Dear friends,
We would like to update you about the Lord’s work regarding some of the projects and activities of Onseepkans Mission.
Chess club
As most of you are aware, we started a chess club for the community children of Onseepkans. After many months of teaching the children the moves and letting them play against each other at a very basic entry level, we identified those that regularly came for training and realized it was time to take them to the next level. We began to teach them that they must think, plan their moves and not just randomly move pieces around.
This was when we discovered one of their biggest disadvantages, their inability to focus and concentrate!
Children playing chess
We placed six of them at one table, three of them on each side. Then we expected something nearly impossible from them – to focus on the game in front of them and not to be busy with their opponents or the game next to them. They just could not get it right! They kicked each other underneath the table, pulled faces at their opponents, accused each other of cheating and lying, and could not resist the temptation to continuously get involved in the game next to them! It dawned on us why the children in Onseepkans struggle so much at school, they have never had the opportunity to learn the basic skill of concentration. This is something that we take as natural without thinking twice about it. Since early childhood we have learned to concentrate, whether it be coloring a picture, playing a board game, reading a book or partaking in a multitude of other activities. These children know nothing of this. Since early childhood all they know is playing in the street and other children constantly teasing or bullying them.
I asked our young chess players whether they also act towards each other in a similar way when they are at school, as they did in the chess club. They replied yes, as if it was absolutely normal. For the first time in their lives they started thinking about the concept of concentration, something they were completely ignorant of before. We realized the important task ahead of us, to teach these few children how to be focused and concentrate on what they do, whether it is schoolwork, playing chess or reading their Bible. How important it is to be focused and concentrate when we read our Bibles and how difficult it must be to hear God’s voice if we never learned these skills. We value your prayers, that God will give us much wisdom as we work with these children.
The fruit of a house that burnt down.
Our house after the fire in 2009
In 2009, while we were still at Môreson Mission, our house burnt down. Little did we know that ten years later God would use the fruit of this incident to start a ministry in a little settlement called Onseepkans, next to the Namibian border 750km away from Môreson mission.
The days after the fire, we removed all the building rubble and started preparing the foundations for the new building. To our dismay, we discovered that the old house was built on a solid bank of horrible yellow clay, totally unsuitable to build upon, unless the foundations were properly re-enforced. This of course explained the terrible cracks in the walls of the house before the fire.
While we struggled to overcome the challenges that we now were facing, the rest of the mission’s activities continued. People came for help as usual and one day I noticed one such gentleman sitting with a bucket full of this yellow clay. I asked him what he was doing and he replied that he thinks that the clay is good for pottery. We took some of the clay to a nearby pottery, he made some items on the wheel from the clay, and this was the start of my interest in pottery. We obtained a few wheels and a kiln, I learned to master some basic skills, and visitors to our mission without giving too much criticism, sympathetically bought a few pieces in support of the mission.
Then God called us to Onseepkans in 2011. This became a new challenge altogether. Môreson Mission was not interested in continuing with the pottery without me, so we had no other option but to cart the whole pottery in bits and pieces to Onseepkans. The beginning years in Onseepkans were difficult times and there was no real time or market for the pottery. I also had to change from an electric to a gas kiln for the firing of the pottery, and this was all completely new to me. Many times I would ask the Lord if it is still His will that I should continue with the pottery, but every time I wanted to quit someone would donate some piece of pottery equipment to us. We began to realize God still has some special plan for the pottery.
Recently, I asked some of our young chess players whether they would be interested in pottery classes. Their overwhelming response amazed me! I now regularly give pottery classes for free to the children from the nearby community.
My daughter Elizabeth helping some of the young girls
Girls mixing clay
Helping a young boy on the wheel
Helping a young boy from the neighboring town, Kakamas, who has a keen interest in pottery
I never thought ten years ago that the pottery would become such a remarkable tool in God’s hands that He would use for His glory. I sincerely want to thank all who faithfully continued to pray for the pottery through the years.
In Conclusion
Sometimes it may seem that some project or ministry that God entrusted to you does not bear fruit. At this point many of us want to give up and say it did not work. However, when the farmer has tilled the ground, sowed the seed, or planted the young trees, he has to wait for the harvest. He patiently has to endure, waiting season after season, year in and year out, until he sees the first signs of the yield. May God give us the grace to be patient like farmers as we wait upon the harvest for His Kingdom.
We pray you God’s richest blessings.
Gerhard, Elmanè, and children
