Category: Uncategorized

Renewed Link With The Jesuit Refugee Service

Ever since the JRS was set up we have had a good and valuable working relationship with them, complementing one another as we do, in our respective fields of work.   As we know, the COVID blackout, which lasted for about 2 years, caused the breakdown of so many social and other connections.  It is only now that we have re- established our working relationship and we were happy to welcome a small JRS contingent to visit and see our home and work at Mercy House on Thursday, 7th November – see photos – and it was a very valuable visit. We look forward to again have a good partnership with them in the future.

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An Unexpected Visitor


FATHER JEREMIAS, a Comboni Missionary, was a great supporter of our Mercy work when he was stationed in Johannesburg.  After a stint here as provincial, he was transferred to be Vicar General of the order in Rome. That having finished, he now works in Mozambique, but came to Johannesburg in early October, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Comboni presence in RSA, with his community. Busy though he may have been in that one short week, he still found time to pop in to Mercy House to greet his old friends there. That was a lovely surprise and gave much joy to all. Thank you, Father, for this. You will always remain part of our Mercy Family.

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A New Trustee

We are happy to receive a new member into our trustee group, this being Mr Festus Nsengumuremyi.  We have known Festus since he arrived in the country many years ago from Rwanda. He lived with us until he got married. We assisted him to do the 4 year Netcare Nursing Training and he now works at the Millpark Netcare hospital. In the short time that he has been a trustee, he has already done amazing work in assisting our refugees with their documentation which is a mammoth task!

Our trustee group now consists of: Diana Beamish, Steven Wanyoike, Paddy Faller, Dr Bernard Buzabakirio, Innocentia Mdaka and Festus Nsengumuremyi. We thank each one for their participation in our great Mercy work.

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Kasia Revisits After Many Years


Our first Mercy House volunteers were Comboni Lay Missionaries – Kasia Wawiernia from Poland and Amy Lou Anderson from the USA.  They came to us at the end of 2000 and left a huge footprint behind, being very enthusiastic and inventive. It did not take long before they became an integral part of our work. Amy started English classes for refugees while Kasia started a crèche to help refugee women who were forced to go out to work, but had to leave their children in safe care. In short, they assisted with anything and everything. Amy Lou returned to the USA after one year, while Kasia stayed about four years, before moving on to work for the United Nations, in Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and other African countries. Currently she is the head of the UN in Kazakstan in Eastern Europe.  By happy chance, she had to attend a conference in South Africa during November 2024, this providing a golden opportunity to visit us, much to our delight.  This happened on Saturday 23 November. We invited all reachable refugees who had known her during her stint with us.  It was a hugely enjoyable occasion, sitting catching up in the shade of our beautiful pergola. She even sent some of us to buy lunch for all from MacDonalds, which proved to be an extra joy – it was delicious.  We are so grateful that she made the effort to visit us.

The photos show her in 2001 with Simon Donnelly, at that time lecturing at Wits, Pascal from Sudan and Amy and the second photo was taken at her recent visit with Dr Bernard and Jean Chrysostom

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Annual Mercy Family Reunion Day


On September 25th 2023, we held what we hope will become an annual event: A Mercy Family Reunion Day. The idea is to bring together past and present residents for a relaxed celebration, a chance to meet, refresh friendships, foster community spirit and a sense of belonging, which is so important for us all, but especially for those who have no family or no family nearby. Obviously, it was held at Mercy House and we provided a braai for all.
  Those of us on the organising side, now have a saying: “Don’t forget the boerewors!” The reason for this is: Diana was really worried about the cost of getting so much meat for a large group. By sheer “co-incidence”, Mr Godfrey Fortuin of SVdeP Honeydew, happened to phone to ask if we had any needs! Diana mentioned the upcoming braai and also extended an invitation. Godfrey could not come, but instead, on that very day, 20 kilograms of boerewors was delivered to Mercy House from his organisation. We were totally amazed – it felt like a modern experience of the miracle of the loaves and fishes! And it goes without saying that we had plenty of meat!!! Thank you, Mr Godfrey, you care so well for us and we appreciate that.

 

Praying Together

“The community that prays together, stays together!”

How important and binding it is for a community to pray together.  We are obliged to thank our merciful God for the truly amazing blessings we have received and also to pray, not only for our residents past and present, but also our benefactors, who indeed keep our work going in various different ways. Here we think of SVdeP in Victory Park and North Riding, Bruno in the USA, Victoria in the U K, the Holy Family Sisters, Deon and Cathy van Eeden, Peter Holding, and many others who God knows about and whom He will reward.  And so, we have our Holy Masses, the last one being on the 15th of December 2023. We were once again grateful to have our Comboni Father Efrem and our recent arrival from Columbia, Father Jalver to offer the Holy Mass for us.  It was as usual a beautiful occasion.  Thank you, Fathers, for coming.

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