Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We continue to trust our Lord and Savior that He is keeping you in perfect health and peace in these difficult times that we are facing.
We would like to share with you some of the activities that kept us busy the past month.
Our Daily Bread Bakery
In our previous newsletter, we shared how we started a bakery. We are now happy to announce that through the help of a kind Christian we could obtain an expensive bakery oven and dough mixer at an affordable price. He also made quite a large donation towards part payment of the equipment. The equipment makes a tremendous difference in time wise and also to the quality of the bread. We do not have to spend many hours anymore kneeing dough by hand with mixed consistency results. Now can we can mix the dough with uniform consistency and we can bake good quality bread in a much shorter time. Currently, on average we bake 24 breads a day. We also started baking cookies (biscuits) and hope to market it in nearby towns to generate funds for the mission.
Our Daily Bread Project
We started a new project called Our Daily Bread. Through this project, people can donate money towards a certain amount of breads that we then bake and distribute among needy families in the community. In this way, we supply these needy families with daily fresh bread.
One of the families with many children who receive bread through the Our Daily Bread Project.
One bread cost R10 and if someone, for example, donates R100, it enables us to distribute 10 breads. People can donate any amount in multiplications of R10 (0.59 US $). We have a monthly financial report available of how much money we received and how many breads we distributed. This report we would provide to any donor on request.
If anybody would be interested in contributing towards this project, our banking details is MCH Build (t/a Onseepkans Mission), Nedbank Savings Account, Account Number: 2546037501. As payment reference please clearly state “Our Daily Bread Project”.
Three Short Updates from Martie le Roux:
- Drought relief in the Northern Cape and Southern Namibia
For nearly 8 years we have experienced a severe drought in our area. Thankfully, our mission could receive water continually from the Orange River, but we were deeply saddened to see how many small farmers and commercial livestock farmers in our community and area suffered because of the drought. Some farmers were also on the verge of bankruptcy since they did not have pastures on their farms and thus had to buy feed from the co-op to feed their animals.
The Lord graciously through the past month and a half gave us a lot of rain so that the veld is recovering. The drought is lifting at last. It is a great miracle and we can only thank the Lord for His mercy and care. Thank you for all your prayers through the years for rain. We appreciate it deeply.
Along the road to Kakamas
Veld close to Onseepkans
- The Orange River in Flood
Since many areas in the middle of South Africa and the Drakensberg mountains have experienced an unusual amount of rain the past months, the dams in the Vaal and Orange Rivers were filled to overflowing. Therefore, huge amounts of water were released into the Orange River and the river flooded its banks.
Aerial view of the Orange River close to us
A view of the Onseepkans Border Post Bridge from the Namibian side
The Augrabies Waterfalls ( the biggest waterfall in the Orange River )
This is the first time that we experienced the Orange River in flood in Onseepkans. It really is an exciting and interesting experience. Thankfully, the flood did not affect our mission house property since we are nearly 500m from the riverbank. However, nearly a quarter of our date field is underwater. We are thankful that the water did not push up to our date plantation so none of the date trees are damaged. Some of the roads are also closed due to flooding and we have to use detours.
The View of the date tree plantation taken from the hill next to our house.
The lowest part of the date field
- Covid-19
Although we have had affirmed cases of Covid-19 in Onseepkans, by the Lord’s grace it did not spread as quickly as we have expected that it should have had. We think that the dry and hot summer climate had greatly curbed and prevented the spread of the virus. Our family and congregation also are safe and none have contracted the disease so far. Thank you for all your prayers in this regard.
Greetings from Onseepkans,
Gerhard, Elmane and Children
