January Update

Compliments of the New Year to you all!

Cleaning and sweeping and cleaning some more, installing new locks and sorting through keys, repairing donated furniture, assembling desks and bookshelves, installing sinks and computer software on new donated computers, installing outside lights and a whole new solar system (panels, batteries, regulator and inverter), and training our new admin assistant. It’s been a very full couple of months for Eugene, Joshua and I as we’ve been back and forth to the Berg countless times recently getting things in place.

Eugene (standing) and metal workers inspect their
installation work. 

I can’t tell you how exciting it is to have moved into our new building, and to set up as a functioning office!! For so long, Xoli and I have both been operating with our homes as offices and they have been taken over by boxes, filing cabinets, home-based care supplies and food for orphans as well as all our patient files and computers. Finally we have been able to move much of our work into our new buildings, which we have done with great flourish, and we are very thankful to have such a beautiful new building to operate from!

Our new offices open,
now powered by the sun!

Eugene and I spent much of our Christmas leave at our Thembalethu Centre setting up and installing a new solar system donated generously by Blue Oak Energy (big thanks to Janie and Tobin Booth!). There is no electricity in the Injesuthi Valley, and having electricity allows us to have a functioning office, powers our computers and copy machine, gives us the capacity to do so many more things from our offices. We have come far from working out of our bakkie (pick-up) house to house! We feel very blessed to have received so generously!

So much has happened in the past few months since our last October update. It has been a busy couple of months as both our little boy, Joshua as well as Thembalethu have undergone a tremendous amount of growth.

Not only have we moved into our new offices, but we have also grown up tremendously in our work with our new Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB and Malaria grant:

· In home-based care, we jumped up from 85 patients to 210 in the period of a month, and the visits to these patients has also increased greatly to provide more thorough care and support of the sick, primarily those infected with HIV and TB.

· We have added five dedicated caregivers in our community-based care of orphaned and vulnerable children as well as additional children (120 per month) that receive psychosocial support as well as some receive food parcels, others school uniforms and school supplies for the new school year.

· We now have 17 caregivers who are now receiving stipends for their work, being able to receive some support for their generous heart-felt care of their sick and vulnerable neighbors.

· We have added one of our patients on as a part-time admin assistant to help us meet the reporting requirements of the Global Fund and with general admin tasks such as maintaining the database and all our client files.

· I have also learned a lot about finances through our new funder in producing financial reports as well as better managing and monitoring our organizational finances.

Joshua, meanwhile, has also undergone many changes since our last update. On 5 February he will be celebrating his first birthday, hard to believe the little guy is nearly at such a seemingly monumental milestone! In the past few weeks he has gone from doing the ‘butterfly stroke crawl’ to truly being able to move himself around the house, and in the past two weeks has started to really explore, leaving little ‘piles’ of books, CDs or other household items as signs of his exploration. He is ‘cruising’ around the furniture, and we don’t think it will be long before he starts walking on his own – he has taken to grabbing our legs and walking with us wherever we are going any chance he gets. Joshua cut four new teeth over Christmas, and is very cute little guy with his six teeth who brings a lot of joy, smiles and laughter into our home. 

It is going on two and a half years that I have been living in Tugela Ferry and travelling to the Drakensberg two, three and four times a month for two days at a time. I am becoming increasingly excited at the prospect that these two hour drives will soon come to an end as we look to the close of our days in Tugela Ferry, and moving back to the Winterton area. We will really miss the lovely mission-minded community here, and the many friends that we have made. In April, both Eugene and I will reach our seven year marks in KwaZulu Natal (he came from Cape Town, by way of Zambia) – he having spent that entire time in Tugela Ferry. Eugene has given his notice to complete his work at Philanjalo at the end of April where he has been financial manager for the past five years. From May or June, we are planning to spend a much-anticipated few months in the USA after what will be nearly two years without a visit. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to reconnecting and catching up!

After our furlough in for the summer in the US, God willing, we plan to move to Winterton area where Eugene will run his new alternative energy business selling everything from solar panels to wind and hydro powered systems and efficient shower heads while continuing to help out Thembalethu as handyman, solar and operational guru, and likely helping out another ministry or two as well. When we are back in Winterton, I will be able to have more contact with our caregivers, patients and children, and allow us to deeper convert our centre to a true community resource centre that shows God’s heart and shares resources with the community.

Thank you very much for your prayers and support in all that we do. May God continue to bless you for making my being here and this work possible.

Prayer Requests

· Prayers of thanksgiving for the recent donations we have received – from our new office building, to the office furniture we have now put to use, the solar system to power our new offices, and the Global Fund grant.

· Prayers for a possible additional funder who responded to our proposal two years after submission and may be interested in jazzing up our old building to make it into a more usable community resource centre – putting in a large covered waiting area, putting in a proper floor and ceiling, as well as funding some of our running costs (fuel and communication), and possibly putting in a well to make us less dependent on the municipality to fill up our water tank in the dry winters.

· Prayers for wisdom and discernment as we may be receiving a Peace Corps volunteer in the next few months. Pray that God would bring the right person to us, if we get one.

· Prayers for Eugene and I that we may stay centred on Christ in the midst of many things going on. Please pray that we would focus on the voice of Truth in the midst of many other competing noises.

· Prayers for God’s wisdom and timing in having some furlough in the USA. We are looking at coming in May or June for an uncertain number of months and are seeking God’s leading in the timing and duration for this.

· Prayers for the right people to come together to fill the gaps for the work that I do while I’m away from Thembalethu on furlough in the USA.

· Pray with us for God’s vision and guidance as we dream about possible uses of our facilities. Join me in praying for God to bring a solid Zulu Christian pastor to us who can strengthen the spiritual side of our work.