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ST VINCENT DE PAUL’S SUPPORT

St Vincent de Paul groups in several parishes are most faithful in their support of our work. We are indebted to them and wish to thank them publicly. The society in Victory Park brings food every Thursday and sometimes more often. St Vincents’ in Rosebank offers monthly financial support, so too does Bez Valley branch. They also provide our people with a braai in December each year. The photo below was taken at the braai this last December. St Vincents’ in Malvern brings their youth down regularly, several times a year, to provide a luncheon for our people and it is always on a Saturday, when outside kids have come for extra lessons, so they can benefit too – see photo below.

St Vincent de Paul

Our people

ONE OF US INVITED TO SPEAK IN PARLIAMENT!

Mr Neels Coertse with Emmanuel

It was a privilege for Mr Neels Coertse, the lawyer who helps Mercy House, to have been invited to speak in parliament to comment on the proposed new refugee law. It was on the 24th January. Many high profile people were present. We are proud of him and thank him sincerely for his commitment to our refugee work. He is seen in the photo above with Emmanuel, our website designer.

SO MANY OTHERS TO THANK

We are blessed with having so many very loyal, humble and silent background helpers within the Mercy circle, who quietly make their contribution without much publicity. We would like to mention a few here, even though we cannot mention everyone. There is Emmanuel who does our website. There is Peter Holding who has for years done our monthly shopping – surely a mammoth task. There is John Faller who does our payments, his brother Paddy, who organises the stationery packs for our scholars. There is a very humble and selfless woman, Diana Gordon Grant, who runs a school sandwich circle for us, and bring sandwiches, bread and vegetables to our house every week, not to mention the other support she and her husband give. There is Felicity Borland who, with her husband, has helped us in numerous ways, there is Judy Dumbutshena who takes special care of one of our young orphans… Then there are those who help significantly from a distance: Jerry and Tommie, Art and Mary Lou and Father John Converset in the USA, our UK Mercy Team and Father Andrew in the UK, Father Jeremias in Rome… There is our beloved Sister Fidelis who worked for us for 10 years and is now retired, who continues to pray for us and take a lively interest in our work. To you and the many others who cannot be mentioned here: thank you so much. We could never reward you adequately, but God will… May you be blessed.

 

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2016: A MESSAGE FROM FATHER JEREMIAS FOR OUR BIRTHDAY

Father Jeremias

As we celebrate 20 years of Mercy House, what comes immediately to my mind is the song  of Our Lady: “My soul glorifies the Lord… the Almighty has done great things for me”. Yes! If we can say something about MH it is that the Lord, through these many years, has done very great things in the lives of so many people. He is the one acting and working tirelessly in MH. It is true that the Lord acts through so many people who are docile to his will.  We cannot name them all without running the risk of forgetting someone. However, one person has to be named, Diana Beamish. She has been the “tool” in God’s hands to make his presence real and active in this work that is his.
Two important aspects come to mind on this occasion: the name of the house and the logo with the words that accompany it.
A book recently published bears the title: “The Name of God is Mercy.” The bible, in particular the gospels, show how true it is that God is Mercy. Jesus is the face of the Merciful God in whom we believe. Life would be impossible in a world where mercy has no place. The Gospel uses another word to express the same reality: compassion. The OT has two words to express the mercy and the love of God for humanity: rahamin and hesed. Both words are very difficult to translate into English, but let’s look at their meaning.
Rahamin, is a feminine word relating to the entrails of a human being or the womb of a woman.  In this sense mercy it is something that comes from the depths, the source of life of the human being, a reality relating to God who loves humanity as a woman loves her child. When a human being suffers, God is deeply moved. Pope John Paul I, the pope who was merely 33 days in the see of Peter, once said “God is Mother.”
The other word, hesed, is a masculine word and its meaning is “loyal love,” “mercy,” a reality that expresses  a relationship between two people or between God and his people. However, this alliance of loyal love is not between two equal parties. It is not like a contract between human beings, where  if one fails the other has the right to revenge. In the Alliance that God establishes with his people, even if people fail, God never fails. God will always be faithful. He will be faithful for two reasons: because he loves his people and for the sake of his own name: “I am God, and not a man” (Hos. 11:9). It is love without interest, only for the sake of love itself.
In these two words we can see the presence of God, as Mother and Father. We are invited to recognize the presence of so many mothers and fathers who selflessly give time, kindness, love and care, soothing the wounds and giving hope in a better future for humanity. 

Father Jeremias

The logo of mercy house is the other noteworthy symbol together with the motto “Love changes everything.”Indeed the symbol and the words go together: two big and strong hands holding a wounded heart and people moving around the heart and the hands. Children, young people and adults, men and women, holding hands, helping each other, dreaming of and building a better world.  Each one can see with the eyes of his or her heart how the symbol speaks to him and how beautiful the world would be if all could discover and live under the gentle and deep breeze of God’s love that surrounds our world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF MERCY

This year Mercy House turns 20. The purchase of our house was a direct outcome of  the genocide in Rwanda, which caused thousands of refugees to flee south, many arriving  in South Africa anxious and helpless, with nothing. That was in 1994, when there were not yet any organisations to help nor places for them to stay. I, Diana Beamish, wanted to help and found them at a squatter camp on a disused ERPM mine called Angelo. It could not have been a more unsuitable place, with drunkenness, sex-for-sale, fighting as daily occurrences. The need for accommodation for the refugees was urgent.  I approached the two Comboni Fathers I knew at the time, Father Jo Sandri and Father Henry. It was they who gave me the money to rent a house in 8th Avenue, Mayfair for a year. In July 1996 six refugees moved in, carrying only one plastic bag each, containing all that they possessed in this world.   Because of the huge numbers in need, this house proved to be far too small, so we looked for a larger house.  I could not find any organisations interested in helping, so finally my aunt, Thora Mitchell, and I put together all our savings and bought the present Mercy House. On 8 July 1996, a small group of refugees moved in.There was not even any furniture in the house, nor did we have money to buy any! This is what you call faith!
Since then, it has been a roller-coaster ride of seeing the work unfolding.  Our history has been simply amazing and we ask any readers interested to read up the header on our ruler bar above entitled ACHIEVEMENTS, to understand this fully, or to read a fuller account in the book entitled: Tracing the Divine. It has been an awe-inspiring and humbling journey and we praise God for what He has done through us, his instruments. May all who have helped in building this edifice be richly rewarded and blessed.

To celebrate our birthday in this the Year of Mercy, we will have a Holy Mass at Mercy House at 10.00 a.m. on public holiday, 16th December 2016 with none other than the same Comboni Father (now Bishop) Jo Sandri as our celebrant.  He is delighted to be able to come.  We invite all our local friends to join us in this Mass of thanksgiving, and those far away, be with us in spirit and pray many more blessings on our work.

A HUGE BIG WELCOME TO OUR NEW BOY – SAMI

Sami

Sami is a nine-year-old orphan from DRC.  He was living with his mother, a single parent, until she died not long ago.  Since then he has moved from place to place, having no stable home. Enter the mind of this little boy.  The principal of the refugee school was concerned about his absence from school and asked us to take him in.  We consider this a great privilege and will do our very best to make him feel accepted and loved.

TWO NEW CO-WORKERS

We welcome Steven Wanyoike and Nozizwe Ndebele to our Mercy House team.  Both of them are coming to Mercy House on Saturday mornings to assist our scholars with their schoolwork. Steven is managing director of Kewberg Cables in Alberton, and Noziwe is a teacher at the American school in Pretoria.

Nozizwe

Steven Wanyoike and scholar

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