Our Mercy work was created in 1994 specifically to help and heal refugees , in particular young refugees, war orphans, or others whose family life has been totally disrupted by the wars in Africa. The security of a stable home brings healing and education diminishes fear of the future, replacing it with hope. Hence our motto: Love changes everything. Mercy House embodies this and our history has proved this to be true.
Once we emerged to a lower Lockdown, we were able to restart our Saturday lessons in Afrikaans for our students, kindly given by our very dedicated teacher, Innocentia. Because of Covid caution and restriction, we have limited our number to only 15 and divided them into two groups at our play centre, outside. The photo shows their joyful enthusiasm.
We once again thank our wonderful teacher, Innocentia, whom our young people love so much. May she be rewarded for this.
We, of Mercy House, did not only pray that we would be spared from the virus, but also implemented practical measures to protect ourselves and to help our refugees who suffered severely from the devastating effects of Lockdown.
In the first place, we put up sanitisers on our property and made sure that everyone had masks, mostly made and donated by Papa Zeng, father of our website designer.
During Lockdown 5, we were not even allowed out of our own property. A tough time!
Once Lockdown 4 was introduced we allowed those students whom we assist with studies, who live out, to sit in our driveway and use our internet (which they depend on) from there. During Lockdown 5, 4 and 3 no one was allowed beyond the driveway, into our garden and house.
We managed to provide two of the live-out students with their own laptops, so that they were able to study online at home.
We spent a lot of money on data and gave the vouchers to the live-out students, so that they could work online at home on their laptops, tablets or cell phones.
We bought a large number of food vouchers at our local Pick n Pay store, and distributed these to our live-out refugees, who did not have money for food, since their only income is sitting on the street selling second-hand clothing or vegetables, which they were not allowed to do during Lockdown. Devastating, when a family loses its source of income…
We assisted as many as 15 live-out refugees with rent for several months.
All in all, we have spent around R70 000.00 or more on the Lockdown Aid, and this is continuing. For this we thank those who especially donated money for Covid relief, Dr Emmanuel Taban, Dr Martin Kalenga, Paige Clark – who raised money from the American International School, The Coutts-Trotters and others. Your money has been really well-spent. We know the African saying: “I am because you are,” but we can truly say: “We are because you are!” Thank you.
Lastly of course, we thank our Father God, who answered our prayers and has so far spared all at Mercy House and, as far as we know, all who in some or other way, belong to our Mercy Family world-wide, from the virus. May He continue to keep his protecting wall of fire around us all. Thank you, Father.
When I was a student, we had a saying we used to joke about amongst one another:
A student sends a message to his dad (and funder):
“Dear dad, no mon, no fun, your son!”
Dad replies:
“So sad, too bad, your dad!”
The 8 months or more of Lockdown has, of necessity, been somewhat “no fun”- a bit flat and uneventful as regards our vibrant Mercy Family life! So much of the fun we have had in the past has been dampened, because of precautionary regulations like social distancing etc.
Not only have we missed our Sunday services at church, but we have not been able to have any of our usual Holy Masses in our play centre with our Comboni Fathers, all year! “So sad, too bad…“
Likewise, we missed our normal celebration of birthdays with a weekend lunch, though we did manage to celebrate the birthday of our leader, Eddie.
Easter Sunday was another big disappointment. Not only could we not attend the beautiful Holy Week services, but we also could not have the large gathering of our extended Mercy family for lunch and the catching of Easter eggs, which usually rain down from the skies for the little and big children. Looking ahead, at the time of publishing this update, we do not even know whether we will be able to have our large Christmas celebration on 25 December. If not, we will certainly have to find some way to give joy on that day, we shall see, we shall find a way…
POSITIVES
Despite all the constraints mentioned above, perhaps we have got to appreciate the people and many gifts we have taken for granted in our daily lives. We are born into community, so the isolation may have made us value our relationships, our family and friends more. We may value our church services more, the celebration of its feast days, which bring us together and give us joy. Perhaps our scholars may value their schooling more. We may value our work more – during this time our Colby managed to get a job with a UK company, working online! Our faith really has been tested, but our God does have his ways of educating us, let us give him the benefit of doubt! “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above your ways,” as the Scriptures say! (Isaiah 55:9)
We thank Mr Peter Keshwar and his co-workers for their tremendous support. They not only give us donated food of the best quality once a week, but also provide us with 20 cooked chickens every Christmas. The weekly food donation enables us to provide food, not only for Mercy House but for the very wide circle of refugees we support that live out. The photos show the delivery on 2 December. Thank you so much to all involved.
Those of us involved in the running and management of Mercy House have, for some time, been discussing the need to replace the leaking play centre roof. It was difficult to know where to start, since none of us are involved in construction. Completely by chance, one day in late August Diana met a man by the name of Steven Smit. He mentioned that he is involved in construction. By coincidence, on that very day, we had arranged a meeting to pool ideas about replacing the roof.
Having heard of Steven’s field of expertise, Diana asked his advice – what material to use etc. Even though he was a complete stranger, Steven magnanimously offered to go to Mercy House and measure up and see how he could help. Too good to be true, but it was true! So nice to know that the world is also filled with really good human beings!
Masengo and Eddie on the job
On Saturday 5 September, it all happened. Steven had gone to great trouble to get the required material, which was very difficult due to lockdown, and came as early as 7.00 a.m. with a team of his workmen to direct the whole operation, which was completed in just one day.
Eddie enjoying being a builder
Our Colby who worked extremely hard on the job and enjoyed it!
All who were at home on that day joined in the work, which turned out to be real fun and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day. The result looks so good, as the photos show. We thank Steven, who is no longer a stranger, but a friend, for his magnanimous contribution to our Mercy work. The roof will always be a reminder of his kindness. And of course, we also cannot fail to see how God provides – exactly when we need it!
It was a whopper of a cake, really huge, a giant cake, if we could name it – fit for our “gentle giant”, our house leader, Eddie. This great big chocolate cake was brought as a gift by our young American volunteer, Paige, and her Mexican husband, Emmanuel, when we celebrated Eddie’s birthday on the 26 September.
There was reason to celebrate, since our Eddie is an excellent house leader, combining objective firmness with immense kindness and compassion. We are immensely grateful to have such an excellent house leader. And thank you, Paige and Emmanuel, for the whopper treat!
Whopper chocolate birthday cake shared with our new resident, Brielle
Once we had replaced our play centre roof, we realised the need to repaint our house, outside and in. Two of our live-out refugees, Faustin and Brilliant managed to do this job in just over a week during September and did it so well. We recommend them to anyone who needs painters! Some of our residents also joined in when they were free to do so. The results are beautiful and uplifting. The photos show them all in action. We thank Faustin and Brilliant for their commitment to doing a really good job. And now our house looks beautiful, fitting for Spring.
