family.

Nicole enters senior high school

Wayne is in his last year of college and starts his apprenticeship at the end of the year, that God will really works in his life as he has to go out into the world.

For Sharon ministry at school to carry on and for the strength for the coming year.

For my diabetes, my sugar level is abnormally high even with the medication.

Our prayer is that God does not make our walk with Him easier but that He would make us stronger.

Thank you all for the e mails, support and the prayers, it meant and means so much to us and without Jesus  using you guys we would not have made it.

As a family we would like to wish you all a Christ centred Christmas and may your 2011 be all you pray it to be.

Walking with Jesus together,

Pierre, Sharon, Wayne and Nicole