At the beginning of this year I had a sense that God was leading Holger and me into something. It was just a sense. I was not sure what to do with that.
Then Lock-down happened and we were stuck with each other 24/7 and of course a lot more time to just speak. For the first 21 days we spent lots of time cleaning house in every corner and reading. We were approaching our 25th Anniversary and I had this growing sense that something was about to shift. I told Holger and he would respond reminding me that we had a big family and that perhaps that was enough.
I prayed and asked God to please take the sense away from me. By the week before Easter the sense was so strong that I was becoming a bit unbearable to live with. I wrote a long letter to Holger trying to explain what it was that I was feeling and that I hoped that by our Anniversary it would be clear, but right then it just felt like we had to position ourselves to say yes!
On Tenebrae Thursday I tuned into a traditional service (digging into childhood memories) somewhere in the world and then into the Protea Valley Church one. I spoke to the kids about what Jesus did for us. We let the hope candle burn as I put them to bed...
On the Saturday, we again visited the hope candle and the kids and I prayed for what we hoped for. In the week before this we were talking more and more as a family about hungry people in our nation. Lulu prayed that Saturday that God would give us food to share with the hungry. It shook me deep inside. I had not thought until that point that we had more in our hands and we had to do more. I had been sharing Beautiful Gates posts and following two of Moriah-Jane's school friends on social media and their responses to hunger and I gave a bit and even went one day with Jessica to help pack some parcels.
On that Saturday I got a call from a friend at church telling me about his plan to address hunger, but I felt a strong sense that I was not to say yes to this. It confused me.
On Wednesday after Easter I got a message from a friend who shared that not only could she not respond to the needs of her community any longer, but that her husband had lost his job and they had no food that night. My heart broke. Holger and I responded with what was in our hands. We started sharing on social media what we were experiencing and that hunger was coming closer home. The next day we contacted Patricia from Zushake and Cynthia (Ntosh) from Balula that we had done projects with in the past to find out what they were facing on the ground. Hunger was a crisis... Holger and I then and there committed to do more.
Eight weeks into this movement and after our YES we have been blown away by what God has done through MercyAIDS and all the people that have come alongside us. I am blown away by the amazing people we have met in the communities that we have the privilege of working in. God is doing something beautiful!
Our team with the support of many donors around the world have had the privilege of upgrading and/or starting 25 community kitchens and the privilege of passing out about 700 parcels into families to support them during lockdown. For seven weeks we have with the help of donors been able to keep pots full with cooked food and gas to cook it. The journey has taught us that there is so much more to community soup kitchens than the pots that serve food. There is a movement growing and it is led by a God who has 'Mercy and Justice' on His agenda...
We need to just keep tuning into God, ourselves and our world and do the next right thing in front of us to do, letting the way of love lead. This journey has been hard but amazing. We know it is far from finished. We have been surrounded with support and people that get it. For this we are deeply grateful.
Please continue to pray for us, our team, our work...
Thank you to Durbanville CAN (Community Action Network) who have not only been a supporter of the work but got a photographer to come and capture some of the story.
Then Lock-down happened and we were stuck with each other 24/7 and of course a lot more time to just speak. For the first 21 days we spent lots of time cleaning house in every corner and reading. We were approaching our 25th Anniversary and I had this growing sense that something was about to shift. I told Holger and he would respond reminding me that we had a big family and that perhaps that was enough.
I prayed and asked God to please take the sense away from me. By the week before Easter the sense was so strong that I was becoming a bit unbearable to live with. I wrote a long letter to Holger trying to explain what it was that I was feeling and that I hoped that by our Anniversary it would be clear, but right then it just felt like we had to position ourselves to say yes!
On Tenebrae Thursday I tuned into a traditional service (digging into childhood memories) somewhere in the world and then into the Protea Valley Church one. I spoke to the kids about what Jesus did for us. We let the hope candle burn as I put them to bed...
On the Saturday, we again visited the hope candle and the kids and I prayed for what we hoped for. In the week before this we were talking more and more as a family about hungry people in our nation. Lulu prayed that Saturday that God would give us food to share with the hungry. It shook me deep inside. I had not thought until that point that we had more in our hands and we had to do more. I had been sharing Beautiful Gates posts and following two of Moriah-Jane's school friends on social media and their responses to hunger and I gave a bit and even went one day with Jessica to help pack some parcels.
On that Saturday I got a call from a friend at church telling me about his plan to address hunger, but I felt a strong sense that I was not to say yes to this. It confused me.
On Wednesday after Easter I got a message from a friend who shared that not only could she not respond to the needs of her community any longer, but that her husband had lost his job and they had no food that night. My heart broke. Holger and I responded with what was in our hands. We started sharing on social media what we were experiencing and that hunger was coming closer home. The next day we contacted Patricia from Zushake and Cynthia (Ntosh) from Balula that we had done projects with in the past to find out what they were facing on the ground. Hunger was a crisis... Holger and I then and there committed to do more.
Eight weeks into this movement and after our YES we have been blown away by what God has done through MercyAIDS and all the people that have come alongside us. I am blown away by the amazing people we have met in the communities that we have the privilege of working in. God is doing something beautiful!
Our team with the support of many donors around the world have had the privilege of upgrading and/or starting 25 community kitchens and the privilege of passing out about 700 parcels into families to support them during lockdown. For seven weeks we have with the help of donors been able to keep pots full with cooked food and gas to cook it. The journey has taught us that there is so much more to community soup kitchens than the pots that serve food. There is a movement growing and it is led by a God who has 'Mercy and Justice' on His agenda...
We need to just keep tuning into God, ourselves and our world and do the next right thing in front of us to do, letting the way of love lead. This journey has been hard but amazing. We know it is far from finished. We have been surrounded with support and people that get it. For this we are deeply grateful.
Please continue to pray for us, our team, our work...
Thank you to Durbanville CAN (Community Action Network) who have not only been a supporter of the work but got a photographer to come and capture some of the story.
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