The entrance to the mission.
I am going to take you on a little of a tour of the Mission.
Another view from the play/school area.
Very early on we realised that people cannot be "uplifted" and helped to move on to a better future unless you look at ministry holistically. You cannot just say "I will pray for you". and walk away. Our ministry is based on the four major elements:
The rooms are small but clean and safe
- SOCIAL SERVICE: We have to provide safe shelter ,(a place they can call home) decent clothing and good food. Our motto is " ...a place to belong...a place to become..." When a homeless person comes to us, they complete a three month life skill program and are allocated a work area. They are also encouraged to spend time with the social worker and the counselours. At present we have approximately 200 people on our program and a total of nearly 600 people living on the premises.
The kitchen provides three meals per day to 260 people.
We have seen how the Lord provides in every need...and not second best either. We are on the social responsibility program of a large retail company that supply us with their "sell by" food on a daily basis. There is no shortage of fruit, vegetables, jogurt and even luxuries. Our Lord is not poor;-)
2. HEALTH: Our people are seen to by a doctor, dentist and optometrist. These medical professionals give of their time to assist the precious people in our care.
3. EDUCATION: This is a very important part of what we do. We have an ABET (Adult Based Education and Training) school on the premises where our people are assisted to complete their schooling which will enable them to find work where they would be able to provide for their families.
The ABET computer literacy classroom
Computer literacy is also a very important component.
Shortly after we started the Mission we saw the need for a creche to care for the little ones. They need to be safe while their parents are working. We also found that people that are struggling to survive don't have the energy to spend quality time with the children. The children are not stimulated and are way behind other children in their development. We now have a remedial teacher that owns her own creche that allows our children that have to enrol for Grade R next year to attend her pre-school free of charge.
The baby room. (We have 17 babies/toddlers in this area)
The "bigger" class;-)
Adorable little things!
4. JOB CREATION: This have become a very important component of the Mission. THERE IS NO WORK out there, so we had to create work. Two very important reasons for this. Firstly the people on the program have to learn that they have to work for what they want. Life is not about hand outs. It builds their self esteem when they work and it gives them worth. Secondly, the Mission needs an income to survive. We don't apply for funding and are self sustained. When we started out we only had a few people and our job creation side of things started small.
The prefabricated pillars and posts or vibracrete panels - this was the first project we started. People with addiction problems are put to work. They need to be so tired at night that they would not even have the energy to think about getting the next fix.
Welding works are also done. We try to allocate people to "positions" where they have knowledge and feel happy to work.
Recycling the posters that are put on lamp posts with daily news headlines.
Recycling PVC products.
Woodwork
Every work area has a leader that have to care for his workers. Very much like a shepherd would care for his flock;-)
We are tremendously blessed. The work we do is not easy but it is SO very worthwhile and so very rewarding. We fall in love with the people that are placed in our care and our joy is when they overcome their problems and move on and back to society. Some people are able to do this in a short space of time and some have had such traumatic lives that it takes longer, and sometimes a few years before they are healed.
