Today, Friday July 27, 2007, we went back to Joe Slovo (a squatter’s camp near Refilwe) to deliver blankets and shoes! It’s like icing on the cake that the Lord has been preparing for about 6 weeks.
Let me back up. Remember my earlier post when I was at Refilwe? God burdened my heart to provide shoes for children there. Several of them came to camp with bare feet. Many others had gaping holes in their shoes (if you could call the remaining pieces ‘shoes’). And the kids are not allowed to attend school without the proper black-dress-code shoes. But how do I help these children?
One of our excellent contacts in South Africa (Theresa) helped us coordinate with Joe Slovo leaders to find out the greatest needs in the squatter’s camp. We were given children’s names and shoe sizes.
A previous donation from HLB Tautges Redpath, Ltd., the accounting firm I worked for in MN, supplied financial resources to provide shoes for these children.
After confirming in prayer, I committed to use HLBTR funds to supply 30 children with shoes.
During the time at Refilwe, my teammate Cricket had a burden for the families to have blankets. It has been the coldest winter in South Africa in over two decades! We were very cold. So obviously the families who live in houses made of cardboard and tin were cold too. Cricket’s church Sunday school class contributed funding to be used for blankets for these families.
Thus the shopping began! We shopped. We discussed our project with store & regional managers. And finally we found the best prices: For the blankets, approximately $225 USD for 50 – that’s less than $5 each pair, and for the shoes, approximately $270 USD for 30 pairs—that’s less than $9 each pair!
After a few weeks of working out all the details, we were finally able to deliver the finished product. (YEAH! – the fun part.) When we arrived, all the kids were waiting politely for us, sitting on stairs outside the community center on the outskirts of Joe Slovo. As the team leader and project point person, I was ushered up to the front to give a little talk, letting the children know what they were about to receive and where the funds came from. I reminded them what we learned about at children’s camp the prior month – that God’s love is powerful, God’s love saves, God’s love protects, and—most relevant to this situation—God’s love provides.
I told them about the MN accounting firm and SC Sunday school class that wanted to provide a blanket and a pair of school shoes for each one of them. Then I explained that these Americans were just God’s instrument to provide for them in this instance.
Take a look at some of these pictures! Look at how many of these children did not have shoes and little clothing to keep them warm. And then how they prayed with me, thanking the Lord for providing for them. Then once the kids received the blankets and shoes, they couldn’t wait to try on the shoes! And the women immediately put their thick wool blankets to use, keeping their children they carried warm in the sling-type carrying contraction they made from the blankets. Their happy faces reveal how much the shoes mean to the kids and women. Thank you to HLBTR and to Cricket’s Sunday school for providing the finances to help these children and families!
And
PRAISE GOD with me, as these gifts demonstrate to the children that the Lord always provides! Continue to
pray that these children grow in the Lord and that the seeds planted during children’s camp will continue to grow.
