Taking off the roof!

The thatch roof is gone!

With much anticipation, we welcome a construction-focused church team today. They have come to use their God-given ability to improve facilities. We’ve got just the job for them: they will help install a new roof on the multi-purpose center on Living Hope campus. This building was the only one on the premises when Pastor John and his church purchased the property over 10 years ago. It had been a pub frequented by seedy characters, and its bad history was forgotten as the facility was reclaimed in the name of Jesus. Just a few days ago, its original thatch roof was removed in preparation for the team’s work. The team is only here for a week, and that is just enough (we hope!) to install the new roof. Their work and blessing of supplies will defray a significant portion of what it costs to do this big project – not to mention help reduce Living Hope’s fire insurance. 

Lausanne to Living Hope

Delegates learning about Living Grace (homeless ministry)

Delegates getting HIV tests at our mobile clinic

Delegates having lunch with the Support Group Facilitators

We learned during training in August that Natasha and I were going to be responsible for organizing a one-day event on Living Hope’s campus. The Lausanne Conference on World Evangelism, the largest of its kind (4,000 delegates), is meeting in Cape Town this month. We were told back in August to expect from 20 to 60 delegates to show up for an on-campus tour of Living Hope. Living Hope was one of about a dozen missions in the area from which delegates could choose to visit during their day off from the conference. Over the past month or so, we’ve been meeting with general managers and others in Living Hope to help plan this day. The hard part is that we didn’t know how many were actually coming until a few days before the day itself. We needed to ensure that what was shown was a good representation since Living Hope is so diverse in ministry scope. We asked general managers to work out a 15-minute “station” in which staff could help interactively describe and demonstrate their respective ministry areas. We helped them achieve this by providing logistics, schedule, and general communication. The rest was taken care of by general managers and their staff. The end result? Over 100 delegates came and saw an incredible and enthusiastic effort amongst the staff to communicate how God is working in the area through Living Hope. We are also encouraged to see what an event like this (and more like it!) can help spread the word about Living Hope to the local community and beyond.

Welsh Film Crew

The production Crew filming in Masi

Well today was new and exciting – we had a production crew from Wales here with us! They are filming a keynote speaker at the Lausanne Conference and her time in South Africa. Menna is a young Welsh women who has fought tremendously for her faith and her Welsh language and heritage. Menna came to visit Living Hope today and the crew wanted to record what Living Hope is and Menna’s reaction to it all. It was great fun to see the behind the scenes of such a documentary and made me come alive as I truly love sharing God’s stories of hope with others… even if it is in Welsh! The only sad reality is that the cameras couldn’t capture the truthfully. I had such great times with Menna in the car when there were no cameras around and we had a nice little cry together for the patients in the healthcare centre. She is truly a remarkable young lady and it was such an honour to get to spend the day with her.

Another English Volunteer

Today we were blessed to welcome a woman from the UK to volunteer in various areas of our palliative care (Living Care) division. She’s here for a month but we’re confident she will not only be a blessing to both staff and patients, she will be blessed herself. We already wish she could stay longer!