Showing posts with label DuNoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DuNoon. Show all posts
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
We Are The Church (Red Week #2)
Here is how Red Week went, by the numbers:
5- the number of days (various nights and mornings) that people abandoned their television schedules, their evenings at home, their Saturday lie-in, their Friday date-nights, and instead donned their Red Week T-shirts, got their hands and feet dirty and pursued what a church could look like when it started behaving like The Church.
+200- total number of different volunteers over the course of the week
176- number of one of a kind Red Week T-Shirts sold. That means I still have 24 left. Perfect stocking fillers for Christmas. Just saying.
3000- number of sandwiches (brown bread if anyone is asking) made and handed out. 2000 went to a pre-primary, a primary and a high school in DuNoon. The rest was delivered to individuals in the wider community of DuNoon during our Saturday morning Soup Kitchen.
+50- number of police and firemen we blessed and visited on the Friday evening.
+100- sick people visited and prayed for on the Wednesday night at the government hospital in Tygerberg. Emotional and faith stirring evening that not many will soon forget.
2500- the collective age (or somewhere in that region) of the elderly folk that we visited, loved on and prayed for in the old age home in Melkbos.
40- the amount of people who were available on a Thursday morning. Apologies to all bosses for the numerous employees playing hooky that day.
Countless- number of lives that were impacted and changed through this week. Whether it was by making a sandwich or receiving one, visiting or being visited, life can not be the same again.
The Shepherd in Luke.15 left the 99 and went after the 1. His heart is our heart. Red Week, and The Church for that matter, should never measure its success on mere numbers. May our ongoing pursuit of being His hands and feet always be about the individual and not just an accumulation of figures to bandy about. His economics are never like ours.
5- the number of days (various nights and mornings) that people abandoned their television schedules, their evenings at home, their Saturday lie-in, their Friday date-nights, and instead donned their Red Week T-shirts, got their hands and feet dirty and pursued what a church could look like when it started behaving like The Church.+200- total number of different volunteers over the course of the week
176- number of one of a kind Red Week T-Shirts sold. That means I still have 24 left. Perfect stocking fillers for Christmas. Just saying.
3000- number of sandwiches (brown bread if anyone is asking) made and handed out. 2000 went to a pre-primary, a primary and a high school in DuNoon. The rest was delivered to individuals in the wider community of DuNoon during our Saturday morning Soup Kitchen.+50- number of police and firemen we blessed and visited on the Friday evening.
+100- sick people visited and prayed for on the Wednesday night at the government hospital in Tygerberg. Emotional and faith stirring evening that not many will soon forget.
2500- the collective age (or somewhere in that region) of the elderly folk that we visited, loved on and prayed for in the old age home in Melkbos.40- the amount of people who were available on a Thursday morning. Apologies to all bosses for the numerous employees playing hooky that day.
Countless- number of lives that were impacted and changed through this week. Whether it was by making a sandwich or receiving one, visiting or being visited, life can not be the same again.
The Shepherd in Luke.15 left the 99 and went after the 1. His heart is our heart. Red Week, and The Church for that matter, should never measure its success on mere numbers. May our ongoing pursuit of being His hands and feet always be about the individual and not just an accumulation of figures to bandy about. His economics are never like ours.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Recycle Swop Shop
Below is a guest blog by Ang Benjafield, wife to gavin, mom to Caleb and Judah. Check out all that she is talking about below by checking out the Recycle Swop Shop's facebook page...but only after you've read the blog!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Recycle-Swop-Shop-Cape-Town/274245865920062
"I went to Recycle Swop Shop this morning to take photos for our social media campaign. I’m not one of the regular volunteers. But standing there, snapping away at faces, seeing the huge need and people living with great lack, it was impossible not to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.
I helped a lady from the community of DuNoon hand out soup to the mothers and kids who were there. Ladies who bring recycling are given tokens after their bags have been weighed, and one of the tokens is a food token. With a food token, they are able to ‘pay for’ a cup of soup and a bread-roll. It’s not an ideal system; where hungry moms and kids queue without being able to eat until their bags are weighed. But it’s a system that works.
While serving soup, my heart broke. I became acutely aware of the overwhelming need in this community. Even with all our efforts and the enormous impact that Swop Shop is making… it’s not enough. Children cry with hunger, and moms share cups of soup and one bread-roll between several little ones. I must admit; I turned a blind eye when the odd bread-roll or cup of soup went, without a food token, to some of the frail-looking, horribly thin moms with babies on their backs.
But what I cannot get my head around, what has stayed with me all morning, is the fact that these people aren’t ‘somewhere in Africa’. They are here, 5km away from leafy suburbia. Is it possible that people living so nearby can be so ignorant of the need that exists just over-the-bridge? I know it is. I am one of them…
We must be able to do more. In our community of Tableview there are businesses; and families who can get involved. There are so many churches in this area, and why does the church exist, if it is not to love? To show compassion, and kindness. Jesus even said that it is true love when we love those who cannot repay us. There is a whole community in need of love, and education and help, and they are right here. Only ten minutes away.
It just takes a little, from many, to cause a lot of change. Many need to get involved. Many need to help, if we are to see the lasting impact of love in this community.
And while we wait for the help of many, still doing all we can: we hope. Hope that our efforts will create awareness. And that awareness will spark compassion. And that compassion will lead to action."
-Ang Benjafield
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Recycle-Swop-Shop-Cape-Town/274245865920062
"I went to Recycle Swop Shop this morning to take photos for our social media campaign. I’m not one of the regular volunteers. But standing there, snapping away at faces, seeing the huge need and people living with great lack, it was impossible not to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.
I helped a lady from the community of DuNoon hand out soup to the mothers and kids who were there. Ladies who bring recycling are given tokens after their bags have been weighed, and one of the tokens is a food token. With a food token, they are able to ‘pay for’ a cup of soup and a bread-roll. It’s not an ideal system; where hungry moms and kids queue without being able to eat until their bags are weighed. But it’s a system that works.
While serving soup, my heart broke. I became acutely aware of the overwhelming need in this community. Even with all our efforts and the enormous impact that Swop Shop is making… it’s not enough. Children cry with hunger, and moms share cups of soup and one bread-roll between several little ones. I must admit; I turned a blind eye when the odd bread-roll or cup of soup went, without a food token, to some of the frail-looking, horribly thin moms with babies on their backs.
But what I cannot get my head around, what has stayed with me all morning, is the fact that these people aren’t ‘somewhere in Africa’. They are here, 5km away from leafy suburbia. Is it possible that people living so nearby can be so ignorant of the need that exists just over-the-bridge? I know it is. I am one of them…
We must be able to do more. In our community of Tableview there are businesses; and families who can get involved. There are so many churches in this area, and why does the church exist, if it is not to love? To show compassion, and kindness. Jesus even said that it is true love when we love those who cannot repay us. There is a whole community in need of love, and education and help, and they are right here. Only ten minutes away.
It just takes a little, from many, to cause a lot of change. Many need to get involved. Many need to help, if we are to see the lasting impact of love in this community.
And while we wait for the help of many, still doing all we can: we hope. Hope that our efforts will create awareness. And that awareness will spark compassion. And that compassion will lead to action."
-Ang Benjafield
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)