Dear Friends,
In the light of the terrible COVID 19 virus we hope that through the grace of God you are all doing well.
From the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, ever since South Africa went into lockdown, any group meetings were prohibited. Therefore, there could be no church gatherings. This really had a big impact on our ministry, since we are working in a rural community where church services over social media are not an option. For weeks we hoped and prayed with many other Christians in South Africa that the Lord would open the door for church gatherings to be allowed again. For during this trying time it is important that the Lord’s children should continue to gather so that we may encourage and support one another. In the past week our president announced that churches may open again and have services in South Africa. He highlighted the fact that churches plays an important role in the wellbeing of South African citizens. However, he put down certain rules which should be followed. Such as that there may only be 50 people gathered at a time and that strict hygienic measures should be in place. He also called on all South Africans to have National Day of Prayer on the 31st of May. We thank the Lord that He has heard the prayers of His children throughout South Africa.
Lettuce Leaves and Peas
We have started to harvest the vegetable field that we planted. Currently we supply six households on a weekly basis with fresh vegetables and distribute to other needy people as they cross our path. We are thankful that on a small scale we could also start selling some of the vegetables, which help to cover some of the labour cost. Work is scarce at the moment in Onseepkans and we employed a young man three days a week. His name is Christo and he grew up as an orphan. We ask you to especially pray for the Lord’s working in his life. We also temporarily employed two needy women in the nearby community. Both have children to support and also struggle with alcohol addiction. Please pray that God’s love would also be revealed to them and that they would be set free from the terrible bondage of alcohol addiction.
Distributing Vegetables
The Two Ladies and Naomi
We would like to share a small testimony from Elmane, how the Lord opened a door for us to help and minister to a widow in the nearby community:
“Since we could not have church services or our usual outreaches and interactions with the community, we prayed that the Lord would give us wisdom and opportunities how to serve the people around us, especially in this difficult time in which many are in need. We are thankful for the opportunity He provided through the vegetable production.
However, we also experienced some challenges. We were blessed in these days when the Lord spoke to us through the passage in Matthew 16:24 in which the Lord says that whoever wants to be His disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him. We also realized that the cross the Lord speaks about in this passage could also be the challenges that come across our paths. I want to share one of these and the way in which the Lord used it for His glory.
Our vegetable field is fenced in on two sides. On the other two sides the river and irrigation canal forms two natural borders. One of the results of the new irrigation scheme is that the canal is not used anymore. Since it contains little water at the moment, stray animals find their way into our vegetable field by walking through the canal. These cattle and horses destroy some of the vegetable plants as they step on it while they roam through the vegetable beds. This is not easy for us since we’ve put in a lot of effort to grow the vegetable seedlings and to get the plants to grow. We had no other option but to remove the thorn bushes which grew on the bank of the canal and to start to fence everything in.
A few weeks ago we went to Kakamas to buy more fencing materials. On our way we met up with a group of people from Onseepkans who were looking for a lift to town. One of them is a widow whose husband recently passed away. Only later that day when they wanted to return with us, we discovered that she went to town to apply for a loan against her government grant. She was struggling to provide for her household and her son also lost his job due to the Corona virus pandemic. She did not have any credit left on her grocery account at one of the local shops in Onseepkans. She could not buy any more groceries until she made a payment and hoped to use the loan to pay some of her grocery debt. This loan she would had to pay back over the next months with interest.
We were touched by her story and felt that the Lord wanted us to help her. We supplied her with groceries from our mission pantry and we also helped her to pay her account at the shop. We advised her to rather cancel the loan which would have taken a large portion of her pension each month.
We thought that we went to town to buy materials for our fence, but God saw the need and heard the pleas of this widow. He gave us the opportunity to serve her in His Name. We are thankful that in spite of the difficulties of the Corona virus God gives us these opportunities to make a difference in people’s lives.”
COVID-19 changed life for all of us. Who would have believed it if someone a few months ago said we will soon be all locked up in our homes! How do we respond to the circumstances that God brought across our path? Do we murmur, or do we ask God to bring us closer to Him through the circumstances and trust Him for opportunities to be a blessing to others?
We continue to trust and pray for God’s protection to you and your loved ones.
May the Lord be with you and keep you,
Gerhard, Elmanè and Children
