I transported their mother about a month ago to the Philanjalo hospice because of her health and lack of care at home. She has meningitis TB and a recent CAT scan indicates she has severe swelling in her brain and therefore her outlook is very poor. Please pray for this patient, and her young kids, Nondethelelo and Lindokuhle (girl 13, boy 5) who, on the doctor’s recommendation, are staying with Eugene and I while they pay one last visit to their dying mother. Meanwhile, colleagues in Winterton are helping to sort out the children’s living situation, which will be with the families of the children’s fathers. Another case came up about two weeks ago as I was driving to Loskop/Winterton for a meeting, I got a call from a colleague with the municipality about a young girl that needed help. Her name is Mpume, she’s 17 or 18 years old (no birth certificate, so a lack of consensus about this), orphaned and has a six month old baby. Her older brother fetched her April last year from the orphanage where she had been living since 2003 and she never went back. Then she ‘fell pregnant’ as they say here, and since defaulted on her ARV treatment. And, even worst, was kicked out of her brother’s house because of a fight with her sister-in-law. We found her a temporary place to live, but as they continue to remind us, it is only a temporary situation. While the social workers committed to help us initially, their supervisor reneged this commitment, and now it’s only us looking out for Mpume. It looks like she’ll be able to move into a three-month temporary Christian haven where she’ll be loved, Hope will be conveyed, and she’ll get some skills training. At that point, we’ll have to see where she goes next, though it might be a place up in Johannesberg for HIV positive mothers and their children. Prayers for her and her baby Aphiwe would be greatly appreciated as well.
While on the issue of social workers, a God provided a GREAT answer to prayers not long ago in the answering of Xoli’s prayers and the saving of the Loskop social work office. Social workers in Loskop work primarily with orphaned and vulnerable children, the majority of whom are helped to access foster care documents and birth certificates through their appeals in the office. Their office was located at the Department of Agriculture complex (Xoli lives next door) and when she arrived home one evening, she saw a great column of smoke. As she realized that it was the DoA complex, she started praying for the saving of the Social work office since so much of the assistance to the community’s most vulnerable rests upon the files in that office. She and her husband proceeded to remove all they could save from the social work office, while she continued praying that nothing would be lost. And GOD is GOOD! When I went to see the DoA office a week after the fires, I was impressed by how marvelously God answered. The entire building is a burnt wreck, but the social work offices, while undoubtedly damaged some by smoke and water, were untouched by fire. The fire brigade arrived from Estcourt just in time to save the office. The social workers confirmed that not a single file was lost. Thank God for this protection of the interest of the community’s most vulnerable!
