Author: Zeng Dieulv

Innocentia Mdaka is another of our Mercy House icons. She got to know about Mercy House on reading the Comboni Worldwide magazine in late October 2014. She asked the then provincial, Father Jeremias, how she could help. He referred her to Mercy House and since then we never looked back. Innocentia has come since 2014 to give extra lessons in Afrikaans and Zulu to our scholars, as a voluntary service, on Saturday morning, ever since then. Her humble devotion is an example to us all, while her service is invaluable. We are grateful to Innocentia and God for this blessing. Innocentia is also one of our Mercy House trustees.

Sister Clementine is a Holy Family Sister who got to know about Mercy House in the year 2012. She is from Lesotho, where she had her schooling with the Holy Family Sisters and subsequently joined them. Her first assignment as a sister was to work in Rwanda from 2003 to 2005. Here she learnt a great deal also about the Genocide and got to love the place and the people. So, when she heard about our work to help refugees at Mercy House, she knew that that was just the right place where she wanted to give some help. She is fluent in the Rwandese language and is greatly liked by our residents. She has been a very faithful supporter and helped in so many ways. We greatly appreciate her support and participation. She is seen in the photo with Innocentia, our Saturday morning teacher.

 

The accompanying photo shows our Ma B, as we call her, in her garden, holding her hoe. She is accompanied by her son, Dioscor, and co-resident and gardener, Marie Bernard. Ma B came to us from Rwanda in late 2011 and was able the next year to bring her son down. We are proud to have been able to assist her, thanks of course to our benefactors, and to have been able to put her son into the excellent Dominican Convent School, where he will matriculate this year. Ma B is a very knowledgeable gardener and was able, with Marie Bernard, to acquire a plot of land, without charge, a plot near Mercy House. These 2 ladies grow all sorts of vegetables there which they use to feed the residents at Mercy House. These include beans, spinach and many other foods which people in Central Africa like to eat. Well done Ma B and Mari Bernard for your achievement which is really admirable…

Thanks to Sharon, her co-worker Fernanda, and the Malvern Saint Vincent de Paul Youth (see photo below), a very joyful and fun-filled celebration was held at Mercy House on Youth Day, 16th June. It was originally planned as a picnic at the park, but since it was a very cold winter’s day with an extremely cold wind, we stayed at Mercy House instead. And what fun! After a delicious lunch, the young people played the games which the Malvern Youth had brought. There was much laughter and enjoyment, and we owe a huge big thank you to our friends who organised it. May you be blessed!  It was a wonderful experience of the fact that everyone of us can be a blessing for others!

On the 23rd February, some of our young scholars were invited to the American International School in Pretoria, to share their experiences with their peers, on life as a refugee. The American school caters for children of diplomats, so it was a very enriching experience, meeting young people from all over the world, and who, of course, lead a very different life from our young refugees. Our hosts were so open to learning about life on the other side of the line. Then the next week, they paid a reciprocal visit to Mercy House, where they could see where we live and meet more of our young people. We thank our co-worker, Nozizwe Ndebele, who works at the school and arranged the whole enriching exercise. The photo shows our Fleury with the host students at the American International School when we visited them.

On 17 March the young people of the St Vincent de Paul in Malvern paid their annual visit to Mercy House. For a change, this time they gave us a braai! It was a wonderful occasion, not just for this reason, but also because this time they brought games to play with our young people which made it so much more enjoyable.

We thank especially Sharon da Silva and Fernanda (second from the right in the photo) who organised the whole occasion, not to mention the young people who came to give us joy.

 

 

The other accompanying photo shows Merina who loves our children, with Sara.

On the last weekend of April, we had 2 “We Love Mercy House” days. THE GARDEN AND DRIVEWAY WALLS WERE LOOKING VERY SHABBY. Instead of hiring builders we did it ourselves and it proved to be great fun. One resident, who was working as a builder in Sudan before he came to us, directed operations to make the place truly beautiful. AND WE FINISHED JUST ON TIME for our Holy Mass on 1 May.

Everyone worked together joyfully and enjoyed creating “Something Beautiful for God.”

After our New Year’s Mass in January we were privileged to have 2 more Masses in this half year, on the 21st March, and 1st May, both public holidays. Our Masses always have a very personal and unique ambience and everyone senses it. We are hugely privileged to have the Comboni Fathers offer our Masses. In the accompanying photo, we see Eddie, Donation and Douglas with Father Rafael, a young Comboni Father from Spain. He currently is in charge of a large pastoral centre on Mpumalanga, named Maria Trost. He happened to be visiting Johannesburg for the weekend, to our great joy and benefit.