Church Involvement

Greetings to you from Masoyi HBC! It is with a great pleasure that I write this letter. Let me give you some background to understand this better. In the beginning of Masoyi HBC’s history we had very little funding for the project. When we came across starving families, we (Carolyn, I and the volunteers) literally took the money we had in our pockets to see if we could buy a 5 kg packet of maize. It was and still is so amazing to watch the volunteers give often from a desperate place of need themselves. I only learned later that many of them helped me carry food to patients and orphans while they had absolutely nothing in their own homes. The Lord saw their hearts and He started to bless the project. Our orphan numbers grew very fast, and currently we care for about 900 orphans in different ways. Most of them receive a monthly food parcel, clothes, medical care, electricity (pre-paid cards) and support in school matters. For others we successfully applied for grants for their foster parents. Our patients (terminally ill people dying in their homes) also receive certain services from us. In brief we visit them in their homes, where we support them in whatever need they have. We do house chores; basic nursing; social support (with a social worker); and we provide food where needed. Masoyi HBC also started community projects to help our orphans with life skills and to help with food production. Examples are vegetable gardens in all the villages; building projects and sewing classes. We train different target groups on how to handle the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Some of these groups are our volunteers;

 orphans; foster parents; youth in general and families. Looking back it is not difficult to see the Lords hand in all of this. It was way above any of our ability in the project. One issue did lack however. We had such a desire that the body of Christ should take its rightful place in this project. Even though we are eternally grateful to our sponsors from other sources, we desired the day when the Church would accept responsibility for the ‘widows and orphans’. I believe it is the best thing that could ever happen to the project; but even more important - to the Church! It will bring so much fulfilment to the people in the Church. As many Christians from all over the world come to visit our project, we always see the same reaction – such a desire in their hearts to get involved! The first half of the year we had teams from as far as Russia, Taiwan, Australia, U.S.A. and all reacted exactly the same. We longed for the day that the Church in Mpumalanga would also experience the same blessing. The blessing that Jesus spoke about in the parable of the Good Samaritan. I believe this started to happen this year. Last year some believers in White River and Nelspruit became very involved in our project. It was awesome to see how the Lord used them, and blessed them I may add, as they became involved. Some single woman made a difference to many orphans as they improved our pre-school centres for our orphans. Others started to get involved in personal relationships with orphans and patients. I don’t know who got blessed the most! This year, however, new momentum developed. The Churches in Nelspruit and White River became very involved in the project. By far the majority of the ministers in all the Churches came out personally to see the work. It was such a blessing to have them encouraging our volunteers. Like one volunteer said to a pastor, “it gives us so much strength to know that the churches in White River and Nelspruit support us”. Then came the winter and our appeal for blankets. We needed about 300 blankets immediately to meet the need among our orphans and patients. The response from the churches was overwhelmed! Within a few days we could supply all the blankets. It seems that this was a trigger that the Lord used to get many more people involved in caring for the poor and needy. We are excited! Good things are happening, and we are so grateful to everyone helping

On behalf of the orphans and patients,

George Snyman