our 27th home placement

loving aunt

saying goodbye is always hard, especially if we have little expectation of seeing our successfully placed children again, however we do rejoice that we have now placed our 27th child back home with their family which is amazing testimony to maz and her team in the children's unit here at the village of hope.

this last little girl, of 2 years, is been taken to stay with her aunt in the transkei, the tribal homelands of the xhosa people. the aunt made the 12 hour journey down to grabouw in a taxi and the girl is now well on her way to her new home, we wish them well and will continue to pray for her.

new beginnings

last friday we had the great pleasure of helping a local family move from their wooden home into their newly built government brick home. the family, a mum, dad and a 17 year old son who helps arron with his soccer outreach in rooidakke, had lived in this one bed wooden home, which they rented, for the last 10 years.....it took just two loads on my bakkie and small trailer to move their entire home, beds, plastic chair, clothes etc...they were joined in their new 2 bed home by an uncle who we collected from a nearby farm, he had lived in his home for 59 years, he had a simple bed, mattress and a couple of chairs.

it was a real privilege to see the mum take the first steps in her new home, and as we moved her belongings from the car she washed her hands in the sink, just a single cold water tap, for the first time. the home is a simple single story build, open plan lounge/kitchen, two bedrooms and a room with a toilet and shower, the 'kitchen' is just a single sink in the corner of the room, no cupboards or worktop...no tiles in 'kitchen area' or shower, just bear concrete and concrete floors......at present the home doesn't have electricity, and no plugs have been installed.....the walls are single brick which will be so cold in winter but....

....saying all that the family are so happy to have a place of their own, the water is on a meter and they will pay rates and rent like the rest of us......3,000 other homes are planned for grabouw over the next few years...lets pray that we will be able to help many more people as they move from tin shacks to brick homes and that the poverty that we see day in day out will be broken by further schemes like work programmes to get these people into employment so they can keep their homes as new as the day they moved in.

p.s as you will see from the photo these homes aren't really built for people the size of arron!