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It is always sad to say goodbye to residents who, for one or other reason, leave. But this was also the case with our huge yucca plant, seen in the photo, gracing the entrance to our office. Our yucca started small! It was picked up as one only short stem of about 10 cm long on a heap of plant garbage by Diana many years ago. She liked it and took it home to put into a small pot. In no time it grew, and continued to grow fast. After a few years, this little pot plant not only had a few babies, but also reached the ceiling, so she brought it to Mercy House and we planted it outside the office. This was at the time we built our office, namely in 2009.

It did not take long for this lady to have many, many offspring! Soon there were many large yucca stems, even towering above the office roof, which often had to be trimmed or cut down. They had beautiful white flowers. We then decided to transplant some of these new stems to beside our play centre. As the picture shows, they too soon grew enormous and multiplied abundantly. The day came when we realized that the yucca outside our office was becoming so enormous that its roots began to interfere with the building. Regrettably, we had to admit that we would have to remove it, rather than rebuild office walls!

In early March this year, the sad day came when we had to do this. Even the roots had to be removed to avoid further complications. Now we have placed a bench and created a lawn and flower garden outside our office in memory of our mighty yucca, as the photo shows. It, too, will become beautiful. We are happy to say, however, that we had planted some of the off-shoots beside our play centre. They, too, are multiplying at an amazing pace. But we will not forget our Lady Yucca. May she rest in peace!

22 March was a public holiday – Human Rights Day. We called it “Make Mercy House Beautiful Day,” not without good reason. What a beautiful day we had as a community! It was beautiful, not just for cleaning up the house, and creating a lovely garden outside our office in the place of the Yukka we had to remove. Far more important, was the beautiful spirit which could be tangibly perceived all day. An atmosphere of togetherness, fun and joy pervaded. There was a strong sense of teamwork. All our residents, except for a few who had to go to work, joined in, each being allocated a specific task. Divan, Emmanuel, Brielle and Muzi, worked setting out our new garden. Kyle, David, James and the ladies gave a thorough cleaning in the kitchen. Brilliant and Riccardo repainted our two benches and so on. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy their task. We ended it all mid-afternoon, with pizzas and cold drink. It is truly amazing what working together for a common goal can do for community-building. Thanks to all who participated with such love and goodwill. We do indeed have a wonderful Mercy House community. We thank God for that.

Douglas came to Mercy House on 23 April 2019, to avoid political harassment and like problems in his home country. We did not realize what a great blessing was landing in our laps that day! Douglas is one of those human beings who says little, but whose shining example speaks volumes – actions and attitude speak louder than words – and this has indeed been the case with Douglas in our Mercy House community.

It was only a short while after he arrived in the country, that he was offered a job helping in a small business in town. He worked long hours, 6 days a week, never complaining, and was always so cheerful, welcoming visitors to Mercy House and helping others, including cooking. And when he did cook, he always shared his meal. He was not only always cheerful, but also remarkably humble.

On Saturday 6 March 2021 Douglas got married to a childhood sweetheart. He had gone back to his home country for this great event. The photographs show what a beautiful and joyful occasion that was.
We are immensely grateful for the 2 years that Douglas spent with us and will miss him very much. He left a gap behind! But his example will live on in our minds. Go well dear Douglas. May God reward your goodness which shines out like a light in a dark world. We know that you will continue to keep that light burning…

We would like to thank Teacher Constance and her colleagues for arranging Zoom meetings on the 27th and 28 of April between the AISJ students and our refugee scholars. AISJ is an American school for diplomats’ children. They were keen to meet and know about refugees. There were three sessions with 3 different classes and our young people enjoyed it so much – wanting to do it again and also to visit the AISJ school – in Pretoria – as we did before Covid times. We hope this will happen once covid fears are calmed.
We wish to thank our refugee resident, Emmanuel Masengo, for doing the technical work at Mercy House on that day, to make the Zoom possible. We did not have hitches, simply because he is an expert and does a good job!

There are many refugee women keeping their families going, without husbands present, for one or another reason. These women do not have a good command of English and little training, so they often come desperate for money for their monthly rent. This is difficult for us to sustain, since we have to keep Mercy House going at big cost, monthly. Our policy now is, rather than keep on giving rent, to empower them, so that they can get onto their feet and thereby keep their families going, alone.

To this end, we have given one woman a braai stand and a double-plated gas cooker. She has started cooking and selling meals on the street, which we understand is slowly taking off. We then asked another to list all the things she would need to do likewise, by way mainly of foodstuffs for her cooking. She, too, is now selling outside her apartment on the street. Our third and most recent endeavour has been to help a single parent to set up a small shoe business on the street. She buys large bags or crates of new shoes and resells them. This, too, is slowly taking off and we hope that their endeavours will be successful, so that they will be able to pay their rent, and above all, that the police do not come and “confiscate” their stock and chase them away. Cruel as this is, it does unfortunately happen – may they be protected…

How nice to have a small celebration amidst all the distancing Covid has sadly caused between friends and family. On Sunday, the 23rd of May, we had three reasons to do just this. And it was such a pleasure to be with some of our Mercy House residents present and past, joyfully reinforcing our belonging and togetherness.
Firstly, we celebrated the wedding of our Douglas, who is seen in the photo with his lovely young Burundian wife. Secondly, we celebrated the birthday of our youngest resident, Brielle, also seen in the photo. Lastly, we welcomed our new resident, Brilliant, from Burundi.

We had looked forward so much to having our young volunteers, American, Paige and Emmanuel, her Mexican husband, who too were looking forward so much to the celebration. Sadly, they could not come, due to the fact that ten of the pupils where Paige teaches had contracted the virus that week. The school was closed and staff and pupils put in isolation. In spite of that, Paige made sure that she provided lovely cakes and gifts and dropped them outside our gate! We are endlessly grateful for having such committed and loving volunteers.

Indeed, the Knitwits must be good at knitting and crocheting, as this group of about 50 women have taken it upon themselves to make blankets every year for people in need. These are not only very beautiful, but very warm. By chance, they heard about Mercy House and our work and decided to donate some of their blankets to us! We are immensely grateful to them, as, with the cold winter weather, people at the gate are asking for blankets. Knitwit ladies delivered 24 lovely blankets on Saturday, 29th May – see photos. They have come in so helpful giving relief and joy to those in need. Thank you again dear Knitwits. Keep up your wonderful work of service.