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• Thokomala Foster Home
• Communicate with love
• A braai and a cruise
• How can I keep from singing?
 Thokomala Foster Home
[ Robin Paterson ]
At the beginning of this year a sixth child arrived at the Thokomala
Foster Home in Marselle township near Bushmans River Mouth. The
wonderful house mother, Florence Mbanzi, and the other five children
welcomed her as the final member of their family.
The home is built on a portion of land given to the Anglican church
about 20 years ago when Marselle was laid out. The Alexandria Parish
found enough money to build a new church, St Matthew's, on a section of
the land and this operates successfully as a chapelry of the parish.
When the then Metropolitan, Njongonkulu Ndungane, began campaigning for
every parish to do something for AIDS orphans, the idea of building a
'safe house' on the property emerged. A ceremony (with incense and all)
was held to dedicate the land for such a purpose.
A committee was formed to build the house when the Life Skills Support
Group found a two-year old AIDS orphan -who was then put into foster
care in the usual way.
The committee wrote to the Archbishop's Fund asking for R350 000 but
was turned down as there were too many appeals. Two days later the
Kenton/Bushmans Child Welfare Area Manager phoned Robin Paterson to say
that an organisation called Thokomala Orphan Care had offered Child
Welfare R350 000 to build a foster home for six children, preferably
AIDS orphans, but not necessarily so, and asked if we would like to
take this on as a project. We accepted gladly and it all began to
happen.
Thokomala is a big organisation which collects funds internationally
and aims to erect hundreds of these homes (not orphanages) for AIDS
orphans in South Africa. The funds for our home come from Sweden. They
pay for the building and some equipment and then pay the running costs
and the salary of a social worker for five years. The home runs under
the aegis of Child Welfare. Thokomala insists on owning the land on
which each building stands and so the Alexandria Parish legally ceded
the remainder of the land to them. There is space for another home
should another miracle occur!
Generous donations of furniture, bedding, kitchen equipment etc. came
from the local white community, and the Department of Social
Development also made a contribution when they were impressed by the
joyful opening ceremony.
Picture: House mother Florence Mbanzi and her six children.
 Communicate with love
[ St Matthew's reporter ]
Family Day celebrations on 24 March were fun and games at St Matthew's,
KwaMagxaki, where even the 'mothers' were persuaded that playing soccer
was good for one.
The day began with a service in the church, then everyone went outside
to join in the fun with games for the adults and young folk, a jumping
castle and other attractions for the little ones and stalls selling
food and other goods for everyone.
At the end of the fun everyone returned to the church where Linda Ncaca
gave a very challenging message on Communicate with love 'Communicating
with love'.
She first looked at the different make-up of families and reminded
everyone that out of a family situation Christianity was born.
Pictures: Fun for the children as well as the adults on Family Day at St Matthew’s, KwaMagxaki.
She said, "The foundation of a family is love - for a child to develop
physically, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually, love is a
requirement." She spoke about the bonding between mother and baby
straight after birth and through the early years in order to develop
that baby into a responsible family-loving person. She said there was a
big need for two-way communication between child and parent, and that
parents need to create ways to communicate in love with their children
in order to narrow the generation gap. Linda said, "Some of the ways
are to have meals together, honouring certain days - such as Christmas
Day, Mother's/Father's Day - by spending the day together as a family."
Saying it is very important to make quality time together as a family,
she told the story of the minister's family who, in desperation, wrote
their names in the gaps in their father's appointment book in
order to force him to give them some of his attention.
A braai and a cruise
A Eucharist, a braai and a
cruise on the Swartkops River on a beautiful Sunday, weather-wise, were
what the members of St Paul's, Parsons Hill, and Zwartkops River Valley
parishes enjoyed on 27 April.
St Nicholas Church was full for the service, and amid much bantering
between the two rectors as to who had "ordered the better than last
year's rainy" weather, everyone moved to the Redhouse club alongside
the Swartkops river for the picnic braai afterwards. Rod Lochhead took
two groups of the parishioners for trips up the river on his boat
'Stampede' - much appreciated by the townies who enjoyed the quietness
of the river. A group of the men took on the task of braaing all the
meat while the young folk buttered rolls and the women contributed a
wonderful array of delicious salads.
How can I keep from singing?
The participants at an RSCM
workshop, recently held at the Church of Christ the King, Gelvandale,
found that this was quite impossible, especially after exploring some
of the delightful melodies that are to be found in the RSCM publication
of the same name, as well as in the book, 'Voice for Life'.
The workshop was led by our chairman, Jenny Yates, who, in her own
inimitable way, opened up a treasure trove of music, verse and other
readings that are to be found in these books. This was a follow-up to
last year's presentation by Leah Peronah-Wright, one of the compilers
in the U.K.  Although
the turn-out was disappointingly small, Jenny soon had us singing these
musical gems with great enthusiasm. Some folk were called upon to do
the readings and impressed us all with their excellent sight-reading.
It was greatly encouraging to have a good representation of the
'younger set' with us, and, by all accounts, they found the music
rather 'cool'!
Although the purchase of the 'Voice for Life' and 'How can I Keep from
Singing?' is initially rather expensive, it ultimately more than pays
for itself because the purchaser is given full permission to photo-copy
most of the contents, thereby avoiding copyright transgressions.
For more details, contact Jenny: 041 373 3311.
Picture:
In front are Loyce Aisu and Aduma Tshungu (Holy Trinity) and Chevon
Munnik (St Luke’s), behind them are Anne Muller, Connie Jacobs,
OslynneHolland and Faith Hoggens (St Luke’s).
World-wide Anglican news
The Anglican Church is going through many challenges at
present such as: The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) being
held in the Holy Land and being attended by many bishops who are
boycotting the Lambeth Conference; The Archbishop of Canterbury saying,
the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK "seems
unavoidable", and much more.
Stay in touch through: http://contact-online.blogspot.com
Do visit the blog and check out what all the news and views - and the simple way it works.
If you have any suggestions or comments to make, please email David MacGregor at dsmacgregor@gmail.com
Keep
up to date with what is happening among Christians in the NMM:
www.pechurchnet.co.za
iindaba
Editor: Frankie Simpson
Layout / design : Frankie
Email: iindaba@anglicandiocesepe.org.za
Tel/fax +27 041 360 6808
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iindaba is the vehicle for sharing
your parish news with the rest of the Diocesan family.
Please send contributions and photos to the editor.
Deadline for contributions:
6th of the month prior to publication
Opinions expressed are not
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